Speaker Q's....Front Doors

[dragon240sx]

I was curious what kind of success you all have had with changing the front door speakers in the 95-98 240sx. I've tried some Pioneer 6-1/2 and a set of Sony 6-1/2 and both sounded completely horrible. The only way I can describe the sound is since the space for the speakers is so cramped, and there is hardly any way for the speaker to move air when it moves in reaction to the bass, is it sounds so dead and honestly the factory ones sound a lot better (i guess because they're not the best quality and not the most powerful so they don't do a lot of moving). I don't know a lot about speakers so I was wondering if anyone has found a set that sounds really good to replace the factory speakers with. Thanks for your help.

[s13rookie]

well, what did you run those 2 set of speakers off of? 6 1/2" require such a little space to work in, you should have no problems

[bl200sx]

Hey, you should try CDT's or focal's, btw: they are not cheap $300-800

If that is out of your price range, try, JL's, MB quarts.

Most component type speakers will sound much better than daul or tri range speakers.


Go here for all your car audio needs: http://www.caraudioforum.com/
alot of these guys know car stereo well.

[JinNjuicE79]

What's up dragon? When I got my car last year, it had a "6 speaker premium audio package" option, and my fronts didn't even work. I like to go all out when I do something, so I bought these following items from Ebay.

Kenwood CD/MP3 Headunit w/ 110 S/N Ratio..forgot the model # ($250)
MB Quart QSD216 Components for fronts ($500)
MB Auart Discus DKD116 for rears ($80)
JL Audio 300.2 Amp ($300)

My friend and I did all the installation so that part was free. And we didn't even use an ounce of dynomat!

I highly recommend the MB Quart QSD216s coupled with JL Audio 300.2 or 300.4 (with 300.4 you can power the tweeters separately). I can crank them up all the way up to the maximum volume without distortion. Try to shop at ebay cause the QSD216s go for $1700 retail. Good luck with your audio setup Dragon240sx.

[Rocketman]

I just recently bought my 97 and swapped the speakers over from my old SE-R (1992).
So I have the following setup:
Sony cdx-c880 head unit
Sony XM7557 amp (five channel 75x4 and 220x1)
Whatever came with the car in the rear deck (omega i think?)
JL audio 10w0 sub in JL audio box for a sub
JL audio xr650cs components in the front.

I am a big proponent of matching speakers and electronics. Hence my use of all sony electronics and all JL speakers.

I have the amp bridged to three channel and running the fronts at 150 each and the rears off the head unit.

I love the sound of these components in this car. Much better than they ever sounded in the Sentra. I need to do a little bit of dynamatting in the doors, cause i am getting some rattling at higher volumes. The JL components would be almost satisfactory without an accompanying sub. they have really great bass extension for a 6.5" driver.

Take that for what its worth, and hope it helps.
Any more particular questions, e-mail me @ [email protected]

Rick

[Bill Roberts]

I am going to do my doors next week with a 5" dynaudio driver and a TB (tangband) dome tweeter. It will all fit. I am going to make a plate from 1/4" lexan and cut it perfect for the 4X6 hole. The drivers will just go in perfect. At the same time (the tweeters are going forward) I will have then at a 30 degree angle up and back. Behing the speakers I am going to get some of that thick hard felt they use between concrete joints and line the innerwalls of the doors (poormans dynamat) and then if you put dampning material back there, it will rust your doors so what I will do for dampning is build a quazi 4th order network at 100hZ and 1300HZ (The TB tweeters are flat down to 900hZ) and tune the passive crossover to dampen out and door resonances that are objectionable.

The drivers will cost less than 160 for both doors and the crossover parts less than 30. I will have great imaging up there and 200 watt power capacity. It will sound sweet.

For the rear, I am going to use a pair of Madisound 1252 DVC woofers, each in their own 1.2CU FT Box. Since it will be isobarak, I only need 1.2cuft for the pair to be flat to 25hZ (which is very low) I have done it before and they will go super low. Their resonance is 15hZ so they will play to 25HZ in the car in that small a sealed enclosure. Takes up very little space. For lower mids in rear fill, I have a matching pair of 8 inch woofers that will do the 60hZ to 1000hZ. They will be in a free field environment in a new shelf I am building for the hatch. It will look good, be reinforced and you will not see any speakers as I have found acoustically transparent carped (black) that the mid bass will go through. Speakers will be mounted from the bottom. I will drive the whole system with a single precision power 100 watt per channel amp. It will make 125dB (plenty for an old man) and be quite balanced. Also the entire system, amp, baffles and all only weighs 40 pounds so it will not hurt performance (speed and handling) as a monster box would. By the way, the spare tire well is exactly 1.3 CU FT and I will use it as the box. Isobarak loaded woofers use 1/2 the cuft as a pair (same as one) and handle more power and go lower. IF I get a flat tire, I got AAA. Hopefully a good looking babe is driving the tire truck!

BTW, Those 1252DVC are made for sound quality to 125 DB not for competition. 100 watts per woofer is the max. They go super low and hit super hard if 125dB is enough for you.

[RedlineRacer]

I put in a pair of infinity 6 1/2 components a few months ago. I used 3/4 inch MDF (should have used 1/2) to mount them. My passenger side scrubs the door panel sometimes and sounds a little muffled, but I just pop out the bottom of the door panel when it does it. I recessed the speaker on the mount to try to give more clearance foor the door panel. It isn't pretty, but here are some pictures.



I hope that gave you an idea.

[RedlineRacer]

for some reason, I thought this whole thread was for a s13.

[Bill Roberts]

Yep...me too...that is what I get for not reading. Sharp job redline...how do they sound?? I cannot expect any real bass in there but as long as it is powerful and smooth and does not sound squeaky or noisy, just pure and clear, I am in. I like your hardboard idea...clears good? No buldging panel?

[RedlineRacer]

yeah, they sound pretty nice. Except when it gets muffed by the door panel. The driver side sounds very nice and clean. I don't care if they make any bass. Thats why I have the two 12's. The wood clears, but it is close. If I had use 1/2 inch MDF like I should have, it would be perfect.

[Bill Roberts]

Good tip about the thickness. The angled tweeter trick should "see" through the panel some I hope. I will design the crossover with the panels on and adjust to best balance.

Here is the tweeter I selected. They actually can go quite low so I can get most of the deep treble to come through without the rasp.


Hey, the later model dudes can benefit from that information.




http://www.tb-speaker.com/detail/0116/28-847S.htm

[s13rookie]

im sorry, but what the heck is "deep treble"?


do you mean midrange or midbass?

[Bill Roberts]

A "deep tweeter" is one that can play well into the midrange and go all the way up...not just sssssss sssssss sssssss.

It is not a midrange at all.

If you look at the frequency spectrum, it is "usually" considered to be between 20hZ to 20,000hZ or 20KHZ.

The lowest useable bass can extend down to around 16hZ, anything below that has no "note value".

So here you have it:

Sub bass 16 hZ to 40hZ
Bass 40hZ to 120hZ
Midbass 120 to 300hZ
Midrange 300 to 1200hZ
Upper midrange 1200 to 3000hZ
(deep treble starts at 900hZ)
Low treble is also considered upper midrange.
Mid treble is 3000 to 6000hZ
Treble runs above 6000hZ up to the point where perception dissapears. At my age, I only hear to 16000 where many teenagers can still here 19000.

I am cutting my bandpass at different crossover frequencies than many do. My crossovers will be set at 90 and 900 since I am designing them around my listening taste and the acoustics of the S13.

Hence my "Subs" will reproduce from 25hZ to 90hZ, My Door Woofers will reproduce from 90 to 900hZ and since this specialized tweeter can go all the way down to 600hZ, I am going to use it crossed over at 900hZ and it will reproduce much more of the spectrum than you average tweeter. It will be reproducing into the midrange quite a bit but since it is still classifyed as a tweeter, it is called deep treble. 900hZ is a fairly dark sounding tone for a tweeter, hence "deep treble"

By cutting the spectrum as I am, I wil not have just boom going to my woofers, just voices to my door woofers and just tizz to my tweeters. Each driver is designed to cover the spectrum I choose it to cover for the car and my listening tastes.

I have been into electronics and acoustics on a professional level since 1973 and although different acronyms may be used by the loudspeaker designer than mainstream, it is nice to know what I am actually talking about so you get an idea of what "deep treble" sounds like. The tweeters will cover quite a bit of the instruments and the vocal range, not just cymbels and sizzle. They are specifically designed for this. Notice the specs of the tang-ban tweeter. One loudspeaker system that cost 11,000 dollars uses that exact same tweeter in it's design. Because it can reproduce so much music outside a normal tweeter, the other drivers are free to concentrate on other critical sounds. The finished product should sound like the nicest headphones you have ever heard.

IF you split this into musical octaves...my woofers will cover
Almost 2 octaves
Mids roughly 3 and one half octaves and the tweeters will cover 4 and one half octaves.

I have a mastering facility and use some of the finest loudspeakers in the industry ever built. I want the car to sound musical, as I enjoy the mastering system daily. These are specialized drivers intended for accurate reproduction of all tones through the entire spectrum at equal volume. I will not need and equilizer or bass and treble controls.

I had to choose specialized speakers to do what I want them to do, where I want them to do it.

It is not for everybody but I happen to love to hear music that sounds real and balanced.

[Bill Roberts]

PS:

I am not going to use the 8" woofers at all now...Just the 2 12", the dynaudios and the tang-bans.

I will not need the extra coverage from the rear. It will get in the way of the door clarity. I just modeled it and the 8" midbass midrange speakers will not be used. Not needed for me.

[drift freaq]

damn bill, your putting dyn's in your car you are probably the first person I have ever heard of sticking Dynaudios in their cars. Man why don't I just throw a set of KRK V8's in back hahahhahahhahaha,
People for those of you that do not know . Dynaudio's are some of the hottest studio monitor speakers availible. You usually only see them in top notch recording studios and mastering houses.
You get whatever you put into the Dyn's back out sound wise. You even hear things the that some of the studio engineers might have missed because they weren't using Dyns. Of course me I feel the same way about KRK's but monitors are a preference thing.

[Bill Roberts]

Hey Drift freaq, Check these babys out...better than dynaudios actually.

You can learn a lot about speakers at this site.

I got me a pair and they kick total a$$


http://www.4sptech.com/