I am an 8ohm guy who has been driving more than he is at home. ive always had a somewhat ok system in my truck but have just recently really started adding to it. have a pioneer premier deh-960 deck(6.5v preouts) 6.5 inch mbquart rce's, 4inch mbquart components in the rear in boxes i built for them(single cab dodge ram 1500). for a sub i have an eclipse sw8122 12 inch in a box where my center seat/console used to be. for amps a jl4100 monoblock for the sub(underpowering it a bit but a 12 is huge for a truck cab), a kenwood kac-7251 for the 6.5 inchs, and this old alpine amp that puts out 130 watts rms maybe for the rears which i crossover at 160hz. the sub is at 50 hz and the front speakers are at 50hz. the system, besides the bass is louder than most people's systems i have seen, but i am from vermont and most of the systems suck. its not even in the same tier as the speakers i build for home audio. right now i am on a limited budget, but advice on future upgrades would be appreciated. thanks
speakers you build for home audio? Keep in touch. Ive been crossing over into Home audio lately and could use any help I could get. I thought Car audio was deep , man when I started in with Plasma screens , 7.1 dolby suround , satelite systems , digital High Def TV , well you get the pic.
P.S. I'll bet your truck system sounds friggin awsome. I love MBQuart speakers.
what kind of spl should i be looking for, im in the high 130's with the sub(is in sealed box now, i am going to build a ported one for it but i dont want to waste the mdf unless i know it wont sound bad knowing that the sub is meant for sealed enclosures), and i havent checked over 2k yet but it should be good with the titanium tweeters.
You want it to sound more like home stereo? You should use the same principles I'm sure you have to use in your home audio setup. The first glaring problem that screams out at me is that you have 2 different full range drivers / tweeter sets playing the same frequencies per channel in a tiny cab. Would you put 2 totally different full range drivers or tweeters in a single home audio speaker? No, of course you wouldn't.
1) Move all your mids and highs to the front i.e. put your 4" components in kick panels. Remove all but one set of tweeters from your system. Locate the tweeter as close as possible to the center of the 4" driver. Aim the 4" driver and the tweeter at the driver's head.
2) Cross your drivers over so that no more than one driver is playing any frequency set on any one channel. i.e. sub to 80hz, 6.5" from 80 to 250hz, 4" components from 250 to 20khz. See, no overlap.
** You can do the above two steps without spending any real money and I gaurantee it will make a HUGE difference just about every aspect of your sound quality. The frequency response curve will be smoother, distortion will be lower, power handling will be greater, you'll minimze cancellation problems, stereo imaging will improve, your speakers will be closer to being time alligned, and the list goes on.
Other comments on crossover: 50hz is way too low for those 6.5" rce's. 160hz is way too low for that 4" driver. Bumping these two items up alone will help control your sound as the volume increases. 80hz is the lowest I'd go on all the best 6.5" driver. 250hz is the lowest I'd go on a 4" driver.
Do all that and still want more? Here are more things you can do:
3) Set time correction on the deck for the mids and highs.
4) Dampen your doors.
5) Buy an SPL meter and get the gains right between amps and balance right between left and right.
6) Look into upgrading the mid / high amps. Just like home audio, these matter. A quality 4-channel amp would do the job.
7) Buy an EQ and buy or rent a RTA and equalize the weak spots.
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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder
Going ported is a horrible idea with that sub if you're looking for sound quality.
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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder