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3D printing w/Spark & Speakers + Audio design help?


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Heya. So. I need someone that knows a thing or two about audio design. My friend has a spark. We have tried over 6 speakers so far for his car, and it seems like they all distort pretty easily. The stock actually distorts at a higher volume, than aftermarkets. Pioneers, JBL, JL Audio, etc. He refuses to get a sub -- thinking they're hobbile things. Has anyone ever found something that actually WORKS decently? Most cars, the stocks can have a bit of bass tone to them. But, they run 5-6 inch speakers. In my car, even a 5" speaker distorts pretty easily. My only other thought is -- Most vehicles have door speakers. The door acts like a cabinet in a way. The rear speakers in a spark -- float. Wide open area. Would there be any benifits, in putting a sealed basket around them? With a port-hole at the bottom or something, similar to how the front dash speakers had a "cup"? In my car, this isnt a problem. I high-pass my 4 speakers to 90hz. My sub fills the rest. This allows me to play my system as loud as I want ( is a way-too-loud-option ) and NEVER distort. Crystal clear, because all the bass is removed. So, this allows me to very easily play music at a "rave" level, if i wanted to, and have bass at vision blurring levels. Someting i dont often do ( for good reasons ) but my sysem has no issues doing that, as 400W of stereo + 400W of JL sub. All this goodness with 100% stock looking car, ans 100% no trunk space taken up, no visible wires, etc. Besides the rear speakers that show, it looks 100% stock, Yet has no problem pissing off a neighborhood if i wanted to try.

So I experimented with 3D printing. Since most speaker housings are made of a carbon composite material, I coulda done carbon fiber, but went with glass-fiber PETG. This material is like a plastic, except it absorbs shock very well ( can squish it somewhat with high force ) which i figured, is good for audio. PLA is too hard/brittle, would echo. So I made a 5.25" to 4x6 adapter, and smoothly curved the transition as much as possible. Very pleased with the results. One extreamly solid part.

The question begs, for quality/best sound, would it benifit me to print a 'cap' that covers the back end of the speaker? To seal it all off? Perhaps put a hole at the bottom, for air flow? Or will this not make any difference, from what it already is? Discussion is welcomed. Photos below.

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Stereo -- Stock MyLink
Fix-82 time-delayed correcting, 24-bit/48 kHz DSP Processor
400W Class-D Full Range Amplifier ( JL Audio - XD400/4V2 )
400W 0.25 ohm 10" JL Audio sub, Ported box
3-Ohm JBL GTO429 4" Speakers ( Dash )
3-Ohm JBL GTO529 5.25 Speakers ( Rear )

Current setup can go to 'I dont drive this way' vision blur from bass, and 'Id probably kill my hearing' loudness, with no distortion and pretty darn clear audio. To fix my dimming headlight issues in the past ( when i was on a 100W sub ) I replaced the stock shitty battery ( horrible internal resistance!!! ) with a kinetic 1200CA battery, with 8mOhm resistance. The voltage stays well within tolerance while running the car, can pound the system at high volume with lights on ( no dimming at all ) using stock alternator. I do a lot of RC flying, so I get a good lot of use out of this power cell. It fit into the stock battery tray, with a universal battery clamp.

Edit: I read around a couple car audio forums and it seems some claim that having speakers in a cavity thats too large ( like our rear speakers in the hatch ) can cause them to over-extrude and distort prematurely..because they're built to run in closed air spaces such as side-doors. In these cases, stuff like baffles, can help improve mid-bass response, and having them sitting in a wide open air space, risks harming.

Edited by KillaX
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honestly, most full range speakers have a stiff enough suspension that playing them "free air" is not going to be an issue with them, at best a "sealed" door panel has a pretty large volume, not to mention no doors are actually sealed, as they have drain holes at the bottom, the window seal is always pretty loose and then on the inside there are huge holes in the door panel itself that are just cover in a thin sheet of plastic.

the problem with mid bass in a spark is that the speakers are just too small, even with your printed adapters (which look damn awesome by the way) the biggest woofer is still only 5.25", where a car with two pair of 6.5"s or even 6.5s plus 6x9s are going to have much much fuller sound and a lot stronger mid bass.

unfortunately with your friends case, he has a couple of options, and the one that actually results in a good quality full sound will have to have a sub bottom line... this is why most cars today that actually have a good sounding factory system always almost have a sub of some form. also probably I believe that a lot of his problem is due to the radio creating the distortion or the speakers are trying to play freqs that they cant handle because of their small size. with the factory radio, the OEM speakers are very light duty, so they will efficiently play the sound that the radio kicks out until they start to distort. now that that some sound signal coming out of the radio, with a heavier duty speaker (especially something like a 2 or 3 way with more drivers requiring more power... when the radio gets to the same point and starts to distort, the newer speakers can actually be quieter since they require more power to drive.

best way to fix that is to run an amp with a crossover to remove the low bass that A: the small speakers cant reproduce and B: waste power from the radio (just like you are doing in your car) but then since its getting filtered out, its going to sound even more hollow or empty with a lack of bass,although it will play much louder and a whole heck of a lot clearer with next to no distortion (as long as its tuned right) so then your back to the real reason you need a sub.

plus regardless of what speakers the car is running and even without being amped themselves , adding a small sub allows you to turn the bass down on the radio allowing the radio to play louder with a big reduction in distortion.

honestly, I though when we were building the system in SpaceCowboy's car, that he would definitely need an amp, however I was pleasantly surprised at how powerful and clear the MyLink system was and how clearly it played the 4" Pioneer TS-D's we put in it, they have virtually no distortion until you turn the radio extremely high and you can tell the OEM amp is running out. he also does not have the bass turned up in the settings and we have tuned the kicker 500w amp to it and the 8"L7 handles all of the bass, and dang if it doesn't handle it well.

very long story short, I do not think building an enclosure is going to make much of a difference in that car with out sacrificing some storage space. also I just dont think its going to be worth the trouble. for instance, look at wranglers for the past generation... all of their speakers front and back(or would that be the top?) are located in small ABS enclosures, and even with great speakers in there, the speakers tend to have a real hollow sound and very poor bass response, I will use a little dynamat on the inside of the enclosures to help with the hollow sound, but it can only help so much.

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also, if you're going to go through the trouble of designing and printing speaker adapters, why not just go go with 6.5" speakers? it opens you up to the most common size and plentiful choice of options, and with such a small car, the extra inch of cone will definitely help deliver ore and deeper midbass.

honestly, I would like to see 5.25"s on the dash and 6.5"s in the back!

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Thanks for the info, 1LoudLS.

I would love to put 5.25's in the front. If the front dash was just a flat piece of plastic, with no moldings right under the speaker hole, I would just make a 5.25 to 4.00 round adapter, and slip it through the glovebox pocket, and mount from the underside. Sadly, theres plastic molding around those holes for support..This makes it next to impossible to do this. I rather have that look 'stock' than plug in my own grills.

Usually people claim rears arent needed when you have a sub. All about that front stage. So with the sub, you dont need the speakers to produce bass tones back there. This is why I've managed to run 4" and 4x6" for awhile without problems. Although, I hated having the tweeters in the rear speakers. Personally i rather have coaxials in the front, midbass in the rear, and a sub. Have the front handle the full spectrum, 200hz or higher. The rears I usually have them do 90hz+ so it fills in the <200hz, as well as fills the vehicle with mids. Then the sub covers the low end. This way i get a front-stage feel, with some surround'ish sound. I like hearing the rears, just not enough to make the sound-stage bounce all over. Hence tweeters annoying me, in the rears.

I recently tried 5.25" full range JBLS in the rears. It sounded great, and allowed the sub to be played loud, and the rest of the sound had no issues keeping up in clarity and all. But I didnt like the tweeters back there, and I wanted to fix the fact that i dont have that 90-200 range that well. So now I'm trying midbass speakers. Spent a bit for these ones.. 5 pounders.. big magnets.. they do kick some good bass, but thats all being trimmed out.

I fear 6.5 -> 4x6 wouldnt do justice, because of how much area of that speaker, gets blocked, to a 4x6 opening.


In my friends car, I'm trying 5.25" Dayton midbass drivers. They're 50hz to 8000hz. Bench tested they're stupidly clear, considering $60 for the pair. These have potential, as I've seen people box the 4" ones and make really decent subwoofers out of them. For $60.. its worth a shot.


In this video, by someone else, 2X 4" Daytons being used as subwoofers: https://youtu.be/3aUB0URk1W8?t=11s

My friend mostly doesnt want to do a subwoofer, in claims of not wanting wires all over ( even tho there isnt any at all ) but mostly doesnt like them at all, thinking the sound they put out is 'not how the artist intended it to sound'. Even tho, I'm a EDM music listener. All EDM artists I know, run their music on pretty massively amped subs. Its made, for a sub. But since thats not an option for his case.. These 5.25" Daytons are the best i'll find. He does run the Metra kit, so does have the wattage.
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My case, everything is dropped below, bolted down, full storage space. Then the amp seen is a 400W for the front/rear speakers. That i left exposed for easy adjustments. Mesh is where the sub port is. This didnt muffle the sub at all, it hits harder now actually. Still has no problems making your hair dance a little when playing loud.. but usually dont go that loud xD Got 1/2" acoustic grade adhesive foam under all the metal/wood that holds the sub in. No mating surfaces without foam, so when it hits hard, No rattling. Any rattling in the front plastic trimming is pretty much muted out by this point.

Edited by KillaX
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In my friends car, I'm trying 5.25" Dayton midbass drivers. They're 50hz to 8000hz. Bench tested they're stupidly clear, considering $60 for the pair. These have potential, as I've seen people box the 4" ones and make really decent subwoofers out of them. For $60.. its worth a shot.

My friend mostly doesnt want to do a subwoofer, in claims of not wanting wires all over ( even tho there isnt any at all ) but mostly doesnt like them at all, thinking the sound they put out is 'not how the artist intended it to sound'. Even tho, I'm a EDM music listener. All EDM artists I know, run their music on pretty massively amped subs. Its made, for a sub. But since thats not an option for his case.. These 5.25" Daytons are the best i'll find. He does run the Metra kit, so does have the wattage.

I'm really just not a huge fan of aftermarket modifications to vehicles, especially newer cars like the spark. I love the look of stock. It really took a lot of thought for me to just replace the stereo head unit, but I wanted better sound, so I had no choice. I'm looking forward to hearing those daytons in my car!!

I'll report back when I get a chance to see how they sound in my back hatch area.

Edited by Trancer07
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I'm really just not a huge fan of aftermarket modifications to vehicles, especially newer cars like the spark. I love the look of stock. It really took a lot of thought for me to just replace the stereo head unit, but I wanted better sound, so I had no choice. I'm looking forward to hearing those daytons in my car!!

I'll report back when I get a chance to see how they sound in my back hatch area.

I dont blame you. The 'ONLY' mod i made to my car, is drilling a hole in the front ( hiden ) for a bass-volume knob, and 4 holes in the glove box. visually, everything is 100% stock looking. I personally like the looks of the stock mylink / trim. The metra kit flat-black looks horrible to me. So I went a more expensive rout, which was connecting a 32-bit digital processor to the outputs of the 'mylink', and feeding that to an amp in the rear. I ran brand new wires for all 4 speakers ( stock wiring still exists ). This was all hidden under the trimming, which is all snap in/ snap out paneling. The entire sub system in the rear, simply bolts onto the existing 4 lugs in the rear. Since these are pretty solid, they hold onto a 1/4" metal plate, and the metal bars are then pressed-into the foam.. resulting in a "I could tow the car from this" rigid frame. So visually. To a person who owns a spark and steps into my passenger seat, aside the 1 bass knob, it looks 100% stock. So people least expect a sound system thats able to play stupid-loud with zero distortion of clarity. Wasnt at all a cheap setup I did...But I was aiming for pure quality @ loud-levels, while keeping a stock look.

The 3D printed stuff I'm doing just screws into the stock spot. I just unscrewed the origional speaker. and used the existing 4 screws to mount a 3D print, which the new speaker connects to.

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Made up a test-plate for the NVX im trying out. Midbass driver. I've notice, online, some adapters like this, are flat on the inside, directly blocking part of the speaker. While some others ( like mine ) are angled on the inside..any idea which is the 'right way' ?

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Edited by KillaX
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I also prefer the look of a good OEM system, however even the best "premium" sound system are always still fairly lacking. that is why when we designed SpaceCowboy's system, it looks 100% OEM, even a fellow spark owner wound not be able to tell that it wasn't until after they turned it on or went looking for the giant space wasting chunk of foam. however, a system that good also deserves to be shown off for anybody that may be interested in that, so we also wanted to make it so that you can remove the OEM floor cover and then see the work we put in to it.

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Right right. I've have thoughts ( and still occasionally desire to ) putting a thick clear acrylic plate in the back, just so you can see all the interworkings of the system, just by opening the rear. I have a digital processor shoved in the glove box, mounted, which i also decided to make it more useful by adding a phone holder + USB charger in there, so I can dock my phone ( or a spare junk one ) in the glove box, it can charge, while playing music. I could have shoved this away, as its just a processor with no physical buttons.. I didnt want to run 4 channels to the rear, and have a wire mess, so thats why i picked the glove box. Something I never use, and its a quick simple drop-down "This is what I run." Fiber then runs to the rear for the rest of the system, as i plan to run the JL Audio - Twk since im picky about sound stage...If im putting $$$ into an audio system, I have all reasons to want the best phyiscally possible out of what I'm able to get ahold of.

Friends who drive normal cars ( Trunk seperate from the cab ) usually take a guess and assume im running dual 12" subs in the rear, because of how loud/hard they can hit, if i turn them up. The usual demo-only level where vision blurs and hair dances...and most are surprised to see what looks to be 'in the floor' speaker grill, and thats it. Would like the acrylic back there so you can actually see the sub..amp..processor..bla bla bla, considering i made everything back there nice and tidy, wires organized, yet its all covered.

for my friends car i found some 4" speakers ( midbass drivers ) that do plenty enough bass coverage for what hes after.. and that did fairly well.

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oh you fancy.. i used a dremmel and cut out the front holes and shoved 5.5" in the front with foam baffles and 6.5" in the back just lining up the exsisting holes. I had to drill a hole in the frame of the speaker to hit the existing hole but thats it. I'm running clairons front and back. i do have a powered sub, but the speakers stay clean up loud. we're so used to to the bass from subs (full size speakers) in others car home theaters etc that anything without will feel/sound inadequate. also the stock head unit is "tuned" for small speakers to not blow them so it will play games sound wise with any speakers you put. I've found on stock speakers if you turn the treble way up and others down it comes in cleanest with bass.. turning up the bass messes everything up.

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oh you fancy.. i used a dremmel and cut out the front holes and shoved 5.5" in the front with foam baffles and 6.5" in the back just lining up the exsisting holes. I had to drill a hole in the frame of the speaker to hit the existing hole but thats it. I'm running clairons front and back. i do have a powered sub, but the speakers stay clean up loud. we're so used to to the bass from subs (full size speakers) in others car home theaters etc that anything without will feel/sound inadequate. also the stock head unit is "tuned" for small speakers to not blow them so it will play games sound wise with any speakers you put. I've found on stock speakers if you turn the treble way up and others down it comes in cleanest with bass.. turning up the bass messes everything up.

Do you have any pictures of the fronts? I'd love to drop 5.25's in the fronts but i didnt think that was physically possible to fit at all, because the hole for those speakers is so dedicated size it seems.

I forgot to mention too. I run the digital processor on my Mylink, which corrects the signal and all that jazz. It has a button ( for phone use ) that bypasses it, so there's no delay when talking to people on the car's system. The difference between bypassed vs processing is like day and night.. you couldnt pay me to ever have my car ran without the Digital processor, just sounds so muddy and quality lost... 24-bit, gona run it via fiber in the rear to a TWK , which has 10 bands of parametric EQ on each output channel, 80 total, because ive been looking to do digital crossovers Just for fun / more control. but id still love a 5.25 in the fronts if it can be done without modding the driver visuals, aka stock grill still fits.

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basically i just took a dremmel and carved out the hole bigger. .. I was lazy and didnt take the dash out (which was just replaced from the accident I was in) and well dremmel got away from me, always double fist that sucker! lol luckily I still have all my fingers. I also had to snip off the mounting tabs so the speaker could fit under the cover. I have clairons in there. just sits there with some double sided tape under the rim and foam baffles under neath. looks totally stock unless you peer in real hard you can see the chrome from the tweeter.

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Ahh alright. I'll have to look into it before I actually do any physical cutting. I got some JBL 5's sitting aside, Coxial, that would go great there. Basket built into the design, I'm sure it would give me a much more clear/cleaner/louder sounding front stage, compared to my 4" JBLs. I think I'm fine with my 5.25" NVX's in the rear, those are power-house speakers that weigh 5 pounds each due to the magnets, I wouldnt want that in the front, thats a bit of weight xD

Sounds like you basically just cut a hole, snipped the tabs off, and put adhesive down to hold the speakers in. Will see I guess, Maybe theres a way i could slip the tabs under and screw them in still. Just ogtta decide how worth it, is it to me, to rip apart the dash for 5.25" speakers. My 4" speakers are pretty good, can be played at volume levels I'd easily deem far too loud, without distorting, since anything under 90hz i clip out. So vocals/clarity wise, Idk if I'd notice any improvements going 1" larger, when loudness is going to be the same.

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  • 2 weeks later...

How do you know the speakers you put in will not fry the stock my link head unit ? The front speakers are 8ohm and you can't find 8ohm 4" speakers anyplace . I want to replace my speakers with no amp or sub but I'm terrified I'll blow the radio with the wrong Ohm speakers

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next to no one makes 8 ohm speakers (for cars)

98% of aftermarket speakers are 4 ohm with a few being 2 ohm.

4 ohm speakers wont have any problems, if the factory radio couldn't handle it, all of these threads about replacing speakers with be loaded with people talking about how their radio blew up.

not to mention as in installers, I would probably be out of business if all the speakers I put in burned up factory radios every time I did it as there are a lot of cars with 8 ohm factory speakers.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So. As an update to this thread. I'm now experimenting with the "JL Audio TwK" which is suppose to give me a lot more control of my sound system, and cut down on some knobs and such. I decided to go about putting things in "easy reach" so, I now run my knob/indicator right on the headunit panel. It works as a system of presets..So you can tune things by your radio quality, or AUX IN ( phone ) quality. Set EQs, crossovers, and all that jazz. The LED works as an indicator to show what preset your in. Since the knob is also a buton, it allows you to program the knobs, so I can have volume + bass volume, Volume + fader, etc etc. Allows me to add delay to any channels if I want ( I've heard some 10ms delay the rears for dynamics ) and so forth. The main processor ( FIX82 ) button is still at easy-access, because if someone calls me, and goes through the car's BT system, theres a good couple seconds of delay. So when you push that button, it bypasses everything and its straight raw unfilted/processed audio feed. This also serves as an example of what the system sounds like processed digitally, VS raw feed. The diference has always been crazy insane...Couldnt pay me to ever go back to the stock mylink raw-feed...nasty levels.

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Seeing I have no room to put this thing, I'm literally mounting it to the capacitor I have in the back.

Now, my dimming headlight issue from way back, was fixed by replacing the battery. The stock battery how really bad internal resistance ( only rated 300CA ) and putting a 1200CA battery in there, fixes all that. There's little to no reason I still run a cap in the rear, as Theres no diffence I can see, with it on or off the system. I decided to keep it in either way, since the battery has lower resistance than the capacitor itself. But it doesnt hurt. Voltages and all of the system are kept pretty happy.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Progress update as of 7-20-2016

Got the additional stuff in the rear. Everything still covers up & looks fine / still serves as full-space storage

I gave up with the 4" and decided to drop in 5.25" in the dash.  Upon removing the covers, I found the "grill" is sized for 5" speakers, However the actual holes exist for a 4" speaker. Funny enough, a 5" fits perfectly under these covers.  I had to make a custom tool ( razor and dremel to cut teeth on the blade ).  This allowed me to cut the holes in the dash ( using the supplied stencil )  with no mess, just big hunks of plastic. I then marked the holes and just heated up a drill bit with a torch and 'poked' the holes in, while venting the car obviously. Took adhesive sound-dampening foam and cut little pieces, to best fit. Speaker just drops onto these as noise reduction, then screws down.  The screws just self-thread into the dash material itself. I cut them shorter, if they ever strip out the dash, I'll  put the metal clamps in.  A thin strip of vibration foam was added around the outside as well, to prevent vibrations possible with the cover.

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The stock cover would work, it had clearance. However, I always thought it looked pretty stupid & I figured a lot of sound is being blocked with those "fake holes". So I added the JL covers instead. Plus the silver accents on these grills match the silver accents in the car.

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But with one problem fixed, another comes around.  Now my fronts ( fairly powerful 5" speakers ) are too much. If I use fader, I literally have to put it 80% rear 20% front, to make the sound more center'ish, because the fronts are so loud ( or the rears are so quiet ). The rears turned up, sound muddy in comparison ( 45-4000hz midbass components ).  So, I decided since these components already have a really large mount, I'm just going to put 6.5" in the rears, 2-way coaxial.  This should put things back in balance, and perform.  Currently with the 5's up front,  Going to full volume ( no clipping / distortion at all ) is waaay too loud for me to enjoy.  Which is good. Means I'm not going to be pushing my system at the vol. I actually listen to. Very happy with the clarity so far -- aside the muddy rears. Delays on all the speakers, to give a more center room feel, makes a more spacious sounding music stage. Only talking fractions of a millisecond.  You just enter in distance from you ( the driver ) to each speaker, and it delays the via speed-of-sound formula, and in result, all 4 speakers reach your head at the same time. Just makes things sound so much nicer.....for you. Passengers? Ehh who cares xD  But that's what presets are for.
 

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I've always built my system around the idea of "Only I'm gona to see/hear it most the time" So, never cared much to keep a "stock" look. I prefer to go about making things look 'pretty' with the space I'm given. Else I had thoughts to go acrylic in the rear and have things transparent / LED lit for "show" but then I figured ... 90% of the time, its just me hearing this & never seeing the rear...So why bother with that lighted up look, when I could just go cheap wood. Gotta show pictures, in order to tell people that yeah, 1" solid aluminum bars, 1/4" thick metal mounting plate, bla bla bla. 
 

Edited by KillaX
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Thanks, I'm really glad it worked out, that theres enough room in the side trimming and such...to run the cables so the cab doesnt have anything going under the mats. No risk of snagging cables, no risk of moving seats resulting in cables getting pinched..  It mostly just sucks that this was a dynamic build for me, and a lot of new things to me as well. First time ever doing car audio modifications. So I had no idea how to remove trimming/covers and made the mistake of using metal screw drivers at first. So stuff like the speaker covers, have some marks due to that. Obviously now I use proper plastic wedges. But, I do often transport a bit of things and I just kinda accepted stuff like scratches, are going to happen anyways  I'm currently in the process of replacing my rears with 6.5" coaxials.  The 45-4000hz component midbass are sounding pretty muddy, when running quality up front.  The rear stuff was all laser cut. Helped that I know someone who can cut up stuff for free. But now that I've gone through everything..At least now if a friend with a chevy spark/sonic asks for help..I have an idea what I'm doing now.  Its all fun for me. I trust my own work more than I do paying for someone else to do it. I'd be to paranoid & double checking everything they did for mistakes.  Woulda loved to beef up the alternator wires, aka the "Big 3" kits. But I noticed the alternator is Waaaay under the car/engine.  Is there a service panel under the car to get to it? Or do you literally have to pull the engine out to get to it?  I don't have plans to mess with it, I'm just curious how they would. I figured if my alternator ever goes fluky down the road, I'd request a higher amp one. So far the system seems to handle it fine. Battery voltages are happy. Lights dont dim..etc.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As another small update to this project, I put the 6" JLs in the rear, full-range.  I know in the car audio world, You will find a lotta people who say "Its all about front stage -- Shouldnt need rears at all unless its for back-seat passengers"  But everyone has a taste. I dont go for a "concert" feel. Where the sound is all coming from the front-stage of the stadium your in.  Being of younger generation, my taste is in EDM -- Rave scene, where sound commonly comes from all corners of the room. So in the car, things are fadered/delayed so the sound has a more open-room feel, and feels like its coming from all around you, not just infront. I like to balance it out so i hear the front/rears evenly, to give more 'depth' in my mind, as when I had fronts-only, i couldnt bare to listen to nothing coming out behind me, aside a subwoofer even tho my fronts were able to produce far enough volume.

That said, pretty happy with the setup so far. Running 50% volume is pretty much at the "too loud" level for me, stupidly loud with 5's and 6's in the car. Speakers have no issues running at 75% volume, even 100% volume, with zero distortion. But by then, volume levels are at the point where a second of silence, to a instrument hit, startles you. Way beyond my music-listening comfort zone. BUT its nice to know they can handle it, and still sound crazy clear.

Putting that all into considerations. I'm very undecided if I want to leave things as is or not.  Seeing I have 5" holes in the fronts now. Really temps me to save a little money monthly, and finish off the project for good, by putting in components, and because I want to assure I dont go "Oh ill upgrade these again!" after some months, I'd save up, and assure I do it the first time...Would either be the JL-Audio ZR525-CSi or the Morel-Hybrid 502s

Both JL and Morel seem to be known as really high quality, high grade products...But I know sometimes JL Prices are a bit steep for what you get. Though, I've seen $5,499.99 6.5" components at Morel. Have to really do my research, but the fact the JLs are more common and have hundreds of reviews, Vs just a couple on the Morels, kinda makes it more tempted to go towards them.  But its just a thought. Like said, the current setup does play clear/loud. But I know component setups can also do wounders and makes your ears re-learn what "clear" sounds like...

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Its personal taste. Having a 10" sub in the rear makes them pretty useless, and give 100W fronts, they'reloud and clear enough to full the space and sound the same, as if i fader the fronts to -10db just to hear the 6" rears. Ive gone a few weeks with no rears and honestly noticed no difference. I dont agree with the super audio nuts out there either but. I do prefer to have all sound infront of me and the sub just fills the car. Gives a rave feel, speakers are all in front of you. So thats what im after. I dont listen to 4 channel surround music. Just 2.

 

I still have, and run rears. But only when i have back passengers. Else I just keep the fronts active. I can balance them out and make the sound come from the center of the car. But that just sounds really weird to me.  Its not surround sound music. The more i try both ways, the more im starting to like fronts only

Edited by KillaX
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  • 3 months later...

This is a great thread. Anymore updates? I ran 4" JL C2 all around just to get the crap stock system out. Then did a custom enclosure that fit a 8W7 - RD500/1 and dropping it into the "spare tire compartment". THEN I remade the rear self out of LDF to mount some JL C2 6x9s. Sounds pretty good, the 8" give plenty of bass. I will upgrade the front dash to 5.25 OR use the dash as tweeters and add to the front door. All that is way down the road though.

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  • 1 month later...
On 11/17/2016 at 10:43 AM, ANewSpark said:

This is a great thread. Anymore updates? I ran 4" JL C2 all around just to get the crap stock system out. Then did a custom enclosure that fit a 8W7 - RD500/1 and dropping it into the "spare tire compartment". THEN I remade the rear self out of LDF to mount some JL C2 6x9s. Sounds pretty good, the 8" give plenty of bass. I will upgrade the front dash to 5.25 OR use the dash as tweeters and add to the front door. All that is way down the road though.

System is always being upgraded, though I'm slowly coming to the point of 'this is fine enough to make me happy'

Currently running JL Audio C2 5.25's in the front and 6.5's in the rear. Pretty happy with it so far, The speakers on a 400W 4-CH amp can get STUPID loud, which is good, because it means my volume level is far within their happy medium.  Still running the 400W JL 10" sub in the rear. Pretty good sub, low profile, can hit hard enough to feel it on your hair a little, and any attempts at recording with my phone, results in bye-bye audio and hello fart-like sounds.  I'm still planning this summer to ditch the dash speakers and resume my fiberglassing project, of adding door speakers.  I also decided to get a shallow-mount 13" JL Sub, made my own box, and gona see where that takes me.  I'm just trying to get the best out of the space, without taking up space.

personally. I rarely if ever have rear-seat passengers. I have days wher I really consider ripping the back seats 100% out, then adding flooring, and making it a 'large cargo space' as I do a lot of travel, or just need the space for large RC aircrafts. But I've yet to go to that extreme, as I'd be too tempted to shove in dual subs and go crazy.  So. I keep things as-is and just run shallow sub.

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