In Car Entertainment & Security
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By Digs
#185122 Hey guys

Im not a bassy system kinda guy but i want a good system, are these subwoofer and amp things any good? because i know a subwoofer needs space to move air but these things are compact
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By suspendedHatch
#185137 No, they're all disappointing. I'm talking about Bazooka tubes and the crazy Alpine box with seven subs inside. They make bass but not much more than you can get from some good, amplified speakers.

Those things that you posted are pure crap. Save your money.

If you don't want subs, replace your rear speakers with some mid bass drivers (or get some components but toss the tweeters and passive crossovers). Get a 2ch amp matched to their RMS power, low pass it around 120 ish or so (play with it until it sounds best).

Besides adding bass, this improves sound quality because you never want high frequencies coming from behind your head.

In addition if your deck has a high pass for the fronts, you could now put it to use and improve mid range and high sound quality. Alternately you could amp the fronts as most amps have active crossovers.
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By Digs
#185155 sorry i dont know much about sound but could you explain this in very basic terms?

If you don't want subs, replace your rear speakers with some mid bass drivers (or get some components but toss the tweeters and passive crossovers). Get a 2ch amp matched to their RMS power, low pass it around 120 ish or so (play with it until it sounds best).

In addition if your deck has a high pass for the fronts, you could now put it to use and improve mid range and high sound quality. Alternately you could amp the fronts as most amps have active crossovers.


what does mid bass driver mean? 3 way speakers?
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By dro21
#185207 I think three way speakers are subs,midrange,and tweeters.in one speaker
Jensen is crap..
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By edcortez9
#185230 jensen really is crap only thing good about the brand is screens but you have a small trunk go with like a 10inch or 12.. i only have one 12 and it seems like too much base for me
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By Digs
#185282 yeah jensen is cheap and crap, so are mid bass drivers the same as 3 ways? well i listen to all kinds of music mostly metal so would 3 ways in the rear with an amp be good? or should i just go and put 10" sub in the trunk?
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By suspendedHatch
#185360 Sorry for the jargon.

A 3 way is a mid bass, a medium sized tweeter, and a small tweeter built into one speaker. Mid bass are not 3 ways they're actually 1 ways LOL. Less is better. You sacrifice power and sound quality when you ask one speaker to do all three jobs. 3 ways are like having the surgeon also be the receptionist and the janitor. It sounds like a good thing... this surgeon is a 3 way surgeon. But he will do all three jobs poorly compared to 3 people doing their specialized job.

Sorry I always go overboard with the ridiculous analogies.

A mid bass is just a medium sized speaker usually 5 1/4 or 6 1/2 inch that is only meant to play mid range. Compare this to a tweeter which is very small and only plays highs, or a 10 or 12 inch sub that only plays lows. Small speakers are easy to vibrate quickly, producing highs. Subs are big and push lots of air, but move slowly.

Components are a tweeter and mid bass set instead of having the tweeter mounted on top of the mid bass like a typical speaker. Typical speakers have a small non-polarized capacitor mounted directly to them to filter the low and mid frequencies from the tweeter. Because of the space constraints, you sacrifice a lot when compared to having a separate passive crossover.

Crossovers are a set of electronic components that work together to filter frequencies so you can send high to tweeters, mids to mids, and lows to subs. This is the hospital manager making the work schedule for the surgeon, receptionist, and janitor LOL. Components come with passive crossovers that you connect your speaker wires to. It's a little box that is mounted separately from the speaker so it can dissipate the heat.

Passive just means that they aren't powered. They eat up some power from the signal. Amplifiers have active crossovers. These have their own power and so they don't eat up any from your speakers. In fact, the amp gives your speakers more power.

More power isn't just for playing your system loud. It's not just for hip-hop. When your system has more power, it sounds much better at all volume levels. You hear a lot more detail in the music and you feel like you're in the studio (also has a lot to do with the installation quality and location of the speakers). You can turn it up louder w/out blowing your speakers.

For metal (I like punk, hardcore, emo myself. Some metal like Pantera and Ride the Lightning), you don't want a huge speaker that moves slower. You want it be able to move quickly to reproduce the double bass pedal. So a 10 is better than a 12. A 12 is okay but any bigger and it sounds sloppy. The mid bass setup I described in my earlier post would work better for metal than for hip-hop with the extremely exaggerated and slow bass hits.

Sorry for the damn essay. This is what happens when you can type almost as fast as you can talk.
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By Digs
#185380 No worries for the essay, its useful information, thank you for it and the analogies make it easier for simple folk like me to understand, ok so now that ive read your post and the fact that i cant seem to find any mid bass drivers here in SA ill be goin for an amp, 10" sub, headunit(obviously) and upgraded speakers in the front and rear, do you consider this good and any changes you would make? im putting this in a sedan
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By suspendedHatch
#185844 Rear speakers are a waste of money. They can only do two things: make your system louder, and hurt the sound quality.

They don't sell component speakers in South Africa? I think that if they sell subs and amps that they also sell components.
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By Digs
#185853 na we get speakers and tweeters but when i Googled the mid bass drivers and saw those, i checked if we have them here and we dont.

so i shouls just leave my rear stock speakers?
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By suspendedHatch
#186087 Forget I ever said "mid bass drivers". There are not many manufacturers that sell them alone. Search for "component speakers". Component speakers refer to a package of tweeters, mid bass drivers, and passive crossovers. Since components are mass produced and more common, it's cheaper to buy them and toss the tweeters and passive crossovers. Even better is if you use the same components on the front and keep the rear pieces and spares.

To answer your question I would disconnect and remove the rear speakers. This will free up more deck power for the fronts.
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By Digs
#186301 thanks and again suspendedHatch, helping me out alot here