Help with design.

[1963SS]

Hey guys, first post. I'm a 69 year old retired electrical/electronic engineer. I have both degrees and they've served me well for many years in my profession. I love audiophile quality and have some high powered stuff in my house but now I want it in the car. I'll be looking more at a SQ thing than total loudness. I currently have 2 amps. A Genesis Profile 5 amp and an Arc Audio SE2600. I'm thinking the ARC Audio amp would be good for the front stage because everyone says it's so clean.Another Profile Compact 4 is being modded to closer to class A by the factory right now and will ship soon. I should have 13 channels to play with. The speakers that I have now are 4-Stereo Integrity TM-65's, a JL 10TW3-D4, Dyneaudio MD-102, a HAT L3 PRO and a Morel MW4. I understand that they are generally nice products.

If I need something else I will buy iy also...........if I can talk HER into it. I'm a good talker for a born and bred Hillbilly.

The vehicle is going to be a 1995 Impala SS. Lots of volume to fill up in that boat. Woofer and angled tweeter pods for the front doors are available from custom speaker pods.com. It appears the JL Audio is going to need a sealed enclosure of avout .6 or .8 cu/ft. I'd like the Morel 10TW3-D4 in the center of the rear deck. I don't think I'll need two subs. What is the general consencus? I like the sound of the speakers that I have but what would be good for midrange up front. The Morel MW4's or the HAT L3 pros.

If I get rear deck or rear door speakers I'm just guessing here that they would need to be lesser volume and time aligned. (Just read about that.) If I go to a concert I hear sound from the stage primarily but those JBL tweeter arrays are blowing sound off every geographic and head in the auditorium. I'm thinking I'd like to duplicate that soundstage. Front, side rear with real time delay and volume control.

Is there a big advantage to a 8 channel DSP? Is it a must have or can passive crissover be used or be used in conjunction with active crossovers.I can wind any inductor I need and can tell the mh of the coil quite easily. The TM65's have gotten some good reviews from sound people with meters. Currenty my test equipment would be an oscilliscope (dual tracr) and a Fluke 87 meter.

Also, who could I speak to withing a few hundred miles about doing an install. Cincinnati, Columbus, Louisville etc.

[White Lightning]

Now this is one bad ass first post !!! Welcome to SMD brother.

Those Impallas are bad ass to work with. You should have no problems setting that thing up.

I'd start out with a nice headunit with processor options verses an external processor. Much easier to manipulate.

Wish I could help out with install, but I'm stuck down here in Mississippi. Good Luck.

I will help out where I can, just not with brand selection.

[jk13]

Welcome!

I recommend starting with the front and sub, adding rear fill and a T/A processor if you feel necessary after it's up and running. Unless you start with a HU with those functions built in as mentioned above. Remember your vehicle already has plenty of reflective surfaces behind you. Yes, they are closer than in an outdoor venue, but so is the front stage, and the Impala is one if the larger vehicles around.

Sounds like you have some theories of car sound down, time to play around with it in your ride. Nice that you have one with good aftermarket support.

[1963SS]

Thanks guys, yeah, that might have been much for a first post but at least I hit the ground runnin'. I forgot to mention that my head unit is a Pioneer DEH-80PRS. I heard they were pretty good and I got one off Jet.com for $197 delivered. Kinda hard to say no. It's in the kitchen in a box. Is there something else I should buy with a processor? I know the PRS-80 outputs can be set up as Front, Rear, Sub or Woofer, Midrance Tweeter. Has parametric equalization but how would I get the mid-bass and subs to work with that? I've got to split something.....right? Do I use the front, rear, sub thing or just the regular ole' outputs. What would y'all do? I'm going to do this myself probably and learn from my mistakes.

Heck, the Morel MW4's aren't a midrange. They're a 4" woofer. I've never heard of such a thing except for computer speakers. How would I integrate them into a system? I've got to pay better attention. When you've got money in your Paypal account and alcohol in your system, you never know what's going to show up on your doorstep.

[jk13]

You can build and use passives without interfering with the active crossovers in the rest of the system.

My first comp. system was fully 12dB/octave passive off one two channel amp back in 1991. Crossover network took up the entire area under the sub box.

14 speakers, 1,4,6,8,12--4ohm front stage, 8ohm center channel, 8 ohm rear fill, 2ohm substage off on a single Punch45. When IASCA dropped the 50watt class I used a Punch200 on the subs (they still counted SPL points) and a Punch40 on the rest.

I was 18 and the Rockford RTTI manual was my Bible for the summer.

[White Lightning]

Sorry, but I'm a Kenwood guy so I don't know much about that headunit except that it a great "stand alone unit" and an absolute monster with a top notch processor.

Do a search on this forum about that headunit. You should find plenty of info on it.

I run a pair of 2 channel Linear Power amplifiers on my front stage (Yes, I'm an old Linear Power guy ... LOL)

I would set up the front stage (highs, midrange, and midbass) first and worry about the rest at later time of the build if it was me ...

[aculous]

I found that to do a real 3-way design with the 80-prs was going to be a pain.

I ended up going with a Alpine 9887 and zapco amps. I also have a Helix DSP processor.

I wouldn't jump into a DSP just yet. If you got a SMD CC1 and a "dial-a-frequency" type active processor that would be cheaper and easier in the long run. Or better yet pair the CC-1 with your amps and run the crossovers off those.

The helix lets you fine tune things which is nice but it really is a crutch for the fact that I didn't know enough to really plan out my system before I started buying things. So to me a DSP becomes a nice to have and an expensive bandaid that could have been done with patience instead of money. Food for thought.

Driver choice looks good, placement and sound deadening should be of paramount importance (IMHO) or the next step.