advise on progression of ICE

ScoobyDoo69

ScoobyDoo69

ScoobyDoo69

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Joined
27 Aug 2003
Posts
9,814
Location
West Midlands
Hey all, I've currently got a fairly powerful sound system in my car at the moment (Impreza MY99), but am looking at doing some improving!
The current setup is as follows:

Alpine 9855 (dont think any improvement needed here :p )
Inphase 12" Subwoofer (~700w RMS) on Inphase IPA900 2channel amp, bridged and roughly at 350w RMS with bass boost +3db on.
Front speakers are only coaxial inphase 6 1/2" jobbys, although perfectly loud enough, I know i need a good pair of components up here to sound better!
Rear Speakers are Kenwood Dual Mags (very thin) component speakers.
Both sets of speakers are on a Kicker 4 channel amp with ~ 55w RMS going to them each.

I have more than enough bass, but will be looking at adding the 2nd 12" inphase for fun anyways.
But what I am mainly trying to achieve is more volume, and a lot more mid bass. As it really does seem quite hard to get some decent bass from this car with just speakers! Even when amped I struggle to get bass from them at good volumes, it was only when I fit the subwoofer that it started sounding good!

Although I know people like to make a good sound stage for the driver, I am personally not that concerned, as long as it sounds like its majority infront of me, and some fill behind that's great, but I do carry rear passengers often, and of course they like to have the music with full frequencies (ish) so they can hear the music properly too.

Now who wants to lay some recommendations to me!! :eek:

Cheers

ScoobyDoo69
 
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Hmm i don't like the idea of running the rears off the headunit that I hear all the time on here. because then there will be two different sound quality levels, and distortion from the headunits amp comes much too easy, but then again, I run it rather loud..
 
But with the 6.5" in the front running 100W each, you won't need the rear fill so much so the head unit should be plenty to feed them IMO. Most of the volume will be coming from the front.

There will be a massive difference in sound quality from front to rear if you get some decent front components anyway.

55W isn't really enough to get the best out of decent set of 6.5" comps IMO.
 
I havent got a problem with getting a new amp and set of speakers, but I cannot let the rears just sit back and not play along.
The rear needs to be almost as capable as the front in terms of volume, bass/mid doesnt really matter in the rear, because my passengers backs will be being massaged by the sub :D
 
ScoobyDoo69 said:
... running the rears off the headunit that I hear all the time on here. ..
Click to expand...

There's probably a reason for that :)

OK get some nice big comps for the back as well and get a new amp.

edit:
If you were to get some decent front comps and try running them off the amp, 100W pc, you can see how it sounds before making any more purchases. You might be pleasantly surprised :)
 
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the first thing I will be doing is getting some good front component anyways. I'd just like to know what people recommend. Also some recommendations on a good powerful 4 channel amp would be great.
I really do like inphase stuff, so am looking at getting their front component set (6 1/2") with their 1204 4 channel amp (100W RMS per channel)
any other suggestions? :)
 
See if you can get a listen to some other brands of speakers. Try Focal, Rainbow, DLS, Boston, Powerbass to name a few. Not sure about inphase stuff, I thought the general opinion was that it was overpriced budget gear.
 
I can also recommend Infinity speakers...their reference series sound awesome. Get the HPF running as well, on mine its at 80 and it definitely sounds a bit nicer...better seperation between frequencies I guess.
 
Do what Monkey said or -

Get top front comps.

Get top 2 channel amp. Ditch kicker!

Run rears off HU and run the low. Don't drag the soundstage back!

Inphse is not really a good make, barely average. They are overpriced and over rated. They often play the 'if we price it high enough people will think it's good and in the same class as things that are actually worth this amount of money' I would suggest also getting a different sub and mono amp. Or a 4ch decent amp for the fronts and the sub.

Sound deaden your doors (at least) too. £40 material and a few hours work tops.
 
ok guys, really please stop recommending that I dont run the rear speakers off an amp, as I will be doing so no matter what any of you say, as like I said, I like everyone to enjoy the music, and not just me up front!!

Currently I am running the crossovers so that the front gets everything above 160hz (I would like this to be much lower for better bass response up front)
and the rear plays 80hz to 16khz so that the rear has some great sound, but not enough to push the soundstage behind me!

I will NOT be changing the subwoofer and amp on it, as I think it is a great subwoofer. I used to have a Infinity Kappa Perfect 12" and that was PANTS!
After hearing a new Mini with a full JL setup, and then hearing my brothers Inphase Full setup back to back, I believe that Inphase is quite a strong brand. But thats a different matter altogether.

How abouts someone specs me some great powerful front components, with a pretty good four channel amp...?
 
do you actually want the soundstage behind you? i cant stand it and it ruins music. you wouldnt sit your home stereo in front of you only to turn and face the other way! you wouldnt go to a concert and face the other way either.

get some quality components up fron. amp them with some ample,clean, wattage and you should be fine when you drop that crossover on the fronts. I would play with a small subwoofer up front. an 8" RF under one of the seats would give all the upper bass you nedd, but thats just me - i've recently been building a mammoth 6cu/ft 15" subwoofer for a friends living room;)
 
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depends what I'm willing to do, theyre currently on the equiv of a parcel shelf in the scoob. I've got 6 1/2"s there at the moment I think!
But ideally I would like to move them down to the doors, and so will be building some sort of door builds when i move them!!
 
ScoobyDoo69 said:
Currently I am running the crossovers so that the front gets everything above 160hz (I would like this to be much lower for better bass response up front)
and the rear plays 80hz to 16khz so that the rear has some great sound, but not enough to push the soundstage behind me!
Click to expand...

That's where your bass is going...

What frequency does the sub cut off at?

Preferably, you want the sub to handle frequencies upto 90Hz and the speakers everything on top of that.

Running the fronts at 160Hz will miss out an awful lot of mid-bass frequencies. If the sub is running to 160, you'll get nasty loud booming bass which you don't want.

Personally, I would run the fronts from 80/90Hz upwards, run the sub 90Hz and below and the rears at 100Hz upwards.

That SHOULD solve your loss of mid-bass.
 
ScoobyDoo69 said:
ok guys, really please stop recommending that I dont run the rear speakers off an amp, as I will be doing so no matter what any of you say
Click to expand...

If you want to ignore the advice of the resident ICE experts then fine, hope you enjoy your terrible soundstage.

Trust us, we've been there and done that and you really, really should not amp the rear speakers. But hey, if you know best then go right ahead. I'll watch out for a set of rear speakers on Ebay, hardly used.......... ;)
 
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