Couple of Car Audio Q's

[handyjoe]

To the experts:

1) Has anybody had any experience with Elemental Designs? My friend has a sub from them and it sounds great, and a lot of their stuff is pretty cheap, so I'm thinking about redoing my audio with a lot of their stuff.

2) My goal is to get a great sounding stereo for relatively cheap (and by great, I mean tight sounding, better than stock by a long shot). I've been told to only do fronts and get rid of the rears. Good idea? I've never heard this, but my experience in car audio is limited to installing a sub/amp combo that my friend had already boxed in my last two cars, and not really doing any research at all.

Whaddya think?

[TheWastedYears]

I've never used Elemental Designs stuff, but I do know that you can build a great sounding system w/o going broke.

I've never heard of getting rid of the rear speakers. That just sounds silly.

[handyjoe]

I thought so too. Their reasoning made sense, due to the fact that you'd get better imaging from your right only coming from one set of componenets and your left only coming from one set of componenets.

Maybe I'll only replace the fronts...I dunno. The audio plans are very much up in the air.

[raptors_67]

elemental's stuff is a very good bang for your buck product, it is by no means meant to be a top quality product but i would consider them if i was looking at anything in the cheaper pioneer/kenwood range. It was probably recommended to you to replace only the fronts and lose the rears for the reasons as you said, you want to keep things on a budget. You are much better off to spend more money on a good set of front components then to get 2 mediocre sets for front and rear. It's also a matter of personal preference. I prefer some rear fill but nothing to overtake the fronts. In my basic setup i will use the rears to fill in between the fronts and the sub to give a softer transition.

[Watts-Up]

E D makes some very nice subs! I have never heard thier component sets, but the high end subs are badass! I totally agree that if your front stage is strong enough, you don't need any rear fill at all. The goal is to try and re-create the experience of a live performance by tuning your front stage. When you go to a concert, does 1/2 of the band set up behind you?

[TheWastedYears]

That's all well and good for me, but I feel that rear passengers should be punished by my music selection. I never put components in the rear, but I do upgrade the stock w/ same size.

I've found that it helps w/ some of the sound imaging lost by having door speakers that fire into your leg.

[handyjoe]

Originally Posted by Watts-Up

E D makes some very nice subs! I have never heard thier component sets, but the high end subs are badass! I totally agree that if your front stage is strong enough, you don't need any rear fill at all. The goal is to try and re-create the experience of a live performance by tuning your front stage. When you go to a concert, does 1/2 of the band set up behind you?

No, but normally I'm standing close enough to the speakers that I can't hear for days.

That isn't what I want to recreate.

I just want a nice even sound, and if that can be achieved by getting their higher end component set with a nicely powered amp, that sounds good. As of now, I'm kinda leaning toward getting their lower end set all around (it costs half as much, so I can afford to get twice as many!) Would the sound quality be noticably different with decent components front and rear vs. super excellent components front? Remember, I'm more the common man who really likes music than your standard audiophile.

Oh Watts, I'm already set on getting a 13Kv.2 sub. (I bought a NiNe.2 amp for it last night!) Its gonna be pretty tight.

[Watts-Up]

Originally Posted by TheWastedYears

That's all well and good for me, but I feel that rear passengers should be punished by my music selection. I never put components in the rear, but I do upgrade the stock w/ same size.

I've found that it helps w/ some of the sound imaging lost by having door speakers that fire into your leg.

Yeah, I would agree when using the stock door locations. I should have been more specific and said floor mounted, or kickpanel mounted front stage. If you ever get the chance to hear mine, I assure you it will dish out plenty of punishment to the back seat as well! LOL There are just so many techniques and variables involved, it would take a whole book to cover everything. If anyone wants to learn a lot about car audio from professional competitors, here's a great place to learn:
http://www.audiogroupforum.com/csforum/

[handyjoe]

Ah, yes, they'll just be going into the doors for me as well. I may custom-mount the tweeters where the AAS system has the tweeters, but we'll see on that one.

So if I'm just reusing stock locations should I use rears too? (They'll be going into the rear deck, but I'll probably make them top-mounted as opposed to under the deck)

[snobrdrdan]

Originally Posted by handyjoe

I may custom-mount the tweeters where the AAS system has the tweeters, but we'll see on that one.

That's very simple to do...drill the holes with a hole saw & then just "flush mount" them.

And I think someone meant that you shouldn't bother with rear speakers....not to eliminate them. Like you said....the "front stage" is just more important