High pass settings for door speakers

Currently have an Alpine Power Pack driving Infinity Rederences with the factory radio. For the most part I'm pleased with the lows that the 6x9's are doing and I'd say for 90% of what I'm listening to the lows are present. Unfortunately I also listen to the same music with my home stereo which has a 15" Hsu Research subwoofer so I'm aware of what's missing in some music. Because of this and wanting to fill the low end I'm looking into the Kicker 10" Hideaway.

The crossover settings are currently turned off.

When I add a sub, should I bother with the door speaker's high pass filters or allow them to help with the mid bass?

 

The hideaway definitely isn’t going to fill the void on what all you’re missing from that 15” at home, so just make sure your expectations are set correctly

I’d set the 6x9’s to 80hz, but you can play with 60Hz and see what your ears like

 

I have the hideaway in the 4runner and a 10" sundown sd-4 in the taco. The hideway is basically like a midwoofer comparably. Like anything under 40-50 hertz just sounds bad. It is not a SUBstitute if you are wanting to hear/ feel tones down to 30ish hertz (much more likely down to 20ish on a 15" powered woofer.) Even the sd-4 is a sad comparison to the RSL Speedwoofer in the house- but there are space constraints at hand.

 

Now I'm debating on whether it'll be worth it. I know it'll be an improvement, but how much of an improvement is the question.

 

I run a Cerwin Vega 10" underseat sub. I'll be real. It adds a little volume to anything under 100 Hz, but it doesn't necessarily add much frequency range. My 6x9s can hit fairly low, but they can't hit the lows with volume.

My crossover is set at a stupidly high 120 Hz because that's the only seamless agreement I can get between my amp and sub. I don't let them have a large overlap to answer your question, because that sounds awful.

As far as running underseat subs go, it's still a smidge better than not running a sub. If you're going to run any kind of underseat, know your expectations, it will be a marginal improvement. Not collosal. Prepare your wallet accordingly.

 

if you're not interested in the space constraints with a sub, i would seriously consider getting a good 7-8" woofer with a copper shorting ring in the motor in a 2-way setup before i'd get an underseat sub. the front doors are set up really well for bass, can easily get down to 50hz with the right woofer.

my 6.5" peerless hds' hit about twice as hard as the stock setup, they just miss out on the 'feel it in your chest' bass, which an underseat sub doesn't really do anyways.

if you'd be interested in trying it, i've got a soundstream usb10p laying around from my previous truck build i could lend you to try(highest wattage underseat sub i could locate at the time, prefer to run 500w into my subs).

i was running a signal to it via a DSP and ended up with a really wacky eq curve to get it to sound 'ok', but it never sounded great. if memory serves, it had a resonance around 100-120hz, and got sloppy around 50hz. so i boosted 60-90hz way up, 100+hz way down(100hz high pass to other speakers) with a 110hz 24db low pass slope, and an eq'ed 6db slope starting at 60hz to keep the voice coil from eating itself with a final 'subsonic' filter set to 40hz.

even after all that, it did shake the seats a little, but only in a 'dollar store headphones with a deep voice' kind of way. still left me craving real bass, i ended up running those same peerless' down to 50hz to make up for the sub, and kept to the sub volume relatively low all the time. in the end, i was really happy i had the dsp to control the sub, but i'm really against strong eq use to make up for poor equipment, so the very fact that i had to do what i did to make it function really irritated me.

 

I'm rethinking things now and figuring out what I can fit behind the back seat on the driver side.

I'm assuming this guy will sound better despite being a smaller driver due to being in a larger box?

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_575P3008P/Rockford-Fosgate-P300-8P.html?tp=114

Or maybe the 10" version if it'll fit,

$310 Rockford Fosgate Punch P300-10T Single 10" 300-Watt Amplified Truck Sealed Box Subwoofer - Black

https://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Fos...d_r=de0f07f8-0886-4ed4-9cb0-d93ae53cd6f2&th=1

 

the 10" version will fit-- anything under 5" on top, and 8" on the bottom will fit.

but the width might not allow it to be on the drivers side.

 

Even with the plastic bins in place? I'll need to take some measurements but I appreciate the info!

 

hmm, not sure about the plastic bin restriction. the dimensions i was posting were part of the box i built to replace the bin on the passenger side

 

Ended up going with and installing the 8" Rockford Fosgate last night and loved it enough to review it on Crutchfield. Thanks for the recommendation @soundman98 !

Here's my posted review,

I ended up setting the speakers at 80hz. The Rockford Fosgate sub only had a dial for the crossover without clear numbers so I just started it as low as possible and little by little adjusted it higher to my liking to where it didn't feel like I was missing anything.

 

Excellent feedback... thanks!

Thinking about going down the same road with the Entune, non JBL in ours. Replaced the tweeters with DS18s (sound great!), the front doors with Infinity Reference 6x9 and rears with Rockford Fosgate 6.75". Sound is good, bass is okay, but overall it's much, much better than OEM. Don't need to rattle the rearview, but would still like more "oomph".

Couple of questions when you have time... did you use bass blockers on the door speakers? What model Alpine power pack? How did you end up feeding the RF 8" box?

TIA!

 

I used Amazon sound deadener at all 4 doors and the back panel of the cab. The RF 8" sub is amplified. Grounded it to a random bolt on the back wall that I sanded down to bare metal while power and signal was ran down the driver side.

 

Good info. But what I was looking for is the source that you used to drive the sub (the sound source input) - simply line level from one of the speaker outputs? And what model Alpine power pack you're using if you're still using it.

FWIW bass blockers are just inline high-pass filters that prevent low frequencies from being reproduced by your speakers. They basically remove certain frequencies from the signal going through the filter to the speaker. They can be really helpful when you need to stop low-end frequencies from being delivered to speakers that aren't designed to handle it, especially when you have a dedicated sub in the mix. It lets the other speakers do what they do best without any distortion and/or causing rattles. More here:

https://www.crutchfield.com/shopsearch/bass_blockers.html

Sound deadener is a terrific, inexpensive and easy way to really improve overall sound especially bass. I've added FatMat Rattle Trap to the outside skins of all four doors. They sound like a refrigerator door closing now. Made everything sound sooo much better! Will probably add it to the space behind the rear seats like you did if I go with the sub you're using.

Thanks again!

 

you should be feeding the sub the line level signal from the front speakers, as the rear speakers are an altered signal with less bass.

i definitely recommend some sort of bass blockers or amp-included-crossovers when running a sub. there's just no reason to keep the door speakers from trying to play the same signal the sub is producing that a sub is able to better produce.

 

Great advice. Thanks!

 

Ah I was reading too quickly when I replied the other night. Looks like @soundman98 answered your questions. As for my truck I've been using the Alpine Power Pack,

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-vOsRBw58gtO/p_500KTP445/Alpine-KTP-445-Power-Pack.html

Replacing the speakers made a slight improvement in sound quality. I did lose volume and bass since the factory HU just doesn't have the power. Once the Power Pack was added it made the biggest overall improvement. My only gripes with the unit are the dipswitches which controls the settings can be confusing and there's a slight hiss that's only noticeable if you're parked and the music isn't playing.

 

Excellent info... thanks for that! Looks like the Alpine amp is discontinued, so will do some research and find something similar.

I've replaced the head units, speakers and what-not in almost every vehicle I've owned. This is the first time I've tried to kind of "band aide" the OEM setup, but I like the head unit, but I don't like that I have to plug in my iPhone though... would much rather have wireless. In the end the cost and hassle may warrant a new head unit, I don't know. We'll see.

Thanks again!

 

Heck I linked the wrong one. This is what I’ve got and it’s still available and a bit cheaper.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_500KTA450/Alpine-KTA-450-Power-Pack.html

Sorry about the confusion.

 

No problem. Thanks again!