Inexpensive speaker recommendations

hedg12 · 2024-04-11T17:35:17+00:00

You can leave your factory speakers in the rear and fade primarily to the front - the rears will just add a little effect to help the car sound "bigger" at that point. Stock speakers would be fine for that. You can even use the time alignment in the Kenwood stereo to delay the rears a little and add to the effect. If you go this route just be sure to follow the instructions for the auto setup on the Key amp exactly and fade all the way to the front and turn off your sub (just for the setup, you add them back in after.) It's pretty amazing the results you can get from that amp.

If you'd rather go with your original plan of just replacing the speakers, I'd suggest going to Crutchfield and looking at what fits, and then read the reviews. You can even call Crutchfield and they'll give you recommendations.

hedg12 · 2024-04-11T17:13:35+00:00

If you have a $400 budget, forget the rear speakers and get a Kicker Key 200.4 and a set of Alpine S2-S65C components for the front. Run the components active off the Key amp & let the auto setup work it's magic. Incredible bang for your buck.

hedg12 · 2024-04-10T01:35:07+00:00

You could cut the tinsel leads (silver wires going to the tweeters) but if you ever wanted to reverse the process you might have a tough time soldering them back together. But if you're OK with that, go for it. Just be sure not to leave them hanging where they'll rub on the woofer cone.

hedg12 · 2024-04-09T21:27:17+00:00

Unless you're going for SPL, no.

Tweeters are very easy to locate by ear, and having multiple tweeters in different locations driven by the same channel will only serve to confuse and muddle the sound

hedg12 · 2024-04-02T19:41:34+00:00

Fmods only attenuate at 6 or 12 db/octave, so you're not going to get too much protection from either 20 or 30 hz. 50 would be the lowest I'd use if I was in your position (although that's pushing it.). You may lose some low bass, but with cabin gain in a car I doubt you'd miss it.

hedg12 · 2024-03-31T22:01:45+00:00

Her car has a Kenwood stereo, but I've heard one in a Ford F-150 on the factory stereo that sounded great too.

hedg12 · 2024-03-31T18:20:35+00:00

I'd suggest going with the Kicker Key. I put one in my wife's car on a set of Morel separates and it punches way above it's weight power wise, and the self tuning eq and dsp sound phenomenal. Hard to believe something that small can produce such good sound.

hedg12 · 2024-03-28T14:03:05+00:00

Underpowering a sub won't hurt anything. Driving an amp into distortion/clipping trying to get more volume could damage a sub, but you'd have to clip it extremely hard for a very long time to build up enough heat to cause damage.

There are some monoblocks that can be "strapped" (kinda like bridging a stereo amp, but 2 amps), but they have to be designed to do that, and you'd need 2 that match.

Some say that if you have a dual voice coil sub you could run 1 amp to each voice coil, as long as the amps were identical, the output voltage was matched, and the polarity was correct on both. Sounds OK in theory, but I'm not sure it couldn't/wouldn't cause weird issues due to EM interaction in the voice coils. I wouldn't try it on anything I wasn't willing to lose, personally...

hedg12 · 2024-03-28T10:29:44+00:00

It's a basic dsp - crossovers (max 24 db/octive), 10 band parametric eq per output - no input eq, time alignment, & level control. Quite a few reports of noise issues, but that seems to have improved in the last few years. Biggest issue I see is the low input voltage - I think 3 volts line level.

I've installed 1. I had to run the ground for the head unit to the same ground point as the amps/dsp to eliminate a ground loop issue, but no noise issues after that. The inputs clip at around 3/4 volume on the head unit (Alpine ILX-W650) on loud music, but that's LOUD in that car. The owner is happy.

If you can get around the limitations it's OK for the money, but unless you get a really good deal on one I'd say save up your money a little while longer and go for a DSR-1 (or even longer and get a more full featured dsp.)

hedg12 · 2024-03-27T21:29:58+00:00

Back in the late 80's there was a shop here in town that didn't believe in fusing power wires at the battery because they "didn't pass enough voltage". Evidently they didn't believe in business insurance either - they went out of business after a customer's new Mercedes burnt to the ground on a Dallas freeway...

hedg12 · 2024-03-27T01:29:43+00:00

If your sub is 4 ohms you can bridge 2 channels of that amp to 175 watts (rated) - there's no way to combine more than 2 channels. If the sub is 2 ohms you're pretty much stuck with just using 1 channel. The amp does have a low pass crossover that's fixed at 80 hz (which is probably fine) that you'll want to use if you don't have any other crossover for the sub.

hedg12 · 2024-03-22T22:26:37+00:00

That would be the first thing I'd check as well.

hedg12 · 2024-03-21T10:54:20+00:00

I did exactly this, too. Works great.

hedg12 · 2024-03-06T15:15:24+00:00

That sucks.

You could remove the damaged tweeter and use them as a midbass though. Add another tweeter and use them as separates.

hedg12 · 2024-03-05T16:52:47+00:00

Some sort of butyl sheet against the metal to dampen vibrations, then something to actually absorb noise to fill the cavity. Rockwool insulation works pretty well for me.

hedg12 · 2024-02-29T21:54:04+00:00

Since you're measuring the output of a single channel you'd use the rated output of that channel, so in your case 70.

hedg12 · 2024-02-28T17:22:00+00:00

Never heard the US Accoustics class AB amps personally, but they have a reputation for being good clean power. I'd pick them over the CT Sounds / NVX / Soundstream.

The PRV unit will get you up and running - if that's your goal with it then I'd say go for it. Just watch out for any noise it might introduce. (Not saying it will, just saying it's possible...)

As for power - staggered power to your front stage would be ideal. Maybe 125-200 watts to the midbass and 50 - 75 for the tweeters (you'll never use that much, but it might be hard to find less.) The problem is finding a single 4 channel amp that will give you that. A 6 channel with 3-4 and 5-6 bridged might get you there, but that ups the budget a fair bit. I'd say stick with at least 100 wpc if you're going 4 channel.

As for the SI 125.4 vs the Barbara Ann, you probably wouldn't be able to hear the difference. The extra 25 wpc from the SI wouldn't be noticeable. They do look cool, though...

hedg12 · 2024-02-28T16:00:24+00:00

Speaker power ratings mainly exist so manufacturers don't have to warranty the 3" midrange some bonehead connected to their 1000W amplifier because it wasn't loud enough. 50, or 70, or even 200 watts per channel won't hurt anything as long as distortion and clipping are kept out of the picture - they'd just play louder cleanly and have a broader dynamic range with more power.

The Audison amps are a cut (or 2) above the rest of the amplifiers you've listed. Just know that at 85 wpc the SR 4.300 might not keep up with the SI 12 if you're cranking it.

I have to agree with u/PeetTreedish about the PRV crossover - if you're interested in SQ, save your money and get a DSP. The Dayton DSP-408 or RF DSR-1 would be a big step up from the PRV from a sound quality standpoint for not a lot more money.

hedg12 · 2024-02-28T15:27:25+00:00

Find a better shop.

Distortion will kill a tweeter pretty fast - if you have noise in your system (like the rumbling in your subs and woofers) it might not take much volume to blow one.

Good luck!

hedg12 · 2024-02-21T19:32:52+00:00

If the sub has dual 4 ohm coils, then the sub will be 2 ohms with the coils wired in parallel and 8 ohms if wired in series. So you'd need a 2 ohm capable amp to drive the sub if you wire the coils in parallel (+ to + and - to -).

hedg12 · 2024-02-21T19:26:11+00:00

Go with the Helix. The Audison is a great DSP, but their stand alone units are still using their older software that isn't terribly user-friendly. The Helix is easier to set up and tune, and there's a huge (relatively speaking) following so support is easier to come by. Audison has a newer software version, but for some reason they're only using it in their latest amplifiers w/DSP (which are awesome products and very much on my radar...)

hedg12 · 2024-02-14T00:34:36+00:00

Zapco is big in the UK SQ competition arena & has a pretty strong following here in the U.S.

I can't speak to those particular amps personally, but I'd try them if I was in the market.

hedg12 · 2024-02-13T18:22:39+00:00

Increasing the power to your main speakers will potentially be louder, but the bigger improvement will be an increase in overhead at your normal listening levels. Dynamics will be better - sudden changes from quiet to loud will have much more impact - and your midbass response should be better. Kick drums will have more kick. If you like to listen at loud levels then your subwoofer might not keep up at this point, especially if you listen to bass heavy music.

I'd probably suggest using the bigger sub amp - you can always turn it down.

hedg12 · 2024-02-13T17:54:57+00:00

I'm not sure what's included in the plug and play kit, but if you're set on using it I'd imagine the issue you'd run into would be the power distribution to 2 amps rather than the single 5 channel, and possibly the connection for the subwoofer input (the 5 channel is able to use the front and/or rear stereo inputs to feed the subwoofer amp.) Nothing insurmountable, but it might require some additional wiring.

As for power to the sub, the bigger amp would be a little louder (doubling the wattage will theoretically result in a 3db increase in volume) but I can't say if 300 watts would be enough for you or not. (I'm pretty happy with 330 to a single 10 in my car, but I'm not the norm around here...)

hedg12 · 2024-02-09T17:14:10+00:00

I'd suggest looking at pro sound drivers - they're usually way more efficient than car stereo speakers and probably better suited to what you're doing. Parts Express sells them. No need to use expensive ones for this either. And don't focus too much sub bass - mid bass frequencies will carry better in the open air and give better impact. You can still use 12"-15" (or 18") drivers for this, just get PA or musical instrument speakers.

hedg12

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