I like your plan...but for me and my particular speakers I like the headroom of using an amp at 4 ohms...always room for some play...the focals measure out to like 3.1-3.3 ohms anyway. Amps do very well under the second row of seats...I like putting a little cover over them(plexi or just bars) with air holes as things tend to get tricky with kids...

Alpine stuff is good, have you tried out the JBL digital stuff? I think it's the MS-8 or somthing like that, it goes for like under $800 and is supposed to really wake things up! JBL Releases the MS-8: Music Never Sounded So Good I dunno if its any good, just a thought! Here's a review of it: JBL's MS-8 - DIYMA.com


Yeah...I went major overkill on the first sound deadening job, but I really dont see any other way! I just buy a box every so often and put it in the garage. When I have enough boxes...viola! Off to the installers! That way I stay out of debt and still get my stuff!

 

I will have to look into that JBL. Although originally I was going to install a carputer. However headunits have progressed pretty far. My alpine can do 10 banks of 1000 songs each through usb. I just have a few 16GB flash drives now with 1000 songs each to make things easy. Although if that JBL can do FLAC files I'd be very pleased.

With this new fangled low depth sub stuff I didnt know existed I think I might end up with a passable system thanks to everyones input here. I like putting it in the spare tire. When I get the car back from the body shop I'm also going to measure under the 2nd row seat to see if theres room under there. I'm liking this stero integrity BM mkIII sub. However if it does not have a grill cover available then the JL is it. I hope I can handle making the box. I am bad at all things fiberglass/body work.

Thanks for the info on the sound deadiners. Right now I'm thinking I might put the foil stuff (prob second skin) in strategic places and then maybe the foam or some jute under the whole carpet and see how that goes. In the end I hate to say it but I might need someone to tune the system. Home theaters are easy to tune. this stuff is all wacky.

Thanks

 

The JL TW5 is a killer shallow sub. It does not in any way sound like a shallow, sounds like a real actual sub. I am a JL dealer and have played with every sub from the original 12W6 on up, including the Fathom home stuff. Putting a TW5 in a box molded inside the spare would be a great space saving sub that will do everything you are asking of it.

 

Thank you stupidloud. I love JL in my home theater. I have a 12" Fathom since I feel its more musical then the 13" and I can always add more if I need them. Thats why I started looking at the JL's for car. Can you tell me a little about speakers I'm looking at for the car. I was considering the c5-650 or maybe the 650x for the front doors. And the c5-650x for the rear doors and third row. What do you think? Should I get c2's or 3's for the rear speakers? Would the components up front benefit me over the coaxial as far as sound stage? Also what amp would you suggest for the TW5? Your HD monoblock seems to put out far to much power for it at 750rms.

Thanks

 

The amp I usually sell with the TW5 is the HD monoblock. It's more than the sub is rated for, but it loves it. Overpowering is not a bad thing, as long as its good, clean power. Under-powering speakers is the main reason I see subs and speakers "blow". As far as the speakers, I have not played with JL's component/coax for a while. I love the subs, and the HD and slash amps, but sell more Hertz Components/coax. Love the Hertz stuff, I have them in my X for fronts, Audison amps, and rotate thru subs. My favorite subs lately have been discontinued JL 18W3's. Love the sound, the low end they create is incredible. With the 1100 watts RMS each (they are rated around 550) I run them at, and in a good box, they are not sloppy like people think. I listen to alot of rock, jazz, swing, punk, ska and i never feel that they are too slow for that. I have one advantage over most people though, it does help I have two 6 1/5" woofers, and two tweeters in each front door. My front end makes great mid-bass, but even when I had traditional single speakers I usually had 15" or 18" subs. A ten might be somewhat quicker, but it can't make a kick drum sound like a real kick drum. There is a reason drums get bigger the lower they play, that is what it takes for true low notes to play well, size. The big disadvantage over large subs, space. If I didn't have the room, the TW5 is what I would put in my vehicle, hands down. Lucky for me, I have some extra room in the back of my X.

 

The guy thats putting in my system is using JL 6.5s in the front doors and mounting the tweeters by the mirrors, he said that would be the best for sound quality and JL 5x7s(I think) in the stock locations. I want everything hidden and will mount an Alpine amp where the Jack (like i can use it) belongs with a fiberglass box maked to looking like my spare with a JL 12 so that I can hide it with my spare tire cover. My headunit will be a Alpine.

 

Thanks for the info hwybee22. I'm still torn between where to put the tweeters or just run coax. Up where you are having them installed seems to be the most popular however contrary to what I have learned for home audio. putting speakers in the stock locations and running wires I can do. Fabing with fiberglass I can not.

Since I have been looking into low profile subs it appears I can not fit them under the second row seat or in the spare tire and give them the required cubic feet of space they require. With that in mind I dont know if I should just run C5's all around on C5's up front and C3's for the back 4 as a video on JL's site seems to state that the c3's might producde stronger mid bass.

If I ever get around to making a call on this I will post my results.
Thanks

 

The TW5 only needs .8 cu ft of airspace, you can easily get that from an enclosure in the spare tire. Well, maybe not easily, but close to it. If you put fiberfill (or fiberglass insulation) in the box it will help if it's a little small. I always recommend a sub, for any system. It doesn't matter what speakers you put in, a sub can make it sound better. This, of course, like any thing, depends on setup, install, and at least decent equipment.

 

Thank you stupidloud. At first I thought so too. But with a 16" wheel and maybe as much as 4" of depth to work with (and I doubt even that much since I think its only a 6" wide wheel) at most if I had "walls" of the cylindrical enclosure that were 0" thick I could get a volume of 804.25 cubic inches or about .465 cubic feet including the area the speaker would take up. I do value your input though and thank you.

 

I would have to agree with stupidloud about the sub. It is a must for a decent sounding system. I recalculated my spare tire box at just over 0.5cu ft. My 10" diamond audio sub needs 0.5-1.0 cu ft of space. I put fiberfill in the box and it sounds great. Delivers way more bass than any door speaker ever will.

For front speakers you kind of need to rule out the home audio rules since you can not place the speakers in front of the listener as you would in home audio. You kind of just need to do what sounds best with what you have to work with. The tweeters need to aim towards the listener as the higher frequencies are very directional. I was thinking like you about sound stage at first and keeping the tweeter as close as possible to the speaker but could not come up with a good way to mount the tweeter in the stock door location. As previously mentioned I left a lot of extra speaker cable and played with different loctions for the tweeters. I used sticky back and would move them from time to time and felt they sounded the best on the dash. The rear view mirror location was a close second. The stock door location was far behind in sound quality to my ear.

Not trying to confuse the matter any more but I would strongly suggest you figure out a way to incorporate a subwoofer if you are going to all the trouble.

 

Cut your a pillars and install them in there. This way they aim at the windsheild and reflect back. Its easy and sounds great. Red Ex is right about higer frequences being very directional. Unless you are a true audiophile you probably will not notice a huge difference. The biggest difference you will notice is just by the quality of sound from aftermarket speakers as apposed to the factory garbage.