TM

Okay, no one has any suggestions for general system stuff, so here's a specific one-

Has anyone used the Image Dynamics 6.5" midbass drivers? How do they sound, used in conjunction with component speakers in the front? I'm thinking of putting components in the front doors (midrange, that is- tweeter is in the dash) and putting these 6.5" midbass drivers in the rear deck, all powered by a 50Wx4 amp and using the amp's built-in crossover to send only low frequencies to the midbass drivers. The other option would be to bridge the amp to 2 channel and find a suitable 3-way crossover to do the same thing.

Any recs on this kind of setup? I plan on adding a real sub later on, but it's either 5.25" components in the front, with 6.5" coaxes in the back, or the components in the front w/ 6.5" midbass drivers in the back. I figured the midbass drivers would be less directional and I'd have much better soundstaging this way. I'm getting sick of my stock Bose system.

TM

siberian

they will probably distort at high volume... remember, they are midbass drivers, not subs.

I have 6.5" midbass drivers in my doors (Diamond Hex series) and I promise you they do not like low frequencies at high volume. I have them cut off at 80hz.

If you set your crossover to 80hz, that's usually a typical setting on amps, they should still produce a full rich sound... then just wait until you get a sub to handle the lows.

TM

Thanks, siberian.

I was thinking I'd get better bass fill with 6.5" midbass drivers on the back deck (this is a '91 200q, not an A4/S4) and have them complement the Boston RC51s that I'm putting into the door/dash. If that doesn't work well, I'll go with a pair of Boston coaxes in the back.

TM
'91 200q needing a Bose replacement

TM

You need to cut metal in the rear deck? This is a '91 200q. Lots of space, IIRC. I'll check again.

siberian

First of all, there's nothing wrong with your idea... except I'd just change the crossover setting to hi pass instead of low pass on the rears. You will still get some nice midbass fill, but the way you originally described using them with the crossover set at low pass probably wouldn't sound good because those poor little 6" drivers aren't made for real low stuff. If you want to produce lows, just go with a sub... a single 10" in a small sealed box does wonderful things!


As for Coax-vs-midbass in the rear deck, there are a few things to consider.. Generally you want to keep your high frequencies up front because that is where your staging is. If you put coax's in the rear you migh introduce high frequencies which could reflect off the back windshield and up towards the front of the car, thus potentially mucking up your imaging. So generally, midbass drivers in the rear are more than sufficient... especially if you plan to turn them up a little louder to make up for the lack of midbass up front.

On the other hand, if you put only midbass drivers in the rear and if you regularly have back seat passengers in your car, the music might sound muddy to them from the back seat because there are no tweeters back there. If you don't care about that, then I'd just go with midbass drivers.

trapspeed

...is there a way to adjust the frequency levels (ie x-over) on them considering that they are coax's...or am I pretty much stuck with how the manuf. wired them?

siberian

it should be set to hi-pass. Otherwise, maybe your tweets are blown. I don't know what kinda speakers you have, but chances are they could blow if you try to send low frequencies to them.

97A6guy

Some general tips:

If you tune the system right, and that may be as simple as adjusting the fade, you should be able to get a good front sound-stage with some rear fill to add depth. If you use warm speakers in the front and bright speakers in the rear, you may experience "drifting" sound that moves from front to back as the tones change

MB Quart has a 3.5" coaxial that fits the dash of the 5000/100 real well and has sound that rivals 4" seperates. I don't know if the 200 is designed that way.

I find that Bostons and Quarts pale in comparison to the Focal speakers, but expect to shell out $350 or more for that kind of sound. They also offer 3-way seperates

There is a rumor that people cannot localize sounds below 200Hz. That really depends on the quality of speaker. I can localize most subs due to their distortions, so you may want to run your front speakers down to 100 Hz or lower.

TM

Siberian,
Thanks again for your comments- I really don't care what the rear passengers hear, as I usually don't have people back there.

I may look into doing the crossover as high-pass- what would be the crossover point for these speakers? I guess the speakers will have specs for that in their documentation, right?

Taka

TM

I'm not planning on using coaxes in the front- the door has a driver down low and the tweeter is in the dash, along with a speaker for the phone.

What I want to do is put the midrange in the door and the tweeter in the dash, like the factory system. I'm a bit concerned that a 5.25" driver won't fit in the door, because the Bose system has rather small enclosures. If a 5.25" driver won't fit, I'll go w/ a 4" component set and have to find something to do w/ my Bostons.

If I get a new set of components, I'll look into either Quart, Focal, Image Dynamics or someone else (any suggestions?). I'm not doing custom pods or anything, I need something that will basically drop right in.

I do plan on getting a 10" sub in a sealed enclosure in the future, so the bass is not a major problem. However, I want something that will sound really clean without being ultra-expensive. My home system is rather expensive and I don't want to spend that kind of money on the car system.

If the doors could accomodate 6.5" speakers, I'd strongly consider doing 3-way separates, including (possibly) Dynaudio, which I think are awesome speakers, if their car speakers are comparable to their home speakers.

TM