calling all audio freaks - audio install question

[TieNN89]

i was thinking of putting splits in

does 8\" produces more bass?

what did you do with the stock tweeters? left them connected?

has anyone here sound deaden there mx5 doors?

is it worth doing in an mx5?

[Garry]

I dont think you will be able to mount round speakers in the stock plastic adapter housings. Best to make up some adapter plates of your own. But use something waterproof. It gets very damp inside an MX5 door. Actually make sure you get some water shields for the back of your speakers too.

[TieNN89]

I dont think you will be able to mount round speakers in the stock plastic adapter housings. Best to make up some adapter plates of your own. But use something waterproof. It gets very damp inside an MX5 door. Actually make sure you get some water shields for the back of your speakers too.

i just happen to have 5x7 speakers and a 6.5" grille from my other car
and the holes matches or close to matching up

but yeah im not too sure what I want in the doors yet

what sort of water shield should i look for when i put speakers in

[muzzy66]

Some good advice from NMX516 and BlackMX.

First question I would ask myself, is what is your budget?

I could go on all day with complex my own complex analysis of some of the best speakers around, but that won't help if they are all $1,000+ and you only want to spend $150!!

As the others suggested, installation and tuning are extremely important. For example, the dimensions of a sub box can influence the sound just as much (or even more) then the sub choice itself.

I've heard a lot of quality car speakers myself, and from what I've heard so far I have to say the 'box sets' i've been most impressed by were the Focal 165K2P, Morel Supremo 6 and Oz Audio Matrix Elite.

Also worthy of note were Seas Lotus Reference and Boston Z6. I heard all of these in back to back tests (only fair way to compare) in identical and unbiased conditions when drawing my conclusions.

Reputable models which didn't impress me as much were Hertz Mille (~$2,000) and Dynaudio System 242 (~$1,099). They were both decent speakers, but for my taste they just weren't anything special - not good enough IMO to justify their price tags.

[muzzy66]

i was thinking of putting splits in

does 8" produces more bass?

Yes and no...it depends on the individual speaker.

Much of a speakers 'depth' abilities are determined by displacement (cone area multipled by xmax - how much the cone can move up and down) as this determines how much air the speaker can move.

So in theory an 8" will handle lower notes better then a 6.5" in most cases. However, there are exceptions. A 6.5" speaker with high excursion can potentially player lower then many 8" speakers with low excursion.

A perfect example of this would be to compare a 7" Rainbow CS Power to an 8" Dynaudio MW170. Both are high end drivers, but the Rainbow actually plays deeper dispite the smaller cone area because it has a stronger motor structure and more xmax (it's essentially a 7" sub modified to play full range accurately).

I would say that 80% of the time an 8" would play lower, but it's not guaranteed.

As far as more bass, a good speaker should (in theory) be well ballanced - i.e. all frequencies should be as close as possible to equal loudness. Since most speakers are designed with this aim in mind, one speaker won't usually have a great deal more bass then another. One speaker may play much lower then another though. If one speaker plays only down to 150hz, and another plays down to 100hz, the latter would sound more bassey because it can play deeper notes that the first speaker cannot.

I wouldn't get too carried away with bass though, unless you absolutely MUST be without a sub. Thing is, the bigger a speaker gets the better it can typically handle low frequencies...at the expense of high frequencies.

An 8" speaker will handle bass better then a 6.5" most of the time, however most of the time it will struggle a lot more to produce a good midrange frequencies. This is why some people run three way systems (1" tweeter, 4" midrange, 8" midbass) - because this way each speaker can operate in it's optimal range, giving better sound.

For a two-way front stage (tweeter + mid only) I typically wouldn't recommend an 8" midrange. Aside from a handful of very rare exceptions, they typically aren't well suited to midrange and often result in a muddy sound which lacks detail in vocals.

For that type of system, I'd personally stick to 6.5". They aren't as good at midrange as a 4", and they aren't as good at bass as an 8", but they are generally the best compromise between the two.

As far a sub's go, maybe consider something like an Image Dynamics ID8. It's an 8" sub with great specs and great sound - yet it works it's best in very small enclosures. Optimal performance for the Dual 4 ohm version comes from a 9.5L enclosure (250mm x 250mm x 250mm) which is very lightweight. If you use fibreglass or plywood instead of the more typical MDF, you could get away with very minor weight gains and only minor loss of space.