What Separates would you buy, 300.00 ceiling.

first of all, stick with 2way speaks, and add remote tweets if you need more highs.. 3way speaks sound like a gorilla puking a turtle when you pour the juice to them. I like the infinity reference series for stock holes, but I'm gonna sit back and watch the other suggestions roll in. (this question always gets mad results)

 

What about Infinity Kappas?

 

He hehehehehe!!!!!!



I always love this question too Hautewheeler!



It all comes down to this, ALL speakers are junk and sound like ****, its just a matter of which ones sound less like crap too YOUR EARS!!!!!!


I personally always liked Orion, Soundstream and a few Oz audio speakers for their smoothness and great midbass performance, but that was over 10 years ago, so I dont know if that would hold true today. Some of the best sounding component sets I have heard in the last 2 years in my opinion are Fusion's ...........

 

Infinity Perfects
Image Dynamic
JL Audio
Arc Audio

in that order

 

We deal with Kappas where I work, don't waste your money. Of all the speakers we carry they have the highest failure rate. The components have some of the cheapest crossovers I've ever seen.

The Perfect series are little better.

The best speaker we sell are Polks. Only 2 failures this year. Not Bad.

In my opinion, dont waste your money on components. They are overpriced and overated. I have never heard any component set that I have been happy with. Buy a good set of coaxials and an add-on tweeter.

I completely agree with Hautewheeler. In fact that is what I did in my truck, Full range speakers in the door and an add on tweeter, did have to make my own crossover, Polks crossover did not impress me. The speakers are quite good.

Thats my 50-cents worth

 

YES! I care to disagree with the coax/tweeter set up. If you are a critical listner and enjoy music to be heard in a proper manner, go with components, NOT a coax and seperate tweeter.


Reason is, If you have several sources of same frequency sound, eminating from different localities, you will have phasing issues, that means that the highs will sound harsh at some frequncies, and non-existant at others. KISS!!!! keep it simple stupid!!!!!!!! The less the better in this area!

 

I have never listened to the JL audio 3 ways. A bit of info that they do not disclose is the actual freqeuncy of the x-over points, Thats what i am curious about. That would be key in your speaker placement. Especially the distance of placement of the mid and tweet from the woofer.

In the 3-way components I have done in years past, most sounded OK. A few were a disaster!

I generally used a 6" woofer, 4" or 5" mid and a 1" soft dome tweet.

x-over points as follows

6" woofer...............6dB high pass @ 120Hz up to 500 Hz 12 dB lo pass
mid........................12 dB high pass @600 up to 3KHz 12 dB lo pass
tweet......................18dB high pass @ 3KHz



Heres the real "kicker" though.........after the installation of a 3 way component system, you GET to play with polarities of all of them thar drivers! Also get to play with x-over frequencies too! TO get into that topic would take a LONG description!!!!!!!

If you are willing to play with speaker placement, x-overs and polarities, then by all means go for it! But then again, you may install them wherever and YOU may LOVE the sound of it without ever experimenting.......I have done many cars that won trophies for there SQ using a 3 way front stage.

In my experience, 2 way componenets are easier and more forgiving in a lot of ways. So to sum it up, No I dont think that the set you describe would SUCK. Just be prepared to play with them a little to get the sound you want.

 

also... we have to consider the source of this question.
Kmagyar asked what 3ways to put in the front of his dodge magnum. The way I understand it, he might not want to hack up his panels and dash or build some glass pods, Hence, he is looking for a "drop in" solution. If a guy wanted to build a "really bad a$$" mid/high section for up front, he probably would have a good idea what he wanted to use, and would have stated the question differently. We, in turn are overcomplicating this for him..

I say infinity reference or JBL GTO or high end pioneers for a good drop in equivalent, and stick with 2ways to simplify installation (cause the 3ways sound like crows reciting the pledge of allegiance backwards). If more highs are needed at a later date, and kmagyar wants to give it a try, then we can all offer more intense advice at that time...

am I on the right page here?:huh:

 

Given the choice above I would pick Reference. Stay away from Kappa. I would also consider Polk Audio Momo.

 

KISS I love it. The same problem exists when seperates are place too far apart. One sound is at your feet the other at your head. Add-on tweeters should always be near the main source speaker. But in many installations that is not always possible.

A good installer can easilly solve this problem. Here is how I do it. My 98 Mercury has speakers mounted low in the doors so I added tweeters in some home made fiberglass pods

Next I make sure that the tweeters are pointed toward the front center of the dash, NEVER at me. Finally, I use an odd-order filter. This puts the tweeter either 90 or 270 degrees out of phase. It is no longer directional. The sound in the car is no longer at my feet. It sounds like it is coming from about the center of the dash.

This method was used a few years ago by Infinity before they got cheap. Infinity Crossovers used to use an even-order filter for thier low end and an odd-order filter on the highs. The effect was one really super sounding speaker. But allas the one extra capacitor required to pull this off just cost too much.

Dawg that was a whole 50-cents worth

 

Thats some good detailed advice Ranger!


The only issue that would be a problem is this, all vehicles are different, and what works for your install may not work for another. Thats where experimentation comes into play.


Playing with different slopes in x-overs is a good way to make or break sound, as you know, phasing comes into serious play and will cause some effects, either good or bad.


From a regular joe blow not know anything about car audio stand point, its best to keep it simple. Most folks that dont know the details of and science of sound, wont have a chlue, and they might start messing around with x-overs and phasing and such, and only make the sound worse. With that said, it is usually better for an amatuer to stick with simple well defined parameters and go with what is easy to do. In my opinion....

 

While my methods are sound and will work in many (not all) applications, I will agree with you. Keeping it simple works best. And I am an experienced installer. So in the end your right, lets keep it simple.

But we learn so much when we try something new

 

I would agree with Viking, The seperates are the way to go. I have done a ton of installs with Oz Audio. they are some of the best sounding speakers out there. Just make sure you install them in a good solid baffle and power them with a good clean 75 to 100 watts. The Bostons are very clean as well, you can crank both sets and they are very reliable. Both companies have very good quality control. I have Oz Audio in both of my cars. Check them out , you wont be sorry.

 

If you do go witht the 3 way design, my suggestion to you from the photo you have shown, is to mount both the twweets and the mids in the same location, which would be the dash in this application, that will minimize phasing issues and also create an "less smeared" soundstage. If you go with the 2 ways, experiment with the tweeter locations, try the dash first and then rty the sails in the doors. When trying each location, listen to some music that is VERY well recorded and detailed in its soundstage that you are very familiar with.