My small build , "New Focal component set" Pg 89

[oldsoundguy]

Yes I would need a dd1. The arc audio being a d class from what I have read about them is they are more efficient and have the digital technology to make them sound clear. I am not really sure if I want to change amps yet. Although if there is a difference in sound (like swapping to the focal's) than that would be worth it but iam just not sure if I could tell. Wish I could try before I buy. Damn it

[oldsoundguy]

I got my Fatial pro speakers today. They are cool looking little speakers. I think I may still want to try them out. If I purchased the Arc audio xdi 1200.6 I would have more control over the faital pros and could still band pass the the focal 5.25's using standard mode on the HU.

The arc audio has real cool crossover features.

I would still have to use the crossovers for the tweeters and wire them in parallel with the faital pro but the amp still puts out the same 150W per channel so it would split between the tweet and the 3".  I would run pos and neg from amp to crossover, then crossover to tweets and then pos and neg in from crossover to faital pro.  

 

[bcbrassard]

Post a pic of the Faital pro's. Lets see what those little speakers look like.

[oldsoundguy]

[bcbrassard]

Nice pics! Thanks man. Now what to do with them huh?

[oldsoundguy]

Well I laid in bed last nigh thinking about what to do and also on the way to work this morning. 

First off do I need a new amp? Answer is no. The one I have is just fine and for the small gains is it worth  it? No  I would most likely not be able to hear a different. Iam not using my truck for SQ comps so no need really. 

So now in to the plan of the day.lol

I want to bring the focals out from the door even more. Enough to have to cut the stock speaker grill area out and mout the speaker grill to the door. I noticed that on axis of the 5.25's sounds so much better. If I want even better sound out of them I might just have to make a door pod mount so I can install them more on axis. 

Next is the faital pro's. I want to make a temp pod so I can hear what they can do. I.want to reinstall the p300x2 to run the 5.25's along with their passive crossovers which will allow me to band pass them using the hu and crossover. Then I will run the tweeters and faital off the four channles of the 1000x5 using the tweeters passive crossovers and use the hu crossover for the faital pro. If the faital pro needs a higher cross point I will order a couple crossovers in the 500-800hz range.

This option will only cost a little in materials for pods and utilize what I have. 

Sorry for all the out loud thinking in the past posts. I really need to keep myself from spending  any more money on this.

 

[bcbrassard]

Sounds like a more affordable test for you to try this set up. Nothing wrong with thinking out loud, its hard to not go crazy on the builds. The ARC Amp wasn't a horrible price for what your getting out of an amp. Doubled RMS than the RF amp has you would notice a difference IMO just not huge gains.

Keep working it out. On Axis mids might help the SQ some but is the gain worth the fabrication? I would research that.

[oldsoundguy]

Well I got home today at about 10:45 and just came inside from messing with the truck this whole time. So 7 hours of non stop.

So here is what I did. I reinstalled the P300x2, switched the HU into standard mode. Ran the 5.25's off the p300 at first without the crossovers. Ran the tweeters with the crossovers off of the p1000x5, ran temp speaker wire for the faital pros and ran them off the other two channels on the p1000x5. I was able to cross the faital pros off the front channel on the HU @ 200hz and the tweeter crossovers took care of them. I did the time alignment and started listening. Played a few songs and it just wasn't sounding as good. So I hooked up the crossovers on the 5.25's  and hooked up the faital pros to the tweeter crossovers with the tweeters. The faital pros sounded a little better but the passive crossover for the tweeters is 4k and it needed to be just a little lower. So I said Fuck it and I removed the p300x2, took out the passive crossovers, took out the HU again and switched it back to network mode and wired it all back up. I ran the faital pro with the tweeters and played with the crossover points. The faital pros made the focal tweeters sound harsh. So I ended up unwiring the tweeters from the amp and just running the faital pros and it sounds much better. I just have them sitting on the dash in free air so when I build a proper pod for them they should really sound awesome. I have the gain on the amp all the way down on the faital pros just to be safe with them. They still play plenty loud and keep up with the doors.

I think I will build a dash style pod to mount them in. I am still not sure if I will run the tweeters with them or not. I will build a pod for them and run them with and without the tweeters and see what sounds best. What an exhausting stereo day but I learn a lot about what sounds good in my truck.  Is also amazing how much better active is over passive. Having control over all your speakers is better IMO. 

So in the quest for a super clean amplifier IMO I don't need an amp with crossovers just because I can do it all from my HU. I don't think there are many like that. The only problem I have found with the Zapco 150 LX with out crossovers is no bass knob. I still want to be able to adjust the subwoofer on the fly. Plus its 1100 bucks. Damn

Well I guess its time to start looking for materials to make pods.

[oldsoundguy]

I listened on the way to work this morning and I like what I hear. Even though the speakers are just sitting on the dashboard they still sound pretty good. When I get home I will hook up the tweets to the same channel as the faital pro and see how they fill in the highs. I may run the tweeters through their passive crossovers. Let the tweeters take the 4000k and up range. Too bad I couldnt band pass the faital pros. 

[oldsoundguy]

Here is an interesting observation from this morning. I took the faital pros which are just temp wired on the dash and put them onto the floor just to keep them out of sight and damn if thet didnt sound better. For some reason that idk it actally moved the staging up. With them on the dash they were imo too much in my face. They really add to the sound of the 5.25s. So I am going to play with placement. I want to try the door just above the Focal just to see. Then I will hook the tweeters back up so I still have the crisp highs.