Hello all, just became a donating member after how the help and money saved just by reading the forums.

Now I would like to upgrade my stock system (2000 Max SE no bose). I have a 9813 Alpine HU. Yesterday I went and bought 4 Alpine R's ($165.00 pair). BB recommended me a 4 channel alpine amp for $200. I will be adding a sub later.

Was this a good deal? Haven't taken anything out of the box yet.
Also is the sub and speakers pretty good for the money?

I am just trying to improve my sound system. Anything out there better for the money I spent? Also is the installation easy enough to do. I did pay install for the sub, but its not till friday.

Thanks in advance

Bill

 

Personally after hearing both the alpine sets BBY had and the Infinity 6012's I changed my preference to the 6012's. At high volume ESPECIALLY from different angles they sounded more natural and not quite as harsh as the two alpine sets sounded.

You might wanna power the 6.5's off your deck assuming you've got a deck with reasonable RMS power. Then get a sub because you will have pretty much no bass from 6.5 2/3way coaxials.

 

Hey Bill, welcome.

Your products are middle of the road products. Not great, but certainly not bad. It will certainly improve your sound quality, and you should be happy. You definitely could have done better, we like upper tier products in this room.

The install, because it is not Bose, is relatively simple. You could do it after reading a few stickies and asking a few questions.

 

By powering the fronts off the reciever this will free up some power on the sub when I get? I am sorry the ignorance here. I just want to learn before i do anything I will regret.

 

Power your rears off your HU. Bridge the amp to your fronts. That's where you're sitting, that's where you want the better sound

 

Yes! If you're going to amp speakers amp the fronts first. Let the HU power the rears and then bridge the other two channels and get an 8 or 10 inch sub that requires appropriate power.

Another thing you could do is get a good set of front speakers and not run rears for a month or two months or whatever length of time you need to get the money together. I just think running 2 pair of 6.5's you'll really REALLY regret the sound quality. I've done it in the past and immediately went back to my prior setup. You need something to hit the lows or at least midbass or you'll be miserable.

 

I'm amazed every time at how my midrange drivers (and certainly not expensive ones) can really make the floorboard vibrate just that little much to up the car with sound.

 

Yup, all I had in my TA was two midbass 6.5's and man they sounded great. It couldn't hit the lows hard like a true 8 or 10 sub but they weren't bad and helped round out the system quite nicely.

 

I would agree with not running rears for a while. Usually HU power is not enough to really run a system well.

You didn't say how much power you have from the amp, but if you want to stay relatively inexpensive, I would run the front two channels of your four channel amp to each of the fronts, then bridge the rear two channels to a single sub, probably one 10 inch driver. If your amp is quality, you can get a DVC sub and run the bridged rear two channels parallel to each voice coil.

This is what I have done in mine. I have a Phoenix Gold 4 channel amp with the front two channels running my 6.5s up front and the rear two channels bridged running in parallel at 1.7 ohms to my 12" DVC sub. It sounds good, although I actually need more power to my sub. Initially, I had this set up with a 10" DVC sub and it hit harder.

I have the HU power running some 6x9s in my back deck for rear fill. On my HU, I can turn off all HU power so that only the fronts and subs are running. I think you could do the same thing. I have an older Alpine 9807.

 

Cliff,

At the beginning of your post you state that HU power is not enough, yet you're doing it with your 6x9's..I'm confused.

 

Ok the amp in question is the Alpine MRP-F@50 V-Power, 4Channel,
50W RMS x4 at 2 ohms
40W RMS x4 at 4ohms
If you need the speaker specs I can get the for you.
Hope that enough info, like I said I am not to familair with the car audio.
Based on some of your opinions I should return a pair and get 6x9 for the rear and hook them up to a sub? Also is it easy to make a 6x9 hole or do I need to go someplace to get it done.
Also can any one recommend a decent sub?

Thanks for our you replys

Bill

 

6x9 is a speaker size. if you hook 6x9's up to a sub, thats connecting a speaker to a speaker, which does nothing.

I say keep the 4 speakers you have. Wire the HU to the rear speakers, and bridge your 4 channel amp to the front speakers only.

 

I have 6.5 all around. Will it be easy to make my rears fit 6x9? Also is there a good menthod on installing a amp?

 

Just keep the 6.5's

Mount the amp to the seat back. What year is your car?

 

just say no to 6x9's...

 

6x9's are excellent speakers. However if you've got a sub in the trunk or plan on doing a sub I dont think theres anything wrong with just sticking with the factory 6.5 size. 6x9s give you a lot more bass than any 6.5's are going to, but if you plan on doing a sub then I'd skip out on the 6x9s. Just personal opinion. Ultimately you have to do what you feel is best and what YOU like the sound of best.

 

6x9's don't reproduce the sound as well as 6.5s though. I would say keep the amp and get rid of one if not both pairs of the alpines and find a nice component set. Don't use anything in the rear, power the comps with the front channels and run a sub with the rear channels bridged.

If you want to keep with alpines the alipine type r comps aren't bad. With the proper x-over settings you will be very happy with the setup. I love alpines flexibility on the digital amps. I believe your's has some of the same settings, get yourself very familiar with those so you can fine tune your system to the best of the speakers abilities and to the sound that you like.

 

It might be tough to power comps with the front channels on the HU...or do you mean his amp? I powered a set of comps off my HU and man it sucked, it just didn't have the power that was necessary.

 

With the amp of course.

 

I figured, but I just wanted to make sure

 

.

 

Ill take that challenge. You provide the 6X9s and Ill provide the 6.5s

 

And then you guys can donate those speakers to me

 

Ummm what?

I think 6.5's sound better than 6x9s but that doesn't make 6x9's crappy speakers, and I dont recall saying 6x9s were better than 6.5's.

edit: just noticed the bold part, 6.5 midbass will give you good bass as I've said, but take an infinity reference 6.5 vs 6x9 and from a bass standpoint there's no comparison.

 

You said

"6x9s give you a lot more bass than any 6.5's are going to"

I don't agree, and neither does Don. He can proove you otherwise.

 

I am talking from a bass standpoint as well. Bring your infinity 6X9s and Id be more than happy to prove that theory wrong.

 

I want to get some triaxial 6x9's so I can really bump......

 

I like the new sig Juan.

 

Thanks . Was cleaning house on my computer and came across a couple pictures.

 

Umm you have to compare apples to apples fellas. A 2 way coaxial 6.5 of the same brand/level as a 2/3way 6x9.

How can a 6.5 of equivelant level give off the same or more bass than 6x9?

BTW why does everyone wanna try to have EGO contest all the time on here? If I'm wrong just tell me how or why I'm wrong. All the "prove it" or I can "prove it wrong" etc gets kinda old. I'm definately no audio genius and you guys probably know a lot more than me and are probably right, so just tell me how I'm wrong so I can learn.

 

Why compare of the same brand? Im just quoting what YOU said...

"6x9s give you a lot more bass than any 6.5's are going to"

Im playing Your game and stating facts fella. Not an Ego war.

Theres a reason why manufacturers make their lower level products into coax/triax/etc. The upper levels continue on into components. Multi driver mounted speakers are primarily intended for fill, nothing more, nothing less.

 

BTW...

 

I still don't see Gord's owl........

N BTW what's available in 6 - 8 foot RCA's? I think that will be plenty to run down the center to the pass seat.

 

 

Haha that ish is classic.

 

Yeah that blanket statement of mine wasn't correct. I've heard 6.5's that do ok but equivelant 6x9's from everything I've heard beat the 6.5's in bass output.

I'd still like to know how an equivelant 6.5 will put out more bass than an equivalant 6x9. A buddy of mine for example bought some 6x9's at walmart and they SUCK. They sound identical to his factory speakers in his olds. A good pair of 6.5s will definately sound better, but again you're comparing a crap product to at least a decent product. Line for line I've not heard a 6.5 that can compete with a 6x9. Again I'm not talking about 6.5 midbass speakers I'm talking about coaxials. I'm wanting to learn more about car audio so if I'm wrong tell me how and why I'm wrong so I'll know.

 

6x9's can only go so far. You have to realize there are no companys making VERY HIGH END sets that incorporate 6x9's. They are all anywhere from 5.25 - 8 inch sets. There's a reason for that. 6x9's are limited in their capabilities.

 

I would agree with that. But that still doesn't tell me how/why an equivelant line 6.5 is going to produce as much bass as an equivelant 6x9. I like 6.5's better personally, I've always thought they had a clearer sound when setup in identical situations but most of my audio experience is limited to best buy, circuit city, ultimate electronics stuff. I do have some friends in competition stuff so I have heard some of their equipment and know a little about it but not much.

edit: let me tell you guys my thinking as to why from what I've heard the 6x9's have more bass.
1)Cone size
2)Cone excursion (movement of the cone up and down)
I know there is more than this to consider, things like power handling and design etc but thats why I'm talking about similar line products here. You can take a top of the line 6.5 and sound fantastic in all respects compared with a mid line 6x9 but thats not exactly a fair comparison and for the guy on a budget in this thread I dont think its correct to say he's gonna get his 140 dollar alpine 6.5's to give him a fuller range sound than say a 160 to 200 dollar infinity 6x9.

Again I like the 6.5's better myself and I told him to get 6.5's but now with everyone criticizing me I would like to know how and why I was wrong so at the very least I keep it in mind for the future.

 

Bassed on the cone area the 6x9 will always push more air, but that means nothing with speakers of this size. The 6.5 will produce a better sound and be more natural while the 6x9 may produce more unnatural bass.

 

Yeah I agree with that 100%.