I'd like to stick with speakers that fit directly into the factory locations. I have the hi-fi option, no bose.
I plan on putting 4" coaxials in front and rear and 2 jl audio 8" subs in the back.

The problem is door speakers.
Is it really necessary to have midbass speakers in there? I'm not interested in spending the money on the focals.

What if I just put 5 1/4" coaxials in there instead?
I figure that with my 500w rms jl subs I won't need woofers in the doors.

Secondly, how are you guys wiring your 6 speakers amplifier-wise?
Use a 4-channel amp for dash and rear and a separate 2-channel amp for the door speakers?

 

Sub'd

 

Where are all the audiophiles?!

 

i managed a high end car audio shop for years (years ago) and will pass along what i remember

what radio are you using? not stock i hope? if you are i hope you are using somehting like an audiocontrol processor... When you say 8" JL's that operate @ 500rms i'd assume you are talking about the 8w7's? two of them make a LOT of noise... you are putting them in an enclosure correct not fitting them in the side panels in the back seats? i have installed 1 8w7 with a JL 500/1 in some pretty big cars (escalades, A8's, etc.) and they are more than adequate, two seems like a LOT for such a little car .

for fronts i always recommend against Coax speakers... they generally sound terrible and in your case will be overpowered by the sub's, plus, based on the location in the 996 your leg will be blocking it and sound muddled and terrible. components up front is the only way to go, The point of a crossover in a component speaker is to split the sound and make sure that your tweeters, mids and subs only get the frequencies they can best deliver, they are going to be more precise and round out the whole setup (you are going top of the line for subs, no point in throwing coax speakers in with them)...

if I were in your position i would build a sealed box for the subs, put coax speakers in the back, scrap the idea of 4" speakers (never going to sound good) and put a decent set of components up front... the 5.25 C5's by JL are relatively inexpensive and sound great.

for amps you don't need three.. i would do a 600/1 for your two W7's and a 300/4 for the speakers... most importantly have someone who knows how to tune a stereo set it up once installed for you... a 10k stereo can sound like crap if its not installed and tuned right.

things to NOT cheap out on... Amp's & component speakers... unfortunately there is no standard manufacturers have to follow when advertising their amp's, JL rates their amps accurately (RMS) whereas a lot of the other brands who sell these ridiculously high "watt" amps will rate the amp and advertise it at its peak power or at a very low impedance where a subwoofer wont be able to operate.

hope that helps! and i apologize if some of the info is a little off, i have been out of that industry for years.

 

I went with 4" Boston Acoustics in the front dash and rear panels with 5-1/4" Boston Acoustics in the doors. I also have a sealed box behind the rear seats with JL Audio 6" subs and an Alpine head unit. I didn't want to spend a fortune on the sound system; just make it sound better that the stock unit.

 

Thanks for the suggestions!
David, I have a new Pioneer double din nav headunit I just bought.
I will be using JL 8W3V3 subs - don't really need the power of the W7's. http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...o-8W3V3-4.html

I know components would be ideal but I'm not interested in fabricating a way to mount the tweeter in the dash, I'd really like to just drop everything in the stock location.
I'm thinking about putting some JL 4" in dash and back and putting this midwoofer in the door: http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...ividually.html

 

just get speaker plates for the 4" location on the dash that will hold the tweeter... its far from fabrication and will give you much better sound.

 

Being an ex acoustical engineer but also trying to avoid these posts as they come up quite often, I'll keep it sweet and relatively short on what's worked for me.

Bit of my background: Bought the first Alpine CD head unit for my car back in '85. Competed '86-'89 in IASCA. Remained low since then and have switched priorities and hobbies. Other cars I've had/have, have had top of the line head units from Alpine, Eclipse, Pioneer. With some models having the Burr Brown DA converters built in and all the recent ones having 5+V or higher outputs. I've tried all sorts of speakers but my current setup in my other cars are primarily Focal and Dynaudio. Still running my old school Zapco, Soundstream(pre Chinese, Military spec boards, darlington output transistors), ADS, and Precision Power Amps.

I don't do IASCA anymore so have toned it down quite a bit to what I would call the best bang for buck options.

For the 996 specifically, if you have the Hi-Fi option already, I would just get some quality 4" on the dash(I have Boston Acoustics in mine) and if you're getting a sub, get one of the many quality sub amps along with a decent sub like JL Audio. I would leave the doors disconnected as to not muddy the mid-high bass region.

I'm a big advocate for getting a quality HU that has both equalization(graphic + parametric) and time correction. Speakers are built as universal items and as such will sound different in various acoustic environments no matter how expensive they are. If you set this up correctly, you will have a at least a 75-85% improved sound. This is a luxury that we didn't have back in the day and the reason why we had kickpanel speakers and underdash horn loaded drivers to compensate and improve upon the time correction factor.

Of course these two aspects will only improve sound so much. You'll still want to get a speaker that doesn't fatique you and is able to reproduce all the subtle nuances and be able to create a good baseline sound stage. I personally didn't really like the metal tweeters found in such brands like MB-Quart. Tried to like them but couldn't get over them. Even the Focal Polyglass V1 sounded a bit harsh.

For me personally, I use my 996 mainly for spirited driving and radio for that car is really a second priority. As such, I'm able to achieve 85% of the sound of my more expensive setups with just a tuned Eclipse HU, factory HI-FI amp, Boston Acoustics in the dash. I don't listen to Rap and no longer play music loud so this works for my musical tastes. Everyone that listens to my car think i have hidden speakers or a more expensive setup.

I would however recommend a different setup if sound and sound level is the ultimate priority for someone which would include upgraded amps and subs to the mix.

But if you talk to any acoustical engineer, they would tell you that it is really hard to produce excellent sound in such a small confined acoustical space without the help of some sort of signal processing.

my $0.03

 

Great idea David, I take it that putting components up front like you suggested would sound better than 4" in dash and woofer in the door?
Is this because 4" speakers don't have the power in the highs the tweets would?

Also, great insight Alpine, thanks!
I like to feel my music every now and then so I'm really going for a moderate system that would replace all the speakers and amp them and have two JL subs at 250rms each.
I started this thread because all I could really find in regard to door speakers was people talking about focal and am looking for something a bit cheaper!

 

I apologize if i wasn't that clear. I meant that a good quality 4" coaxial or component would suffice in the dash and that if you were going to get a separate sub for the rear, you would be better off disconnecting the door speakers and routing all most of the frequency band to your dash and all the bass to the sub instead.

If you're trying to reproduce bass from both a sub and doors, you will most likely face some phase anomalies that could make it sound muddy and less clear.

I've been able to recreate a good soundstage in a relatively compact acoustical space by keeping my rear speakers as "filler" speakers and adjusting the time alignment on them slightly further out to compensate for the shortcomings of the 4" speaker size and dash location.

 

I will add one more valuable tip for EVERYONE.

It's ironic that all these posts exists and people spend thousands of dollars on audio gear when their ear could potentially be a weak link in the chain.

Having studied and taken audiology back in the day, it is rare for majority of adults to still have perfect hearing, especially if you grew up in an urban environment.

With that in mind, I HIGHLY recommend you go to your audiologist and get a hearing test done. Quite a few of you will be surprised at how much your hearing has dropped off and how non-linear your frequency range is in the hearing department.

I don't really see a point of someone spending thousands of dollars on equipment if their ears aren't even 100%.

I also crack up at the guys spending thousands of dollars on home theater equipment when they have a square room with no kind of acoustical treatment or electronic compensation.

Do things that make sense and don't waste dollars on stuff that doesn't is all I'll add.

 

If you do want to keep your door speakers functional, I would setup a 3 way crossover from the amp and route all the mid-high bass to the doors. Mid-range brands like JL Audio should suffice for that application. However you have to tune it good or else you'll run into potential phase issues the more crossovers that are used.