Need help designing system

Hello all,

Here's what I have:

Alpine 9815
ADS 6" 2-way seperates
MB Quartz 6" woofers from a pair of seperates
10" JLW3 original
Eclipse 3650 5/4 Channel amp
Orion 400x4 amp

The way I've had it setup is in two-way mode and does not include the Orion amp. I've got a new car to install the eqipment in. The front speakers mount in the door and wherever I want to put the tweeters. Rear speakers go in the rear deck. Trunk is a seperate area.

The Alpine has an option of running in 2-way or 3-way mode and I dont know if I should try 3-way or not.

Id like to incorporate the Orion into the system. I can run the ADS seperates Bi-amped up front. Should I run the MB's as mid-bass? Can I do that? I do not have a narrow band pass crossover though but can obtain the signal from the Alpine if I run it in 3-way.

Any suggestions about the overall system?

ADS components 350hz+
MB Quart midbass 70-350hz.
Sub to 70hz.

I would only run this setup if I wanted to put the ADS components in the kick panels and the Quarts in the door.

I think you gain more separating / bi-amping the midbass / components than going active on the tweeter and midrange.

If you really want to go all active look at a 4 way xo from someone like audiocontrol.

Let us know what you do and what the results are. I think the above would be MUCH better than running the quart 6" in the rear.


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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

So are you suggesting to not use any speakers in the rear deck?

And just for clarification, the MB Quart is not a true mid-bass driver if there is such a thing. It's simply the woofer from a seperate set.

I forgot to mention that I have the crossover from the MB Quart, but no tweeters....

So if I stay clear from the active setup (3-way on Alpine I'm assuming) then I will need a mid-bass crossover. Is this something I can make using the formulas for passive crossovers, or should I buy them?

If I put the ADS in the kick panels, do the tweeters go down there too? That seems real low, I'd be more inclined to put them in the dash or on the doors.

Tweeters and midrange drivers should be as close as possible. Yes, put them in the kicks as well. Aim them at the ears and they'll sound just as good as they would in the doors.

I am suggesting not to use speakers in the rear deck... or just the stock drivers. 90% of what you hear should be from the front. Put some crap in the back if you're into pleasing your rear passengers or like the "air" and "fill" that rear speakers bring.

Forget the quart xo. Use your deck to operate the 3-way active setup. You won't need a midbass passive xo. You'll still use the ADS passive component xo.

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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

So, do this on your deck:

ADS components 350hz+
MB Quart midbass 70-350hz.
Sub to 70hz

Just like I said before.

There are some big advantages to placing your midrange drivers in the kicks, the primary one being that you bring the midrange and tweeter more on-axis, which should lead to more accurate response.

This way you have nice on-axis midrange and high response from the kicks, solid midbass from the doors, and a sub filling out the bottom end.

I strongly feel this setup will be the best for you given the equipment you already have. It will easily, any day of the week, beat any solution that includes using the quarts as midbass drivers in the rear.

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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

Ok, first of all, thanks for the help!

After doing some further research on kick panel's, it seems to be the preferred method for great sound. I still feel that my knees and the passengers knees will block the sound from the tweeters.

I have checked out the options for pre-made kick panel pods and the general consensus seems to be to make my own. I am fully confident that I can make these out of fiberglass. I am sure I can find some DIY for this on the net.

Today I will run power for the amps and connections to send the signal to the trunk. Then the Alpine can go in. The main thing will be to get the alarm installed today.

I wouldn't worry about the knees blocking the sound too much. You'd get the same behavior to some extent anywhere you'd put it. The great advantages of kicks, moving the tweeter very close to the midrange and putting the speakers more on-axis outweigh any small amount of high frequency attenuation from the knees, in my opinion.

Kicks aren't too hard to build with fiberglass. You seem likes the challenge of DIY to obtain the best result anyway. There are a ton of good posts, and some not so good, in the fiberglass and interiors section of this website. Check it out.

Good luck w/ your project, I'm always glad to help people when they have a good start to their system and good intelligent questions. Let us know if you have more questions and let me know how it turns out.

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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

Well, the weekend is pretty much over and it doesn't look like I'll get to the kick panels until next weekend.

I was looking at the suggested division of frequencies over the selected speakers...

As suggested:
ADS components 350hz+
MB Quart midbass 70-350hz.
Sub to 70hz

If I am to use the Alpine 3-way setup, the control I have for setting crossover points are as follows:

Low: 20 Hz - 200 Hz
Mid High pass: 20 Hz - 200 Hz
Mid Low pass: 20 Hz - 20 kHz
High: 1 kHz - 20 kHz

So I can set low to 70 Hz and bypass the crossover on the amp for the sub.

I am not sure how I would run the other channels. I can set the mid from 70-350 Hz to supply the Quart's. But then I will have a gap between 350 and 1K. And If I am going to power the a/d/s using the xo, I'm not sure how to get this to work. If I let the a/d/s xo determine the crossover points....I'd still need to feed it 350 and up. I want to biamp the a/d/s/ also......hmmm...

Perhaps I can use the crossovers built into the Orion amp. They allow 45 - 5k high or low pass. I could use the orion for the midrange.

Use one side to run the Quart's using the Alpine's mid crossover set from 70 Hz to wherever the a/d/s passive xo sets its cross. On that side I will then use the Orion xo set for low pass at 350.

Then on the other side for the a/d/s in the kick, I could set the Orion xo for high pass at 350. It would not matter where I set the Alpine xo at this point because the a/d/s will cut it off where it needs to.

Then I could run the high side of the Alpine to two channels of the Eclipse amp for the tweets. Then I can bridge the other channels of the eclipse to power the sub if it lets me bridge it like that. I'll have to check.

Is this the only option? I feel scatterbrained.....