kedar

I don't feel like I have enough sound. It's plenty loud, but I don't feel engulfed in music. I am considering adding Polk mm5251 5.25 component speakers in the hatch and ditching the crossover and tweater.

Current setup includes 6.5" components in doors powered by arc audio ks125.4 and arc audio 10" woofer in hatch powered by arc audio ks500.1. I have two channels available to power the rear speakers. I have considered, but dismissed, the idea of bridging or bi-amping the front speakers. The sub gets its signal from the rear channel. Should the rears also get signal from rear channel?

Any other thoughts?

markcz

Before buying anything new you can do an experiment with the oem speakers to see if you like it better. Just be careful not to smoke them with that amp.

I'd go with coaxials in the rear, but if you do get components that you won't be using the tweets with you may want to still use the crossovers so only the mids get to the speakers.

For where to get the sub signal if you add rears, there are several possibilities....

Split rear signal to sub, this will give you easy control over the sub with front/rear fade, but rears come and go with it.

Split front signal to sub, this will give you easy control of rears, but sub level must be controlled locally at amp or with remote bass **** if it has one.

Split front to supply fronts and rears, then use rear on sub. Excellent control of sub, but fronts/rear split must be adjusted on amp.

Kensmith

That is kind of what I have. I have components in doors, coaxial in rear, subs in rear with a volume control for the subs. My amp is a Diamond Audio D6 5.2 with channels for front, rear, sub, and center. I have my subs bridged.

pentavolvo

if you are gonna do it, run coaxial in the rear. you can take either the front or rear preouts its really up to you. the rears dont have the chime

Thrash

As you know I just finished my install, and since I was going with rears from the start it was interesting to fade them out to see the difference.

I think anyone who says the rears are not necessary just doesn't have any rears, as the difference is huge with the rears firing (I used 5.25" Focal Performance components), and certainly has better overall sound and power.

kedar

Thanks everyone. I will try coaxial speakers in rear. Fr initial setup will split front signal to the front and rear signals and use the rear signal for the sub. I will try to adjust the rear speaker using the gain and crossover on the amp.

Thrash

I boosted the fronts about 25% more than the rears, with the HU fader set in the middle. Sounds about right, as the rears would need 50% more boost to be close the the front levels (since they are behind you and somewhat blocked).

Also, as I mentioned in my install post, the line-driver will dramatically boost the chimes & bluetooth volume, so your switching fronts & rears at the line-driver/HU will really help with that (moves them from the front left to rear left speaker). Let us know how it works out ...

Gadget01

If you have the crossover adjustments to separately power the woofers and tweeters in the doors, try it. You'll need to run separate speaker wires to the amp- one speaker for each amp channel. Use the passive crossover for just the tweeter until you are certain the tweeters won't see anything below 3000Hz or you might smell something funny.

I had 6.5" component sets in both the doors and the rear when I initially set up my system. It was plenty loud, but I found myself fading the rears down to almost zero. My 4-channel amp's crossovers were not sufficient, so I got an AudioControl 6XS to split the lows and highs at 3200Hz. It also limits the lows to 90Hz and sends 20 to 90Hz to my sub amp. It comes out of the box set at 250Hz, so be careful if you go that route. I learned the hard way and had to replace a dead tweeter.

Between the 6.5" woofer and the 1" tweeter in each door plus the 12" sub in the back, it can get louder than most could tolerate while still sounding as clear as it does at low volume levels.

If you're set on running rear fill, run them from the front channel inputs and keep your sub on the rear channels by itself. You can fade the rear fill by using the input gain on the amp until you get it dialed in and probably not need to adjust it very often. Your fader will conveniently control your sub output, which I find adjusting fairly often.

Set it up to your preference, but don't disregard an active "bi-wire/bi-amp" setup. Lots of benefits there if you value sound quality.

kedar

i just finished installing polk mm521 5.25" coaxial speakers in the rear of my c6 coupe. so far, from what i have heard, i am very pleased. the system sounds more full and robust. i used a y-adapter and split the front signal. the sub runs off of the rear signal. the gains for the rear speakers are turned all the way down.

thanks to everyone who offered an opinion.

markcz

Turbo6TA

kedar ....

Good idea using rear speakers. As you know, I just finished my install a couple of months ago.

If I turn off my aftermarket rear speakers and only listen to the aftermarket door speakers and the sub in the rear, it don't sound anywhere near as good as with the door, rear and sub all working together.

As others have said ... just install coaxial speakers in the rear. That way, you won't even have those small separate crossover boxes to worry about wireing and mounting.

I am using a 5-channel amp to power all my speakers ... here is how the interconnects are wired:


________________________________

BTW ... Here is the major parts I used:

5-Channel Amp
Arc Audio, XDi805

2-Way Component Speaker - Doors
Focal, PS 165

2-Way Coaxial Speaker - Rear
Arc Audio, XXD 5029

Subwoofer Speaker
JL Audio, 8W3v3-4

.

kedar

the polk audio mm521 coaxial speakers come with a small crossover, which i adhered to the wheel wells in the cavity behind the speakers. i am very pleased with the results and am very happy with the choice of a coaxial speaker. the sound is now very robust. i feel surrounded by music and the rear speakers do not overpower the fronts.

Turbo6TA, how do you ilke splitting the rear signal to get sound to your sub and rear speakers? Your fade control will allow you to adjust the rear speakers with the sub. So far, I am happy with splitting the front signal.

markcz, thanks for your breakdown of the options to split the signal.

pentavolvo, thank you for the suggestion to go with coaxial speakers.

Turbo6TA

kedar ... The fade control does increase the volume of both the rears and the sub together, but my 5-channel amp has separate gain controls for both the rear and sub, so you can adjust both the volume of the rears and the subs to get the volume correct.

Here is a photo I found of just the sub section of the amp ... shows the gain control.

Again, there are separate gain controls for the fronts (doors), the rears, and the sub.

DRLC5

His system sounds great. Really like the sound it puts out. Now if I could get him to listen to some better music..lol.