Replacing my stock 5.1 surround car system...

[orangeblast 10+ year member]

So...I just got my new Toyota 2006 4runner 4WD V6...very nice BTW...and it came with the JBL 10 speaker Synthesis system...

Honestly...doesn't sound that bad at all...but...Know it could be better...thus...I've played with the idea of replacing the front speakers and leaving out rear fill...and getting an indash GPS/Audio unit like the Eclipse stuff..or the AVN7000 due out soon.

I'd be replacing the stock center speaker on top of my dash and then replacing my 6x9's in the doors with some Seas Lotus Reference components...and then sticking the seas louts aluminum tweeter in the stock locations...should work out perfect and then run an Active setup with an Arc Audio 4150 amp.

However.... how the hell would I go about powering that center speaker...and if the headunit I get supports 5.1...then...well...I wouldn't really be having 5.1 becuase I wouldn't have the rear speakers plugged in right?...

so...I would just have nice imaging and a good solid audio stage...due to the center speaker....

Basically the idea it this...for some reason I dislike the idea of having a speaker on my dash that I can't put to use...it kind of bugs...becuase it wouldn't pretty much just be sitting there if I ran 2way components only. Like I have to fill the voide.

what would you guys recommend...

heres a link with more information on the JBL synthesis for my new SUV....

http://www.jbltoyota.com/toyota_4runner/default.asp

needs some opinions here.

Click to read more...

 

[Darth Audio 10+ year member]

Alpine makes a center channel package that has a speaker w/ pod and a small amp. http://www.crutchfield.com/S-O9y3XXNOzAx/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?search=center+channel&i=500SBS0715

You could ditch the speaker and just use the amp. However I'm sure there may be other companies that make an amp specifically for a center channel.Or you could find a small two channel bridgeable amp and do the same thing.

As far as the setup you are planning I like it. You will get different opinions around here but I personally don't use rear fill, especially in that small of an area. Hope this helps.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

bridge a small amp to power the center channel and turn down the gain until it works right and not stand out like a sore thumb.

 

[orangeblast 10+ year member]

what would be the best type of center channel? mid or tweeter...I believe the current speaker is 2.5 inches..some JBL speaker...I could probably get a away with a tweeter yea? and how would I hook the RCA's from the amp to the HU?

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

just like any other amp, you can go bigger if you can cut if not why not do like a 3.5" or 4" coax? if you can cut i would do a 5.25 componet there a mid and a tweet

 

[orangeblast 10+ year member]

well I can understand that I would do a single channel amp...but would a single channel amp run in mono of course...and most speakers out there only support 4 ohms...and if the center speaker is to be in the middle of my front components...how would I hook the amp to my HU w/ the RCA's? The HU will only have an input for Front/Rear/Non-Fader. So I'd plug my Front components to the Front Inputs of the HU.............now where does this leave me with the single amp/speaker for my HU? I could connect it to rear input for the HU right? And even I could do that...how would I get around the mono/single channel issue.

I think i'd go for a tweeter in the middle instead of a mid......I'd use the center channel for vocals mostly anyways...unless someone can find me a mid thats 2.5 inches...I really do not want to do cutting...trying to avoid that.

thanks!

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

tweeters arent good for vocals our voices dont go that high in frequency. 2.5" speaker would be hard to find and all you need to do is bridge a 2 channel amp into it use a y spliter off the rcas and set the center level via the amp gain.

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

Clarion makes a great center channel. Pretty good sound from what I remember.

http://cgi.ebay.com/clarion-1-2-DIN-CENTER-CHANNEL-SPEAKER-50-w-AMP_W0QQitemZ5843187007QQcategoryZ3292QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/CLARION-SRK5-1-2-DIN-CENTER-CHANNEL-AMPLIFIED-SPEAKER_W0QQitemZ5842993752QQcategoryZ3292QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem