Want more midbass?

[steve671]

I am posting this because I saw in another thread which I can't find now, someone trying different 6" door speakers to get better midbass. If you want to get good midbass from your 07-14, put 8" midbass or woofers in the doors. I did this in my 08 Sierra with the use of a speaker rings/adaptor that I designed. I have attached a PDF with a scan of a speaker ring/adaptor. You can print it, and cut it out and use as a template to make your own out of 3/4" MDF.

This along with a good amount of sound deadening, and foam between the speaker and the door panel, will get you good midbass in one of these vehicles.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

What HZ frequency range are you trying to increase through the use of a larger speaker?

 

[Doubeleive]

hard to get mid-base in these vehicles unless you go with very high end speakers and amps

 

[steve671]

What HZ frequency range are you trying to increase through the use of a larger speaker?

I have edited my original post because the way it was worded was a little unclear. I am providing a template for others to use to put 8's in the doors.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

I have edited my original post because the way it was worded was a little unclear. I am providing a template for others to use to put 8's in the doors.

Ok. Makes sense.

I was wondering, as a good quality 6.5" speaker with an external amplifier will give you solid (and loud, if you want it) frequency response down to 80HZ. At that point, a good quality subwoofer with an external amplifier will give you solid frequency response from 80HZ and below. At that point, there should not be any mid-base gaps in the overall sound.

 

[steve671]

Ok. Makes sense.

I was wondering, as a good quality 6.5" speaker with an external amplifier will give you solid (and loud, if you want it) frequency response down to 80HZ. At that point, a good quality subwoofer with an external amplifier will give you solid frequency response from 80HZ and below. At that point, there should not be any mid-base gaps in the overall sound.

What you are saying makes sense in theory, but in my experience due to the high pass crossover point of 80hz for the door mids, they are still playing sound all the way down to 20hz due to the roll-off that the crossover provides (usually 12 db/octave). A quality 8" can produce those lower frequencies louder without distortion when compared to a 6.5".
For those not using a sub, going with 8's in the doors will have an even more noticeable affect because the door speakers are being relied upon to produce mid bass and sub frequencies.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

What you are saying makes sense in theory, but in my experience due to the high pass crossover point of 80hz for the door mids, they are still playing sound all the way down to 20hz due to the roll-off that the crossover provides (usually 12 db/octave). A quality 8" can produce those lower frequencies louder without distortion when compared to a 6.5".
For those not using a sub, going with 8's in the doors will have an even more noticeable affect because the door speakers are being relied upon to produce mid bass and sub frequencies.

Yes, I agree that if you are not using a subwoofer in your system, it may make sense to try to accommodate larger door speakers, if you want to get more prominent lower frequencies.

However, if you are using an integrated tweeter/midrange and subwoofer audio system, a 12db/octave Butterworth high pass crossover for the midrange speaker is a pretty piss poor crossover, allowing a fair amount of sub 80HZ sound to leak into the midrange speaker, as you mentioned. You want to be using a 24db/octave Linkwitz-Riley high pass crossover for quality sound filtering. Likewise, you want to use a 24db/octave infrasonic low pass filter in the subwoofer part of the system.

 

[jmil1974]

More mid-BASS is not that hard, we actually have a good platform to start with. I have always loved 8s up front, best way I have seen to blend bass and midbass to create up front bass.

 

[salisburyv]

being able to upgrade the bose subwoofer in the center console to a 10" JL sub-woofer will give you the "up front" bass that will make for a nice accurate front sound stage. (i'm using a high end 3 way set up, 6.5" mid bass in door, 3" and tweeter in the A pillar) My .02

 

[jmil1974]

being able to upgrade the bose subwoofer in the center console to a 10" JL sub-woofer will give you the "up front" bass that will make for a nice accurate front sound stage. (i'm using a high end 3 way set up, 6.5" mid bass in door, 3" and tweeter in the A pillar) My .02

I've had active 3 way setups in my Camaro and old Burb. Can't touch it IMO once you get it tuned right. I probably won't be doing it on the '12, just a 10" console sub and upgraded woofers running off a PPI 5ch to start with pulling signal via an Audiocontrol LCQ1. Hopefully I don't get the bug to go crazy again...that shit snowballs. LOL Where did you get your A pilar pods...asking for a friend.

 

[ccole]

I run a rather ridiculous sub stage so I needed more mid-bass to keep up with(or try to) the subs. I'm running HAT L8SE's in the doors similar to the OP's Dynaudio's. I run 2 different sub stages during the year due to traveling for my kids sports. I run a sealed 13W7 which played up to 80hz well and was far easier to tune and drive when running 2-way with 6.5". However with my dual 15's ported tuned at 29/30hz would roll off 10-15 numbers below 80Hz. I initially added a 3.5" driver so I could play the 6.5 lower 70-75Hz without it also being required to run up to the tweeter x-over point. While it sounded okay I didn't get the impact I was hoping to achieve and doubling up on the wattage pushed the driver to hard. The 8" drivers however sound amazing and integrate far better with the 15's and perfectly mate with the sealed 13.5" sub.

From my experience any deadening/dampening applied to our vehicles helps in multiple areas.

Hey OP where did you install your mids and tweeters? What wattage are you running to your 3-way?

 

[salisburyv]

AutoSound Plainville Ma. see John. i used to work there many moons ago.

 

[steve671]

I run a rather ridiculous sub stage so I needed more mid-bass to keep up with(or try to) the subs. I'm running HAT L8SE's in the doors similar to the OP's Dynaudio's. I run 2 different sub stages during the year due to traveling for my kids sports. I run a sealed 13W7 which played up to 80hz well and was far easier to tune and drive when running 2-way with 6.5". However with my dual 15's ported tuned at 29/30hz would roll off 10-15 numbers below 80Hz. I initially added a 3.5" driver so I could play the 6.5 lower 70-75Hz without it also being required to run up to the tweeter x-over point. While it sounded okay I didn't get the impact I was hoping to achieve and doubling up on the wattage pushed the driver to hard. The 8" drivers however sound amazing and integrate far better with the 15's and perfectly mate with the sealed 13.5" sub.

From my experience any deadening/dampening applied to our vehicles helps in multiple areas.

Hey OP where did you install your mids and tweeters? What wattage are you running to your 3-way?

I started with the Dynaudio 8" in the doors, 3" dome and 1" Dynaudio tweeter at the top of the dash. But because the 3" did not go down low enough for me, I changed the 3" to a focal 4" mid and 1" tweeters with the Focal 3-way passive crossover. I had to cut out the dash and heat/bent the AC vents under the dash panel to get the 4" to fit. I ran this 3-way with a JL audio 300/2 and had a single 10" JL sub ran off a 500/1. This along with about 100lbs of sound damping material made this truck one of the best sounding/ staging vehicles I have put together. Here is a photo with the original dash speakers before I changed them to the focals.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Focal speakers rock. I have not used their lowest price point speaker model, but their low-mid priced speakers ($500+ per pair) are outstanding. 2 cars in my family have had Focal speakers for over 10 years with no issues. I even changed out 1 set (front and rear component pairs) into a new car, when I traded in the old one. Incredible range of price points ranging from $150 per pair to $24,000 per pair. I saw a $7000 pair at my audio store, but was afraid to even touch it.

I like the JL Audio amps, and I have the HD900/5 in my car, and a 6 channel class AB amp in another family car. When I bought my truck, funds were not available to go with the Focal / JL Audio components. Maybe, someday.

 

[ccole]

I started with the Dynaudio 8" in the doors, 3" dome and 1" Dynaudio tweeter at the top of the dash. But because the 3" did not go down low enough for me, I changed the 3" to a focal 4" mid and 1" tweeters with the Focal 3-way passive crossover. I had to cut out the dash and heat/bent the AC vents under the dash panel to get the 4" to fit. I ran this 3-way with a JL audio 300/2 and had a single 10" JL sub ran off a 500/1. This along with about 100lbs of sound damping material made this truck one of the best sounding/ staging vehicles I have put together. Here is a photo with the original dash speakers before I changed them to the focals.

Great idea. I haven’t thought to place the mids and tweeter on the dash. Currently my setup is stacked in the door panels. The imaging is good but I’ve been thinking about relocating the L3SE’s in the sails with tweeters in the factory Bose location. The doors I cut up are from an Escalade so I have the old ones in storage. The sails could be difficult to execute well. Especially since I use fiberglass one every 10 years. Might have to go the dash route now.
I also used about 100lbs of deadening materials along with 40’ of aluminum L-bar and gallon of panel bond.
I have a tendency to go heavy on the sub stage.
I do love the mid-bass response of the 8” in the doors vs the 6.5” I started with. Have you thought about sealing up the large opening on the door behind the panel? I used plexi(because I had it) then sealed up with deadening. It seemed to isolate the rear wave more and helped provide more punch. I am running 300 watts to each 8” so I could feel airflow around the bottom of the door prior. Now there’s far less and mostly around the glass. Thanks for the info.

 

[steve671]

Great idea. I haven’t thought to place the mids and tweeter on the dash. Currently my setup is stacked in the door panels. The imaging is good but I’ve been thinking about relocating the L3SE’s in the sails with tweeters in the factory Bose location. The doors I cut up are from an Escalade so I have the old ones in storage. The sails could be difficult to execute well. Especially since I use fiberglass one every 10 years. Might have to go the dash route now.
I also used about 100lbs of deadening materials along with 40’ of aluminum L-bar and gallon of panel bond.
I have a tendency to go heavy on the sub stage.
I do love the mid-bass response of the 8” in the doors vs the 6.5” I started with. Have you thought about sealing up the large opening on the door behind the panel? I used plexi(because I had it) then sealed up with deadening. It seemed to isolate the rear wave more and helped provide more punch. I am running 300 watts to each 8” so I could feel airflow around the bottom of the door prior. Now there’s far less and mostly around the glass. Thanks for the info.

I hadn’t thought about sealing up that hole but can certainly see how that would benefit; maybe I’ll do that on my next one which I’ll be starting soon. Speaking of 8” mid bass, look what I just won yesterday

 

[ccole]

I hadn’t thought about sealing up that hole but can certainly see how that would benefit; maybe I’ll do that on my next one which I’ll be starting soon. Speaking of 8” mid bass, look what I just won yesterday
View attachment 370645

That's an absolute steal! If I recall correctly those retail for $1000. Great midbass drivers as well! You been thinking about going active? You could run 200 watts just to those drivers with the right filtering. In the car audio world the DSP has been the biggest game changer in 30 years. There's a bit of a learning curve but I wouldn't build another stereo without one.

 

[Denaliz]

Kick Panels for the MB win- imo. Ive been running 8” Illusion Audio C8’s for a couple of years and couldn’t be happier. Making sure your subwoofer to midbass phase and transition is correct really helps.

Also have a 10” Raven clean subwoofer in a custom console firing up into the dash.

 

[salisburyv]

lol.... nice mic drop there.
obv... beautiful setup. it flows well. pretty nice mounting the director in the console lid... personally i would've put it in the console tray, and omit the cupholders there. If i had the money I'd send my yukon over to Peter @Pssound. i'm almost done sound deadening up front, def gonna need it with the JL in the console, and i love that its placed all the way up front. Tuning will be easier i think with that config. i am definitely using that idea of mounting the midrange in the dash. My tweeters are perfect in the pillars, this should be fun. just takes time since its my daily. i can't leave it apart for long. Thank you for posting such beautiful work!!

 

[Samrrrr2010tahoe]

I have edited my original post because the way it was worded was a little unclear. I am providing a template for others to use to put 8's in the doors.

Thank you bro I hate speaker pods and finally found a way to make it oem with a big ass 8