my front stage needs help badly!

[8thGenSI 10+ year member]

I find that as the years go by I tend to lose interest in performing my own installs and would rather find a good shop to take care of the hard work. My budgetary constraints have loosened a bit and would like to pay a good shop to take care of the hard part for me. Especially now that I am dealing with a brand new car, I don’t want to screw up like I did with the others. Because of the fact that this civic is an SI, the door panels will cost me about 2 grand to replace if I screw them up so I figured I would let a shop take that risk.

Ok so here is what I am trying to accomplish. I listen to a wide variety of music, almost everything including but not limited to; Metal, rap, jazz, classic rock, classic country, you get the idea. I have about a $1500 dollar budget for my front stage, I will have to get new equipment and cover install with in this budget. I currently use kicker ss 6.5" comps and a ed nine.4 for the front stage. I am not happy because I am definitely not getting enough midbass, this is most likely attributed to install because they are just mounted in the doors. Also, I think the tweeters are a bit harsh. I have played with settings and tried numerous things and cannot seem to get rid of that harsh sound. I want it loud but clear, and would like to get away from the high frequency headaches I get from my current set up.

Now that all that is out of the way, here are the real questions. keep in mind no matter what route I go I will definitely improve install quality (sealing up doors, sound deadening).

By the way, I am limited to 2 way comps...

1: Active or passive? With wide range of music can I do a decent set up active on this budget without making constant adjustments with genre changes?

2: Speaker selection? The imaging for midrange kind of ***** and I do not want to modify the door panels at all. My front stage needs improvement across the board (midbass, vocal, highs). I like the sound of the focal and hertz stuff to give you and idea.

3: Amp/crossover selection? should I chuck the ed nine.4 and opt for better?

I prefer to buy used by the way, I want to get as much bang for the buck as I can.

Thanks for the help!

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[Ninesvnsicks 10+ year member]

I am totally the same way I want comps in the front but I seriously can't think of anywhere to install the tweeters. I'm seriously hating my Boston Acoustics they sound like crap harsh highs and mostly distorted sounding even with gains down. They are not distorted but sometimes sound that way.

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

figure out what you want to do and i can recommend a close by shop since you wanna go that way.as for components and amps look at the cdt lines ,if there is anything you like let me know ,i can give you a good deal

 

[kramer_212 10+ year member]

figure out what you want to do and i can recommend a close by shop since you wanna go that way.as for components and amps look at the cdt lines ,if there is anything you like let me know ,i can give you a good deal

do you have dealers license for jl audio dawg?

 

[8thGenSI 10+ year member]

I am totally the same way I want comps in the front but I seriously can't think of anywhere to install the tweeters. I'm seriously hating my Boston Acoustics they sound like crap harsh highs and mostly distorted sounding even with gains down. They are not distorted but sometimes sound that way.

I mounted mine in the stock location, in the dash facing the windshield. I had to flush mount the in the tweeter covers because the kickers are way to big to fit under the covers. These kickers are harsh as hell though. I like powerful highs but there is definately a difference between powerful and harsh.

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

naw i get jl from one of my distributors and he is

 

[dontbeaprix 10+ year member]

I would try the hybrid audio clarus or the hertz hsk xl's and a good sq amp.

WoofersEtc.com - LRX 2.150 - Audison 2 Ch 220 Watt Amplifier

WoofersEtc.com - HSK 165 XL - Hertz 6.5" 2-Way Component Speakers

Clarus C61-2 2-way Speaker System - 12v Electronics

This would be a awesome front stage and it's under your budget.

 

[8thGenSI 10+ year member]

figure out what you want to do and i can recommend a close by shop since you wanna go that way.as for components and amps look at the cdt lines ,if there is anything you like let me know ,i can give you a good deal

I would like to go active if I can, I dont think I have the knowledge base to tune it myself so a good shop recomendation would be awesome.

As far as the CDT's, I have no personal use experiance with them but know if people on here that use them and they seem to get good reception. Make a recomendation, Im willing to give them a shot. I have heared they can be good on midbass and highs but how vocal are they?

 

[8thGenSI 10+ year member]

I would try the hybrid audio clarus or the hertz hsk xl's and a good sq amp.WoofersEtc.com - LRX 2.150 - Audison 2 Ch 220 Watt Amplifier

WoofersEtc.com - HSK 165 XL - Hertz 6.5" 2-Way Component Speakers

Clarus C61-2 2-way Speaker System - 12v Electronics

This would be a awesome front stage and it's under your budget.

where are the clarus's made? I know I can find the info but help me be lazy lol.

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

i run cdt components in my competition truck,i'll be in salinas tomorrow if you wanna meet up and i can give you a demo so you can hear them also i can take you to the shop so you can talk to the owner greg

 

[8thGenSI 10+ year member]

i run cdt components in my competition truck,i'll be in salinas tomorrow if you wanna meet up and i can give you a demo so you can hear them also i can take you to the shop so you can talk to the owner greg

Im definately interested, I would like to hear the CDT's in person, I'll pm you my contact info. What shop does greg own?

 

[dontbeaprix 10+ year member]

claurus will kill cdt all day.

Hybrid Audio Technologies - Clarus

They also offer a 60% trade up program that nobody else does

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

where are the clarus's made? I know I can find the info but help me be lazy lol.

hybrid audio is based in Atlanta IIRC

 

---------- Post added at 11:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:55 PM ----------

 

I am totally the same way I want comps in the front but I seriously can't think of anywhere to install the tweeters. I'm seriously hating my Boston Acoustics they sound like crap harsh highs and mostly distorted sounding even with gains down. They are not distorted but sometimes sound that way.

if you hate them so much sell em to me! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

I mounted mine in the stock location, in the dash facing the windshield. I had to flush mount the in the tweeter covers because the kickers are way to big to fit under the covers. These kickers are harsh as hell though. I like powerful highs but there is definately a difference between powerful and harsh.

that could very well be where your harshness is coming from bro. reflections off of the windshield can make even the smoothest tweets give anyone a headache. With your budget you can definitely get better comps though and like you said sealing and deadening your doors will help midbass but you might want to move your tweets around and see what sounds best.

 

[8thGenSI 10+ year member]

claurus will kill cdt all day.Hybrid Audio Technologies - Clarus

They also offer a 60% trade up program that nobody else does

I only want them if they come with a blumpkin from the chick talking in the video //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif