[ProtegeManiac]

How do I create a thread? I just made anaccount

 
You need to get to a certain number of post counts I think. Check in this section first, maybe you can make a thread there already.

 

[Kyaku]

So i just bought a Toyota Corolla 2014 LE, has the back up cam and full touchscreen etc on the HU. So in this scenario i prefer not to replace the HU since i dont want to lose the functionality of the back up cam etc... However i hate how the stock speakers sound so i would like to change the stock speakers and add an amp to power them. My question is have any of you heard of an adapter that would allow me to add the rca connects so i could add the amp and speakers? Also id like to add a small 8inch amp so i would need the RCA's for that as well.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  So i just bought a Toyota Corolla 2014 LE, has the back up cam and full touchscreen etc on the HU. So in this scenario i prefer not to replace the HU since i dont want to lose the functionality of the back up cam etc... However i hate how the stock speakers sound so i would like to change the stock speakers and add an amp to power them. My question is have any of you heard of an adapter that would allow me to add the rca connects so i could add the amp and speakers? Also id like to add a small 8inch amp so i would need the RCA's for that as well.

 

Get an "integration processor" like the Alpine PXE-H660 (I think this is no longer in production but you can easily find these on eBay; the H800 is too expensive). These were designed to take speaker amplifier output (like from the stock system) and then run it through its own ADC, then the digital signal is passed through the DSP where you can apply time correction, crossovers, and EQ, then back out through its DACs. It can go all the way up to a 2-way front fully active system plus a sub.

 

The best part is it comes with a reference disc, and you run that disc for the processor to get a baseline for the response of the system vs how it's supposed to sound then automatically apply the EQ correction as well as time alignment (note this only works properly for both tweets, both midwoofers, and the sub if you run them off one amp channel each, ie no passive crossovers). The automated time alignment is usually accurate enough, but of course YMMV since the ones I've heard of using these already installed the tweets (if not also the midwoofers) in a proper toe-in+up angle.

 

[SleathX1]

   

Get an "integration processor" like the Alpine PXE-H660 (I think this is no longer in production but you can easily find these on eBay; the H800 is too expensive). These were designed to take speaker amplifier output (like from the stock system) and then run it through its own ADC, then the digital signal is passed through the DSP where you can apply time correction, crossovers, and EQ, then back out through its DACs. It can go all the way up to a 2-way front fully active system plus a sub.

 

The best part is it comes with a reference disc, and you run that disc for the processor to get a baseline for the response of the system vs how it's supposed to sound then automatically apply the EQ correction as well as time alignment (note this only works properly for both tweets, both midwoofers, and the sub if you run them off one amp channel each, ie no passive crossovers). The automated time alignment is usually accurate enough, but of course YMMV since the ones I've heard of using these already installed the tweets (if not also the midwoofers) in a proper toe-in+up angle.

That's genius!! How come I've never heard of that! This seems like the perfect swap for a less-than-par stock system, I am interested and will remember this.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  That's genius!! How come I've never heard of that! This seems like the perfect swap for a less-than-par stock system, I am interested and will remember this.

 

Forgot to mention one thing though, the Audyssey mic (as in it looks exactly like what comes with Denon HT receivers) on the PXE-H660 is extremely sensitive and can pick up road noise as errors. Even in a quiet suburb driveway or inside your garage, a noisy enough car (like your local Fast and Furious kind) can screw it up.  Apart from that though having a reference disc for it to use is a great thing when using auto-EQ; better than guesswork with ears and more convenient than what we used to do (which is bust out a USB mic with a laptop and use an analyzer program).

 

[blzr]

# 01) The human ear can only hear so much. 
#02)  There are a lot of good speakers out there, but my choice will be, HYBRID AUDIO.
          Good Luck!

 

[switchride]

I was actually thinking about going with hybrid audio myself in my ISF.  The installer also mentioned Hertz and a few others as being good options.  I wish I could hear them all before making a decision but there isn't really a good place to demo all the car audio brands together.

 

[blzr]

I forgot to mention since you can't hear the Hybrid Audio's, give them a call and shoot the breeze with them. Maybe they will give you some input.

 

[switchride]

Luckily the guy at the car shop in my are used to work for the owner of HAT so he had extensive experience with them.  Was able to give me pretty good suggestions on which line to go with if I wanted to go with the hybrids and some other alternatives if I wanted to save the cash.

 

[captian73]

Sorry to resurrect and old thread, however, the best sounding speakers are as follows:
 

THE BIG FOUR, IN ORDER .....!!!! ​

 
1) Dynaudio ESOTAR
 
2) Morel Supremo (speakers) Ultimo (Subwoofers) - I currently run Morel speakers. Gary Summers 4 time oscar winning sound engineer for Star Wars and Lord of the rings won the biggest SQ comp with Morel!
 
3) Hybrid Audio Technologies (HAT for short) of which I won a I6SW subwoofer as seen in video below. HAT is sweeping the U.S. SQ (sound Quality) competitions.
 
4) DLS - Regular winners of SQ comps. Scott Buwalda CEO of HAT used to be a DLS Dealer! I've owned DLS speakers, wonderful things
 
 

BEST OF THE REST​

 
Seas Lotus, Hertz Millie, Audison, Focal, and Audiofrog is coming into the game
 
I would overlook the usual brand names, JL, JBL, Alpine. They have their place, however, Scanspeak were behind the Alpine F1 Status speakers, so you might as well cut out the middleman and just buy Scanspeak drivers instead. 
 
Gary states that so-called high-end system in cars are "Hype". No-one in car audio wins an SQ competition with the likes of a Linn, Meridian, Naim, Mark Levinson, B&W system! Car Audio Enthusiasts take acoustics a bit more seriously, as the 'Just Imagine' video below will show you. 
 

 
Hybrid Audio I6Sw
 

 
https://surfandsound.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/all-my-hybrid-audio-i6sw-subwoofer-transmission-line-build-pictures/ - my i6sw

 

[ProtegeManiac]

 
I would overlook the usual brand names, JL, JBL, Alpine. They have their place, however, Scanspeak were behind the Alpine F1 Status speakers, so you might as well cut out the middleman and just buy Scanspeak drivers instead.

 

They have their market: lazy people who will use passive crossovers, or people who can or want to get sponsored by such brands.

 

Outside of speakers of course we all have to buy Alpine and Pioneer for the processors.
 
 
Quote:

 
Gary states that so-called high-end system in cars are "Hype". No-one in car audio wins an SQ competition with the likes of a Linn, Meridian, Naim, Mark Levinson, B&W system! Car Audio Enthusiasts take acoustics a bit more seriously, as the 'Just Imagine' video below will show you. 

 

That's because in a car the main problem is the acoustics. Even in a quiet area with the engine off and you're running off a good battery there's still the problem that it isn't in a Maclaren F1. The processor is really the most important thing thanks to the time alignment, and even more important than the processor is installation, and my biggest frustration outside of car audio forums is that people think FLAC or CD is a lot more important. Nope. 

 

There was a car here that competed in the entry-level class, and they splurged the budget limit on an older Alpine receiver with 6-way tuning and a V-Drive amp. They spend the equivalent of $60 on Da1-Chi's Targa brand component speakers and a subwoofer. With proper installation, time alignment, and an RTA to tune the EQ, they blew away everybody who followed home audio maxims by blowing their money on midrange DLS and Focal lines but had serious T/A issues.

 

[jodgey4]

I'm thinking about a 10" or 12" sealed sub... good info in this thread. I like the idea of punchy bass, but sometimes I might want the fullness of a 12" just to show off . Leaning towards the 12".

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jodgey4 /img/forum/go_quote.gif

I'm thinking about a 10" or 12" sealed sub... good info in this thread. I like the idea of punchy bass, but sometimes I might want the fullness of a 12" just to show off . Leaning towards the 12".

 

Either way the real problem in a car isn't what the bass sounds like which is determined by the enclosure design and gain levels, but the location of the sub and the imaging of the bass. A 12in or 10in means you'll be more dependent on time alignment to delay the output in front to sync with the sub just to image it, and even then, you'd still need to use at least a 6in midwoofer up front in order to be able to use a lower crossover point - the higher the crossover setting, the more directional the bass will be. A 10in or 12in with proper imaging where you can hear the bass coming from the front really wouldn't be for more "punch," which is farther up the bass frequencies, but so you can get closer to the 20hz lower limit (assuming your music does to begin with).

 

Sitting on the driver's seat in my car back when I used a 12in with a huge enclosure and amp rack has the subwoofer barely audible, with people asking "I thought you had a sub?" Disable it on the processor and suddenly nearly all the bass is gone save for some bit of the "punch" up front, but without the low end reinforcing the notes, it sounds more like a snare drum stuffed with a pillow than a loud thump that seems to "pop" in the middle of the dashboard. My settings for that was a 50hz low pass at -18dB/octave, along with a 70hz high pass at -12dB/octave. RTA on it only showed a very minor bump at 65hz that I couldn't zero in on with the graphic EQ on my Pioneer.

 

What I'm more inclined to do nowadays actually is to find a way to mount an 8in or 10in shallow mount up front. Some factory-installed systems do this already, like the 8in sub mount on the dash of some Nissan crossovers and SUVs for the Bose subwoofer, but the regular version on some still comes with that panel that can be more easily popped out and modified to take an aftermarket sub, but of course you still need to disassemble the entire dash and make sure that you use a sealed and properly built enclosure so the cold A/C air won't allow for condensation. Less time alignment and higher crossover settings are possible then, so I'll be able to get a lot more of that bass drum kick without hearing it coming from the back, which is only possible if Mr.Fantastic joins AC/DC and then shows off by putting the bass drum behind the crowd.

 

Subwoofers for the past few years have been getting more and more compact, with flatter magnets and spiders (and yet the strength of the magnet isn't much lower than a conventional design), and now they're getting better mechanical components to handle longer X-Max. So now it's not a choice between one 8in or 2x6in subs mounted separately (JL used to have those; Mirage still uses them for their more lifestyle-inclined systems), and now a 10in shallow mount is easier to mount in the passenger footwell for example. They tend to need more air space in the box but that's a lot easier to manage than an additional 2in of depth, since you can just design the box to be wider.

 

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_13610TW3/JL-Audio-10TW3-D4.html

 

 

[jodgey4]

I've got a big ol' SUV ('99 Mistubishi Montero) so ya I gotta make some decisions on that front. Something to think about . I'm gonna do Dynamat in the doors first, and replace the front 6.5" speakers as the left one is blown out. They sound freaking amazing already... no clue why, haha.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jodgey4 /img/forum/go_quote.gif

I've got a big ol' SUV ('99 Mistubishi Montero) so ya I gotta make some decisions on that front. Something to think about . I'm gonna do Dynamat in the doors first, and replace the front 6.5" speakers as the left one is blown out. They sound freaking amazing already... no clue why, haha.

 

If it's an SUV time alignment on the processor/receiver has one less hurdle - acoustics. The cabin is fully open, unlike in a sedan or in some coupes where subwoofer output hitting the back seat at certain angles can cause a lot of issues that even with reversed phase cannot be compensated for. Still, if you really want to feel a good "kick" to the bass drum but imaging is important, make sure you get a midwoofer that goes down low, and then make sure it's properly mounted. It's not just in applying Dynamat but make sure that the way you apply it, you can make a real baffle out of the door mount that isolates the front and back of the speaker cone from each other. Past that, wrap some dampening material around the door mechanisms so they don't rattle.

 

If you can find spare door parts at a local junkyard though what I'd do is modify one of those to have an external angle mount for the midwoofer (angled up so it helps with the imaging, but more importantly you isolate front and back sides of the cone) using fiberglass. Then strengthen the rest of the panel by laying down a few sheets of kitty hair with resin (fiberglass), just make sure it's not too thick and you don't get any on the mounting points. If you can still fit a sheet of dynamat on that inner panel go right ahead.

 

The end result will be that you can cut the midwoofer and the sub a little lower, and with more of the bass notes coming from the front, you allow for time alignment to work properly as it can't compensate for very directional notes coming farther than the other speakers and on top of which it's behind you.