Sound system build progress thread (warning: will be slooooow)

[ashmostro]

Yo.

So I hate the SQ of the factory ELS system. It sounds muddy, unbalanced through the frequency range, the imaging sucks butt (even in Neural Surround mode), blah blah blah.

Things I wanna do, not necessarily all at the same time:

• Sound deaden the doors, door cards, trunk floor, and inside of the OE subwoofer enclosure
• Integrate a DSP amp in, likely an Audiotec-Fischer MATCH UP 10 DSP. I will have to build my own T harness for the amp since none exist on the market. The amp will likely mount under the passenger seat, given the dash location of the factory amp.
• Upgrade the front door and center channel speakers, the rear C-pillar speakers, and the subwoofer. The MATCH amp will drive all these speakers. I have not yet determined if the front door/A pillar speakers are all on their own channels or running off a passive crossover network (if you know, please respond here!)
• I will disconnect the front roof speakers and rear door speakers. They are over complicating the sound quality.

My current top choices for the replacement speakers are:

• Front door woofers: Hertz C 165L 6.5" cone, chosen for optimal Qts and dispersion up to a 900Hz lowpass point
• Front door midranges: Dayton Audio CF50N-4 2" dome, chosen for excellent dispersion up to a 2.8kHz crossover point
• Front A pillar tweeters: Dayton Audio CF18N-4 3/4" dome, chosen for excellent dispersion
  • Edit - going with the Peerless OX20SC00-04 instead
• Front center channel: Dayton Audio CF50N-4 2" dome (bandpass 900 to 2.8kHz)
  • Edit - going with the Faital 4FE42 4" cone midrange instead and can run it down to ~300Hz in that position
• Rear C-pillar midranges: Dayton Audio CF50N-4 2" dome (bandpass 900 to 2.8kHz)
• Rear subwoofer: Rockford P3SD4-8 (already proven to work well in the stock enclosure)

As implied, the crossover points are:

• Sub: infrasonic to 80Hz
• Woofers: 80Hz to 900Hz
• Midranges: 900Hz to 2.8kHz
• Tweeters: 2.8kHz to ultrasonic

Whether I use passive crossovers (which I will build and have already designed) or active depends on the factory wiring of the front door and A pillar speakers. If they are each their own channel (which they probably aren't) then I will go full active, which is my preference. Heck, I might even run my own wiring if they aren't, given the HUGE advantage that time delaying such a setup affords.


Any fellow SQ-heads in here? Thoughts?

-Ash

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[ashmostro]

Oh and here's the front stage passive crossover if I'm forced to go that route:

 

[UWU-mancer]

These mf’s are building a bomb…..

 

[ashmostro]

Update: I'm also considering the Peerless OX20SC00-04 tweeter for a much easier installation since they could just be glued into the existing locations without having to build and finish a flange. I don't like the frequency response as much but EQ can fix that.

 

[ashmostro]

Aaaand another change.

The Dayton dome midrange won't do well in the center channel location as a voice speaker (I will have it set up to only output for infotainment interactions).

I'm going to go with a Faital 4FE42 4" cone midrange instead. It has the added benefit of being a wideband so I'll get better top end extension than with the Dayton (not that it's needed for voice, but it's a free bonus).

 

[Cantrip]

Total est. cost?

 

[ashmostro]

Total est. cost?

Good question! I am focusing on best bang-for-the-buck by optimizing driver selection to each location which means you don't have to buy the best of everything, just the best of what you need without breaking the bank.

The drivers themselves will be about $620 MSRP before tax and shipping.
The amp will be in the $1.2k range, depending on whether I go with 8 or 10 channels (which depends on the factory speaker wiring configuration).

This is assuming the following locations will get new speakers: front doors, front a pillars, front center channel, rear sub. I'll probably re use the rear fill speakers in the C pillars given there is very little room in that location and I will be attenuating and delaying these for spatial effect rather than front stage augmentation.

 

[Cantrip]

Good luck. I wish I could hear it when you're done.

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