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Yeah the tweeters being close might be to overpowering, and it will make the highs reach your ears before the mid, messing up your sound stage. Thats why I sugetsed the double sided tape, and playing with the location. I ran into the brightness problem with my Focal Utopias. When they were first installed they put the tweets in the dash, and I was not at all happy with it. So I mooved them down to the kicks, and the diffrence was total night and day.

A soft dome might not be what your looking for, but then again its all a matter of taste.

Yes the diamonds might work, but then your stuck with your tweeter location.

I have to say go with my original idea. Purchase the components that you like. Put the mid in the door, and then use some double sided tape and play with the tweeter location till you find a spot you like.

hey man you do NOT have to worry about loosing space going dual or single 15,12, remember youre box dosent have to be 50 inches deep, it can be 8-12 inches deep and just be pretty tall(doubt youre going to need the the air) and make it long.Im sure most tens can work with .7 cubes, so dual would be like 1.5 wich is pretty small.

hmm jeremyc you got me thinking here . are you saying with the tweeters up so high it will overpower ? is that what you mean by close to the ears ? so if i went with a hard domed tweeter it would be to " bright " in that spot ?

what if i went with a sift dome ? a couple of comments i have seen have said soft dome would be ok it is all a matter of what you like in sound .

maybe then something like these diamond d661i will work and just leave the tweeter in place that is in the door and disconect it .

You can try it in the doors, in the factory spots, but that is going to be pretty close to your ears. I would just take some double sided tape, and play with the location. Try it in the kick panels, over the factory spot, and so on till you find something you really like. My tweeters are in the kick panels and from the sound you would never know it.

well it is to dark now to take pics but my car has factory tweeters in the upper door and the cones in the bottom . here is link a pics i found online that shows the placement of the tweeters and the cones . it is where i will be placing them i guess .

as for the focal's i did listen to them , and i liked them alot . but i liked the ba's better . the bad thing is i wasn't able to listen to the in the same shop . man this is hard hahahah ...

thanks again for the help guys .

omardeth wrote:what i am getting at is if i get one of those cheapo box setups that you can get at lets say an auto parts store . you know the ones for like 100$ with 2 subs and an amp . and just yank the subs out and replace them with good ones . as long as the box is made well and and sealed up and have the right volume size , it should be ok yes ?

I would stay away from prefab boxes. Yes they will work, but they typically not very well made, and typically not the best design for your car. I noticed you are trying to save space. A prefab won't be built utilizing all the hight width, and length you have avaliable. If you build your own, you can adjust those measurments in order to get a tight fit in your trunk, and still leave as much area as possiable open for other (stuff).

Jonathon is right about the focals. They are a great set, and are a little more forward than some of the more neutral sets. I am a huge Focal fan myself, if they are powered, and installed properly. So make sure you play with the tweeter location before you permantly mount then. I would try to stay pretty close to the mid, and you should be fine. If possiable don't put them in the dash firing off the glass, if you do they will come across way to bright.

Jonathan... wouldn't using an RE XXX be kind of the opposite of what hes looking for? Those subs are monsters and need a pretty big box don't they?

thanks alot jonathan , you have given me alot to think about . let me ask you this . if i do go with a dual sub setup , weither it be 10's or 12's , a sub box is a sub box correct ? as long as it has the volume needed for the sub being used correct .

what i am getting at is if i get one of those cheapo box setups that you can get at lets say an auto parts store . you know the ones for like 100$ with 2 subs and an amp . and just yank the subs out and replace them with good ones . as long as the box is made well and and sealed up and have the right volume size , it should be ok yes ?

also is there anybody in the sacramento area that is following this thread that wouldn't mind helping out with this project ?

i was planing on buying the parts and haveing a local installer put it in .

A 11"x17"x13" box would be just under 1 cu ft. internal volume assuming that you used 3/4" MDF to build the box.

When choosing a sub, remember that there is a three-way relationship for what you choose. Low-frequency capability, box size, and efficiency are those three, and to increase any of the three, you have to give up something from the other two, with box size being the most sensitive. Since you want a small box, your SPL capability with a given amplifier power and your low bass performance will suffer to an extent. Best thing to do is to use the largest box you can live comfortably with, based on the performance you want. It's a necessary evil, unfortunately.

There are some 12" subs that will work with that airspace sealed, but ported isn't an option with that airspace. Just off my head, one 12" sub that works very well with that airspace is the Image Dynamics IDQ 12". It isn't an SPL monster though, I wouldn't expect huge volume levels with it, it would simply offer authoritative depth and would fill in the low end nicely. If I were in your shoes (don't want to lose the hatchback at all) I'd use a single 12 since cancellation is such an issue with opposing sides and you simply can't squeek two 12s in a 1 cu ft box. For the sub, I'd choose an Adire Audio Brahma or Resonant Engineering XXX for subwoofer duties. Both are capable of working well in that amount of airspace and will provide solid SQ and SPL for your needs. In most cases one is enough. The Brahma is the more efficient sub, in the end the XXX gets a little louder, though.

As far as the components go, the Focal 165 V2s that you were looking at are a power set, punchy midbass and a stronger tweeter. They work well with rock. If I constantly listened to hard rock, I'd choose them over the others, if you wanted a smoother tonality for classical, jazz, etc. I'd go with the DLS and so on.

Diamonds HEX series components are pretty intense. You can find em on ebay for around 275. and can haggle a dealer down to 350. Plus you can throw power at em like they were subs. Awesome comps. choice of silk or metal tweets.