What are the best 6.5" components and coaxials??
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sanjuanero Unregistered guest | I have a 1993 honda civic ex and i want to make my car able to compete in SQ competitions. i was thinking of infinity kappa perfect's 6.5" in the front, and infinity kappa 6.5" coaxials in the back. will that be good enough? what about kick panels and more speakers ?also, how do the alpine type X speakers sound? right now i have a 12w7 running from a jl 500/1, lightning audio amp and components + coaxials, and an alpine CDA 9815 HU |
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Silver Member Username: MattlBolingbrook, Illinois USA Post Number: 202 Registered: Jun-04 | I don't know how you have the Lightnings set up, but you'll be an inch shy in mounting depth for Kappas. Just a word of caution. I'll let Jonathan take over from here, he'd be more up to speed on the comps. -Matt |
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Silver Member Username: Jonathan_fGA USA Post Number: 775 Registered: May-04 | Less is better in a sound quality installation. I don't recommend rear speakers, spend the extra money on better front components. The Kappa Perfects are nice, but personally I'd get a set with a smoother midbass (and one that can drop lower) so that the sub can be crossed over lower, the tweeters are also a tad bright. Most judges favor a more neutral component set over one with bright tweeters and a lot of midbass. Generally, most competition winning cars show a slight dip from 80-500 hz (midbass and lower midrange region) as this is what you'll hear less in a concert. I don't know what kind of competitions you plan to enter, though. The installation will totally dependant on the set. Kick panels are generally accepted as the best location for mids because of imaging purposes. You'll need kicks in that car for top line components anyway due to the shallow mounting depth of the door location. Most high end components have large motors and are pretty deep. Tweeter location is dependant on the component set, the crossover frequency and tweeter type constitute where the tweeter should be located for best sound quality. Tweeters with low cutoff frequencies (usually in the 3-4k region) are best when closer to the mid, because high vocals and instruments are in this region and the drivers can't blend as well when separated a great deal from each other. You could consider an additional set of tweeters up top (attenuated) to raise the soundstage and add a little detail and stereo separation (because the kick panels will be a low, centered sound) go to www.elitecaraudio.com and read about sound quality installations. The general accepted "best" component brands are as follows: DynAudio Focal Utopia Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1 CDT HD or Eurosport lines Rainbow MB Quart Q series JL Audio XR or upcoming ZR series Diamond Audio HEX Series S600 (st or at) Amplifiers, head units, and equalization are important as well. If you plan on competing, get ready to spend your money because you'll need a couple thousand if you expect to do well. You'll also need to invest in sound deadening. If you plan IASCA competition, you'll need a creative installation as this is where the most points are given. Hope this helps. |
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Silver Member Username: Jonathan_fGA USA Post Number: 776 Registered: May-04 | Oh, you'll also need to consider coupling the trunk with the cabin in that car that way you won't have "trunk bass". Basically, it's putting perforated holes in the rear panel or just totally cutting it out (and reinforcing it of course) |
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Anonymous | Jon, have you ever heard the CDT upstage tweeters mounted in the pillars? Will they need their own 2 channels from an amp or are they tpyically wired to existing fronts? Are most high end speakers designed to be installed on or off axis or does it really depend? |
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jardine Unregistered guest | I second Jonathan's comments on Focal. Incredible sound at a pretty affordable price. |
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New member Username: SquiggyUtica, Kentucky USA Post Number: 1 Registered: Jul-04 | IMO the MB Quart premium line is very nice and more efficient than the Q-series. The Q-series will eat some serious power to be loud, but the off axis repsonse is awesome. I have heard complaints about how bright they are, but the factory sets the tweeter att. at flat, and that is bright, if you set them at -4.5 db and eq them, you should see that the MB quarts have more midbass than the focals. I think the focals have better midrange, which our ears our more sensitive. |
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Bronze Member Username: MaxkillaMalta Post Number: 72 Registered: Jan-04 | SQ competition front speakers = DYNAUDIO Subwoofer SQ woofer = IDMAX 12 v3 SQ Amplifiers = ZAPCO or Macintosh or JL |
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Silver Member Username: Jonathan_fGA USA Post Number: 807 Registered: May-04 | Yes, I've heard the upstage system, and it works really well. You won't need a separate amplifier, it has a high pass filter for the upstage supertweeter, and everything below that set frequency is sent to the front components. It depends on the set whether the tweeters were designed to be on or off axis, many are designed to be mounted on axis (Dynaudio is a good example), but it depends on the tweeter type, if the tweeter is given extended response (past 20khz) they usually work best in kick panels depending on crossover phase. If you meant on or off axis being the angling of the driver, most are designed to give good performance from many different angles, this is because usually you must try different angles for the speakers to get proper imaging. |
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New member Username: Cissy2u2Memphis, TN USA Post Number: 3 Registered: Jul-04 | Look HARD at the CDT series and the CDT Front Stage Image system. $350 buys a lot, and has many, many, 'best sound ever heard' reviews AND show winners. The site is www.cdtaudio.com You'll have fun looking at the their site because it not only shows the systems but also shows you several winning systems and cars , listing the components used and diagraming the installations as well. (A great cheap place to buy them is the online Audio -N-more store online) I'm verry, verry, pleased with mine and can only say great things about them. |
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New member Username: CsfPost Number: 3 Registered: Aug-04 | Are the dynaudio's generally considered the best? I've have a couple of sets of the Boston Pro's (5.5 and 4.5's) and I have really enjoyed them. Is there a great difference between the focal, dynaudio, boston and mb quarts? Which brands am I missing? |
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Gold Member Username: Jonathan_fGA USA Post Number: 1006 Registered: May-04 | There are many differences between the brands, and all that have been listed above are great sets. It's all in what your ears prefer in the end, I prefer Dynaudios, but a lot of people like Focals better, some MB Quart, some Boston, so on and so forth. MB Quart Q series tends to have a brighter tweeter, as well as Kappa Perfects and Boston Acoustics. The Focal Utopias and Dynaudios have a very warm, even, and flat response, true to the signal without as much coloration. Dynaudios are the softer set of the two, why many people don't like them is because they're not used to the flat sound, the set doesn't really jump out at you with bright detail like sets with overly strong tweeters and high excursion mids, the sets are very subtle. As far as above stating that lower line components are more efficient (louder), high end components are less efficient due to increased control. All components are designed for infinite baffle applications because this is what is needed in a vehicle, because of this you don't have anything but the suspension of the components to control the cone. To be truly accurate at all frequencies, you have to exert very tight control over the cone to get the best response out of them, which is what these components do. Tight control naturally makes these components less efficient, which is why they are designed to handle more power, making up what they lost with the inefficiency of the suspension. |
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Silver Member Username: MattlBolingbrook, Illinois USA Post Number: 355 Registered: Jun-04 | IMHO, the Focals and DynAudios are a class above anything from MB or Boston. Otherwise, Jonathan's summary covers the bases. Regarding the power, I'll add to Jonathan's explanation that there's a lot more wire involved that needs to be uniformly powered in a heavily-controlled voice coil on a 4"x1" magnet. Compare that to the 2"x.375" coils on most "stock" speakers and you can see there's quite a difference. -Matt |
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Gold Member Username: Jonathan_fGA USA Post Number: 1038 Registered: May-04 | I think so too... but everyone has their opinion  I find that the majority of people are more impressed speakers like MB Quarts and Boston to begin with, at least in the shop that's how it was. I believe it boils down to what I said above, Focal Utopias and Dynaudios don't jump out at you to begin with. I'm loving my System 360 and ID Max though |
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Bronze Member Username: ZbruskiPost Number: 52 Registered: Jun-04 | What about Rainbows? |
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Gold Member Username: Jonathan_fGA USA Post Number: 1046 Registered: May-04 | Excellent components too, forgot to mention them. |
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