Jonathan, i'm the guy that talked to u about the focals utopia 3 ways. I haven't installed them yet and was wondering if i should put them in my doors and in the kick panels? And should i aim them towards the drivers head and should i build sealed pods for them, make them air tight? Will i get the best sound out of them doing that? The car is a '91 subaru legacy wagon, Thanks for your input, Wrote this for Jonathan but he must be away. Don't want to go through the hassel of tearring up everthing if i'm not going to gain much, thanks, Steve.
Before you go make an air tight enclosure, check your component's spec. Some will sound better in "open air" environment. You might want to try the speaker baffle. Much easier to work with. If however you're set on making air tight pods, take your time and do a good job. I made one that is really air tight and installed it in my car. The bass response is almost life like. I tested with one of those songs with very fast drums. I didn't think the air tight enclosure would've made much difference, but I was surprised. It sounded very accurate and tight. Made me turn my head to see if someone was playing the drum outside. What you do lose out is some low end of mid bass. For example, instead of getting 80Hz, you might get 100Hz. I've compensated for this by raising my sub to 100Hz. Don't forget to add some sound densening materials inside the enclosure.
Typically the midbass needs an infinite baffle environment, such as a door. The midrange doesn't really need a lot of airspace, which is why they work so well in kick panels, they can be sealed or not, main thing is to seperate the front wave from the rear wave. Even the Q logic kicks will give good results with that, although custom kicks will work better if you dedicate the time to get the drivers positioned correctly. So yes, if you take the time to install the midranges in kicks and the midbass in doors, then you'll get great results. That driver (Utopia 6.5" midbass) works very well in a door, especially if you dedicate time to add sound deadening to the door.
Thanks guys, where do you put the sound deadening? Inside of the whole door or in an enclosure that i would make for the speakers? And what is a speaker baffle? Sorry guys, lol.