thats what i wanted to hear, that may be the most helpfull detailed and straight forward advice i've ever gotten!!!! 4- 6.5" components it is! But you said it works out perfect with the 3 outputs on cd player, wouldn't I only use 2 of the 3.... 1 sub amp and the 1 JL amp???? sonicelectronics.com has the best prices on components that ive seen. out of there selection can you recommend 2 pairs?
they have a lot of them cheaper than them type R's i posted, so if i can save money and not sacrifce sound please let me know!
The 3 outputs on your deck are for front, rear, and sub. You will use the front AND rear outputs running to your 4-channel JL amp. Two channels (right and left) for front, and two channels for rear. This is the simplest and most straightforward way to wire it up, and you'll keep your ability to fade front/rear. If you send the same wattage to all 4 speakers, I'd fade a few notches to the front. You could also keep the gains lower on the rear outputs, but I prefer to evenly match the gains to the input voltage (set them with a multimeter) and then adjust at the head unit. You definitely want more sound from the front, and when it sounds like the sound is coming from in front of you, that's better for quality. You can play with it to see for yourself. You may like it better when the rears have an equal presence, but keep in mind that (in most Explorers) the rear speakers will actually be closer to your ears, so imho, fading (or a big differential in power from front/rear) is going to be a good tool to bring your soundstage forward.
On that note, if you can save a few bucks on your rears, there is no need to go with components back there. Installation for a lot of components is a concern when you have to find a mounting spot for the tweets, and you don't want your tweets in the rear to be prominent anyway. Higher frequencies are much more likely to pull your soundstage that direction, and from the rear, that's not what you want. In other words, just go with an inexpensive set of coaxials back there. Spend the extra cash on your components up front.
As for the stuff you're looking at, I don't have first hand experience with all of them. I recently put 2 sets of 3-way Alpine Type S 6x9s in the ol' lady's ride to replace her crappy factory speakers. I wasn't expecting much. I slapped a 300/4 on them and they really surprised me with how good they sound. On a budget, I'd think the Alpine Type Rs would be decent speakers, too. The stuff I put in my own ride is well beyond that budget/quality level, so the only heartfelt advice I want to give you, if you really want to sound good and get loud, is to open up your wallet and get the best front components you can afford. To be specific, I recommend Boston Pro 60s, but you'd want more power up front. You could always bridge your 300/4 to 150/2 and just run the rears off the deck. But now we're going down a different path. Do you want to sound "decent", or do you want your stuff to really kick a$$?
I currently run JL XR 5x7 coaxials in the rear, and once upon a time ran them up front. They sound pretty good, and without a doubt better (louder, cleaner) than the stuff you're looking at. On a really tight budget, the JL TRs get loud and sound decent too. A lot of well-known companies are making affordable entry-level speakers now, like MB Quart, JL, Boston, etc. Until you get above $500, any extra money you spend on components will usually yield a reward in better sound quality. Once you surpass that level, you really have to start spending some serious coin to get a substantial audible increase in sound quality.
Let me add here that proper installation and the liberal use of sound-deadening material can really affect the sound quality of whatever you go with. It can make "okay" speakers sound great, and great speakers sound amazing. Without it, you are handicapping anything you put in there. Use this stuff to get the most from your equipment. Again, this is another potentially substantial investment, but it's worthwhile. You have to pay to play.
No matter what anyone tells you, to really get great SQ and also get loud, you need to pony up. You can get as insane with it as you could imagine, so in the end, it's really just based around your budget. You may get something totally satisfying without breaking the bank, but then you'll hear something that sounds leaps and bounds better that's on a whole different budget level. For what you're looking to do, all I can keep stressing is that it's okay to go cheap on your rear door speakers so you can turn around and dump as much as you can into the fronts. Stay with reputable brands, and the extra money (in your spending range) will be money well spent, and therefore really will be "worth it".
LOL. After typing all of this, I hope it helps (sinks in).
Who knew?? Anyways, I'm not an expert, but my sounds ain't to shabby.
