| | | quote | Originally posted by cowan1984:
LOL i knew sooner or later you'd say hi. I couldn't remember whose site I saw that on. Hope you don't mind me borrowing ideas? 
and thanks dcfox for the seat speaker wiring, that clarifies things alot. 
How does this version look?
Wired seat speakers right (i hope)
went from single 6ch amp to 5CH AMP
removed EQQ, capacitor, antenna booster and center channel speaker
|
|
For a setup like this I would recommend a good quality 5 channel amp, such as the Kicker ZX 700.5 . This amp has roughly the power level you are looking for. I however would change the design of the system quite a bit, if it was me.
I am not a big fan of the seat speakers. They pull your sound stage away from the front of the car and move it towards the rear. I am also not a big fan of multipal drivers. There is no real reason to install 14 speakers in your car, other than to say you did it. Some of the best sounding cars get by with as little as 4 to 5 speakers. The major thing one has to consider is the crossover points, speaker location and power supplied to each speaker.
Lets start with:
Speaker location Subs usually play any frequency below 120 hz. If you cross the sub over higher than a 120 hz you start getting directional issues. The human ear can hear frequencies down to as low at 20 hz but has a hard time locating where the sound originated from. With this in mind you can basically install a sub anywhere in a car and it will not sound any different. With this in mind find a good location for your subs that allow for the proper enclosure volume and put them there.
Once you get above 120 hz the sound become much more directional. You need to concern yourself with distances from one speaker to another, in accordation to the listening position. For example. If you installed your mids and tweeters in the kick panels and angled them towards the opposite side of the car the distance from each speaker, in relation to the listening position, will be closer to the same distance than it would if you installed the speakers in the stock location in the dash. By keeping these distances from the speakers to the listeners as equal as possible you will create a broad sound stage with a natural center channel effect. The closer you get to either set of speakers the further your stage will be pulled towards that speaker location. By using the kick panel location you can change the angle of the speaker in each panel to increase or decrease the sound level experienced by the listening position closest to that speaker. If you use the A pillars or stock speaker locations for your install you will be very limited in what you can do to change the sound stage as well as pick up additional sound reflection from the windshield than can hurt the overall sound of your system and make it become TINNY.
A good example of a kick panel installation would be: The speakers installed on the passenger kick panel would barely be vissible to the passenger but the driver will be able to see the entire surface of the speakers without turning their head. The same would hold true from the drivers side. The drivers side speakers would barely be visible to the driver but the passenger would be able to see them without turning their head. This means the biggest part of the sound will be coming from the opposite side of the car. In turn it will sound louder but since it is further away it will actually make the overall sound appear as though it is coming from the center of the dash because the listen will still recieve some sound from the speaker located directly infront of them as well.
Sorry if this is confusing. It is a little hard to explain in just text.
Now lets talk about the speakers in the seat. If you decide to install speakers in the headrest you will find that all the effect that would be achieved by the speakers being installed in the kick panels will go out the door. The reason for this is the distance from the speakers to the listener. All though you would be centered between the speakers the sound stage will change very drastically by the slightest turn of your head since you will change the distance from the speakers. Since these speakers will be playing all the frequencies that are very directional it will also pull the sound front in front of your to the rear of you since these speakers are behind your head. Even using a level control I dont believe will allow you enough control to reduce the output of these speakers enough to keep the sound coming from in front of your. Another issue with the head rest speakers is the enclosure the speaker resides in. Any speaker should be installed to keep the back of the speaker isolated from the front of the speaker. If you dont isolate the two sides of the speaker you will get cancellation of sound since the back of the speaker produces a wave that is exactly 180 degrees opposite of the wave produced from the front of the speaker. When these two waves meet the overall sound should be 0db. Ever seen the Bose noise cancelling headphones. This is exactly how they work.
Last but not least by not using the speakers in the headrest you will save yourself some bucks that you can put into other areas of your sound system and still achieve a sound that is of better quality.
CrossoversCrossovers are used to send a certain set of frequencies to a dedicated speaker or speakers. As stated above your usually dont want your subs to play higher than 120hz. Depending on the type of mids your elect to use will determine your lowpass selection point. If at all possible try to find a mid that can play down to roughly 70 hz or slightly lower. All though a crossover filters out unwanted frequencies from your speakers it doesnt eliminate them. It simply reduces the level at which they are presented to the speaker. Most of todays crossovers are at least a 12 db crossover and most are now 18 or even 24 db. For every 3 db of change is equal to a doubling of power.
By selecting a mid that can play below the crossover point you wont leave a void in your total frequency response. I prefer to cross my subs over around 90 hz. This means my mids need to be able to play below 90hz. By selecting a mid that can play down to 70 hz I am assured of good quality sound reproduction because I am not asking the speaker to produce a frequency it isnt able to. You also achieve a much more solid front sound stage by being able to run the mids down to 90 hz.
Your crossover point between the mids and tweets will be determined by the frequency response of both speakers. If you purchase a compenent speaker set you will usually recieve a passive crossover that your install between the mid and tweets. Most mid and high end compenent sets offer a low, mid and high output selection for your tweeters to meet your listening tastes. By using the passive crossover you can also reduce the number of amplified channels your have to have. Shall we talk about amps???
Amps/PowerDo I do a 5 channel, 4 channel or a Mono amp plus a 2 channel maybe I should get a 3 channel amp???? All good questions but here are some better questions to ask yourself.
1) How much money do I want to spend on my amplifier/s?
2) How much power can my sub/compenents handle?
3) What is the resistance of my sub/compenents?
4) What features do I need in my amp?
5) Is the price on this amp to good to be true?
There are the basics, shall we address them?
1) You are the only one that can decide this. I would recommend you figure on spending somewhere between $1/3-5watts. Basically what this means is for every dollar you spend your amp should produce somewhere between 3 to 5 watts. If you spend $200 bucks you should be able to purchase a amp that produces roughly 600-1000 watts RMS at 14.4 volts, the current CAE standards. This doesnt always hold true as you can get into amps that have some really neat features but we will cover that a few questions from now.
2) Again this is something that you have to determine. You can work in one of two directions. You can select your speakers first and then find the amp/s that fits your power needs. Your other option is to select your desired power output and find a speaker that can handle this level. I must warn you that working from the amp back to the speakers can be harder as there are all kinds of amps that can produce more power than most speakers can handle. In turn I recommend working with the speakers first, then the amp.
3) The resistance of your speakers will again determine what type of amp you can run. Once you have decided on the type of speakers you would like to use start shopping for the amp/s you want to use. Make sure the total load you are going to present to the amp can be handled. For example if you are going to use 2 kicker 10 inch subs that each have a 4 ohm voice coil and you want to wire these in parrallel you must be sure the amp can opperate at a 2 ohm load. If the amp you wanted to use couldnt operate at a 2 ohm load you have two choices: 1) Look for a different amp 2) Purchase the speakers with a different resistance for the voice coils. Most speakers now a days are availible in either 2 , 4, or 8 ohm loads. This allows for a multitude of wiring options which leads to far more selections of compatible amps.
4) This is something that I think it quite important and in a lot of cases over looked. What can the amp do besides amplify the input. As stated above most quality amplifiers are now produced with at least one crossover that is selectable. By being selectable you can decide if you want the amp to work as a High pass amp for your mids and tweets or a Low pass amp for your subs. If doing a multi-amp install I would also check to make sure that the amp also has a pass through output for the next amp. With this option your amp will send any frequencies outside of the crossover point on to the next amp. This nice this about this is signal is already crossedover. This also means you now only need a RCA cable that is long enough to go from the first amp to the second amp instead of two long cables running from the indash to both amps.
Sound about sound processing??? A lot of amps are now coming with some form of user programmable equalizer built into them as well. This allows you to taylor the sound to your liking. Do you want a little more vocal? You do, well just bump up that 500 hz and 1000 hz EQ control and you now have more vocal. How about that kick drum, does it need to be tamed down a little? It does, well turn down that 60 hz EQ control just a touch. Doesnt that sound much better now??? Speaking of kick drums how about a sub level control?
Good questions. Again most quality amps now have a remote knob that can be installed anywhere in the car that allows you to control the level of the sub output. Dont confuse a level control with a bass boost. A level control allows you to adjust the overall output of the sub not just a certain frequency but since we have talked about a bass boost, what about it.
Well ok, since you asked so nicely. A bass boost allows you to increase the subs output at a selectable frequency. This frequency is usually the center point with the greatest increase and slow increases the level of the surrounding frequencies by a lower value. For example say you wanted to feel the bass drum a little more but your sub enclosure is a little on the small side by using the bass boost you can increase the output level of the sub at the selected frequency as well as the frequencies above and below.
There are more features than I listed above but these are some of the more common features found on todays amps.
5) Wow this amp produces 10000 watts, has every known features a amp could have and it only costs a $100. Is this to good to be true??? Most likely the answer is going to be YES!!! remember the little $/Watt formula above. This is a very good calculator when deciding on what amp to buy. If the amp you are looking amp does figure into that ratio, give or take maybe 2-3 watts/$ chances are it is an overrated amp and will not preform at its rated spec. Another very simple way to see if the manufacturer is lying about the output of the amp is to add all of the fuses together and multipal that number by 14.4 . This will tell you the absolute MAX POWER that the ample could possible produce. If the amp claims more power output than the combined FUSE x 14.4 It is bs!!! Here is why.
OHMS law states that a 1Watt = 1Volt x 1Amp. With that in mind lets say we have a amp that claims a total output of 2500 watts. This amp has a total of four 30 amp fuse. We take 30 x 4 this equals 120. 120 is the maximum amount of current the amp can draw before we start blowing fuses. Now we need to figure watts. To do this we take the total system voltage and multiply that by the total current. Since most amps are now rated at 14.4 volts we will use that number. Here is the max output our amp is capable of 14.4 x 120 = 1728 watts. You will notice that we are well short of 2500 watts that was claimed. This would be considered an overrated amp. With this formula in mind and the $/watt formula you should be able to find a good quality amp for a decent price.
Again I applogize for the long drawn out post. If you read this far and have a question please let me know and I will be glad to answer it as best I can. Hope some of this helps in making your decisions a little easier.
) the only changes i'd make are...
