4 replies to this topic

[ap0llo_*]

Okay I'm starting to plan my ICE system. At the moment my decision is to go for 13cm speakers up front, 6x9's under the rear seats and two 17cm in the rear shelf. Firstly, what amp would I be best going for? A two or four channel as my head unit quotes 4x45w. Finally, would adding a 10/12" sub be a noticeable addition or would the 6x9's be sufficient for bass?

I'm a complete noob to this whole topic.

[carts60]

Firstly and foremostly, for ICE installs, you must have the old adages 'Quality over quantity' and 'Bigger is (not always) better' .

How are you going to be putting in the speakers in the front? For a real good quality sound, you will need to get or make some sealed enclosures for the speakers.

6x9's under the rear seats are fine if you're not an audiophile, but strictly speaking, the location of speakers under the rear seats firing into the back of the front seats is far from ideal and a lot of the quality of any sound actually produced by the speakers is lost into the seat.

6.5"s on the rear shelf will be fine, but again you will want to be trying to seal them into separate enclosures to get the best sound. You will probably also need to cut the rear parcel shelf, unless its already been done, of you're going to mount them in pods.

If you want quality from your sound, you NEED to get component speakers. These are speakers where the Mid and tweeter are separate, rather than coaxials where they are all made into the same unit, but these are more expensive than coaxials (well worth the money though).

Amplifier wise, with that many speakers (if you go ahead with 6), you're going to be needing either a very powerful 6 channel amp, or two 3's to drive the speakers to their full potential, and minimise distortion. Distortion can be caused by both an amp underpowering the speakers as well as overpowering them, so getting it just right is imperative.

In my opinion, you're going to want:
A headunit with two RCA outputs to connect it to two amps - the better brands give better sound, so try and go for Alpine, Pioneer etc etc
A pair of good 5.25" component speakers up front in decent enclosures - there are threads in the build section showing you how to make them
A pair of 8" subwoofers to go in a board under the back seats to give you some wobble - these will also need an enclosure to house them.
A pair of coaxials or components to go on the rear shelf. 5.25"s will be fine.
One amp to drive the speakers.
Another amp for the subs.

That will give you very good sound up front (where you want it), some good bass which may be liable to give kidney failure if you crank it up too much, and some half decent sound from the rear.

This will not come cheap however, and to save money coaxials would work fine until you decide to upgrade to components, or not as the case maybe.
For good overall sound you will definitely be wanting a sub.

Its all a matter of opinion though at the end of the day - and also how much you're willing to spend. Some people will say components are the only way to go whereas others say coaxials perform perfectly well, equally some will say you'll get more than enough bass without subs but others can't live without one (or two in my case).

[ap0llo_*]

The plan is to mount two component 13cm speakers in some door pockets I've managed to acquire with the tweeters sitting on the top dash rail in a custom made mount giving good up front quality.

What I am unsure about though is beneath the seats, I've already bought some bassy 6x9's so these will have to do for now. They could maybe be replaced later on down the line, but I feel they'll probably be okay for what I require (I'm no audiophile, I just like to crank it nice and high). Although I may stick a 12" sub in the boot though if extra bass is needed.

So then as you say rear coaxial speakers, I'll buy some sealed pods from Optimise for these.

So taking your advice into consideration, the setup will consist of:

Front: 2x 13cm components mounted in door pockets with tweeters on upper dash rail
Rear: 2x 6x9's mounted under rear seats
Rear: 2x 17cm coaxial speakers with sealed pods.

Now what I'm curious about is what amp to purchase. Ideally I'd only like one amp, as I do use my boot occasionally so need the space, so I'm thinking a four channel amp to power the 6x9's and 13cm's and then the headunit to power the 17cm's. Is this the best possible way of wiring them up with only one amplifier?

Thanks for all your help,

Rhys

[carts60]

OK, well a four channel amp will do fine to power the 13's and 6x9's, but if you're going to be turning up the volume and trying to get some bass going without a sub, you're inevitably going to be turning up the bass level on your headunit. This will however also mean that it's going to try to be giving some bass to the rear 17's, but without the power of an amp you're going to get bad distortion on those speakers if you turn the sound up much at all.

You might want to try using the headunit for the 13's up front. I'v got a mate whos got some Hertz components up front and they really pack a punch even though they're only being run off the headunit. You want to try and minimise the difference between the outputs of the HU and speakers to get the best sound.

[Cornell Finch]

In all honesty, I don't think you've got this quite right. While 13s are fine up front (even running off the HU), if you put 17s in the rear shelf then you're gonna kill them mighty quick if you end up putting a 12" sub in the boot. Yes, I do mean kill. The air movement from the sub will wreck the cones on the 17s.

Also, if you put the 6x9s under the seat then add the sub all you're gonna get is woolly bass as the two will be competing with each other.

Personally (and I have run this with some success) is the 13s (they're comps right?) up the front and he 6x9s under the seat. Run it all from one amp. If there's too much treble hen you could hit the low pass filter on the amp to knock out the highs from the 6x9s. I wouldn't bother with the 17s in the back at all and have the main sound staging from the front.

As a future upgrade you could still add the sub in the boot and knock out the 6x9s. It'll all still crank up but you'll have a bit of quality there too.

Just my £0.02 - hope you don't mind!