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-   -   Sub and Amp recommendations for Rainbow components? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/car-entertainment/52171-sub-amp-recommendations-rainbow-components.html)

Hey guys,

Instead of the stock 10" shallow-mount speaker on the door, I want to put in Rainbow CS 365 Vanadium components . I also want to run a high quality 12" sub in the back to help with bass since these definitely cannot handle very low bass.

Current stock setup (please also see picture below):
2x10" (door)
2x3.5" (door)
1x3.5" (dash)
2x5.25" (rear)
(7 total)

Future setup:
2x 6.5"
2x 4"
2x tweeter
10-12" sub in the rear
dash 3.5" (old)
rear 2x 5.25" (old)

Is this too much given the small-ish area in the car? You cannot see this in the picture, but there is 13 cu feet of space behind the seats as well since the car is a sort of hatch-back.

I will find a way to custom fabricate a moutn to fit the 6.5" and 4" speakers on the door where the 10" now sits, and fit the tweets into the 3.5" slot up top. The dash mount 3.5" and rear 5.25 will be left alone or cut out completely depending on the sound stage.

I think I will run two separate amps. One for the speakers, and one for the sub, but I have not bought these yet. If you guys have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them. I'm definitely looking for sound quality over SPL ratings.

Sometimes I think I should sell the speakers and just settle for an upgraded camshaft and intake for a stereo system though!:D

Why do you want to downgrade from 10" woofers to 6.5s?
I would suggest you get atleast 8" components.

The 10" midbasses must be really shallow to fit in there!

For these speakers, I'd suggest a TRU Technology Steel S44 and an S500 for the sub.

If you're not too finicky about rear fill, you can run the S44 as a dual mono, pushing 200w per side into the 3-ways. The rears can run off the HU. You're using the stock HU, right? Adding a line-driver (between the HU and the amp) would be a great idea. Those speakers (and amps) deserve a good signal.

What is your budget for the amps? :)

EDIT: Uh, I missed the center channel speaker. Do you have a DSP in there already? Why do you need a center channel? You're not going to watch movies in there are you? :) If the setup is mostly for music, I think you should forget the center channel!

TRU certainly is one of the finest and works well with Rainbows. But there are lots to choose from especially since you are in the US. What is the budget?? Goody !! This promises to be interesting !!

No this is definetly not too much. A well tuned and well installed set up would sound heavenly. I have the same speakers in a Santro hatch. I would recommend a Image dynamics sub to go with it and if money permits do get an aftermarket HU .

Comes with Boss 7 speaker audio system:) And its not good?

Afaik Bose systems are highly overrated and only their high end systems are great. So many speakers is not quite necessary. A really good set of 2 way or 3 way components upfront and a nice powerful sub should do the trick. Do not skimp on the Amps and make sure you get the best your budget can permit. Bin the 'multi' speaker setups:-)

When OEM systems claim 7 speakers, 12 speakers or 379 speakers, they count each individual driver, i.e. the tweets too, as speakers. Thus the high count. What you are suggesting, would also end up in the car's manual and publicity as 9-10 speaker setup.

Frank, JK was talking of BOSS not BOSE. BOSE speakers are overrated, BOSS speakers are berated. :-)

379 speakers! I want this, I want this, I want this. Gimme Gimme. :-)
Just kidding.

Atlblkz06,
Think this:
8" 3 way compoents in the front door using a 4" midbass instead of a midrange..this will allow you to have the same 4" midbass and tweeter in the center dash
Add 12-15" subs and upgrade the rear to 6.5" components

man! typo ! its BOSE!

Hehe. 10 inch should do a great job and are there any other 10incher around?

@Atlblkz06:

You might want to consider looking at some of the Corvette installs on DIYMA (DIY Mobile Audio), some pretty good ideas there...

Specifically, check out the install done by 'simplicityinsound', thought it was rather well executed.

It was a decision made for me mostly. I have already spent the money on the 6.5"s because I heard from reliable sources that the midbass was excellent. Besides I'll have subs to pick up the slack when it comes to low frequencies.

Yes the 10" speakers there are pretty shallow, but have quite bit of punch! And yes - my HU can play DVDs on it's 7" screen and it has dolby 5.1 output. Technically I could watch movies in surround :D
The center channel speaker is there mainly to work with GM's Onstar system - it also happens to be a speaker. Its a strange setup eh?

I will look at the TRU speakers and sub, thanks. Honestly I have no idea if I should fill the rear, leave it stock or just pull the plug on it. I'm using an aftermarket HU - Pioneer Z2. I dont know what a line-driver is, but dont worry I'll look it up. Thanks a lot! I get suckered into spending more than intended but something <$400 bucks for the amp + sub was the plan.

Man it sounds like CRAP! The BOSE system in the average Cadillac sounds so much better with a stock HU! I dont know what it is - but the BOSE units are sorta hit or miss. As Frankmehta says - yes they are highly over-rated. I refuse to buy BOSE, but in this case I did not have a choice.

Ok will do. I don't know what binning is, I'll look it up :)

I went as far as registering there - only I could never understand what anyone there was saying :uncontrol I'm not an idiot, but that place gave me 145 questions for every answer I got! Its going to be a while before I feel comfortable with car audio lol.

Thanks for the input guys! Progress will be slow but I will certainly update you in the future.

Big doubt: Are you sure about the speaker sizes? Which car / model / year is this one? Hope you have measured at the speaker and not the grill! :p

10" is rather unusual as a mid-bass, and so is the 3.5" as a tweeter - at least in the 90's and this century. Even more so if this is a stock system, where even Bose would think many times before using a 10" because of Law of Diminishing Returns.

I do think the OldFox is right :) Esp. since that is a Bose system, they'd try and give you the smallest possible speakers.

A bit of googling shows that you most likely have 6.5" midbasses in front with 4" midrange drivers. No idea about the tweeters they should not be an issue -- 3.5" or lesser for sure. The rears are most likely 5.25". This is the link that seemed give some sensible info: C5 and general audio FAQ - Corvette Forum

The TRUs I mentioned are amps -- the S44 is a 4-channel amp (to drive 2 pairs of speakers) and the S500 is a mono amp (to drive a subwoofer -- or more, depending on the voice-coil configs of the subs). I think the going rate for a TRU S44 is $799 or so (6spdcoupe at DIYMA is a TRU dealer) which means we need to strike that off.

Like sk456, I'd also recomment Image Dynamics subs with the speakers you're planning to use. Out there, you should get an ID12 D2V3 (12" sub with dual 2ohm voice-coils) quite easily. Try shopping at woofersetc.com for good deals. They are an authorised ID dealer. The ID sub I mentioned goes for $179.99 there.

You should probably look at a very good 4-channel amp and use 2 channels to drive the fronts and bridge the rear channels to drive the sub. The Rear speakers can be run off the HU (or you can ditch the rears altogether -- I don't think you really need them in a 2-seater). I do think you might have to up the budget by $100 or so to get an amp good enough to drive those components and a sub, though.

The car is a C6, so the sizes are different :)

I didn't not measure these sizes, I got the numbers online. Several websites list them and I confirmed the sizes visually.
The door speaker is definitely a shallow mount 10", it's huge! It's a two-way.
The the 3.5" is also a two-way with the rear 5-1/4s being a plain speakers.

I stand corrected, then :) The 10" drivers in front -- tough to call them mid-basses at that size -- are a rare size indeed for front speakers!

The 10" & 3.5" (and a crossover somewhere in there) together are what make up the 2-way component system. The 5.25" rears must be full-range speakers.

How fares the budget? If you can't up it right now, I'd suggest getting a 4-ch amp for the full $400. You can use it with the Rainbows for a while (in 2-channel config) and then get the Sub a bit later, and run the amp in front + sub style (front channels feeding the Rainbows, rear channels feeding the Sub).

BTW, you'll need to spend a bit of money on power wiring and RCA cords when you buy the amp. Should run to $100 or so.