Ok so I've been debating on this idea of mine and now I'd like to get some other opinions. Ok so last Jan I picked up 2 Alpine Type E 10inch subwoofers while they were on sale at the local Best Buy. My original intent was to fiberglass some enclosures up to discretely take up the spare tire and lock box wells. But after some driving, much of which was without a stereo, I realized I wasn't really looking for the boom, hence the 10s, but more like crisp, loud music. So I had the idea to build a rear seat delete and put maybe some more 6x9s or similar size right behind the front seats to get more of a surround sound. I plan on using the eclipse headunit with tv/dvd/navi/etc. I'm still unsure of speakers and up for some suggestions on speakers as well as the idea of 6 speakers instead of subs. Thanks

 

sounds cool, somethin to try. but i would still use at least one 10 just to take care of that low end that makes your music come alive. besides, with that HU you can always control your sub through your output for when you dont wanna be loud

 

10s don't need to "boom" if set up correctly, but will provide output in the lowest couple of octaves that a 6x9 (or 6 of them) can't touch.

If you don't like the way your 10s sound, try putting them into a larger enclosure and turning the amp gain down a tad. A smoothly integrated sub with a flat frequency response won't be boomy at all, and will simply fill out the bottom couple octaves of the music, giving it a natural (not boomy) sound.

 

Unless you are racing, a rear seat delete is never a good idea in my opinion.

The 6x9's in the sail panels are already rite behind your head. If I were to do a 6 speaker system instead of subs, I would consider speakers in the kick panels, or perhaps a pair of 6x9's in boxes pointed forward at the rear of the vehicle. the shape of the rear glass will direct the sound forward.

But ultimately all of that will fail to compare to the sound of the system with a subwoofer added. A quality 10" woofer will be very tight and punchy, great for rock & roll and such and will complement your smaller speakers nicely.

 

There is a lot of debate on optimal speaker positioning, but I have found that as long as the music is LOUD, direction is really not a factor.

HOWEVER, if you are more of a casual listener instead of a blaster, proper positioning would be a great idea.
Like thaforce pointed out, kick panel speakers would sound a lot better than 6x9s behind the front seats.
I have 6.5s in the doors, 6x9s in the sails, and two 12s. When the volume is low, like lower than conversation, I can hear the passengar side door speaker more than the driver side, but once the volume goes up to at and above talking volume, diretion doesn't seem to matter.

And on the sub topic, people expect to be boomed to death in my car, but I keep it in balance with the music so it fills it out. My HU has 8 levels of volume for the sub. I have the gain on the amp set to sound good when the HU is set to sub volume 4.
People ask, "Don't you have subs?", and I simply turn them off (down to 0) and they go, "Oh wow, the music sounds so empty now." I also can crank the subs to 8 if I need to show the skeptical that the two 12s can boom if I wanted them to. I feel matching the subs with the rest of the system is why I get lots of compliments on how great music in my car sounds, as well as how loud it is.
BTW, I learned the turn-the-subs off trick to show how necessary subs are from Jim's subs article. Read that if you need more convincing.

 

Deleting the rear seat is an eye-sore and you will regret not being able to take passengers when the situation arises...

you could just put a single 10, or build a small box that only eats up part of the bottom of the well, with a single 10 or 12 in it... you'd be much better off than putting a few more lousy 6x9s in there...

 

guys i dont mean to be an A$$ but i personally could not disagree more with the rear delete! if done right, it can be really sweet. my show car has one and i have 2 6.5s in it and i always get positive feedback on it from every show I go to. jus consider ALL of your options! the back seat delete means that u cant take passangers but our back seats were useless to take passangers neway, too small. I personally dont like the kickpanel boxes because i like having foot space for tall guys, like me. well w/e just consider everything. just my

 

I often take passengers, and usually have a full car. But thats me. If you know you will never have more than one passenger, lose the rear seats. THe only problem is how do you really know you will never have more than one passenger.

 

I always have passengers it seems... it comes in handy...

but, either way, nothing can replace a real 10"+ subwoofer... the 6.5" subs in my WS6 are the best small woofer I've ever heard... (because I haven't gotten my EU-700s completely set up,) but nothing compared to a dedicated 10" woofer in a proper enclosure...

 

Thanks to all of you for all your replys. Regarding the negative comments on my rear seat delete, different strokes for different folks. I really don't care your opinion on that aspect because that is what I want to do. Unlike the pos boxes on ebay mine is level with the hatch area. I'm not worried about passengers. If you can't fit them in there, then whats the point? Anyways I usually am just by myself in the car, no more than one another person anyways. Besides I need the extra room that the seat deletes will offer for things like school books, work shoes, etc.

I kind of put the idea of 6 speakers to rest. After doing some more searches of Rez's I am going to just use his plans to build the sub well box. His plans seems to be a nice tight fit that would creat problems when you actually want to take the box back out. Instead of putting the subs under the panels in the rear, figured I'd hide the battery and amp back there and the crossovers below the rear speakers.

 

Then it seems that you would want to put the rear seat back in then, right? Since you are going to put the subs in the well, where they sound best...

 

No I'm not putting the rear seat back in. I never have passengers and I see it as wasted space. I'm in construction of building a seat delete that flows more like a corvette and has storage compartments to hide my books,etc.

 

as far as adding a bunch of speakers goes, I'd steer away from it... more is not better. If good accurate sound is what you want, concentrate on the front stage- rear speakers are behind your ears. Any sound that comes from them is going to be reflected off other stuff in the car. Start by looking into a nice set of separates for the front. Get those to sound right before any other thing is done. The nicest sounding system I've ever heard has a pair of components in pods, a pair of midbass in the doors and one 12" sub- no speakers in the back except the sub.

 

What would you guys recommend for the fronts? I've did some searching through crutchfield and they don't seem to offer many choices for the fronts.I was also planning on running tweeters but alittle unsure about where I'm going to put them. I have a 3 guage pod I was thinking of running them on but i ended up getting a guage for it instead, so that is out of the question now. Maybe on the door panel angled towards the driver and passenger. What are your thoughts on this? Where is everyone else running their tweeters?

 

I'm a huge fan of rear fill.

My car has 4 woofers, 4 tweeters, and 2 subwoofers... I love the way it balances out... just need more bass and better drivers now...