Curious. Anyone got experience installing a center channel?

[The Camry]

ES 02 Black CDT Audio 2" Ultra High End Mids Tweeters Drivers ES 02BL New | eBayId run these..of course youd have to place them in a pod or make pods..Wire to your existing power upfront if you are @4ohms now, youll be at 2 ohms afterwards,or split rcas and run a small amp

id have to run a small amp because its a dedicated rcas from the ms8 for the center channel... i think

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

[quote name='Jscoyne2']id have to run a small amp because its a dedicated rcas from the ms8 for the center channel... i think[/QUOTE]

You can still do that with the dual CDT setup..be better really to have its own power.I think you have either choice with them thinking about it now @Jeffdachef has the specs booklet that he could pull out and tell us exactly for sure..Ill bet you can either add them with another amp supply or add to existing

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Id ask Mylows10, but Im sure he is recovering at the time of loss atm,and I wouldnt want to bother him atm

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

I will say that the CDT Dual center ch set up sounded pretty dammmned good from what I experienced,and Im pretty sure Shadow just added on the front left right amplifier source before he swapped. He wanted all Hertz mids and highs

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

id have to run a small amp because its a dedicated rcas from the ms8 for the center channel... i think

I dont know myself.. Ive never messed with the MS8 before.Shadow was running the 80prs alone at that time

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

id have to run a small amp because its a dedicated rcas from the ms8 for the center channel... i think

Sent you a PM sir:santa:

 

[wanderer1]

yeah like this Amazon.com : CS-020X - CDT Audio CenterStage Kit with ES-02 GOLD Mid-Tweeters : Vehicle Tweeters : Car Electronics Its not really a tweeter when it can play that low though. I actually have these and have been lazy in installing them for a year and a half now... lol.

Man I want one of those, just aint got the cheddar

 

[The Camry]

Anddddd im effing confused.

Where does the crossover come into play. If i got the CDT center stage kit. How do i tie it into what i already have?

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

MS-8 creates a single channel center signal. You can use the built-in amplifier to power it or use a free channel on a full range amplifier.

How do you decide on an amplifier if you want more power? This may not be the best way to do it, but if you have 2 channels free, you don't have to bridge them to create a mono channel. A reason to not do this is if it's far more power than your center speaker can handle, such as 250W RMS bridged for a 30W RMS coaxial speaker. For example, I was using 5 channels of a Clarion XC6610, which is rated at 85W x 6 at 4 ohms. 2 channels bridge to 250W RMS, and I didn't want that much power going to my 2-way 4" components that composed my center channel. For those of you who know what you're doing in regards to headroom, disregard this paragraph.

You guys probably know I have a lot of experience with CDT speakers. I've been selling them for almost 5 years and until recently I never went without CDT speakers in my vehicle. I had the CS-020X Center Stage kit many moons ago, but not with MS-8. That kit requires a fairly large flat surface to mount the pods, and a lot of dashes in late model vehicles either don't have that flat space or the pods will look really, really out of place. I've talked to and e-mailed a LOT of people about center channels, and I've not sold a 2" mid/tweeter to any of them for that purpose. It's not because it won't work, it may be that it will sound great. I've ran ES-02 without a small tweeter and I felt the top end was too mellow. It was fine at low volume but it quickly got overwhelmed when I wanted the system to get loud. I think it's fair to assume most of you guys want your system to play loud, and you want to hear everything in the music.

To continue...MS-8 with Logic 7 puts a LOT of information into that center channel. The reason some have suggested to use the same woofer and tweeter for your center as your front left and right speakers is so you can try to maintain the same timbre and impact. I wouldn't expect any of you to chop up your dash for a 6.5" woofer and a tweeter, but if you could do it and do it RIGHT that could be epic. When I decided I had to try a center channel with MS-8 I first used CDT's 6-1/4" shallow CL-6SL mid-woofer and a TW-25 1" silk tweeter. The baffle was a big flaw in the project as I used 1/8" ABS and it was all hacked together. Don't do that. It did convince me that I was on the right track, as I later settled on ES-04 and HD-1A/BL with a 2-way passive crossover. I built a sealed enclosure for the midrange and cut a big hold in the dash pad to try to sink the enclosure down as far as possible. This was bolted to the dash pad. When I had it wired for 85W RMS the crossover was 100 Hz @ 24 dB/octave. When it was wired at 250W RMS, the same as the front left and right midbass woofers, I crossed it at 200 Hz, 24 dB/octave. It kicked ***.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Does the center channel act like rear fill? Send the out of phase info up front?

As for rear fill. From what I got from Andy was the rear doors or sides do better than rear shelf speakers. Mine are low in the rear doors and 7.1 is spot on. Stage falls apart with logic off

 

[The Camry]

MS-8 creates a single channel center signal. You can use the built-in amplifier to power it or use a free channel on a full range amplifier.
How do you decide on an amplifier if you want more power? This may not be the best way to do it, but if you have 2 channels free, you don't have to bridge them to create a mono channel. A reason to not do this is if it's far more power than your center speaker can handle, such as 250W RMS bridged for a 30W RMS coaxial speaker. For example, I was using 5 channels of a Clarion XC6610, which is rated at 85W x 6 at 4 ohms. 2 channels bridge to 250W RMS, and I didn't want that much power going to my 2-way 4" components that composed my center channel. For those of you who know what you're doing in regards to headroom, disregard this paragraph.

You guys probably know I have a lot of experience with CDT speakers. I've been selling them for almost 5 years and until recently I never went without CDT speakers in my vehicle. I had the CS-020X Center Stage kit many moons ago, but not with MS-8. That kit requires a fairly large flat surface to mount the pods, and a lot of dashes in late model vehicles either don't have that flat space or the pods will look really, really out of place. I've talked to and e-mailed a LOT of people about center channels, and I've not sold a 2" mid/tweeter to any of them for that purpose. It's not because it won't work, it may be that it will sound great. I've ran ES-02 without a small tweeter and I felt the top end was too mellow. It was fine at low volume but it quickly got overwhelmed when I wanted the system to get loud. I think it's fair to assume most of you guys want your system to play loud, and you want to hear everything in the music.

To continue...MS-8 with Logic 7 puts a LOT of information into that center channel. The reason some have suggested to use the same woofer and tweeter for your center as your front left and right speakers is so you can try to maintain the same timbre and impact. I wouldn't expect any of you to chop up your dash for a 6.5" woofer and a tweeter, but if you could do it and do it RIGHT that could be epic. When I decided I had to try a center channel with MS-8 I first used CDT's 6-1/4" shallow CL-6SL mid-woofer and a TW-25 1" silk tweeter. The baffle was a big flaw in the project as I used 1/8" ABS and it was all hacked together. Don't do that. It did convince me that I was on the right track, as I later settled on ES-04 and HD-1A/BL with a 2-way passive crossover. I built a sealed enclosure for the midrange and cut a big hold in the dash pad to try to sink the enclosure down as far as possible. This was bolted to the dash pad. When I had it wired for 85W RMS the crossover was 100 Hz @ 24 dB/octave. When it was wired at 250W RMS, the same as the front left and right midbass woofers, I crossed it at 200 Hz, 24 dB/octave. It kicked ***.

If you have a center channel. how does aiming your tweeters change? My two ways are door/sail panel. Tweeters are both facing me. Do you crossfire them/fire them both at the dome light kinda thing and let the center channel do its...centering..?

and how does time alignment come into play?

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

If you have a center channel. how does aiming your tweeters change? My two ways are door/sail panel. Tweeters are both facing me. Do you crossfire them/fire them both at the dome light kinda thing and let the center channel do its...centering..?

Leave the tweeters how they are. Aim your center channel up. There's no need to aim that tweeter on axis.

and how does time alignment come into play?

With a center channel and Logic 7 there is time alignment applied, but it's not nearly as important due to the extra signal steering. It's all automated. You can adjust the level of the center channel to make it stronger or weaker as you prefer. If the music is mostly mixed in mono you may want to turn Logic 7 off to let the sound come from all around you, if you're into club music or the like where normally there are speakers all around a dance floor. Music in mono will have equal energy in both the left and right channels, which will get strongly focused to the center channel. This is great for bringing out the vocalist in a band.

 

[gimling]

For a center channel your only looking for frequency in the range of 400-4khz. That to me would be best provided by a 3-4 inch driver, there are a few ways to run it, you can either "bridge it" off the left and right channel of your fronts and put a potentiometer in line to control the volume along with a bandpass filter, or you can run it off an additional amp, (usually not necessary)

 

[The Camry]

[quote name='gimling']For a center channel your only looking for frequency in the range of 400-4khz. That to me would be best provided by a 3-4 inch driver, there are a few ways to run it, you can either "bridge it" off the left and right channel of your fronts and put a potentiometer in line to control the volume along with a bandpass filter, or you can run it off an additional amp, (usually not necessary)[/QUOTE]
@trumpet. Thoughts on that^?

found this online
12" ~ 1,150Hz
10" ~ 1,380Hz
8" ~ 1,720Hz
7"~ 1,970Hz
6.5" ~ 2,120Hz
5.25" ~ 2,620Hz
4" ~ 3,440Hz
3" ~ 4,950Hz
2" ~ 6,880Hz
1" ~ 13,750Hz

Looks like a 3 in driver would be good but can it keep up with the rest of the soundstage. i think thats a big issue.

Ive got my channel 1+2 HP at 80 and LP at 3.5. So id have the problem with the center stage not playing high freq. I could throw in a tweeter on channel 3+4 bridged and add it to my center stage.

yet..my amp bridged does something like 400watts. Thats...way too much, prob even with a potentiometer.

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

For a center channel your only looking for frequency in the range of 400-4khz. That to me would be best provided by a 3-4 inch driver, there are a few ways to run it, you can either "bridge it" off the left and right channel of your fronts and put a potentiometer in line to control the volume along with a bandpass filter, or you can run it off an additional amp, (usually not necessary)

With MS-8 this has no bearing on how to apply a center channel.