Check my post.

Q.

OK, I've just made the jump and bought the following:

FOCAL PolyKevlar 165K2P's

ALPINE CDA-9853R Head Unit

ALPINE MRP-F240 Amp (Bridged to 2-Channel - 100W RMS x 2)

ALPINE KCA-420i iPod Interface

INFINITY BASSLINK Self-powered Subwoofer

My rear side-panel speakers are just a pair of Alpine 4" speakers to provide the spacial stereo fill-in and will be driven directly off the head-unit.

This setup should hopefully provide a significant improvement over my factory speakers :cool:

NICE!
Nice
Nice
Cool
Huh?!

Take a look at some of the JL Audio 10" subs, there are a couple diff models that will work nicely in a approx. 1 cu. ft. sealed enclosure that can be made to fit behind the seat. IIRC they make one that works in .75 cu. ft. ;)

Cheers,

Thanks Brandon.

My problem is that I have two little kids which I take in the back on a daily basis doing drop-offs at school and the baby-sitters, so I need the back seats and the leg room.

I've heard good things about the Infinity Basslink in the front trunk and it seems like a good solution to my real-estate issue in the cabin :confused:

If you go with the basslink, I would find a place inside the cabin. Maybe under the passenger seat.

This seems like a viable solution for a trunk mounted sub http://www.subsolutions.com/2subwoofer-porsche-installation.htm
Although, I could see the potential for some interesting rattles.

I made a custom version of that Subsolution for my 911 in the early 90s, and it worked well. Read the "specs" page on the site. hemakes some very valid points...points that I tried to amke when I was doing high end sales and installations of gear.

I have no idea how the stuff actually sounds, but that place would be my first stop if I wanted a sub for a 911.

When I'm rear-passenger-less, I'll run the Infinity Subwoofer behind my seat, but when I have my two girls with me, I'll relocate it to the trunk. It seems like a very simple unit to move in/out of position, so it won't be a big deal. I'm short anyway, so it'd fit nicely behind the drivers seat ;)

Well y jacks and 2 sets of rca's will make that easy i guess.

I think you have a spectaculer system those speakers with that amp will go straight to 10 and be so perfect. i think your going to be very happy.

so where are you going to put the amp?

Thanks :)

It's not a very big amp and I was hoping to have it under my seat (RHD car), however, I'll most probaby have issues with my power seat motor :(

I may just mount it in the trunk I guess?

You'll have to run two sets of everything for the sub, power / remote / and RCA's to be able to move it around. Better to just pick a spot that works for your needs and be done with it.

lots of stuff here and i have to chime in. spend money on speakers and head unit. they make the biggest difference. in the end it is all about the install.
i say get a kenwood excelon hu the x790 or x890. great bang for buck deck. infinity components are also great bang for buck. you don't need a cd changer if you get a mp3-wma deck. i think you will be suprised by the sound and might not even need a sub or amp.

Focal's website is Focal . Your link was to the Aussie site.

Just a slight aside, I was at Focal's plant in Saint-Etienne last week & Guy - their 12V Guru hauled me out to listen to his Benz wagon fitted with a Focal Utopia system & their new amps. He has spent 4 months tuning it. The best car-fi I have ever heard . . .

Ian

I disagree...better quality speakers are rarely that efficient, and a clean amp is a very integral part of a good system.

Yeh, I have heard that I won't need a sub if I get a high-end 6.5" speaker, however, I listen to a lot of RnB and Hip Hop, so I like my bass. I don't want/need anything ground shattering, just a bit more punch lower down. This will help greatly in an open top car, especially on the FWY.

Some great reviews from Focal users here!!!

QUESTION:

If I bridge my amp to 2-channel mode, can I still use my head-unit to drive the rear 4" speakers directly?

a stealth system is hard to do in a 911. i have been trying for years. if you are willing to give up your back seats, you have a lot of options. my favoriate was a pair of 10" drivers fired down in to the seat coushin and the bass coming out the front. did not look much different than stock and you could put junk back there cuz the subs were hidden.
the best stealth set up i have seen was a 12" sub mounted in a custom enclosure where the passengers feet go. it had a tight mesh grill and was hard to notice
here are a few designs i have been working on. http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...60_77_full.jpg

Just for the sake of response, I'd leave the basslink up front, forget about putting it behind the seat. it's a lot neater as well, not having all those RCA and power cables in the cab.

It throws pretty hard, I presently have one in my 5 series - too bad the car is built like a vault tho - doesn't travel too well in a 911 it would be a monster.

I'd also swap the 4 channel for a 2 channel amp just for simple sake of a slightly smaller size, and you're not stomping the amp at a lower impedance to get the power. Heat, damping factor, etc will be affected by lower impedance - simply not the way to set it up. Either that or run 50 x 4 and fade - especially the smaller drivers will need the power to keep up with the fronts, and not to overheat and distort 'em..

Smaller speaker doesn't always mean lower power requirement..

With all that said, I use a 50x 4 running in 3 channels to a pair of 8's in a Rod Birch panel and MB quart co ax's in the door.

It gets me by, but my no means is my car going to win any soundoffs..I need to up my power levels..

rjp

Oh, and to answer the question - Yes, you can use the deck to run the rears independently of amplification...

rjp

Lets see some pics of the door speaks, please!

No Guru here. But I have a major stealth system.

I have the old Infinity Kappa series in front, oversize Kappas in the rear.
Two Soundstream amps, the Soundstream Rubicon powers the front two.
Subwoofer is powered by its own Soundstream amp.

I have an external 3 way crossover (three amps) with an inline controller for the sub under the dash (you really need this, as the amount of bass needed changes under different conditions.

The head unit is the 2005 Blaupunkt Seattle MP3 (awesome unit)

The subwoofer enclosure is a built in that takes place of the rear seats and runs the entire width of the car. It is carpeted with factory Porsche carpet - actually it's kind of nice.

I have found that speakers make the biggest difference, but to get the performance out of them, you need a lot of amplifier. I would NEVER dream of not running my speakers through amps. Next to amp, the brand of amplifier makes a huge difference. Spend the money on the quality amplifier if anything.

I love the comments on the speakers. Now I'm thinking about going to the store an listen to the Focal speakers!

closest pic I have at the moment are my interior shots on pcaronline, there is a shot with drivers door open.

6.5" and it's basically a bolt in fit.

rjp

OK fellas, the ALpine CD-Tuner I have has a built in Active X-Over 3-way setting. I'm told it'd be better to use the inbuilt active x-over instead of the passive Focal X-Overs, so I can fine tune and adjust the x-over points in the actual head unit itself.

I'm told to wire it this way:

Front RCA HU -> Front RCA Amp -> Tweeters
Rear RCA HU -> Rear RCA Amp -> MidBass's
SubW RCA HU-> Infinity Basslink

In the above configuration, I can then fine tune the x-over points in the head unit for more control over sound quality and imaging.

What do you guys think?

Originally, I was going to bridge the 4 x 40W amp to a 2 x 100W setup and just run the Focals off that setup, but I'm told by an audio guru that the passive cross-overs will rob a lot of power (approx 25%) and drop speaker volume by up to 3dB!!!

Although the Focals still will be a little underpowered, they will be less underpowered by that amp in Active than they would running bridged and passive. The Active setup gives me much more tuning options, and gives me the ability to take full advantage of the head unit's features.

Advice?

i would still recomend using the passive x-overs. expecialy for the tweeters. i don't think the active ones in the hu have the right freq for mids and tweeters. check it out in the manual. for the mids you would need something like 250hz hi pass on the hu and then a 5,000hz low pass on the amp. the tweeters should have a 5,000hz high pass? i'm not sure exactly what your speakers want but that is a good estimate and 12 db/octave or more is a must

Hmmm, this is what I was told by an audio guru who knows the Alpine Head Unit I have:

In the deck, press and hold the setup or menu or whatever,go into crossover, set High to 24DB (which is setting 4) I think using the source button, and use the slide bar to set at 3.2khz. On the Mid High, set the same 4 / 3.2khz, on the Mid Low, set 4 / 80hz, on the low (sub) set 4 / 80hz. set the gains on the amp equal, you can turn your tweeter up and down on the deck, start with negative 4 compared to the mids.

Do not set any Crossovers on the amps, including the self powered sub, (if the self-powered sub permanently has a X/over, set it higher than 80hz, so the alpine x/over is doing the work).

Once this is setup, you have separate time alignement for your mids, tweeter and sub, which is a great thing to have, as it gives you more mounting options with your mids, in regards to tweeter placement. The 5 Band P Eq is great to sort things out after the rest is setup.

i just checked out the manual for your deck and it is sweet. it has all of the adjustments you need. those adjustments you mentioned look ok. they should be specific for your speakers. in my experience a 80hz mid freq is a bit low for my taste. if you notice that the mids are distorting try using a higher freq like 120+. from the look on the responce graph it looks like the fs of the driver is 80hz and you should have a x-over freq 1 to 2 octaves above that, 160-240hz. it realy depends on how you listen to your stereo.
good luck with the install.

whatever you do, if you bi - amp the front end (delete the passive x-overs) -make sure you install in series a non polarized capicator on the tweeters to protect them from turn on thumps and spikes.

Typically (assuming a 4 ohm load) you want to install a cap that is 1/2 the crossover point you have assigned - so, 5000HZ at 4 ohm shoud correspond to a 2.5 microfarad cap in series.

Installing something against DC shorts wouldn't hurt as well - LED in parallel for instance.

rjp

Frankly, given the environment you're listening in, just running two channels, and using the xover boxes will be plenty good.

avoid spending hours tweaking this thing, lots of extra wiring, and with your power you'll be plenty loud enough to make your ears ring for hours just installing it as the speaker designers intended. If you're unsure about how to set it all up, it's a real time consuming affair, esp. if you have a bi- amped setup with slopes - if you get the slopes wrong between mids and highs, you'll get cancellation in certain frequencies and funky imaging.

Like I said, my recommendation is to use a strong two channel amp for the front, xover boxes (which will also provide protection against pops and spikes) and a crossover in the deck- use the deck to filter signals between mid/highs and sub only coupled to the powered sub with NO CROSSOVER built in as a setup. Less wiring, better longetivity and less hassle. Doubt you'll hear the difference.

Also, if you decide to bi amp the front, at 5K hz I'd reccomend a 24Db / octave slope, from what I've played with in the past, 12 is too gradual at that frequency - check what the speaker is rated for in response range

Just my $.02

rjp

Yeh they are, he looked up the specs on the Focal 165K2P's and that's the settings he recommended for my setup. I gave him all the model #'s of the amp, subby, deck and speakers I'm using, so ???

All I can really do is give it a try and see how it all pans out.

If it turns out to be too much hasstle running in Active X-over mode, I can always fit the passive x-overs in the trunk with the rest of the hardware and just bridge the amp to 2-channel mode ;)

I do want the best sound possible, since it is a Cab, and I want the best imaging I can get out of the setup :confused:

Doesn't maTter which way I go (active VS passive), in the end, it's GOT to be better than the factory Nokia ***** that's in there currently :mad: