Tips for a nice sound in the car

[Xpect]

Hey guys,

I read myself through some forums in the past six months to gather infos for a perfect sound setup.

And as many of you make the one big mistake that every serious car-hifi enthusiast laughs about, I think I'll share my findings with you.

1. Never have Speakers at any other place apart the front!

The argument for this is rather simple: Music is mixed for Stereo, so that you can (with a good setup) hear where every musician and every Instrument would have been on a stage. But if you have speakers behind you, you destroy this virtual stage. The only exception to this is the Sub, as a human ear can't hear where the sound of really low frequencys comes from.

Especially on the parcel shelf are the ones everyone that spends time on searching infos for a good Audio Setup will laugh about, as they are the worst, playing free-air into the trunk.

2. Use 2-channel Speakers!

To achieve a clear stage, you have to mount at least 4 Speaker-chassis in the front. 2 Small ones for the low to middle frequencys in the door, 2 high-frequency specialized tweeters anywhere where they are in front of you and directed exactly at the ears of the driver without anything (like a steering wheel) blocking their line of sound. I suggest 16cm in the doors with fitting tweeters in the A-Pillar or on the Dash.

3. The stock places for the front speakers are CRAP!

That's something everyone of you will agree, speakers that play to the knee are a real failure. Seriously, didn't the Toyota engineers think about that at all?

Also, only 10cm thingies are not very good for a good sound. 13cm Speakers can be fitted with a few mods, but these are not good either because of the position.

These are just a few simple tips for a better sound in the car. I have some more, more detailed ones and so on. I'm by no means a real guru on this topic, but I am a person to read deep into the theory if something is interesting me.

If you like this and want more tips, feel free to tell me so, I will help in any way I can.

[Amjad]

Thanks for sharing! A write up on sensible front speaker choices would be cool!

I'm thinking of getting the optional door pods for my GT and getting some components in there. Currently have a massive Vibe CBR12 Sub but it's a bit too heavy for my liking despite how good it sounds.

[Xpect]

To be honest, I haven't read into actual speaker choices for now because at first I wanted to have knowledge on the general do's and don'ts.

But I will search for info on that topic, I think in a week or two I'll have gathered enough to give tips on that ;)

[Patches]

I have focal access 6.5* components in the doors, tweeters in the mirror casings, custom door builds. I have a focal amp under the passenger seat too, this keeps clarity at high volumes.

Really nice clear sound off them, plenty of low end, personally i didnt want a sub because i didnt want to give up the space and find them overkill.

Will post photos later if anyones interested.

[StarletMad]

Focal is old skool but still amazing equipment.

Entry level equipment is the likes of Alpine and Pioneer.

Then top end spl brands are like Hertz, audison and rockford fosgate.

If anyone is interested Il post some pics of a touareg we done at work. 146db ;-)

[MARC MOSS]

Nice write up, I used to work for Bournemouth car hifi back in the mid 90's installing pheinix gold equipment and Clifford alarms and we had many an argument regarding this subject...

We always ran rear speakers in bridged mono along with the subs in low pass bridged mono.

For the stereo imigary We then ran a minimum of 2x6" and 2xcomponent tweeters up front normally pod mounted in the tops of the front doors through a crossover network. This was a very simple but commonly used system.. All people ever wanted was bass most of the time lol..

I have in my m3 a direct line audio setup two 10" Orion subs and harmon kardon up front and it sounds amazing..

As for the starlet lol it has a head unit to fill the hole and no speakers as u couldn't hear it if u wanted to lol

Edited December 13, 2012 by MARC MOSS

[Xpect]

In the German Hifi-forum one had a Caddy with 16 subs, made 167dB. Is European and World Champion in the dB-Drag. But this Tips are more for Quality, not Volume and pressure ;)

Alpine is not entirely entry level, the better Alpine Headunits and Soundprocessors are more in High-End.

But most manufacturers have some entry level systems. I for myself want to get mid-range speakers for the front.

But even this midrange will cost me 169€ (Replay Energy RE65-Set).

This combined with a 4-Way amp (2 channels for the front and 2 for the sub in bridged mode) should give me a nice sound quality.

And until I have the money for that, I'll stay with my 20€ 13cm Speakers in the stock mounting places, because at first I want to have my Bodykit complete (all parts are reserved for me, three of them are just pending payment, one is on the way to me and one is already on the car), then I want a few braces before I spend roughly 400-500€ for Speakers, Amp, Sub and the materials needed to fit them.

But I didn't want to write tips or suggestions for the full enthusiasts (they should have this knowledge already) but for beginners, like I still am (hey, I paid 70€ for my Headunit with DVD and only 40€ for Sub, Amp and Front speakers, so real low budget as it's only 110€ for a full setup, all used parts).

So if I make suggestions on front speakers or speakers in general I will at first stay under the line of 60€, because even those speakers will be enough for most users.

I myself are a perfectionist, first bulding everything for low money with compatibility for future builds in mind. That's also why I placed really oversized (for now) 20mm² powercables in my Starlet.

[StarletMad]

I was referring to speakers and amps... :-)

[Xpect]

The cheap Hifonics stuff isn't that bad either for beginners, I think.

[StarletMad]

Bose systems are a waste of time also.