setting up a component system?

[Reidk 10+ year member]

I'm buying a pair of PHOENIX GOLD RSd 65cs component speakers. I have a memphis 200 watt power referance amp that I'm going to use to power them. My car is a 1994 honda civic dx. I know how to hook systems up and all that...I just don't know where I should place the tweeter to have the best sound. The comps are going in the front and the mid/woofer is going to be in the lower part of the door. Where should I put the tweeter? I'm also wondering where a good place to put the cross overs would be...should they stay pretty close to the speakers? My memphis amp is 2 channels and I would like to keep running an amp to my rears...would you guys recommend buying a 4 channel amp to run my components and rears or is it ok to run 3 amps in my car? I've already got my rears running off of a 250 watt jensen and my sub running off of a 1500 watt pg octane R.

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[Gary S 10+ year member]

I'm buying a pair of PHOENIX GOLD RSd 65cs component speakers. I have a memphis 200 watt power referance amp that I'm going to use to power them. My car is a 1994 honda civic dx. I know how to hook systems up and all that...I just don't know where I should place the tweeter to have the best sound. The comps are going in the front and the mid/woofer is going to be in the lower part of the door. Where should I put the tweeter? .

- best place is close to/beside the mids.

I'm also wondering where a good place to put the cross overs would be...should they stay pretty close to the speakers? .

- you can put them anywhere, makes no difference... usually, they are small enough that you can just partially pull a plastic panel somewhere in the car and tuck them in. Don't put them in doors though... doors can leak. Only reason we put speakers there is because we often have to.

My memphis amp is 2 channels and I would like to keep running an amp to my rears...would you guys recommend buying a 4 channel amp to run my components and rears or is it ok to run 3 amps in my car? I've already got my rears running off of a 250 watt jensen and my sub running off of a 1500 watt pg octane R.

- Well, if you can get a 4-channel with enough power, that's one less black "box" to install, less wires, less to go wrong, less to buy. I'm a big believer in multi-channel amplifiers... why buy two or three pieces when you can do it all in one.

 

[Reidk 10+ year member]

thanks for the help. I could put the tweeter next to the mid without any modifications but the tweeter would be slightly lower then the mid...how much would that effect the sound?

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

I know you said the midbass drivers are low in the doors... where exactly are you putting the mids in that car?

 

[Reidk 10+ year member]

the stock location. which is about 3 inches higher then the floor boards in the door.

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

Since I can't see the car, I can only give general suggestions.

Lower than the mid would be fine... since the dust cap/voice of the mid is inset, if you took measurements of one channels' mid and tweet to your ears, they would probably be very close... which is good.. they would be more time-aligned.

But there are several compromises in speaker placement in most installs. Optimally, you want an unobstructed path to your ears from the tweeter... if you can see it, it will minimize drop-offs in response. But also, as stated before, your goal should be to keep them together with the mids.

My first choice would be high in the kick pannel... if you put them low in the doors, the passenger sitting next to you will often block your line of sight to tweeter with his/her knees. But in a kick, when your passenger has their legs relaxed and stretched out, often you will have a line of sight to the tweeter above their ankles... plus, they are close to mids mounted in the bottom corner of the door. This is the best compromise.

Second choice would be near the mids in the doors. Still better overall than sail panel mounting.

I know a lot of people like to mount them in the sail pannels... while it solves the problem of legs in front of the tweeter, it can cause other problems which are worse... now, the tweeter is closer to the windows which could increase bad, near-field reflections... plus, if you measure the distance from the speakers on your side, the tweeter is much closer to you than the mid... this is not recommended. And if you try to electronically time align or attenuate the volume of the tweet to compensate, then the volume of that tweet is too low for the listener on the other side.

 

[Reidk 10+ year member]

lots a help thanks

 

[tooshort_128 10+ year member]

Get some q-forms and call it a day.........

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

Get some q-forms and call it a day.........

- Those would work for the tweeter only, but not the mid. Those are only good for the mid if you can seal the back of them up somehow with a bit of air space behind the mid (they come "open-back", not enclosed). Unsealed, you will have no midbass.

 

[Reidk 10+ year member]

sticking with the pgs

 

[adam71 5,000+ posts]

Your tweets can go in a few different places. I had a car that had NO room for tweets in the doors. So I put them in the A pillars right behind where the side mirrors mounted. This wasn't an ideal place but they sounded pretty nice actually. I was very surprised. But I would most definitely recommend them to be as close to the mids as possible.

- Those would work for the tweeter only, but not the mid. Those are only good for the mid if you can seal the back of them up somehow with a bit of air space behind the mid (they come "open-back", not enclosed). Unsealed, you will have no midbass.

Whether they're open back or not doesn't dictate whether you'll have midbass or not. The driver itself is what makes the difference. If the speaker is designed for Infinite baffle use then sealing it will only restrict the speaker. Only if you use a driver that is intended for sealed enclosures will the q forms hold it back.

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

Whether they're open back or not doesn't dictate whether you'll have midbass or not. The driver itself is what makes the difference. If the speaker is designed for Infinite baffle use then sealing it will only restrict the speaker. Only if you use a driver that is intended for sealed enclosures will the q forms hold it back.

- The q-forms, installed the way they come, are not infinite baffle; they leak air from around the edges... this is more like a dipole.

With an infinite baffle, the rear wave is isolated from the front.