2 way with 2 midbasses vs 3 way?

[hondarider 10+ year member]

Curious what you think would be better for sound quality and midbass output. 2 6.5" mids in a 2 way setup or a 3 way setup with 7-8 inch midbass? I would guess 2 way would be easier to setup and tune but 3 way would have more tuning options?

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[hoxie08 5,000+ posts]

**** no clue.

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

good question.......... does anyone have any input?

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Out of those choices 3-way.

With dual mids in a 2-way, you aren't solving the fundamental issues associated with 2-way front-stages and actually creating some additional problems for yourself in the process.

One of the biggest advantages of a 3-way is that you are now able to adjust the phase of the midrange drivers independently of the midbass. While this is ofcourse installation dependent; most serious enthusiasts have found that best results are achieved by having the midbass in absolute phase and the midrange drivers out of absolute phase. This is something that simply can not be done in a 2-way.

Another issue you get into is bandwidth. This is a touchy subject as there's no real "right" answer that I've been able to determine.....but many would argue that the smaller driver would be better at reproducing the wider midrange bandwidth for 2 main reasons; 1) improved distortion/tonality characteristics compared to both the midwoofer & tweeter (cone breakup, IMD, etc) and 2) it allows for all of the midrange bandwidth (a dominant source of imaging and tonality) to be reproduced by a single driver instead of being split between the midwoofer & tweeter. And really a third reason in this category that may cause one to suggest a 3-way is that it is typically easier to obtain optimal positioning/aiming with a smaller diameter driver....which is ofcourse also important to proper imaging & staging.

And a third issue here is that if you have both 6.5" drivers reproducing the same frequency ranges, in the higher midrange frequency you may run into constructive/destructive interference issues that will have adverse effects on the frequency response. Though you could partially solve this last issue by going with a 2.5-way setup over a standard 2-way with dual mids, it wouldn't really solve any of the aforementioned problems. A 2.5-way is best explained as follows; You have dual 6.5" mids per door. One 6.5" on each side plays both the midrange and midbass frequency range while the 2nd 6.5" mid is bandwidth-limited to only the midbass frequencies to provide midbass reinforcement. Though you don't really see the 2.5-way setup used much in car audio IMO because it simply makes more sense to just go with a standard 3-way with a stout midbass driver.

 

[hondarider 10+ year member]

Good read that was my guess that 3 way would be superior.