audio set-up for beginners [continued]

[jobo_ph]

Tip: Depending on the stock midbass location, it might be a good idea to modify them in order to "free" the speaker. This reduces resonance of sound waves bouncing off the stock speaker grills which are often restrictive so that people can't see them.

On my vehicle, I'm contemplating on this... pero saka na. DIY lang kasi ako. Still have other things I need to do before finally getting to this.

Most people who are.. let's say more serious into this hobby simple defeat the rear speakers. Why? The art of getting a great SQ inside the car is controlling the car environment - you control how these sound waves interact with one another. Controlling 4 drivers (2-way) or 6 individual drivers (3-way) is hard enough. If you throw in rear speakers, it simply shoots up the difficulty a lot more.

In the Philippines, I haven't heard a stereo system with a properly implemented rear-fill. The type of rear-fill that adds to the ambiance or to your test sheet scores and not wreck the entire sound presentation. It says a lot about how hard it is in tuning one. If you plan on this route, going 5.1 might be a better idea.

Interesting point. Since my car audio endeavor is self-learn/DIY and I'm not at the mercy of a 3rd party installer/tuner's schedule... I'll be trying out having a semi-3-way with a DEH-80PRS. Tweeter near the pillar (door cover for the door side mirrors). 6.5" woofer for mid-range on front door. 6.5" woofer for mid-bass on rear door. 10" sub at the back. Will be using amp's HPF and LPF controls to split the Mid crossover range set from head unit for the front and rear 6.5" woofers. Anyway, I'm just stubbornly curious how it will turn out. Of course, I will also be trying the usual recommended 2-way at front without rear door speakers and see how that goes too.

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OT: Plan to be at the 1st leg of 2014 EMMA SQ Competition this coming Aug 2 (spectator). Would love to listen to professionally SQ-setup'd car audio systems and learn more.

[jhnkvn]

Interesting point. Since my car audio endeavor is self-learn/DIY and I'm not at the mercy of a 3rd party installer/tuner's schedule... I'll be trying out having a semi-3-way with a DEH-80PRS. Tweeter near the pillar (door cover for the door side mirrors). 6.5" woofer for mid-range on front door. 6.5" woofer for mid-bass on rear door. 10" sub at the back. Will be using amp's HPF and LPF controls to split the Mid crossover range set from head unit for the front and rear 6.5" woofers. Anyway, I'm just stubbornly curious how it will turn out. Of course, I will also be trying the usual recommended 2-way at front without rear door speakers and see how that goes too.

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OT: Plan to be at the 1st leg of 2014 EMMA SQ Competition this coming Aug 2 (spectator). Would love to listen to professionally SQ-setup'd car audio systems and learn more.

You may run a semi-active 3-way on the Pioneer 80PRS but it is pointless because Pioneer set the cut-off too high up at around 1.2khz. In other words, your midrange is on upper midrange/lower tweeter territory. This is why we consider the 80PRS to be capable of 2-way.

Truth be told, there's no problem in having no midbass at your doors. You can even have the midbass at your rear quarterpanels. But this is highly advanced since you'll be taking account on how the brain processes sound. The premise of this is that our brains cannot locate lower-frequency signals well thus having your midbass at your rear doors is possible as long as it's cutoff is low (up to 180hz on a steep slope probably). Done right, it'll increase stage depth and you'd have better ambiance to boot. In the US, a car audio legend has done this and won a lot of major accolades - it's Richard Clark's Buick Grand National.

If you plan on going for the 3-way route, your "most affordable" head unit will be the Alpine CDA-9887 which is sold from 8-10k secondhand nowadays depending on condition. Eclipse 7200MKII is also a coveted head unit capable of it.. however, secondhand pricing will be around 20k na siguro. The rest of the choices are more expensive - it isn't "affordable" to run a 3-way system you see.

That's nice. Make sure to listen to competitor's car setups by asking the folks around. They won't bite naman :D The 60k and the 120k are great car categories if you're aiming for a good build. Usually the 120k and the 240k are the most hotly contested categories.