JL Audio C5 3-way components in Front?

Just about ready to make the order on the JL Audio C5 series. Can't beat an American design, German manufactured combo, well, without spending even more money. Before going with the 2 way set, just wondering if anyone has been able to convienently fit a 3 way setup in the front of the Gen 2?

I would place the JL 6.5 inch driver in the stock location, place JL 4" midrange driver in the stock tweeter location, and place the JL tweeter on the door window sail or in the A-pillar. I'm not looking into doing the overpriced Q-pods or custom fiberglass kickpanels.

So far I measured the stock tweeter - looks like the bolt spacing would just about match the 4" driver mounting requirement, but I'm unsure of whether the 4" would be offset from the door card opening. Anyone else running 3-way up front with a regular passive crossover, and how did you make the midrange fit? If its more work for just marginal improvement, I'll just stick with the 2-way set.

 

Going to be pretty hard to fit that 4" in the factory spot. I am in the progress of doing Focal KRX3 3ways in my 3rd gen and will be fiberglassing pods to the a pillars so that i can fit all drivers. I will never go back to a 2 way passive system; active is so much better IMO

 

this. I'm getting some pretty solid imaging & tonality out of a 2-way using only the DSP in the 80PRS in stock locations. 3-way is always better all other things held equal, but usually much more difficult to implement. I'd do an active 2-way over a passive 3-way any day.

 

This is what I've been reading and learning as well. Active will be more pricey, and for someone like me who doesn't know a lot about it, but I've heard it's a lot better. I'll definitely want to have it professionally done. I'm going to be upgrading sound system sometime soon. I'll be going the active 2-way component speaker route, soundproofing, and processor etc. I know it's not going to be cheap, but if I'm going to spend the money on it, I want it done right.

I got a quote the other day, it was $1200 for new wiring and kenwood 3 way speakers in the door, keeping the stock head unit. That's no tweeters, and not including the sub. Sub would be $400-$600 more. I wasn't impressed with that price. If I going to spend that much, I'm going to spend a little more and have top of the line stuff.

I've been looking at dynaudio, hertz, and focal speakers.

 

Active doesn't have to be expensive. Actually most new Pioneer double-DIN head units come standard with Network Mode which gives you 3-way active crossovers with time alignment and decent EQ. It'll be a bit more expensive for a DSP if you wanna keep your stock HU, but you also get to scrap the bulky passive crossovers. That means you can buy raw drivers from vendors like Madisound which opens up FAR more choices for probably far less money.

 

If you go active - don't you need to waste two 100 watt (or whatever size) channels on two tweeters? You are essentially just running each speaker off a dedicated channel which has its frequencies bandpassed to run in a controlled range for that speaker - right?

Thanks for answering regardding the 3-way - i figured it was going to not fit right. Eventually I will try out my fiberglassing skills another set in the front- I'm not paying $200 for q-pods.

 

Call it waste if you like, but yes each driver gets an individual channel. You'll never get close to 100W with a tweeter and if you do you'll probably regret it. Personally I see passives as wasteful. I always overpower my drivers, so 'waste' is always built in . Err, OK, I don't so much overpower them as I just provide them lots of headroom.

 

Yes you place a whole set of channels on the front tweeters. When running passive (with the crossover box) that thing eats up a bunch of your power. Your speakers c5s or zrs are capable of so much more without the crossover. Add a dsp and you really off and running. Yes no rear speakers at all. It took me a minute to accept this. But it's true