New System w/ cool custom stuff. *PICS- 56k = death*

[AnabolicFrolic]

Since i havnt had speakers mounted in kicks in an explorer, i couldnt really tell u how it compares.

Im also not gonna sit here and tell u that I acheive superb imaging with them like this, but im also not competing in SQ competitions so it doesnt really matter.

What i do know is the system sounds wonderful, its smooth non-fatiguing and gets incredibly loud. Midbass is tight and powerfull, highs are smooth and warm, not harsh and tinny. I think my front stage is well balanced. Nothing overpowers another thing. I like it.

I dont think just throwing some components in some ready-made kicks is gonna improve the staging considerably enough to make me want to lose my legroom in the front seats.
A front soundstage isnt developed by simply throwing some speakers in kickpanel pods and calling it day. Laser Alignment of the speakers should be done, and carefull consideration needs to be taken in every aspect of the design of a kickpanel type system.
For me, a guy who isnt competeing in SQ comps, doesnt need to worry about such things.

BTW the HEX 600s components are a 6.5 midbass and a 1" silk dome tweeter.
MDF templates are used for mounting the 6.5's in the door panel and then sealed using a stiff yet plyable adhesive material. that covers the entire template and part of the door.

 

[vteg]

Personally I think that even the qlogic kicks will improve imaging over stock on many cars. The biggest purpose of the kicks is to narrow the difference in pathlength between the left and right speakers. This can be accomplished through time alignment also though.

The problem with some kicks is a possible loss of midbass. But you will have an empty door hole to make up for that

Quality car audio speakers are made to be listened to off axis. So I am not a big fan of super precise alignment.

 

[rjahr01]

i have noticed a big difference in bass with my kicks....i also changed my speakers but with the midbass up at my face it offers better imaging...if you want to see my setup its under my name and it says system finaly done...and i'm very happy with my results

 

[AnabolicFrolic]

vteg, thats why im using the time correction on my Alpine HU. Also in terms of distance between tweeter and midbass driver it turns out that the speakers in the door and tweeters on the dash are pretty darn close to the same distance apart. As for kicks in an explorer to move the right and left closer to eachother, i dont think its gonna narrow the distance by much. And again, w/ time correction or changing the phase in the speakers u can make up for any differences pretty well.
I dont remember the exact measurements.
But it turns out the rear speakers are actually the closest speakers to my ear.
I may just remove the rear fill all together.

rjahr01 why dont u explain for me how your kicks improved yer imaging. ? i think u may just be throwing that term around loosely. U also have to remember that u upgraded to better components as well as moving the front stage into kickpanel enclosures.
Whats to say yer midbass improvement isnt a result of the speaker itself. Same goes for the front stage imaging.
U cant immediatly assume its the kickpanels that made this world of differance, as hard as it may be to accept that yer fiberglass pods cost more than the speakers themselves.

 

[expo5.0]

the obvious answer is to run a 6.5 in your door.... like me (i'm so special) and these for the speakers

also, i removed my rear fill since they were detracting as you said before. my 6.5s in the door definitely the source of midbass(very little comes or should come from the kickpanel) and i will say that this is the best set-up on paper. mid and tweeter on the floor imaged up and woofer in the door IS the way to do it in an x if you can. my doors are filled iwth mdf and sound deadening and i run 185 watts rms to each side of my components (it makes even my crappy audiobahn components sound unbelievable)

 

[vteg]

Originally posted by AnabolicFrolic
But it turns out the rear speakers are actually the closest speakers to my ear.
I may just remove the rear fill all together.

It seems that way in most of the cars I have owned. I normally remove my rear fill also. My integra had 400 watts rms for the front stage. Who needs rear fill

In my integra I had the qforms, since I had never had kicks and did not want to invest 600 for custom ones to find out if I liked them or not. Plus I don't want to work with fiberglass, it makes me rash if I come into contact with it There was a definate difference between the kick setup and my friends door setup. We had the same components(I had s500s, with kicker rmb6 midbasses, he had s600s in the doors). The difference was incredible with live music. This may not be as different with the X since the door positions seem farther away. I had a 7998, but never did time alignment.

Now I miss my system. I need to go shopping.

Is there enough space to get the 6.5 and the 1 inch midbass behind the stock grills.

 

[AnabolicFrolic]

There is a pic of the door.
you can see how the 6.5 midbass fits in the grill opening

there is space in the lower right hand corner for the 1" tweeter to go and still be in the grill surface.
I just dont recal what is there in terms of sheetmetal.
U could probably make a MDF template to hold both the 6.5" and the 1" tweet and it would line up with the grill opening, since the grill was designed for a some oblong shaped speakers whose size i dont even remember cuz its been years since ive had a stock speaker in that hole.

 

[rjahr01]

yes i did upgrade my speakers and that made the bass protrude more then it ever did in the front of my car yet at the same time the bass was coming at me and not just there...its hard to explain but with the kicks i can feel the bass up at my face where as when i had my old speakers mounted in my doors and speakers equal to mine now that i've heard in the doors the bass is just there but its not really so much of an impact as it is now...i think that might explain it...it does'nt really have anything to do with time difference...i still need time correction..