Pile of stuff. Help me choose...warning long post

[svtcontour 10+ year member]

Hi everyone, this is my first post and I should apologize for my first post to be so long and winded.

I basically want to build a nice, balanced sounding stereo in my daily driver. I'd also like to keep it very easy on the car's electrical system so SPL is not an issue. I listen to music at home at like 75-85db if that is any indication of anything. Oh the car is an ultra boring Saturn Ion 2.

Now here goes. Over the MANY years I've acquired some amps and speakers. The speakers are from home audio projects so they may not be usable or best suited for car audio but if I can use them for a simple clean setup where high volumes are not required, then great.

So here is basically what I've got to play with:

Speakers:

2x Kenwood softdome tweeters in a swivel socket mount (from the early 90's) 4ohm

4x Vifa D27TG-45 1" softdome tweeters. 6ohm

2x Vifa M13SG 5.25" drivers 8ohm

2x Vifa P17WJ00 6.5" drivers 8ohm

4x Vifa PL22WR09 8" drivers 4ohm

2x Vifa PL26WR09 10" drivers 4ohm

2x Vifa M26WR09 10" drivers 8 ohm

Amps:

Orion 220GT

Orion 225 HCCA

Orion 250 HCCA

Fosgate 4080DSM

Phoenix Gold Sapphire 1.4x

Other:

Sony DSX-S200X head unit (just picked it up)

Audiocontrol 2XS 2 way crossover

So far I'm leaning towards using the Vifa P17WJ 6.5" drivers in the stock location in each front door and the Kenwood tweeters mounted in the door panel just above them. Since the tweeters can swivel a bit, I thougth that might give me some flexibility and their grey color matches my doors. I'd probably do a simple 6db/oct on the woofer and a 12db/oct on the tweeter (all passive of course) and probably around 3Khz. I'll play with the crossover until it sounds good.

For the subwoofer I'm leaning towards a pair of the Vifa PL22WR09. I measured the specs with a woofer tester as FS 30Hz, QTS .42, Vas 1.3cf. These dont have much of an xmax. I think it was something like 6mm but I had used them as a home sub for a while with excellent result at normal listening levels. Clean articulate bottom end. So I'm thinking of two drivers in 3cf of space tuned to 27Hz.

For amplification I'm thinking of using the Fosgate 4080DSM with two channels on the front and two bridge on an 8ohm load (two 4 ohm in series) to keep the subs safe (maybe) from too much power and also to keep the amp from seeing too low a load since it can only do 4 ohm mono. Crossover will be the default setting of 100Hz.

So my other option - if it makes more sense is to keep all my speakers as home audio projects (which may or may not happen) and just go with car audio drivers and use one or two of my amps to power them. I just have not followed ANY car audio for years so I wouldnt know what current models I should get for speakers/sub.

What would you do if you wanted a nice sounding stereo, had a pile of the parts and didnt need to listen loudly? Any suggestions welcome.

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[svtcontour 10+ year member]

Oops I posted this in the wrong section! I meant to put it in the general section. If a moderator might be able to move it, that would be awesome!

Oh and this was the big pile of stuff

 

[svtcontour 10+ year member]

Hey guys, never mind my post. I figured out what I will do. I'll just buy a 6 3/4" component kit for the doors (I see Pioneer and kenwood have some for a decent price) and a single 10" sub in a sealed cabinet. Nothing fancy. Probably a cheap Dayton model like this.

Dayton Audio SD270A-88 10" DVC Subwoofer 295-486

The Vifa stuff will stay for home speaker builds since they are IMO too fragile for the cold/heat and moisture of car environments. The Sapphire 1.4x amp will get sold as will the Orion 220GT since I dont think I'd ever care to use them. The Orion HCCA amps will get used for my summer car project (when it happens one day) and that will have a bigger system in it.

 

[FlexnInLa 10+ year member]

Hey guys, never mind my post. I figured out what I will do. I'll just buy a 6 3/4" component kit for the doors (I see Pioneer and kenwood have some for a decent price) and a single 10" sub in a sealed cabinet. Nothing fancy. Probably a cheap Dayton model like this.Dayton Audio SD270A-88 10" DVC Subwoofer 295-486

The Vifa stuff will stay for home speaker builds since they are IMO too fragile for the cold/heat and moisture of car environments. The Sapphire 1.4x amp will get sold as will the Orion 220GT since I dont think I'd ever care to use them. The Orion HCCA amps will get used for my summer car project (when it happens one day) and that will have a bigger system in it.

You might shop around a bit, you can do quite a bit better than Pioneer or Kenwood components for at or close to the same price sir.

As far as subs, I'd consider Dayton Audio RSS315HO-4 12" Reference HO Subwoofer 4 Ohm 295-466 in a small ported enclosure if I were in your shoes, ported CAN sound great, and has the benefit of being able to pound a bit when and if you want it to. There are some awesome box designers here that could help you with such an enclosure.

Don't forget, you can also snag some really good deals on the classifieds here!

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

IMO the only problem I see is your best amps there do rather anemic power to high impedence loads. Plenty of people use home drivers in their cars with great results, though generally "home" oriented drivers sound better on-axis and car drivers have better off-axis response SO the home drivers sounding good usually requires proper aiming (read custom locations). The other downside is crossover capabilities, if you did want to build from raw drivers you will need crossover capabilities in your head unit.

I would say get an "active capable" head unit use the RF (it's a 4 channel?) 2 channels to mids, 2 channels to tweets crossed at the head unit, then run one of the Orions to subs. If you can get down to 1 or .5 ohm nominal that 225 should give you close to 500W, if you're stuck at 4 ohm you'll want to use the 250hcca to get sufficient output.

All good equipment, if you put some effort into a good install and get a good head unit I think you'll be very happy.... don't forget your noise floor in your listening room at home is probably much quieter than city traffic or highway driving/rain/etc. etc. so you will need to be a bit louder to perceive 80db listening levels you are comfortable with (alternate solution being buy a luxury car with a quiet ride or spend 500-800$ in deadening)

 

[svtcontour 10+ year member]

Thanks FlexnLa. See I'm way up in Canada so I'm a little limited to what I can get locally. If I buy something from the states at a good price, chances are I'm paying shipping on it and I'm always paranoid of the 'what if its doa' because then having to ship back..etc. Pain in the butt.

The Dayton Sub I can get from some place not far which imports them. The Dayton reference would definitely be better but I figured with such low power, maybe I can get away with a cheaper sub //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif Oh and only reason I picked a sealed cabinet is to make sure that teh cheap sub wont bottom on low notes (as in a vented box below tuning frequency).

You might shop around a bit, you can do quite a bit better than Pioneer or Kenwood components for at or close to the same price sir.
As far as subs, I'd consider Dayton Audio RSS315HO-4 12" Reference HO Subwoofer 4 Ohm 295-466 in a small ported enclosure if I were in your shoes, ported CAN sound great, and has the benefit of being able to pound a bit when and if you want it to. There are some awesome box designers here that could help you with such an enclosure.

Don't forget, you can also snag some really good deals on the classifieds here!

 

[svtcontour 10+ year member]

The Orions I'd definitely keep for a future install in a better car. For the saturn, I'll probably stay with a very small system. I was thinking though if i used my home drivers, I'd do a custom passive crossover. Maybe a simple 6db on the woofer and 12db on the tweeter. I'd have to play with padding it down a bit I'm sure.

I am thinking of returning this Sony head unit though, It says in the manual that it doesnt support any uncompressed formats. Good thing I didnt open it yet. I had a JVC a while back that served me well. I know their stuff is not considered that good but it was at least very reliable.

IMO the only problem I see is your best amps there do rather anemic power to high impedence loads. Plenty of people use home drivers in their cars with great results, though generally "home" oriented drivers sound better on-axis and car drivers have better off-axis response SO the home drivers sounding good usually requires proper aiming (read custom locations). The other downside is crossover capabilities, if you did want to build from raw drivers you will need crossover capabilities in your head unit.
I would say get an "active capable" head unit use the RF (it's a 4 channel?) 2 channels to mids, 2 channels to tweets crossed at the head unit, then run one of the Orions to subs. If you can get down to 1 or .5 ohm nominal that 225 should give you close to 500W, if you're stuck at 4 ohm you'll want to use the 250hcca to get sufficient output.

All good equipment, if you put some effort into a good install and get a good head unit I think you'll be very happy.... don't forget your noise floor in your listening room at home is probably much quieter than city traffic or highway driving/rain/etc. etc. so you will need to be a bit louder to perceive 80db listening levels you are comfortable with (alternate solution being buy a luxury car with a quiet ride or spend 500-800$ in deadening)