Sub and/or speakers in the rear hatch?

[Evilution]

Originally Posted by Frankenstein_Casanova

Maybe the 6x9's on either side

Hell NO!

6x9s are designed to do 3 jobs at the same time (they do these badly), they are designed as "make do" speakers for cars with no room for anything better.
They should never be used as part of a sensible sound system.
They can be loud but the quality is poor and will reduce the quality of any other sound output such as a bass box, tweeter or mid range speaker that you add.

The smart has room for full components, use that room and you will get a decent sounding system.

[brian r]

Originally Posted by Agent86

Had a builder quote me $1,000 to create an enclosure that wouldb ecome a permanent part of the car and wouldn't be removable without trashing the resin work!

This person is an amateur and should not be let near your car. Its never necessary to have an enclosure become a permanent part of the car unless it is using cavities within the bodywork to increase the enclosure volume. To get an enclosure to fit exactly in an odd shape, you cover the body with tape and then apply a mold release so the resin structure can be removed for finishing. The tape is pulled off and the car looks as it did from the factory.

$1000 is also silly.

[chrisdfw]

Originally Posted by Evilution

I would have to disagree in this day and age. Frontal sound stages finished in the 80's. If you go to the cinema or a concert now they have speakers at the back. They aren't necessarily spacially balanced but are there to fill the rear sound out a little so the front sound doesn't have to be louder to fill the rear.

Obviously with a lot of people changing their stereos for aftermarket ones with rear channels, it will aid the sound a lot to add rear speakers. The front to rear fader will help in the after market stereos. More care must be taken if using the standard stereo. You don't want to add better speakers to the back as that will give a majority audio to the rear which will sound wrong.

I would have to disagree with this logic. Movie theater speakers that are in the rear play the sound that is only meant to come from the rear. MP3s and most music are recorded to come from a pair of speakers positioned in front of you. If you are watching DVDs in your car or are buying the few music DVDs that have 5.1 or 7.1 encoding, then rear and even center speakers would have a purpose.

If I ever go to a movie theater that has front sound coming from the rear because they don't want to have the front speakers loud enough then I would never go back to that theater.

[chrisdfw]

Originally Posted by brian r

This person is an amateur and should not be let near your car. Its never necessary to have an enclosure become a permanent part of the car unless it is using cavities within the bodywork to increase the enclosure volume. To get an enclosure to fit exactly in an odd shape, you cover the body with tape and then apply a mold release so the resin structure can be removed for finishing. The tape is pulled off and the car looks as it did from the factory.

$1000 is also silly.

At Earmark Car Audio in Plano TX for less than $1000 I got 6.5 inch Boston Acoustic speakers in the doors, an amp under the passenger seat, and a custom made removable subwoofer box up in that area above the passenger's feet.

I only did a little 6 inch subwoofer since I wanted clean bass and don't have the need for my ribs and neighbor's ribs to shake. It's such a huge improvement over the stock stuff that it brought a tear to my eye.

Since I don't have an alarm thanks to the configurator glitch during the order process, I want the car to look stock and won't be replacing the head unit. It sounds just fine and with the aux jack in the glovebox I can stick an 80 gig ipod in there and never worry about music again.

[Evilution]

Yeah, not so much movie theatres any more but thats what they did between full frontal sound stage and surround sound.
You certainly don't get surround at gigs and concerts.

[MP3SMART]

I'm getting Navigation with two speakers added in the hatch. I'm just looking to fill in the sound a little more than the door speakers (one that is always blocked by my leg) up front. Talking about high fidelity for a car that is generally noisy is a bit over the top, don't you think?

[brian r]

Originally Posted by chrisdfw

At Earmark Car Audio in Plano TX for less than $1000 I got 6.5 inch Boston Acoustic speakers in the doors, an amp under the passenger seat, and a custom made removable subwoofer box up in that area above the passenger's feet.

I only did a little 6 inch subwoofer since I wanted clean bass and don't have the need for my ribs and neighbor's ribs to shake. It's such a huge improvement over the stock stuff that it brought a tear to my eye.

Since I don't have an alarm thanks to the configurator glitch during the order process, I want the car to look stock and won't be replacing the head unit. It sounds just fine and with the aux jack in the glovebox I can stick an 80 gig ipod in there and never worry about music again.

That sounds like a great system for $1000. Bostons are very nice, particularly with a small amp.

What 6" sub did they use? I have a JL Audio 6W0 in enclosures in my Mini; they're built into the bodywork where the rear 6x9s are from the factory. They sound like buch bigger speakers in a proper enclosure. I'm thinking abut using one exactly like you had done.

[chrisdfw]

Originally Posted by brian r

That sounds like a great system for $1000. Bostons are very nice, particularly with a small amp.

What 6" sub did they use? I have a JL Audio 6W0 in enclosures in my Mini; they're built into the bodywork where the rear 6x9s are from the factory. They sound like buch bigger speakers in a proper enclosure. I'm thinking abut using one exactly like you had done.

It is actually the JL 6W04 that is about 6.5 inches. I love it.

The front speakers were Boston Acoustics SX65 and they were able to leave the factory grills on for a completely stock look.

The amp was a little Alpine MRPF250 that fit exactly under the passenger seat without getting in the way of the seat movement.