Need Advice For My system JL Audio?

[2theMaxx21 10+ year member]

Yeah, try to get your speakers as far forward as possible, which is usually the kickpanels.

Kickpanels are usually the best, but the cheaper and easier route woule be to stick a nice component set of speakers in the stock locations if you had a head unit or signal processor that has digital time alignment (For head units, I prefer the Pioneer DEH 9300 or DEH MP9400). The digital time alignment compensates for less than perfect speaker placement. Time alignment is awesome! You can move the sound stage where you want. It just takes a little time to set up. All of my personal sound systems use digital time alignment.

As for door speakers, I like JL Audio, MB Quart, and Diamond Audio. Diamond Audio are my favorites, but they are real expensive.

I think you get the best bang for the buck out of JL Audio component speakers. They sound great. I have them in my wife's car and in my "work car". They sound real clean, even at very high volume and power levels.

 

[JlAUdioGuY 10+ year member]

The headunit that i am using is a kenwood kvt-911, i dont believe it has that feature, and im gonna use a kenwood digital kgc-9044 equalizer. I want crisp clean soud at really high levels... if this was your car, what would you put inside it? How about 5.25 componets in the stock locatins and another set in the kicks? Rainbow, focal?

 

[2theMaxx21 10+ year member]

A 3-way component set is nice, but a 2-way set can easily cover the whole sound spectrum. I'd just go with a good 5.25 or 6.5 woofer and a nice silk or titanium tweeter, and of course the crossover that usually comes with the set.

 

[JlAUdioGuY 10+ year member]

i was talkin about what layout would you do, like use the factory location with kicks or just factory locations or a custom fabricated door panel?

 

[2theMaxx21 10+ year member]

It will probably sound good either way. But before you start anything, play with your speaker placement before you start building. Set some speakers in the kickpanel area and the door panel area, and see what angles you should aim them, and where they should be placed. Play some music through them to see how it sounds before you start building and modifying. This is how the Pros do it.

But if you ever want to upgrade your head unit in the future, you HAVE to get one with time alignment. And a built in high pass filter is huge advantage. I like to set my door speakers at 100-125HZ and up, which will let them play music real loud without the bass making them distort. And then of course the sub fills in the missing 100Hz and below. And a head unit with sub outputs and sub controls comes in real handy too. Some Pioneer and Alpine units have all these features.

My Advice:

Use a good headunit. Your sound system will only sound as good as its weakest link. Save up and buy the best sound system that you can afford. You usually get what you pay for. Instead of building several different sound systems and replacing speakers and amps with better ones every couple of months, just get good equipment the first time. It will save you lots of time and money down the road.

 

[JlAUdioGuY 10+ year member]

Thats what im trying to do, get an amazing system the first time, the headunit that i am talking about is the best multimedia headunit out right now(or as they say), do you think i should get a different headunit? I definetaly want a multimedia headunit and i only heard good things about the kvt-911 and that it is the best one out.... i mean i bought it for almost 2 thousand, but i can always sell it and get another one, i honestly thought thiswas one of te best multimedia head units out right now?

 

[2theMaxx21 10+ year member]

You could look in some car audio magazines and find a vehicle like yours and then see how they did their speaker placement. If they have a few trophies, then it would probably be a good idea to sorta copy how they placed their speakers.

If I were you, I'd get some Digital time alignment, and then just use the stock door locations. It will probably sound better than puting the speakers in the kickpanels, along with using a normal head unit that doesn't have time correction. Plus kick panels take up leg room. Building kickpanels is a real art. It can be real hard to do it right.

But it's all up to you.

 

[2theMaxx21 10+ year member]

Yeah, that head unit is a good one. Are you sure it doesn't have time alignment? Kenwood probably makes a different brain that has it, or a signal processor that you can add. If they don't then they're crazy! Time alignment is the quickest and easiest way to make your sound system sound like a professional competition sound-Q system.

 

[2theMaxx21 10+ year member]

But for the record, I think the latest Pioneer monitor/head unit has the best looking picture. I forget its model number. The kenwood unit looked good, but I liked the Pioneer better. It is a little newer than the kvt-911, and has some newer technology too.

 

[2theMaxx21 10+ year member]

Yeah, that's partly true, but a lot of vehicles including SUVs just don't have the right lay out for kick panels. There is usually a big dash or a center console that interfers with the sound.

Kick panels can sound really great, but you have to spend some serious time getting the angles and the placement just right. And even then, most guys add some sort of EQ to make some more fine adjustments, like with all of the Audio Control stuff.

I have custom made fiberglass kickpanels in my 2002 VW Jetta 1.8t, along with about $9000 worth of stereo/multimedia equipment, and it sounds just about as good as my work car does, which has time alignment, and a lot less $ invested.

But kickpanels along with time alignment would be the ultimate.

The only bad thing about kick panels is that the sound totally changes whenever a passenger sits in the car and their feet block the speakers. With the time alignment, you could press a few buttons and compensate for the blockage of the passenger.

If you've got the time, go for the kicks, and add the time alignment if you can.

 

[Mr. Loki 5,000+ posts]

Ok here we go with a couple ideas for your setup dude, as a jl fan Im gonna stick with jl subs. The 12w7 and 13w7 are high priced. The lowest I have seen brand new for one is 750$ so a pair at 1500$ is about the same price im gonna match for your whole system. I would say check out a pair of jl audio 15w3 and a jbl bp 1200.1 I think they can hold a jbl bp 1200.1 each, but to each their own. As for the front stage if you wanna stick with the same brand then your jl componets are fine, but the infinity kappa 5x7 and 6x9 are bad ass with great bass and clean sound q. Sticking with the jl theme you could even try 2 jl audio 12w6 and get the same as you would with the jl audio 12w7 or 13w7. Even 3 would blow many away. Good thing is they take little power. So a jbl bp1200.1 is a good amp for a good price. It even runs down into a 1ohm load with quality. For your front stage amp check out the jbl p80.4, a pair of jbl p180.2 or a jbl bp 300.1 I go with the same flow and say just get some doors and rear if you please. screw the tweets they never help me much cause the doors seem to out do them. If you wanna other subs to try you could look into the alpine type-r 15. even the kicker solobaric L7 series. They would for sure hear you coming with any of these subs with a good amp.