Well i just ordered 3/4 of my system about last week and it arrived yesterday afternoon. It consists of a pair of jbl gto5.25" components for the front and a pair of jbl gto 3 way 6x9s for the sail panels. I bought this system because i wanted speakers with good mids and highs but also some punchy bass. Ive only heard good things aobut Jbl so i decided to go with them. My only question to u guys is the 6x9 enclosure spot on the camaro(sail panels). I was just reading up some posts i searched on and i was seeing that u cant get any bass from these spots. If this is the case im gonna be pretty pissed cuz i would have jsut went with infinity then(no sub! so thats y i didnt go with them). Wil there really be no bass at all from these speakers or hardly any? and if so what are some ways i can improve the panels for the bass. Kinda keep it simple if possilbe cuz im really new at this and only 19 in college so im on a budget too. I want my system to sound decent guys and your help would be appreciated alot. I havent gone wrong posting here yet so ill take all the help i can get. Thanks

 

For a while I had my subs out, and just had the 6x9's for bass.

They didn't sound too bad. The main focus is to keep the rattles away.

I guess its a best to say, the bass could be heard outside the car, but it was nothing compared to having subs.

You should expect a "better than stock" sound.

:lala:

 

o ight cool. well is their anyway to get rid of those rattles? what about 6x9 enclosures do they make them for are cars? how much dynomat would i need to jsut do the sail panels?

 

You can prob take out the baffels behind your 6x9s and fiberglass them...that would help sound and bass...as for rattles a cubic foot of dynamat around each speaker hole is prob enough...i got some peel and seal roofing material(sounds ******* as hell) but it works just like the regular dynamat...looks and feels like the same stuff and costs about 20 bucks for a big roll and can be had at any home depot or lowes...or for you yankees Manards... ....hope this helps some...

 

I actually never thought of fiberglassing the stock speaker baffels.. Then again, mine were much too torn and dried out for that to be of use. Seeing as I have never tried fiberglasswork before. Perhaps I am wrong, and they could have been used.

I ended up taking my baffels out. Then the air from the 6x9's was making the rubber on the door jam vents vibrate. An the 6x9's were vibratin the metal plate they were attached to.

SO I bought some of them foam baffels. All they did was vibrate against the 6x9 magnet.

SO.. I cut away the baffels and used the surrounds to pad the area around the 6x9's. That got rid of my rattles.

Well, almost.

The vents were still flappin away. So I taped them with packaging tape, from the inside.

Finally, no more rattle.

 

Just remember if you want real bass, get subs. Its as simple as that. Sound waves want to go in a circle. They travel outward, trying to go in a circle. a 6x9 is an OVAL, co-axial. Meaning no matter what you do, 6x9's can only sound so good. For some reason I have never seen anyone post about this before. Cheaply you can get 6x9's and have ok bass. But you said you are 19, your still young and should be enjoying ur stereo, 6x9's for bass is for old guys who can no longer stand the sound of a real stereo.
my $.02

 

...or guys with families, mortgages and other more important things to do with their money. Enjoy yourself while you can afford to. Get the subs and an amp.

 

Yeah fill the well up with all the speakers you can and put about 500 watts through them so every piece of plastic and sheet metal rattles and sounds like crap, I personally don't need the neighbors four blocks away to hear my rattling piece of crap sounding stereo coming.

If it sounds good IN THE CAR, you don't worry about impressing the neighbors, because honestly they are not impressed, they are pissed.

Yea I could now officially be considered the old crowd (40) , even when I was 20 I didn't fill my car with speakers to the point it affected my ability to get people or say maybe more than one bag of groceries in it.

Might want to get a good alarm on it first, those big woofers out back make an easy target for a tire iron and a thief. Isn't your insurance high enough now ?

Bottom line put something in that pleases you in the car and don't worry about what others think about your system. Maybe you might have something left for the important things like GO-FAST parts ? That is if you don't spend it on woofers and amps and insurance premiums and deductibles.

 

well..i jsut looked at it looks as thought the guy would had the car before me took out the baffels and filled it with insulation. i removed it because their was way to mcuh but now im wondering what to do. Should i jsut leave the baffels out. Any suggestions?

 

You are probably going to have mad vibration on the outside of the vehicle right where the speaker is... I haven't done this yet, but maybe since you have no baffles at all, maybe you should try a simple, cheap solution.. Go buy a bag of polyfill, the same stuff in subwoofer boxes, and fill up the opening.... I'm pretty sure polyfill is dirt cheap.

I personally just cut almost all bass from my 6x9s... but when I don't they actually sound fairly decent... but NOTHING like a car with rear 6x9s and a trunk... my brothers 74 nova doesn't even need a subwoofer.

 

I remember my ol Volare with a pair of 6x9's in the back. Same idea.

Concrete cars don't rattle too much LOL.

But back to the topic, I agree, get what you are happy with. You don't really have to fill your car with speakers, it is possible to install 1 10 or 1 12 inch sub with a modest 200-250w amp and still have lots of room for whatever, and you will not wake the neighbors up from 4 blocks away.

For those of us with the car full of speakers, those of us with respect turn the stereo down in residential areas.

 

unless you're playing it at 2am in front of a cops house! Then you pump it up!

 

buy 6x9 boxes, get an amp for about $100. put them both in the hatch well area. And u have a really nice sound system without subs.

I have had this setup for a year and it sounds great.

 

This is not true.

A frequency is a frequency. If the speaker can reproduce it, it does not matter what shape the transducer was or is.

Some of the newest designed subwoofers are square.

Ever seen an electrostatic speaker? It is flat and thin and definitely not round.

 

personally I can't afford to put sub in my car now (both money and practicaly wise). when I had a system in my car, I set it up as follows. front speakers provided the higher sound, 6x9 provided the midrange, and of course the subs provided the bass. I think it sounded pretty good, it should be noted that basically everything was stock except the deck, subs, and amp (500 watt by the way). I can only imagine how that would have sounded w/aftermarket equip in there. and by the way, yes enjoy the sound system while you can, one day you will have kid(s) and you won't be able to afford jack. well I've rambled enough, good luck

 

If I didn't have a sub, I'd HAVE to build a custom box that goes along the back of the seat, from one side of the car to the other, to mount components or 6x9's...otherwise kiss the bass goodbye.. completely.

 

Sitting Bull, Actually Daishi is correct.
The 6x9 shape will distort the bass frequency.
any oval speaker will distort the frequencies that it plays, manufacturing techniques have gotten better but a 6.5" round is and always will be better than a 6x9 oval.

 

if u want good bass and save space get a cheap tube. i have a cracked pioneer impp 12"sub in a ported tube in my dip area( it doesnt fit in ti alll teh way). it has no amp and is run off the wires for the left rear speaker sounds ok in the car.. not much sound outa the car

 

Do you have any scientific studies to back up this assertion? You can "distort" a bass frequency a fair bit and indeed have it distort according to a frequency analyser but still not hear any distortion.

But perhaps I misread the post and assumed that he was suggesting that a speaker must be round to properly reproduce sound, not just ultra low frequencies. As I said, I have a set of Monsoon electrostatic speakers on my desktop and they sound better than almost any PC speaker I've listened to. And the drivers are rectangular, flat as a pancake and less than a milimeter thick.

 

You can vibrate ANY surface and create different frequencies. The deal with the 6x9 is that they wanted a bigger woofer for bass, any they did a good job, cuz its got more bass than any component (that I've heard)... And also, you guys that say that oval speakers distort the sound... how do you explain all these pentagon, square, strange shape, added moldings etc on many subs that perform great? I sure as hell cannot explain it, but back to my point. On most 6x9's they are at LEAST 2-way, which means that the sound that matters the most (or the sound that is most affected by distortion), the mids and highs, ARE round speakers. The midrange and tweeters are usually the same as the mids and tweets on similar round component speakers.

 

and like sitting bull says, those magnetic "ribbon" speakers sound damned good, for the mids and highs (not bass-not yet) and they are ANY shape you want.

---but that may be why they can't produce much bass, because they are not round (or its because they just aren't designed to the travel range required to produce bass notes.)

 

Exactly!

The Monsoon electrostatics come with a standard ported subwoofer enclosure with a 6" driver. Good for down to around 35 or 40 Hz.

Though I haven't heard the giant square subwoofer drivers or compared them to the round variety, I'd be surprised if they actually did sound different. The square design is a much more efficient use of space, as well.

 

ive seen sony pentagons some triangular ones of which brand i dunno and kicker solos which are square.... i havent heard em all but many ppl say that the 12" kickers hit like really good 15s

 

My friend has a solobaric 15 square and it kicks the **** out of my dual 15"s... It can take all pure 1200 watts hes giving it... and it sounds awesome... square mind you...

 

Sitting Bull....
After scouring the net, I must thank you.

You asked for proof and I went on a journey to find information to support my arguement. The problem is that I cannot find any

I apologize for my assertation and spewing forth bogus information.

Here is one quote from one of the many websites that I have read over the past few hours.

We were talking about bass output, therefore I was mistaken.
If the topic was concerning which speaker would sound better, then the round 6" or 6.5" would be the better choice.

 

That is kinda what I had thought all along. But then I didn't bother to seperate overall sound quality to the level of bass that is produced.

 

No need to apologise

How can any of us learn if we don't openly discuss and debate what seems correct? I know I sure can't

 

but also remember, that those same 6x9's have the same exact mids and highs as components, perhaps even better, because most components are 2-ways... when mine are 4-way. In my experience, good 6x9s can get louder than good comps... (at a reasonable price range) e.g. Infinity kappa perfect 6x9's versus infinity kappa perfect 6.1... my brother has both, and I prefer the 6x9's EVEN THOUGH they are coxial, which I do not like but is the most common type.

So why would they use a square subwoofer over a circle when RIGIDITY is the most important factor in the subwoofer fabrication? I just don't understand.

 

Probably to achieve greater amplitude from the same size sub box.

 

i think the square design is a little more rigid. or maybe its to move more air producing more bass.

 

while we're on the topic of bass... what have you guys done to stop the rattles in your cars? Even my dome light rattles

 

1. Park somewhere so you don't **** off the neighbors or the cops

2. Bass tone test CD - I forgot who made mine, but the first 20 tracks are tones; 20 hz up to 40 hz. Set a track on repeat, and you get that Hz forever.

3. Play "find the rattle" and mark it with something (masking tape) so you can tighten it down/add dynamat around the edges/do whatever to it later

4. Make sure your car battery doesn't die and leave you stranded



I actually cut little thin strips of Dynamat, about 1/8th inch thick, for all the "mating" areas of the plastic panels in the hatchback.

 

where can i get one of these bass test cds ive heard a few and really would like to have a couple but i dunno where to look

 

Phone a shop that specializes in CDs. Ask the sales people for a test disc. But make sure it has the frequency sweep tones.

Usually around $15 to $20.

 

yeah i heard a civic with a freq sweep.. he had the set up good cuz at half vol the bass was almost nauziating. it was awsome for 2 10s. plus hearing teh sound go from the front at high to the rear at low was nice.

 

Go here and download whatever you fancy. Burn it to CD and voila

http://www.ihearyou.com/testtones/

 

sounds like a pain to download 650 megabytes of sound files...

you CANNOT do this right with mp3's, it has to be full quality. Mp3 does not play all frequencies.

I too have looked for one of these cd's.


So you did not just put dynamat on all of the metal surfaces on the body, then put the plastic panels over it? That's what a lot of installers do (really expensive).

 

I see... they aren't mp3s but I wonder what quality they were ripped at...

 

Call MCM at 1-800-543-4330 and ask for an audio test CD or

http://mcm.newark.com/NewarkWebComme...ory=&x=18&y=12

 

MP3 can accurately describe any audible frequency. Just because it compresses and discards redundant musical info does not mean it doesn't produce every frequency known to the ear.

 

well id dunno about yall but i cant really hear the diff between my original cds and my mp3s that i saved of them on ah comp at 192khz

 

hey bull, I'm not so sure why, but I've heard that an mp3 at 128kbps has about the same frequency range at 192kbps... but 128 actually hurts my ears, and 192 is okay... maybe once you get to 320 its alright, but for testing, I think I'd go with the waves... Not to knock mp3's, because that's all I listen to, because swapping regular cd's would just **** me off, when I have 10 hours on one cd right now.

 

ya 10 different cds on one mp3 cd rox. But anyway. 6-9s can give off good bass. My friends regal he put em in enclosed boxes fireing through a foam seat and it felt like he had cheesy subs back there.

Nate

 

Yes, 192kbps will certainly sound better because more info is kept to describe the music. It really depends on your speakers, too. I have a set of Monsoon electrostatic PC speakers on my desk and now I just can't stand anything less than 192. I actually strive for 256 to 320 kbps because I can really hear the difference with these.

But as for just getting a clearly audible test tone at a specific frequency from 20Hz to 20kHz, even 128 kbps will work fine. Personally, I can't hear anything above 12kHz anymore but I'm 46 and that has a little bit to do with it

 

Hey Saigon,

Try encoding your MP3s using a 320kbps VARIABLE bit rate. You will have a VERY hard time telling the original from the MP3 with those. And it will still be economical in terms of disc space used up

 

alright... i dont really keep many mp3 on mah comp any more becuz i managed to get down to 4gb left on a 30gb HD(thats between mah mom, and bro too) i had over a gig of crap in music. i will try 320 tho.

 

I can hear 16khz really well, but 18khz just sounds like a tv is on... (coming out of these crappy computer speakers...)

 

that is probably because the computer speakers wont reproduce the sound. it is a very common problem.

my 4.1 system wont reproduce anything below about 60hz.

 

careful dont get off topic

 

In that case, don't even combine the words bass+(6x9)+firebird... unless they are no where near the sailpanels...