moderate audiophile system

I am designing a moderate Audiophile system for My Kia Optima SE. I am going with all Alpine Type R components. The front stage will be 1 set of SPR-17S the rear will be 1 set of SPR-69C. Subs I am going with 3 10's. For amps I decided on a PDX-F4 for the Mid/High Frequencies and a MRP-M2000 for the subs. I will be using a PXA-H1000 audio processor with the RTA kit for my laptop. Now on to the questions 1. is 3 10's overkill for an SQ system? 2. How good is the signal transmission on AI-Net any noise problems? (the PXA-H1000 will be fed via the AI-net from the head unit, each of the two amps then connects to the PXA-H1000 via RCA in the trunk) 3. According to my calculations found Here using 14AWG speaker wire I will loose .11DB of sound to my front doors and .03DB to the rear deck. Is this acceptable? 4. Should I install baffles behind the drivers in the doors and rear deck? 5. Lastly My car has tweeters in the A pillars for stock locations should I use these for the component set or use a coaxial speaker and a separate tweeter for the stock location (Possibly leaving the factory tweeter installed)

If you are serious about building a "moderate audiophile system" before you install any gear at all I suggest you strip the interior out of the vehicle and soundproof/vibration damp the entire vehicle.  That will do more to improve the SQ than almost anything else you can do.Support the12volt.com

One step ahead the entire car has been dynamatted ufrom the firewall to the trunk lid.

Excellent.  Then IMO:

1) I prefer 12's to 10's because they require less EQ to get the first octave, and 2 drivers are always easier to work with than 3.  But "overkill"?  Not necessarily.

2)  AINet works fine3) More than acceptable4) Yes5) That depends.  Use a comp set not coaxials, and experiment with tweeter location.  If you use the OEM A-pillar locations be prepared to pad the tweets by at least -3db and probably more.  More Likely to achieve proper imaging you'll want the tweet mounted within one woofer diameter of the woofer, and you might want to consider building kick panels for mounting them.

And you may or may not want to use any speakers in the rear.  If you do use them, make sure you cannot hear them directly from the front seat: use them to add "ambiance."

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Thanks for the recommendations. I picked up my front channel amp today its a monster I went with the Boston acoustics Gt4100 100x4 RMS that should have no problem pushing the Component sets. The rest of the equipment should arrive in the next few weeks.

I have 2 more questions.. Should I fiberglass the baffles? and I was intending the 6x9's to be more mid bass fill for stunning snare drum hits. Should I concentrate more on custom kicks or door enclosures for a dual 6.5 mid bass setup?

well, if you plan on building custom door pods and you want it to look reasonably good then i would say that fiberglass is the way to go. but, i would only use glass in the spots where you cant use wood, and even though its just door speakers you would still need to layer it kind of thick so it wouldn't flex or crack. and it really depends on how you intend on positioning your speakers and tweeters to know whether you want to use kicks or door pods. its best to keep the mid and tweeter as close to each other as possible so if you cant put the mid and tweeter in the kick panel then i would go for door pods.

Would I be better suited to use coaxials then? And for the fiberglassing I meant reinforcing the baffles.

Well the interior is out and the and the sound deading material is on the way. I shot an email to Raamat to see which product and how much is recommended by them for my system. "How much do I need, or how to I calculate needed Sq ft? The vehicle is a 2002 Kia Optima SE V6 4 door sedan. The system is 3 10in Alpine type R sub woofers with a MRP-M2000 amp, Alpine type R components in the front doors and rear deck. Fiberglass backed baffles installed behind the component set and the 6x9's. I am assuming at minimum the trunk and front doors need to be covered. Here in my town we have a noise ordinance statute that I do not wish to violate the Idea is to keep the sound inside the vehicle. I am not competing in SPL competition I am more of a Sq person with substantial low end. Any and all recommendations are greatly appreciated. I am a member on the 12volt.com forums where I first heard about your product and this e-mail will be included in my build thread so that others may read it. " Sorry Dyohn I did say the car was already dynamated but I should have said it was included in the system plans. The enclosure is all built as well and the amp rack material is sitting in my office. Not much I can do until the Raamat goes in and I get 300.00 worth of wiring from the UPS driver in 2 weeks. Most of my parts I am getting from Parts express with the 0 AWG comming from CarAudio deals since they seam to be the least expensive.

Didn't get a response back from Rick but I have changed from a moderate system to a balls out RTA system. Here At school one of my professors has his PHD in physics and he teaches a class called musical acoustics that I took last semester he will be helping me along the way. I am measuring the car this week for the Raamat and the parts order for the wiring and sound deadening will go out the first week of sept. I will be documenting the build along the way. After the sound deadening I will use lasers to measure optimum placement for the front stage and build custom kicks or door pods whichever is needed. I have a long list of finishing touches before stepping into the IASCA circuit but the journey starts here. I look forward too all of your suggestions and help along the way.