I've heard that you should only invest your money in front speakers and leave the back speakers alone becuase they're almost irrelevant. That's what someone told me in one of my posts. But, if you leave your back speakers hooked up to say a reciever with 22watts RMS, 50watts peak, would'nt they distort and sound awful? Just a thought. Any answers?

 

COME ON LADS, YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS!!!

 

I am one that agrees with the upfront only philosophy. If you have rear speakers you will be turning them way down because it simply sounds weird with the music and vocals coming from behind. The image is better when it is up front and in front of you. You can hook up the front to the amp and leave your rear on the HU. You can play the rear as loud as you want, there is no distortion until after they reach their max levels. Generally, you will find 95% of the sound up front is the way you listen. It might make a difference in a full size car, or even the 4door, but the back of the Xcab is not much space.

 

I put it this way in another thread earlier today:

Sound is sound. Add bad sound (rear speakers) to good sound (upgraded fronts), and guess what you got? BAD SOUND.

Speaker are almost free for gods sake at $100 a pair. Buy all four and be done with it.

 

I am one who upgraded both front and rear sound stages. Having lived with the system for about a year now, I would not waste money on putting in great coax/triax speakers in the rear. I have a Kicker Impulse 55W amp powering my front DiamondAudio components. I installed excellent Kicker coax's in the rear, and let my HU (45W) power the rear stage. I have a Rockford Fosgate 300a powering my JL stealthbox. During install, I also sprayed dampener inside the doors, and dynamatted the floor, rear wall, and speaker areas. (Sorry....forgot to say that I've got a SCrew). When the truck is rockin', I just CAN'T hear the rear stage at all. I mean, not at all. The front components sound so good, clear and tight, that anything the rear does is just wasted. I'm considering taking the rear coax's out, and replacing them with a high quality mid-range or tweeter -- just something to add some additional brightness and depth coming from behind. My advice to anyone considering upgrading their rear stage: Wait. Install good components in front and a good sub and live with it for a couple months. Then decide if it's worth the extra money. I believe most guys will decide to spend the money on something else.

 

I left the factory speakers in the rear. They actually sound pretty good hooked up to the pioneer premiere 45w. Not as good as the pioneer 6x8's up front but they add a little filler sound from the rear. It's really up to you, it won't hurt anything to replace the rears.

 

HUH!!! Interesting and again, thanks for the info Sundog!! Still though, what didthe rears cost you, $100, ahh, leave em.

I have a question regarding the amps and HU's. I'm trying to decide weather to buy the visteon CD6 head unit. It only has I think 60 or 80 total watts (20 per ch???). Then, put in a nice amp which can power my JL Stealthbox sub and my front components (JL XR series or similar...?). I really want the CD6 unit due to easy use, big buttons and really nice easy access changer in dash. The question is, will this sound ok since i'm going to be powering the fronts and sub with a good amp? OR, should I NOT go this route and buy a different (pioneer, fosgate, ...) head unit along with my amp.

I'm not sure, but it just seems to me if your going to power the speakers with a good amp, then the HU power really doesn't mean anything, right? Comments? Am I missing something? It's not a money issue, I just like the convenience of that cd6 hu.

Thanks!!

 

That's true, if you use an amp the power of th HU doesn't matter. You do have different pre-amp (rca) output voltages also. That will be only the difference in how you set the amp gain though, and with the higher the pre-amp voltage, you will get a cleaner signal to the amp with less chance of interferance from other power sources.
I would recommend trying it without an amp to the full range speakers. Alot of the time the HU will power them just fine and that will save you money. My Pioneer is 45w x4 and will power 200w Pioneer 6x8's plenty, and that's with two 10's going, run by an amp.

 

Thanks SVtoby,

But what bother me is the CD6 HU does not have any pre-amp outs / or RCA outs. I'll have to feed th amp wih speaker level. Does that degragate sound quality at all? And, the cd6 HU only has a total of either 60 or 80 watts which is only about 20 per speaker. But, since I will have to get an amp for the subwoofer, then I maze well get an amp with multiple ins/outs to run the front speakers thru it too, no?

 

CCarrera: Check this link:
http://clubknowledge.com/phpBB/
The forum is hosted by several Pro Installers and tech-types who will answer any post such as yours with excellent advice and insight. I learned a lot just lurking.

 

You can use speaker level for amp connection. IMO you do loose "some" sound quality. Generally makes the amp run hotter and you loose some effeciancy. Most all amps will accept speaker level inputs. You might try running the full range with HU first, if you're not happy, then add an amp for them. I have found the best HU to use in one where you have a seperate rca sub-out, you can adjust the sub level seperately. The HU you're speaking of, you would run the subs on the rear channel and you can use fade to balance out.