97 Sti4 Type R

I am having the mid-range "X" component Rockford Fosgate Kit & 6x9's. Has anyone seen these installed or played ?

The location of the tweeter is worrying me ! I can have the door card cut near the door release handle (which I don't want) or have the tweeter located behind the existing grill.

I've now reached a junction to decide being grill or cut door card - I know sound is improved the higher the tweeter to raise the front sound stage.

Opinons or recommedations would be appreciated !

 

6*9's?? Noooooooooo! Don't do it!!!!!

Sorry, high-horse mode engaged. 6*9's are a compromise speaker. They're 6" wide, to give reasonable mid-range, and 9" high, to give reasonable bass. The trouble is, because they're neither size, they don't do either particularly well.

Seriously, you'd do FAR better to spend a reasonable sum on a pair of 6" components, coincident if you don't want to fit tweeters onto the dash somewhere, and then spend another reasonable sum on a sub for the boot. Okay, yes, it means that you have to go that first stage towards silly stereo's, but by using a sub to give bass, and the front speakers to give you the music, you end up with far FAR better sound.

If you're sufficiently into sound to be worrying about sound-stage from tweeter positions, do yourself a favour - ditch the 6*9's in favour of some proper components.

Sorry

Richard/Globbits

 

Type R,

I have a set of RF Fantaic X's 6.5 Mids and Tweeters in my Front doors of my MY99 STI-V, You will need a spacer otherwise your window will hit the back of the Mids, also you may need to change the crossovers too as they are a pig to install in the minimal gaps in the doors....

As Globbits has rightly put, I would never go for 6x9 they are a definete comprimise speaker imho, I have a set of Fanatic Q's in the rear shelf, with tweeters mounted on the pillars.

 

Thanks for the advice guys.

I don't want to have a sub in the boot. Is there any other solution, I can go for as I obviously want a reasonable amount of bass and sound quality, with front "X" componentss and ??

Where did you mount your tweeters ? will they go on the dash with no cutting ?

 

Type R,

I would only reccomend using the Fanatic X's with a dedicated amp, otherwise any sort of bass and they will distort even tho they are a much better speaker than standard...

I put the tweeters on the fronts using the existing tweeter mounts by the doorhandle, just for stealth reasons, I didnt want people looking into my car and seeing 1" Tweeters on the dash for obvious reasons, the rear tweeters I have mounted on the plastic pillars so lifting the rear stage somewhat, it's a good clean sound.

Have you thought of getting a wedge sub box aka Auto Accoustics, it's only £150 inc p&p and you do not loose much bootspace, it sits in the right corner of the boot and looks really neat and tidy.

 

I have a RF 200x4 amp which will power the setup.
I don't think the tweeter mount exists in the Sti v4 Type r ? Do you know ?

I still don't want a sub how small it is ! I understand it would be better value for money and provide the ideal solution.

Is there any other size speaker I could fit at the back ?

I am buying the RF "X" front & RF 1369 (6x9) for £300 shipped from the US this includes Vat & duty - works out to be a good deal, I think. UK price is £450 !

It is going to be installed for me - is there anyone you recommend - I am using Thames Car audio in Egham, Surrey, quite reasonable price. You also mentioned that the crossover doesn't fit - surely it can be made to fit ?

 

Type R,

I have no idea if you have a tweeter mount in the front, I would presume you do, it's the funny grille right by the door handle....

If you don't want a sub which is fair enough, I would probably then go for 6x9's but I have no idea which is good and which are pants, I have only ever in recent times used components front and rears with subs as imho gives the best sound stage, a friend of mine has RF 6x9's in his STI-V and they sound quite good, i'll be buggered on knowing what model no they are tho - You may need spacers to fit them too...

£300 from the US inc shipping and duty thats an excellent price imho...I paid £449 for my Fanatic X's about 18 Months ago!

I found the RF Crossovers way too big, I got some Alpine DDDrive Crosovers as they were much smaller and attatched them between the door and the door skin with no probs, wheras the RF ones were about 66% bigger!

 

I don't have the grille by the door handle - so I'll consider the cutting the door card, maybe.

Cheers for the help.

 

Unless you put the tweeter directly on the door card, you wont have to cut it then, just a couple of holes in it for the wires etc, saves ******** up your door card incase you get it wrong, or did you want flush mounted tweeters?

 

Just remember when thinking about the size of speaker (6", 6.5" & 6x9) that the size of the enclosure makes a huge difference, and you can't change that with the front doors! You would get minimal extra bass from the marginal increase in volume of air moved by the larger speaker. A well seated & sealed 6" (as in including other parts of the door as well) will more than likely produce more (and definately better quality) bass than a badly mounted pair of 6x9s. Especially with an external amp - however small - because the increase in control that the amp gives means that the bass is more 'obvious' - sorry, not very good at explaining these things

I'd have thought that the set-up to aim for is 6" components with the main unit in the lower door & tweeter behind the door handle grilly thing (once you've got it, I believe that it should just replace what is(nt) there, & it saves hacking the door card up), powered by a small amp that can fit in the dash (pretty easy to do, as long as the amp is small enough!). The doors should be sealed with sheets of Dynamat/brown bread over the gaps & also on the back of the door for sound deadening. Should give a completely hidden system that gets the best out of what you've got (without going into door builds, etc.) without taking up any extra space. And also gives the option of sticking a sub in the boot at a later date if you feel the need.

All just my opinion, of course

[Edited by nom - 2/19/2002 12:34:13 PM]

 

Type-R

I'm with nom, to a great extent . If you put a good pair of components up front and (if you can find the space) seal the back of them, you'll get a much clearer and deeper sound than you will with a pair of 6*9's thrown in. But then, we've already convinced you of that

If you really can't face the idea of a sub in the boot (any particular reason?) then there is another option. Not as simple, but a reasonable one. Replace the rear speakers with a pair of GOOD 6" drivers (just mid-range, don't bother with drivers with tweeters built-in). Make a small cabinet, just big enough to surround the back of the speaker and bolt that underneath the speaker. If you make a good job of making the "cabinet" airtight, you'll get an awful lot more depth from the speaker than you will by just having it on the rear shelf, flapping around to its hearts' content

To make the cabinets, the best thing you can use is bendy-MDF. You can get this from B&Q and it lets you make (see if you can guess) curved shapes. So you can make a cylinder of MDF and then a flat plate for the bottom. Glue it all together and seal all joins with silicone (bath) sealant. That should be airtight enough.

I notice you're based on the South coast (London?) I'm in the Portsmouth area so, if you need help, I'm sure something can be arranged.

 

But I don't have the grill thing in my car near the door handle :
The options I have for mounting the tweeter :

1. Door card, not really wanted
2. Dash, bit too obvious
3. Grill thingy, don't have one !
4. On the door card ? don't know if this will look good.

Plus my amp fairly large, probably mount under the front seat or in the back somewhere

 

Would fitting the 6x9 in he rear shelf and then sealing them have the same effect as installing a 6" driver and sealing !

I just want to play a music a decent volume with crisp, sharp and bass but just don't want a sub but want to achieve some sort of comprimise.

Cheers

 

First reply thing first - grill thingy is available from Subaru, I think there's one (well, a few I suppose ) advertised on Cheam Motors - yup, here (48 skidoolies - probably worth it for the not-hacking-into the door & visibilty of surface mounting).

Back shelf - you get significantly more bass from the back shelf than from the fronts. Nothing to do with how big a speaker can be fitted in there, simply that the boot acts as a resonance box. I have high-quality 7" in the front doors & 6" coaxes in the back - there's quite a bit of bass from the back, but the front has a lot less quantity (although a lot better quality & I think rather deeper, but that's the "speaker" not the "speaker size" if you see what I mean? I don't ). Certainly back speakers 'fill out' the frequencies a lot. I have them barely on as there's a sub & the backs tend to ruin the soundstage, but all that's just personal taste anyway. If the sub's not there (space reasons), I'll push the balance back a bit to fill out the gap - in a way - that is missing.
No sub but good fronts & OK backs can work pretty well (again, it's all personal taste before moaning sets in!)
All muddled again?

 

That is a good idea but it states that it fits MY98, mine is a 97 Sti, pretty expensive just to mount the tweeters.

Over 2/3 the cost of speakers, kind of defeats the whole cost objective ! Do you know if door cards are available and how much it may just be cheaper to replace these ! If not I may mount the tweeter behind the grill for now, which at least allows me time to source another option ???

 

Type R,

U should give Grade A spares a call, they may have the grilles from a car they have broken, gotta be worth a try, if you could get them for £20 or something....At least that way you can hide the tweets....

 

Which grill? I'm getting muddled now!

 

The large grill at the bottom of the door for the main midrange !

 

You won't fit your mid and tweeter in there!!!!!

 

I think all my problems are sorted - nudge, nudge !!
Grade A do the tweeter door handle for £12, superb, sorted.

I think I'll go for the 6.5" RF "X" upfront and a pair of 6x9 RF in the rear, should give a decent quality sound, hopefully ! I think I'm geeting good quality setup and speakers for the price !

 

Sweet!!! £12 aint bad at all!!

Good luck with it m8

 

Good luck - but don't be disappointed when you hear what can be done with a bit of woodwork and a bit of effort

 

Hi there,

don't be too down hearted,

I've got 6x9's in the rear shelf, I know they are only JBL but they kick just fine. I have JBL 16cm driver in the door (spacer required) and the tweeter mounted on the dash next to the windscreen pillars. Two kenwood amps in the boot.... ho hum - rock and roll. It does for me. fun, loud, clean and tight sound. With enough bass to shake the whole car. Subs I can't do - kiddie requirements say I must have boot space, so this was about the best I could muster.
Enjoy your install when it's done. Cheers

 

Hi
I had installed 6.5 components RF FNQ 2614 in front and RF 6*9 in the back(both powered by an RF amp). Then after a lot of reading I decided to go for a sub at the back. It really improves the sound. What you can do it to have the sub attached with straps so if you need the additional space(which doesn´t happen often for me) you can remove it. What experts say and I have noticed it that high frequencies coming from the back ruin the sound making it much less clear(front high). I think they call this soundstage, even some units as pioneers have a function that makes the normal rear speakers play only the low end frequencies. As I did I recomend leaving the OEM speakers in the rear shelf powered by the source unit so rear pasengers don´t only hear lows and (having less power) the high that you would hear from the back are minimal. Hope this helps.

 

Well I've had enough....

After going through several sets of Dyn Audio Speakers... and looking at the Bass and trying to be sold something that would end up costing £2k more than I was originally quoted up in Bradford I decided to sod it and go to the local car place

My system will now have:

Alpine head unit with sound stage (RRP £799)
Focal fronts £299
Focal 6inch by 9inch Rear (think they is £199)
Genesis 4 channel (£600)
Genesis Miniblock (£600)
2* Diamond M512 in carpeted box (£700)
2 capacitors £250
The front doors are soundproofed and the boot is soundproofed (£300)

add about £750 for fitting and wiring.

So thats a pretty basic system then........

I realise that I should not go for the 6 by 9's - in fact I dont need the rears at all with the subs, and that having the rears is a no-no - but owning the Scoob the boot rattles when I dont have the system on - so I had to put something in - I decided not to go for components as my aim is to eliminate the Miniblock and subs as to get the sound I want I need to soundproof the whole car and spend at least another £5k on the set up. Not least the fact that the subs should be facing upwards and not at the back of the car like they currently do - nevermind - even companies with £10k demo cars dont seem to know what they are doing.....

 

Steve, the Focals are a nice set but they're still more SQ than SPL which I thought is what you were after (ie more volume!).

I've got the door builds from the Dyns that could be easily adapted (and will probably help a lot), plus the amp rack in the garage.

Also, I've still got the 7939 head unit if you're interested. As I still can't decide what to do with the stereo in the BMW at the moment, I may even be prepared to flog the 7969 off, if you ask really nicely.....

 

Kryten

Sorry mate - I've given up on the stereo malarky...

Thats why I went for the relatively cheap focals. Now that they are in the sound quality is not as crisp as the Dyn's but they dont need amping up anywhere near as much as the Dyn's. That said I'm happy with the overall sound and I'm soooo glad I took no notice of the people who commented that the 6*9's were a no-no - what utter rubbish - the sound is marginally better.. - but then I do have 1000wrms of Diamond Subs in the Boot as well

I'm getting a Farad Capacitor fitted to stop the speakers getting destroyed, as I suspect the speakers were damaged as a result of clipping on lack of power... plus it'll stop the headlights dipping

Re the unit I was gonna get the £800 jobbie but have been told today thatthe unit is being replaced in the next few months so I'll wait......

The current unit I have is only a 1v pre out and thats not guaranteed - the sound stage effect will definately help- I may get a couple of line drivers before the stereo comes out........

The Door builds would be good - but for me thats going too far....