Less is Better?

[Sweet'n Low 10+ year member]

I've heard this more then once and it puzzles me:

"You could drop the rear speakers completely and buy a nice set of components for your front stage."

Why wouldn't I have both a componet system up front and some extra sound output coming from the rear? It sounds strange to me not to use all the factory slots.

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[blazeplacid 10+ year member]

its up to you how you want your setup to look and sound

front stage only is more of an SQ thing

I run all 4 of my speakers, not so much for it to be loud, just to have full sound

also I have a dual zone receiver so the rear speakers sometimes are playing a movie

 

[hockeytoker 10+ year member]

i think its also said because if u have subs it'll basically drown out the sound coming from the rear speakers.

 

[snb778 5,000+ posts]

if you have a good front stage, you're really not going to hear the rear speakers anyways

also you get imaging issues, time delay issues if you want to get technical... more money, more power.. etc etc... once you hear a car with a great front stage, you'd understand

 

[eharri3 10+ year member]

I've heard this more then once and it puzzles me:
You could drop the rear speakers completely and buy a nice set of components for your front stage.

Why wouldn't I have both a componet system up front and some extra sound output coming from the rear? It sounds strange to me not to use all the factory slots.

Precisely. Alot of people insist on rear fill not because there's some tangible SQ benefit but because the only thing most people know is front and rear speakers, and the concept of front stage only and unfilled speaker holes is just forgein to them.

The front speakers are what will make your sound more real. Spending more money on them makes it better than buying less than the best front stage you can afford just to fit rear fill into the budget.

 

[xxxbasshead 10+ year member]

i have also always found this odd. can u point me to a few examples of comps that would make it so only the front stage is needed?

 

[J31Rob 5,000+ posts]

I only has fronts.. door pods. (setup in my sig)

and many could vouch, that's ALL I need. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Stalin-ohaulic]

Rear speakers take away from your imaging. First there is the time delay issue but more importantly, your sound is supposed to "appear" as though the singer is on the dash. This means that the majority of sound needs to come from in front of you. If you have a bunch of sound coming from behind you, it adds NOTHING and only takes away from the goal. It makes it that much harder to achieve.

Stock speaker locations are not there for audiophiles. If auto manufacturers ever get into SQ competitions then you won't need to replace a single speaker and you can be happy with the factory locations. It makes no sense to accept that you need to replace the factory speaker because it's crappy but believe the location it was placed in is superior in some way.

 

[eharri3 10+ year member]

i have also always found this odd. can u point me to a few examples of comps that would make it so only the front stage is needed?

Any number of high quality, high power-handling 2 or 3 way passive or active setups coupled with proper tuning and positioning for the car and the most power you can afford to throw at them, regardless of rms rating. Not to say I practice what I preach. My setup is from a few years ago when I too was having trouble getting past the 'what? no rear speakers?' thing. Had I had it to do all over again it would be stock rears run off the head unit and something even better than my Hertz HSKs being fed 2-3 times as much as what I'm feeding them right now. Unfortunately Dynaudio fronts, custom mounting/aiming, and 2-300 watts per side aren't in the time or money budget right now so I'm holding off.

 

[eharri3 10+ year member]

Rear speakers take away from your imaging. First there is the time delay issue but more importantly, your sound is supposed to "appear" as though the singer is on the dash. This means that the majority of sound needs to come from in front of you. If you have a bunch of sound coming from behind you, it adds NOTHING and only takes away from the goal. It makes it that much harder to achieve. Stock speaker locations are not there for audiophiles. If auto manufacturers ever get into SQ competitions then you won't need to replace a single speaker and you can be happy with the factory locations. It makes no sense to accept that you need to replace the factory speaker because it's crappy but believe the location it was placed in is superior in some way.

Yes this is how stock systems, even high end ones are engineered. "OK sound guy, we designed the door panels and put everything else in them that needs to go there. Here's where you can put your front speakers."

Oh yeah and now 8, 10, 12, 14 speakers are the fad in stock audio systems nowadays but funny how some of the most fantastic sounding aftermarket systems you'll hear have 5-6, all or most in front of the driver. Not that you need a zillion speakers in every single crevice you can fit them in the car for it to sound good, but lots of speakers is a marketing gimic for people who think the more speakers the better. This is why people going aftermarket think there just HAS to be something in the rear doors, and there just HAS to be something in those holes in the rear deck, and in the dash, etc...

 

[Sweet'n Low 10+ year member]

This is all very enlightening for me glad to hear the feed back, really appreciate it

 

[Sweet'n Low 10+ year member]

Any number of high quality, high power-handling 2 or 3 way passive or active setups coupled with proper tuning and positioning for the car and the most power you can afford to throw at them, regardless of rms rating. Not to say I practice what I preach. My setup is from a few years ago when I too was having trouble getting past the 'what? no rear speakers?' thing. Had I had it to do all over again it would be stock rears run off the head unit and something even better than my Hertz HSKs being fed 2-3 times as much as what I'm feeding them right now. Unfortunately Dynaudio fronts, custom mounting/aiming, and 2-300 watts per side aren't in the time or money budget right now so I'm holding off.

How about this: High Quality Speakers up front powered off a 2 channel amp (that's also powering my Sub) and some low price After-Markets in the back powered from my head unit? Still out of bounds or worth looking into? I would think of the back speakers as back up singers while the front setup would still be the main event. My back speakers are basically blown at this point (Pioneer p6000ub vs factory speakers) and if it doesn't hurt the imaging/sq process too much I wouldn't mind the extra sound.. not to sound intolerant or ignorant, I'm pretty sure I'm just going with the front two at this point but I'm just wondering.

 

[timaishu 10+ year member]

I was apart of the rear fill crowd for awhile until I decided I wanted to see what would happen if I bridged my amp to send more power to the front.

To do that I had to do away with rear speakers. I had planned to run the rears off my headunit but I never got around to doing it. I really like how it sounds quite nice. The only time you will notice the lack of rear speakers is if you turn your head and look backwards. Like as if your reaching for something back there. Other than that, you most likely wont notice the lack of rears.

 

[misfit138 5,000+ posts]

High Quality Speakers up front powered off a 2 channel amp (that's also powering my Sub)

I wouldn't do it.

If you want to run a pair of components and a subwoofer on one amp, get a nice 4 channel...

 

[bigaudiofanati2 10+ year member]

I did not believe that removing the rears and have great fronts was a good thing. Until I heard it so much better and no sound interference from the rears. Music is recorded in 2 channel setup so why should you listen to it in any other way?