5.1 sq q's

Haystack · 11-25-2005, 09:56 AM

I know that surround sound prolly wont sound right in a car, I am just doing mainly for bragging rights. but if it sounds better, I will take that too. Also, I do no know alot about audio. I know how it works, and how to wire it up, but that is basically it.

I know about diffrent sized subs and speakers make diffrent sounds. So here is what I am thinking.

maybe 5, 6 1/2" 3 ways. probablly pioneer at this point.
two in door, one in center of dash, and two in the rear deck.
Maybe some tweeters for the dash and back deck.

This will give me good sound?

once again, sorry for the generic questions.

havent decided on speaker sizes yet, but I am thinking of two boss 10"s. maybe two 12" depending, using a free air system. I want to hear the speakers before I decided what sizes/brands though. I may even go with two 10's and two 12's. My goal is to hit low bass, with a strong upper bass range. Alot of the music I like, is really low bass, or really high poppy stuff.

Any suggestions/input?
What do you guys think of this? I have been listening to alot of my freinds systems, and the 6.5"s sound alot better then 6x9's. Also, I may consider 5 1/4's instead.

Any suggestions?

WickedRX7 · 11-25-2005, 10:24 AM

Not to be a dick at all, I have been into caraudio for awhile, but the stuff you picked is garbage. Pioneer makes horrible speakers, and boss is the bottom of the line for woofers. I agree that alot of how a car sounds is setup, but you need decent equipment to start off with. If you really arent concerned on how its going to sound than you will be fine. Give me a price range and ill reccomend you some quality equipment.

Haystack · 11-25-2005, 12:00 PM

I could go as high as $1000.

RedGTiVR6 · 11-27-2005, 09:51 AM

oh god - boss?

do a quick serach and you will see my feelings for boss....they aren't much higer than dog poo in my book....

is that 1k for speakers (surround and woofers?) AND amps? or just speakers?

to say that the 6.5"s sound better than 6 x 9"s means nothing - take into account that theie installs are all completely differnt (never know if it's a good install or not), different equipment, different playing time, different volume, different music, etc....never base your oponions on something like this...

Haystack · 11-27-2005, 02:07 PM

$1000, depending. I could go higher or lower really. I guess I am gonna stop by some audio shops by my house and see what they recomend.

meddler · 11-27-2005, 05:27 PM

It's good to see that you are asking for opinions before you buy. I have seen a lot of people run out and buy gear thinking they have "da *****" and the people in the know just laugh at them. If you want sound quality then do some research on a car audio specific forum. Although Red is probably one of the most qualified on this board to give you advice. She has been there and done that.
For $1000 you should be able to get something that is reasonable. Possibly look at buying some good second hand amps if money is short. I always buy new speakers tho.

RedGTiVR6 · 11-27-2005, 05:32 PM

btw - I have a set of JLAudio 12s that I NEED to part with - if you're interested I'll make you a good price....(12W6V2)

1k is a good start and will get you some good equipment for sure!

Akuma · 11-29-2005, 09:40 PM

for mids and highs Boston Acoustic makes some great stuff, subs and amps by JL, HU Alpine... although my wifes Clarion sounds amazing.

WickedRX7 · 11-29-2005, 10:07 PM

check out elitecaraudio.com, do many searches and you will see what fits in your price range. I am going to be doing a diy active 2 way set up consiting of seas lotus reference tweets and morel MW168 mids, pxa-h701 processiong and focal utopia subs. The comps and the processing will run me about $800 and I gurantee it will be on par with $1500+ systems if not better. If your a audio newbie, than stay passive, look into focal, morel, seas,dynaudio, dls etc. Like i said go to eca and do some searches. LMK if you need any help.

Fusion-One · 11-29-2005, 10:29 PM

Personnally, I listen to music in my car more then anything else. 5.1 for music is a bad idea, since 99.9% of all music is recorded in 2 channel stereo... my response doesn't really answer or even address your question.. its just what I would do with a 1000$ audio budget, myself.

Infinity 611A Amp for 200$, can push over 600W rms in 2 ohm mode.
2x Adire Shiva 12D8 for 360$, wired up at 2ohms, they'll each get the 300w that makes them happy.

Infinity 7521A Amp for 160$, can do 100w rms in 4 ohm mode.
Set of Focal Polyglass 130 V1 components for 200$

Mount the Components in the corner floor kick panels, with the tweeters in the windsheild support coloumns. Pump them each with 100w from the 7521A @ 4ohms, Wire up all voice coils in the two adire shivas in parallel with the 611A monoblock, giving a shade over 300w rms to each sub, 150w per voice coil @ 2ohms.
Forget the rear fill.

Total cost works out to roughly 920$ for the equipment, grab a spool of fiberglass, some mdf, and some resin... and some wire. This puts you around your budget, and gives you one hell of a system.

.. If only I had a spare grand to throw down.

-Jared

turbocad6 · 11-30-2005, 02:48 PM

true 5.1 surround in a car is extremely difficult.... the reasons for this boil down to ONE main issue..... and that is the fact that all 5 drivers should have the same acoustic propertys & the same response.... the same timbre...... & should all cover the same freq. spread as each other............

here lys the problem...... it's easy to get relatively full freq coverage with the left & right fronts..... the door cabin will allow usable frequencys down to 80-100 htz with even mediocre drivers..... but to have the center match this with the same intensity is very difficult... you will need a relatively large enclosure to be able to reproduce the lower frequencies & have the same response...... very difficult with a stock dash.......

now most guys will argue that the center is only for voice & it doesn't make a difference...... this is simply not true....... there is other information also on the center channel...... even skipping this fact for a moment & focusing on voice.... & even though most voices energywill be originate in the 650- 1.8k range..... there are other artifacts of a voice that are called reverbs.... basically every sound has reverbs that reach far below & far above the original sound....like a ripple when throwing a stone into standing water.... a tone at 400 htz has reverbs that reach both far above & below said freq....

what this translates to is simple..... say your watching a 5.1 movie with densel washington standing on the left & speaking..... most of the voice energy will be coming from the left front speaker...... now say while talking he moves to the center of the screen..... dolby will put most of the voice energy to the center speaker.... he then moves right.... again the energy is transfered to the appropriate drivers.......

with a wimpy center speaker his voice WILL CHANGE as he moves across the screen..... this can be extremely annoying & will ruin the reason you went 5.1 in the first place..... you would get much better results using a processor that does a phantom center image..... basically creating a center by summing the left & right.... without handing the info off to an inadiquate center driver......

it doesn't matter too much even if you use the same speaker in the dash that your using in your doors.... unless there in similar enclosures they will not do the same job..... the end results are inacuracys & loss of information that should be there, but can't be reproduced by a wimpy center channel....

the best attempt at an acurate 5.1 in a car will either have major modifications to the dash to allow both a proper sized driver & enclosure, as well as angleing the speaker twards the center of the car....... I won't even get into the problems with having the center point straight up to the windshield & delivering both off axis sound AND reflected sound at the same time.......

OR.... downgrade the left & rights to match the center....... draw back there will be loss of overall energy & bass localization in the rear.....

bottom line.... a phantom center will almost always sound better & more accurate than an unmatched inadiquate center channel driver.....

PCaponeRIT · 12-01-2005, 10:13 PM

yea, don't 5.1 your car, the guy above has a huge post, I could only read the first couple sentences and they sounded like don't do it. for 1000 you could get some sick stuff. I got my setup for like 500 and I love it. autotek 5750 amp (5ch), single alpine sub, audiobahn 5.25's and 6.5 comps. If I was gonna spend a grand I would keep the amp, and sub but move up to rainbow dreamline comps or something nice. Prolly get some kicks or extra tweeter pods too, my mids and highs are lacking in my large car.

Question for you guys, what do you use for a sound card to get good sq? Any ideas on external USB sound drivers? Anyone using onboard sound?

Haystack · 12-01-2005, 11:15 PM

well here is what I was thinking,

I wanted to use sound deading in the doors, and just throw in a 5.25, or 6 1/2 speaker, and then where the huge analog clock goes in the center of my dash, its at least 4" with room to work with. I dunno about the center channel though. If it isnt doable then it isnt. I will have to play with it

I think I have pretty much the best set up I could get, I know a guy that put a 7" liliput where the clock goes, so I should be able to get a 5 1/4 in. Its a fairly deep dash too, But I dont really wanna be making enclosers to go in my dash.

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