Good first 3-way setup? Advice needed..

[Zxcvtypo 10+ year member]

Hey guys, I'm trying to do my first 3-way setup, and decided to go DIY with these dayton's as it seems many others have done..With some of the things I'll be selling soon I should be left over with $1000 or so give or take a little. The setup will be in my Jeep Cherokee for now...I was thinking of these as a starting point -- I noticed the tweets and mids were out of stock till like mid Feb but that's fine I'm just starting to figure things out.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=295-376 -- Mid's

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=285-020 -- Midrange

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=275-130 -- Tweeters

I just have a couple questions about this...

1. If properly setup (I'm planning on putting the midbasses in my stock location in the doors, mids higher in the door and tweets in the a-pillar, thoughts?) will I be impressed by these?

2. Is there a big difference between the 7 and 8" mids?

3. Should I hook the tweets to the front channel, mids to the rear, and midbasses/subs to the sub channel using splitters..then use the 3-way xover on the head unit for the speakers and lpf on the amp for the sub?

I have 3 amps right now, the 1200.1 for my mag, 200.2 for my HD-62's, and a 4150XXK that is unused //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif would the mids and tweets be alright running off the 4150, and midbassess off the 200.2 with the gains set very low? I figure if I can use the amps I have right now, the speakers would take up around $300, wires around $50 and that leaves me $650 for a new head unit, I'm lookin at an 880prs or cd7000, both of which would keep me under my budget.

Any feedback at all would be appreciated

edit -- sell 200.2 and pick up a 2100xxk for the mids to match the 4150? that'd be sex when i switch over to my rsx.

Click to read more...

 

[alphakenny1 10+ year member]

i'd also recommend getting an hu that has at least a 3 way xover. the 8445 does not have that. getting an hu w/ at least a 3 way xover would be the cheaper option and then use a combo of the hu and amps to cross everything. those daytons dome midranges can play pretty high so i'm looking at the specs right now on the arc amp and it looks like you can lowpass the midranges at the highest at 5.5khz which is around the range of the midranges so that might turn out to be ok. not too many amps can lowpass at 5.5khz. you probably would need to put y splitters on the midbass and midrange as both need to be bandpassed. but positioning those speakers might cause a problem with t/a as both will be in different locations. the optimal solution would be to get the h701 combo or p9 combo as you will have full control of each individual speaker.

i'd also recommend putting the midranges in kicks as deep as possible down there. this will shorten the path length difference and will give you a nice deep soundstage.

as far as between 7" and 8", can you fit the 8? if not and you can't do door pods then just get the 7" daytons. many people are very satisfied with the rs180s.

 

[Boulderguy 10+ year member]

So you're looking to tri-amp this instead of designing a passive Xover? That's a whole lotta amping goin' on but probably easier than designing a 3-way.

Not sure how you'd get those tweets in the A pillar, they're huge! You've got that great stock location in the dash don't you?

Good luck.

 

[Zxcvtypo 10+ year member]

At the end of my first post I talked about headunits, I'm going to get either an 880prs or cd7000...I'm planning on using the headunit to controll all the crossover points and the subamp for my lpf.

I was thinking about glassing some kicks, would it be bad to put both midranges/tweeters in the kicks and keeping the midbass in the door?

 

[Boulderguy 10+ year member]

That would be ideal if the MB isn't high in the door - I don't remember what the 98 GC doors are like, but I think the mount is kinda high. So depending on where you Xover, T/A issues?

But apart from that your soundstage would be much better with the kicks.

 

[alphakenny1 10+ year member]

At the end of my thread I talked about headunits, I'm going to get either an 880prs or cd7000...I'm planning on using the headunit to controll all the crossover points and the subamp for my lpf.
I was thinking about glassing some kicks, would it be bad to put both midranges/tweeters in the kicks and keeping the midbass in the door?

ic i guess i didn't read enough //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif.

like i said earlier you must use a combo of your front stage amps and hu to get the xovers working correctly. the hu will not fully control all the crossover pts as both midbass and midranges will probably need to be bandpassed.

and no its not bad to have midbass in doors and midranges and tweets in kicks //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif, just a temp spot for the tweeter right now though.

.

luckily for you chose a midrange that doesn't need an enclosure and has a great off axis response. you can simply crossfire the midranges and then find a location for the tweeters (by using double sided tape or velcrow to experiment on various locations). for my install i've played with a lot locations and i think finally found a spot after months and months of toying with different locations.

 

[baker001 10+ year member]

I have a cd7000 running a semi active s/u. I used some old pce mb quart tweets I had laying around with the Dayton rs52an mids and dayton 7" refs for the mid-bass.I have a jl12w6v2 for the sub. I used a kicker 700.5 to power the tweets,mids and sub. I have a Punch 75.2 for the dayton mid-bass. My tweets are hp at 4k(fully active). My domes are bp at 250-4k at 24d slope(fully active). I know that is low for domes but it sounds great.The tweets and the mids get 70 watts each at the sub sees about 450.The low channels are semi active.I figure that t/a was more important on the highs and mids.My mids see about 50 watts each and I used a rca y splitter for the mid bass and sub signal. The low is lp at 250hz(6db) from the headunit. The 75.2 has a hp of 60 and the sub is lp at 60. I know that my system is low budget,but it is posible to do a 3way front stage with a cd7000.

 

[alphakenny1 10+ year member]

wow that is pretty low for domes. most people who use those domes have it crossed at around 500hz.

 

[baker001 10+ year member]

I know. Have not had a problem yet. Dayton domes sound **** good too.

 

[baker001 10+ year member]

I could have went higher but I did not want to skip to many freqs.

 

[enzowho 10+ year member]

wow that is pretty low for domes. most people who use those domes have it crossed at around 500hz.

Yeah, that's really low for domes. I know most domes like to be crossed over between 500-700 Hz. 250, that's absolutely insane!

On topic though. I would choose a cone over a dome midrange. The dispersion patters of domes makes imaging a noteworthy challenge. That's not to say it can't be done, but it will be much harder then with cones.

Also, I would get these instead of the Daytons. I have played with both tweets and like the Seas better. They are a larger tweeter, but sound great!

While I'm at it, you might want to check out Zaph's site. There is some very good information about DIY speakers.

 

[///M5 10+ year member]

I have 3 amps right now, the 1200.1 for my mag, 200.2 for my HD-62's, and a 4150XXK that is unused //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif would the mids and tweets be alright running off the 4150, and midbassess off the 200.2 with the gains set very low?

edit -- sell 200.2 and pick up a 2100xxk for the mids to match the 4150? that'd be sex when i switch over to my rsx.

Either option works great for the amps, I personally would keep what you have as I like the headroom option better.