I need a new front stage

[Sunfire01 10+ year member]

Ok guys, heres the deal...My car has 6x9 in rear and 4x6 in the front. I recently replaced the stock 4x6s with 3-way pioneers. The car came with a 4x6 midrange driver split with a tweeter doing highs. When I put in the pioneers I disconnected the stock tweeter and let the 3-way pioneers do everything up front. Sound improved somewhat, but imaging went down the drain even compared to the stock setup with stock speakers and tweets. So where I'm at now is in need of a real front stage and I'm sick of most of my music coming to my ears from ~7feet away by the 6x9 Polks I have in. There is a drastic difference is volume front vs rear on just HU power.

My Sunfire has these speaker options in the front:

2 Front doors regulatory accommodate 4x6s and are 4in and 6in adaptable (but very limited by depth with the 6" speakers). The stock tweeter location accommodates only a 3/4in tweeter (from what I hear online and by the looks) but I'll have to measure it. I may be able to adapt a 1in in there. Here's the door bare, and one sealed showing the kick.

I want to get a component system for the front stage for obvious benefits, but the question is which route should I take?

>> My idea was to buy a 3 way comp system consisting of a 6.5" mid bass, 4-in midrange, and with the kit I've selected a 1" tweet. I would put the 6.5" driver in a Q-Logic Kick Panel and if the new tweeter is not adaptable into my car's stock tweeter location, would put that too into the Q-Logic kick. The 4" would go into my door to replace the 4x6s I have now.

How does that plan sound? Would I receive proper imaging with this setup if I were to fade the speakers almost all the way to the front leaving out most of the rear channel?

My main concern is having spent hundreds of dollars and ending up with a system that is out of phase and uneven sounding. Of coarse it would be properly amped and HPFed. I will receive my sub woofer setup soon, so no worry about bass production.

So now that you've read that all lol I'm looking to see your opinion on how this would workout.

Thanks! talk soon, David.

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[DejaWiz 5,000+ posts]

Forget rear fill. In fact, take out the 6x9's from your Sunfire and use those openings as sub vents into the cabin.

If you can get a bi-ampable 2-way set (Boston Z or Alpine X to name just a couple), I would recommend it.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Have you tried fading to the fronts, so the rears don't play as loud?

And I'm all for rear fill "IF" it compliments your front stage....

 

[Sunfire01 10+ year member]

mlstrass: I can fade to the front all I want, hell even do all front no rear, but the front volume is MUCH less than the 6x9s right now. Its almost as the 6x9s cancel out all the the 4x6 except higher freq that get through volume wise when fade is 0.

If I fade all to front, I need 45 volume to get X loudness. When faded only to rear, I need only 25 volume to receive the same loudness. Even so I lose the mid bass from the 6x9s when my 4x6s are playing. I clearly need a more powerful speaker setup in front. 25 volume isn't exactly crank level on 6x9s. 35-40 is.

DejaWiz: We'll see when my sub setup is here. I know people have had real gains by letting the rear speaker holes vent for the sub, and if I can find a front stage that sounds good by itself I'll do that. Amped I'm sure ppl in the back will hear them //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif. It'll be like a treat to sit up front for them anyways lol

I appreciate the speaker choices, and will consider but I really need to know how to setup everything for good imaging. See below..

_____

Ideas/Possible options in Bold

Which would work best?

If I got a 2-way comp system, put them in a kick panel, then kept my 4x6s in the doors I think the speakers would mess with each others freq and sound stage, am I wrong? Maybe unplug the 4x6s and just use a 2 way comp setup in kicks?

If i were to mount the 6.5"s in door and the tweet flush into my door this would be the best option, but the challenge there is finding a shallow enough, good sounding speaker with very decent mid bass (not looking for the BEST, just very very above average performance, something that wows, but dose not break the bank above ~$300)

Right now the most viable option for my seems to be the 3 way comp setup I mentioned in my first post 5th paragraph, but someone tell me if I'm wrong. This way I'm using all locations to my advantage.

 

[chucku 10+ year member]

3 way comps would be the way to go but they require the crossover(s) to do so. 2 way comps are the most popular choice. If you buy a nice set of comps and give them enough power they will sound great, and you wont need any other speakers. I would say around $500 for comps and amp would do it. A real 150 watts x2 will make good comps loud!