Basically, I loaded 4x polk db651s - not that impressed with the quality and one blew within a week or having them in. This is off stock head unit, I know they will sound better with aftermarket, but i haven't gotten around to it yet.

What I was wondering is; could I load up components all the way around? In my other vehicles I usually tried to put a coaxial rear with decent bass - but I don't have that option in the evo (only because my old rears were 6x9 much better for that setup, it's hard to find this in 6.5")

If so, what would be the ideal setup in the 150-300 range per set of speakers? Are there any amps that I could conceal somewhere, maybe under a seat that would provide adequate power? I've been out of the audio game a long time because I didn't want to tempt thieves - but if I can keep it on the DL (no box, no subs, hidden amps and speakers in stock locations hidden away) I may consider it.

If not, what would you recommend for solid fronts with decent rear fill in same budget range?

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I already have a decent pioneer head unit sitting here I had laying around from a previous vehicle. (deh3900mp)

 

It's not generally the power that blows a voice coil, its the distortion in the signal that does it. I'm not saying that shear power won't blow them either. So what I am saying is that your speakers would have lasted longer if you were actually using another amplifier instead of the tiny one in the head unit.

If I am going to use exactly 300 watts, for example, then I'd rather use an amp that kicks out something upwards of ~400 or even more. The closer you get to maxing out the amp, the more degraded/distorted signal you get.

 

Go to a local car audio shop. Find out who carries high-end in your town.

You can easily fit amps under your seats. Separates up front and coaxial in the rear. When you don't run a sub, and your small 6.5" speakers are trying to handle the bass duties too, you end up running out of xmax or excursion before thermal power handling. So, you probably only need 100watts per channel or so, depending on what speakers you run. For example, I carry a brand called Hertz. The energy line is great off of about 60-100 watts in a situation like yours. But the High-Energy line would want 100-150 watts per speaker.

 

I've sampled some stuff. I'm a pretty big fan of how inifiniti's sound - had them in my previous vehicles. I also have polk speakers at home for my home theater, they are my overall favorite but I don't know how that would translate into car audio on the higher end. My polks are very good right now for the price, but they are $60 speakers so anything will sound good. I'm open to suggestions however, but i'm really not looking for something really high end. Questions would include:

What amps fit under seats? (I Think I found a thread on here about that already)

Suggestions for components in the $150-$300 range?

You suggested just getting coaxial in the rear - in which case (I already have them - are my polks ok or something better?)

Should I 4 chan amp? Head unit to rears +2 chan for front components? Two seperate 2 channels?

Should I even bother installing a head unit if i'm going to run amps to the speakers? Stealth is key, but an audio installer by me said that stock head units don't always take so well to amps.

Help is awesome =)

 

dont get the infinity kappa perfect comp sets. Sound good however they cause almost every amp to clip. Their cross over network allows for them to drop into the 1.5 ohm range which most 4 ch amps are not stable to. They may have finally fixed this issue but I would stay away.

IF your looking for a good set I really like my boston pro series comp set. Very natural sounding and very clean. On a side note If your looking for a little bass why not try and elemental design 7. I think you could get away with putting one in a custom box under the seat.

 

In my evo, I decided to run with a set of MB Quartz components in the front and MB Quartz coaxials in the rear powered by a 6 channel amp and I also have an aftermarket radio and a sub.

What one poster said in here is very true. By under powering a speaker, you're more likely to blow it by under powering it because it causes distortion rather than by over powering it.

Personally, I like the Polks. They would sound a lot better with an aftermarket radio and a 4 channel amp though.

My suggestion is since you already have your Pioneer radio and it looks like you might plan on putting in a 4 channel amp, Might as well install that Pioneer in there. Price of the 4 channel line out converter and installation would be as much as getting that Pioneer installed, could even install that Pioneer yourself.

I have done some installs where the customers wanted their stock radio hooked up with a 4 channel amplifier and personally, I did not like the way it sounded and more than half of them came back to buy a new radio later.

As for amps, I'd look into some of the newer Alpines, I think their a pretty small size amp that would have no problem fitting under the passenger seat. I'm sure there are tons of other amps as well, I just haven't looked into it much.

As for speakers, my recommendation would be to go to a few audio shops and listen to some of their stuff. They're usually hooked up to an amp to give you a sense of idea of how they will sound. Or check out Crutchfield.com and read up some reviews on some speakers and go from there.

 

So let me get this straight.. you tried to run component speakers off the factory HU and you are supried at how poor they performed?

The factory head unit does not even have enough power to properly provide the stock speakers with ample wattage yet alone a set of components with probably 4x the power handling, and a lower SPL sensativity. In english, you need an amp to get remotely decent performace from components. •power range: 6-55 watts RMS I wouldn't even consider running less than a 50 watt rms per channel amp on these.

Also the EVO has to have the absolute most awful door construction I have ever come across in 14 years of car audio. By that I mean the inner door shell is so flimsy and unbraced that all of your bass will get turned into vibration of the door. I had to deaden the crap out of my doors to get any kind of performance out of my components. Components that would make most people as if I had subs, when installed in other cars in the past.

4 layes of Second Skin audio liquid sound deadener and 12 sq ft. of dynamat on top of that.

 

I think he was running regular coaxial speakers off the stock radio. Polk DB651 are the coaxials and the DB6501 are the components.

 

Excellent advice so far, im going to start researching alpine amps + mbquart components now. Keep the polks in the rear you guys think?

Anyone have any amps that they themselves have put under the seat? I was considering that they could potentially overheat or no?

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_107DB65...ures_and_specs

Best reviewed component set on crutchfield, and I already like the way polks sound.

My budget is 150-250 though and I can pick those up for about $100, so if there are better offerings out there i'm willing to take a look and listen.

Also, I was looking at the alpine amps - $400 for pdx 4.150 thats pretty steep. I can get the pdx 4.100 for $300 (still steep.. but maybe manageable) but i'm unsure if thats enough power.

 

I've never had a problem with Polks before, they do sound much better once you amplify them.

I'm not too sure about the overheating issue, I would imagine it would be fine though. I've installed some amps under the seat before and only issues I had from if the amp overheated (I remounted it on the back seat and it still overheated). I don't think our evo's have rear foot heaters under the seat so it should be fine.

I think the Alpine 4.100 amp will be fine. It puts out 100 watts RMS @ 4 ohms, which will be perfect for the Polk db6501's since their rated for a max of 100 watts RMS. The Polk db651's are rated for a max of 55 watts RMS so I would set the gain lower on the rear speakers. I would also set the gain around 80 percent for the front speakers, typically I don't like running everything at 100 percent. The Polk speakers are 4 ohms as well so the amp and speakers will pair up fine, with some minor adjustments to the gain.

 

Please forgive the notion unfamiliar to this forum, but why install rear speakers to begin with? Music is recorded in stereo, meaning 2 channels that project a 3-dimensional image. Running extra speakers in the rear smears the image, shifts what there is of a soundstage, and introduces a series of cancellations into the sound. The only reason to run rears is for added quantity of sound, albeit at the expense of quality. If you're looking for good sound, don't use the rears.

My tweeter amp, a Zapco Ref200, is under the passenger seat. If you read through my install thread, you can see plenty of pics as well as info that can help your install. Good luck.

 

im runnin alpine type r inside my car powered with a fosgate 4channel amp and it bumps pretty damn nice

 

I've got a/d/s 346cs crossovers and tweeters with cadence cvl-6k 6.5" woofers in the front, and a/d/s 346ix 6.5" components in the rear. I would definitely recommend using a good 4 channel amplifier, never try to run speakers off of the head unit. I am using a US amps xt1600.4 amp to power the speakers, and I must say I am very impressed with the sound quality of this setup.

 

im runnin the 6501's in the front with 651's in the rear and my car sounds great. i love the polk speakers.