What is a good sound sytem nowadays?

Raam Audio's sound deadener scored within 10% of Dynamat Extreme in unbiased testing, and it's about half the price.

I put it in everything I own after reading that test. It was a huge online article that was its own website... sounddeadenershowdown.com

if you do a search on it, you'll see people talking about it, but the dude must have gotten offered a bunch of money for the domain name, because now it's a commercial site :(

anyhow, if someone read that article and still purchases Dynamat Extreme, they're not right in the head IMO
 
Those polyglass 3 ways are surely very nice. I wouldn't hesitate to run them if you have the time to fab the door panels or a-pillars they'll need to house them.

I have my KRX3's now...I'm just playing with driver placement before I commit to their final homes.
I figure 3-4 weeks or auditioning different spots then I can start fabbing the door panels.

Right now...I'm leaning towards the tweeters on the a-pillars firing directly at each other about chin high and the mid-bass and mid on axis in the upper door panels.

That could change tomorrow though.

I got me a 10' roll of velcro and I been sticking speakers all over the damned place...it's tedious and not really fun but the final install is everything in how they'll sound.

Here's my new babies:
focal.jpg
 
Those look very nice, I guess they are the next step/a couple steps above the polyglass? The 3rd gen dodges have a spot in the front of the dash for 3.5s/4s, so I wanted to put them in there and mount the tweeters beside the 3.5s flush-mounted. I really don't want to build any custom door panels, as I want to stay as subtle as possible with all the theft going on these days. I had to pull off the limo tint on my front windows finally, so now people can see inside witch drives me crazy. Since I have had my 05, I have paid almost $3000 in tint tickets, so i really got tired of dealing with those bastards.
 
The KRX3's I have are 1 line down from the top Utopia's.....mine were a bit over 1700 bucks.

You really, REALLY don't want your mid and tweeter firing straight up into the glass...they'll sound like straight up ass.

Mine came with pods for the mids and tweeters that can be mounted just about anywhere....definitely anywhere with a little fab work. I don't plan to use them so you can have them if yours don't come with the same pods.

Here's mine...your tweeter won't fit since mine are 2" diameter but you could surely fab them in...the covers are removable. I'd imagine your 3" mids will drop right in.

x091165KRX3-o_pod2.jpeg



FWIW I run Polyglass 165V2 components in the back of my truck...they are outstanding as a 2 way if you don't want the hassle of a 3 way install.
I'm learning very fast that driver placement in a 3 way set is critical. You get it right and everyone is impressed...you get it wrong and you just wasted a lot of money on speakers.

Personally...I think I'm in over my head on my install...but I'm gonna give it hell anyway. LOL
 
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I really dont want to build custom panels or pods, so I might just ditch the 3way idea, and just get a nice set of 2ways. I thought this was a pretty good deal... 284 shipped polyglass components.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-FOCAL-6-5-165-V1-POLYGLASS-CAR-SPEAKERS-COMPONENT_W0QQitemZ230365384030QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCar_Speakers?hash=item35a2d8cd5e

The only thing is, I already bought a JL Audio A6450 6-channel amp, so I want to utilize all the channels, I wounder if a full range focal 4" would sound bad if I turned the gain down? I would like to fill all the dead space up on the dash...
 
Rich if you are ever in Corpus, I sure would like to listen to your setup. Are you going to sell your old components?
 
I'm moving my 165K2p's to the back to replace the V2's then those will go in another vehicle later.
 
SPEEDSHIFT said:
Thanks for the info, Chris. I am going to be using the Dynamat Extreme for sure, right now I am buying all the little pieces of the puzzle. Right now I am going to change the exhaust system in my truck to a 5" MBRP, running a Donaldson muffler along with the MBRP muffler and try to eleminate as much sound mechanically as possible first, then I will deaden the cab and run all my wires with Stinger wire/RCAs.

I hate to spend this much money, but what about this set for the fronts? Run the 6.5s in the doors and the 3.5s and tweeters in the dash?

http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=1171
Click to expand...

Great speakers but as Richard brings out below, very hard to install in a basic set-up and get SQ that they are fully capable of delivering.

UNBROKEN said:
The KRX3's I have are 1 line down from the top Utopia's.....mine were a bit over 1700 bucks.

You really, REALLY don't want your mid and tweeter firing straight up into the glass...they'll sound like straight up ass.

Mine came with pods for the mids and tweeters that can be mounted just about anywhere....definitely anywhere with a little fab work. I don't plan to use them so you can have them if yours don't come with the same pods.

Here's mine...your tweeter won't fit since mine are 2" diameter but you could surely fab them in...the covers are removable. I'd imagine your 3" mids will drop right in.

x091165KRX3-o_pod2.jpeg



FWIW I run Polyglass 165V2 components in the back of my truck...they are outstanding as a 2 way if you don't want the hassle of a 3 way install.
I'm learning very fast that driver placement in a 3 way set is critical. You get it right and everyone is impressed...you get it wrong and you just wasted a lot of money on speakers.

Personally...I think I'm in over my head on my install...but I'm gonna give it hell anyway. LOL
Click to expand...

Agree 100% bad placement with the best speakers will get you OK to good sound at best! If it is an easy install and great SQ you need to think simpler and work with a two-way set-up.

SPEEDSHIFT said:
I really dont want to build custom panels or pods, so I might just ditch the 3way idea, and just get a nice set of 2ways. I thought this was a pretty good deal... 284 shipped polyglass components.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-FOCAL-6-5-165-V1-POLYGLASS-CAR-SPEAKERS-COMPONENT_W0QQitemZ230365384030QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCar_Speakers?hash=item35a2d8cd5e

The only thing is, I already bought a JL Audio A6450 6-channel amp, so I want to utilize all the channels, I wounder if a full range focal 4" would sound bad if I turned the gain down? I would like to fill all the dead space up on the dash...
Click to expand...

Don't worry about sticking a speaker in every hole that factory provided. If you go with alternate mounting locations like kick-panels you will probably have empty factory locations.

As for your 6-channel amp, I think it can be run in a 4-channel mode where you would bridge a pair of channels to run the front left, bridge another pair to run the front right and then use the remaining pair to run your rear fill left and right channels. This will give you additional power and dynamic range on the fronts anyhow. In fact even if you decide to go with the three-way components in the front I would still recomment using the passive crossovers that came with the speakers and running the amp in a four channel mode rather than bi-amping the 3-way component set.

UNBROKEN said:
If by dead space you mean the sound then that's easily accomplished with driver placement. Have you considered kick panels?
Check out DIY Mobile Audio - Technical, Advanced & Informative
read the SQForum...lots of good info there even for non-experts like us.
Click to expand...

In addition to reading up on theory, listen to other trucks that YOU think sound good! Then go with a similar setup. Especially when playing with high-$ products experimentation can be frustrating! Play things safer and you might be happier in the end.

Hope this helps.
CT
 
For a three way setup in Dodge's it seems that using the stock dash location for the mid can work quite well, with the tweeters placed in the pillars and mid-bass in the standard door location.

This doesn't have too many "trade secrets" given away but a good idea on placement and such. From the pics I have seen it makes for a relatively easy install that can sound very good with a little bit of tuning to control the reflections. Here is the walkthrough of the install, Big Meat Pix | Tutorials | Team Audionutz

I second Rich's recomendation of DIYMA, very informative site
 
jdc753 said:
For a three way setup in Dodge's it seems that using the stock dash location for the mid can work quite well, with the tweeters placed in the pillars and mid-bass in the standard door location.

This doesn't have too many "trade secrets" given away but a good idea on placement and such. From the pics I have seen it makes for a relatively easy install that can sound very good with a little bit of tuning to control the reflections. Here is the walkthrough of the install, Big Meat Pix | Tutorials | Team Audionutz

I second Rich's recomendation of DIYMA, very informative site
Click to expand...

I agree, I used much info from those threads and a few others to come up with the path I took on my install
http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/dev/my-new-stereo-install-t251329.html
Still tuning but so far it seems to work
 
:rockwoot:
Those KRXs of yours look sexy as hell, what you going to drive them with?
I opted for hot glue instead of Velcro, the wife thought I had lost (whatever I have left anyway ) my marbles when she seen me driving around with speakers hot glued to the sails and a-pillars with wires hanging out all over for weeks lol.
 
For now I'm just gonna use my old Fosgate amps.
Replacing all the amps is part 2 of my upgrade...I'm leaning towards the JL Slash amps. A 450/4 for the f/r comps and a 1000/1 for the subs with plans to eventually go active on the front stage.
 
Ratsun said:
I agree, I used much info from those threads and a few others to come up with the path I took on my install
http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/dev/my-new-stereo-install-t251329.html
Still tuning but so far it seems to work
Click to expand...

install looks top notch :rockwoot:

done right from the get go, I love it. Mine is missing all that, but I hope in the spring, deadener sound barrier and get the wiring looking as good as yours.

How do you like the IDQ15? I would love to pick one up sometime to try it out. Mainly just so I could say I got a 15" in the center console, plus I have heard great things about it. What is the size of your box (I think I missed it in the build log) 1.25ft^3?
 
UNBROKEN said:
For now I'm just gonna use my old Fosgate amps.
Replacing all the amps is part 2 of my upgrade...I'm leaning towards the JL Slash amps. A 450/4 for the f/r comps and a 1000/1 for the subs with plans to eventually go active on the front stage.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you will like those JLs, I ran them for about a year with no problems.
Heres a pic of the ones I had in my 98
dcp_3740-1.jpg


jdc753 said:
install looks top notch :rockwoot:

done right from the get go, I love it. Mine is missing all that, but I hope in the spring, deadener sound barrier and get the wiring looking as good as yours.

How do you like the IDQ15? I would love to pick one up sometime to try it out. Mainly just so I could say I got a 15" in the center console, plus I have heard great things about it. What is the size of your box (I think I missed it in the build log) 1.25ft^3?
Click to expand...
Thanks man, the single 15 is so far my favorite sub.
The center console ended up 1.35cft
 
SPEEDSHIFT said:
Those look very nice, I guess they are the next step/a couple steps above the polyglass? The 3rd gen dodges have a spot in the front of the dash for 3.5s/4s, so I wanted to put them in there and mount the tweeters beside the 3.5s flush-mounted. I really don't want to build any custom door panels, as I want to stay as subtle as possible with all the theft going on these days. I had to pull off the limo tint on my front windows finally, so now people can see inside witch drives me crazy. Since I have had my 05, I have paid almost $3000 in tint tickets, so i really got tired of dealing with those bastards.
Click to expand...

One of the problems with mounting the tweet flush to the mid in the dash will be the factory grill. With the opening being so small you would have to cut up the dash cover and make a new one. Stick with your plan of the three way and mount the tweets in the sails or pillars but experiment with them on/off axis as to what sound you prefer. Put the mids in the factory dash locations and the midbass in the doors and put your effort into basic install requirements and I'm sure you will be happy.
I found best money spent is on the prep of the doors, get them well deadened with a dampener of your choice and seal them up the best you can.
You simply cannot get your midbass to shine without this step.
Ensure all speakers are sealed up tight to the grills isolating the rear and front waves from meeting. Its no use having the sound wave bouncing around between the door and the panel and not entering the cabin whole.
 
I'll bet your wife loves sitting next to you. :hehe:

I'd love to go through and do this to my current truck but the plans are to make it a drag truck so I can't justify doing it. Maybe I'll just make it a 12.0 index truck and a DD...decisions decisions.
 
Ratsun said:
One of the problems with mounting the tweet flush to the mid in the dash will be the factory grill. With the opening being so small you would have to cut up the dash cover and make a new one. Stick with your plan of the three way and mount the tweets in the sails or pillars but experiment with them on/off axis as to what sound you prefer. Put the mids in the factory dash locations and the midbass in the doors and put your effort into basic install requirements and I'm sure you will be happy.
I found best money spent is on the prep of the doors, get them well deadened with a dampener of your choice and seal them up the best you can.
You simply cannot get your midbass to shine without this step.
Ensure all speakers are sealed up tight to the grills isolating the rear and front waves from meeting. Its no use having the sound wave bouncing around between the door and the panel and not entering the cabin whole.
Click to expand...

I am about to change the exhaust to 5" but I will be running a big Donaldson and a MBRP muffler together to try and remove as much noise as possible, I have already swapped the m/ts for a way quieter a/t. Now I will start deadening, and running wire. Back in the day we would run polyfill in the doors and such, is this still a good idea?
 
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