Question about wiring in an additional woofer to existing components

[Gary S 10+ year member]

Those Q-Forms can be sealed, I've seen it before... talk to some installers/shops in your area. If done well, It will make a noticeable difference.

Q-Forms are a double-edged sword... they get the speakers in the right place "speaker placement", but they are not enclosures "installation quality". The makers should be shot for selling an inferior product. I'm not joking. If I still worked with a retail company, the first thing I would do is have them pulled from the shelves... along with slick 50 that clogs oil filters.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The mids you currently have are popping at high volume because you are feeding them too low a frequency. For the same power level a speaker tries to move twice as far at half the freq. For example, your mids would probably be fine if you highpassed them in the 120hz range, but at 60hz they would reach their max excursion and then some with the same amount of power. By adding a dedicated midbass, you can move the crossover point higher and they won't pop at all.

The next problem with your idea is that you will have to feed the new midbass and the current midrange the same frequencies. The frequencies, not the power are causing the popping. You need to send these freqs to the new midbass to get any midbass response and the current midranges clearly can't handle them, so simply adding another driver to the mix wont fix this.

Problem three is cancellation. If you add another midrange and expect that to fix the lack of midbass response without addressing cancellation issues and have them playing the same frequencies, chances are you will do more harm to the response of the system than good and what litle midbass you do currently have will go away. Adding a second tweeter will also trash the high freq response of the system and leave you with a nasty, peaky response. Ading extra tweeters to a system when you care about he quality of the sound is one of the last things you really want to do.

I'm at a loss as to why you think that adding a second of a midrange that isn't producing adequate midbass and can't handle the frequencies in question without bottoming out is going to help the problem anyway.

You need a different driver to get good midbass. The 5 1/4s that you have now will not suffice and adding a second on each side won't help either. You need to provide power to that new driver to get good results from it. By running the new midbass on a seperate amp channel, you can set different frequencies for the midbasses and the midranges in the component set. You can also control the relative level of the midbasses and the components. You said the components were loud enough for you. The ammount of power that gets them loud enough for you will not be enough for good midbass. By wiring them on to the same channel, you will have the same power going to the comps as to the midbasses. By using the 4 channel amp to run the whole of the front stage, you can dial down the comps and still let the midbasses get the powr they need to perform.

 

[camry_tuner 10+ year member]

y not just go /w a 3-way set up from focal if you can get them for cheap. they do offer a 165v3, which is the 3-way set up, throw the 6.5 midbass in the door, and modify the kick panel to fit the midrange. then just bridge ur amp to power them, they need ~100 iirc. then run ur kappas off the headunit. Sell your 130v2's and you're set

 

[ninjatek 10+ year member]

y not just go /w a 3-way set up from focal if you can get them for cheap. they do offer a 165v3, which is the 3-way set up, throw the 6.5 midbass in the door, and modify the kick panel to fit the midrange. then just bridge ur amp to power them, they need ~100 iirc. then run ur kappas off the headunit. Sell your 130v2's and you're set

dual components would allow me to run at 2 ohms and get the extra power that I need to get the volume that i want.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

dual components would allow me to run at 2 ohms and get the extra power that I need to get the volume that i want.

You're not listening. You will not get the "extra volume" that you think you will. You're not increasing power by that much and the differing drivers are going to cause cancellation to the point hat you will be luck to stay at the level that you are at now.

Do what you want. You seem so set in what you are going to do that I don't know why you even made a thread asking opinions because you have ignored every bit of advice you have been given.

 

[ninjatek 10+ year member]

You're not listening. You will not get the "extra volume" that you think you will. You're not increasing power by that much and the differing drivers are going to cause cancellation to the point hat you will be luck to stay at the level that you are at now.
Do what you want. You seem so set in what you are going to do that I don't know why you even made a thread asking opinions because you have ignored every bit of advice you have been given.

hmmmm... what if I use the exact same components? same size drivers? etc?

my logic is that the components are rated at 60rms. I could give one pair 70rms, or give 2 pair 50rms each.

 

[camry_tuner 10+ year member]

just get a 3-way, bridge your amp, and run the rear fill off ur headunit, with that kind of front stage, you probably dont even need rear fill

o yea, btw, the 3-way set up will probably be louder than what you are planning on doing...

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

You want more midbass and 5 1/4s aren't going to do that.

Go back and read my previous posts. I have explained in detail why adding another set of components is not a good idea and why simply adding a dedicated midbass is a much better option.

Forget about power to the mids. You will only get on the order of 1 db more volume out of adding a second set of comps and most of that will be lost to cancellation. Another of the same set still won't be able to give you midbass and the rest of the freq range will be hurt as well.

 

[GordonW 10+ year member]

Use a coil and a Zobel (impedence compensation network) to block everything but midbass and bass from the second woofer, and parallel it BEFORE the existing crossover.

Basically, you're making a "2.5 way" speaker system... the second woofer is "helping" on the bottom, where the main woofer usually needs help most.

A good starting point would probably be around 300 Hz... for a 4 ohm midbass driver, that'd be about a 2 mH coil. A good starting point for a Zobel would be about a 5 ohm resistor and a 15uf cap, for a driver like that.

I've done this before, for some of the early comp cars I worked on... and it DEFINITELY worked. As long as you can get the new woofer NEAR the original one from the component set, they WILL combine output, and be significantly louder on the bottom end than a single driver...

Regards,

Gordon.