set-up opinions
 

Not an expert when it comes to car audio stuff, but I think I know enough to get decent sound quality in my car.

I had 3.5's in the dash, and stock speakers in the rear - running off an Alpine MRV F300, (1 channel per speaker), and an 10" mtx sub (on a separate mono amp).

I wasn't happy with the sound quality so I got some 5.25 comps (75w rms).

I called audio shop 1 in scarb, to get a quote on the install of the comps. I explained I wanted the comps in the doors, and then bridge the 4ch amp to power them. The guy laughed at me and to him it was a ridiculous idea to do that. He even said, "when you watch a movie, you want surround sound don't you?"

So i called audio shop 2 in markham to do the install. I explained what I wanted to be done, but what he did was run the 3.5's parallel with the comps (so one side was sharing 35w rms), and then still have the rear speakers. He also found the idea of completely disconnecting the 3.5's and the rear speakers ridiculous. At the end of the day he just said "up to you, its your car".

Do any of you guys agree with their assessment? I eventually just bridged the darn thing myself so each side of the comp is now running on 80w rms and the sound quality is completely crisp and clear.

I'm with you, get all the power you can to that aftermarket comp set and forget about powering crapy stock 3.5's.

In any case, if the new configuration sounds best to you then that is definitly the one to keep!

thanks for sharing your opinion. yes, they definitely sound better in this configuration. I guess I'm just surprised that the two audio shops (well recommended by other car-clubs), found the idea ridiculous.

My set-up's not complicated - as I'm sure some of the people's car audio here are way out of my head, and yet these shops don't seem to have a clue of what they're doing.

My money's going somewhere else next time

sounds like they're pushing their idea of good sound on you. Many like rear fill, like me for instance, but your idea is a very common and well respected one. I'm not sure why they scoffed at it...except that maybe they just aren't up on other ideas..or they don't know a hell of a lot. Anyway, I've had my fair share of bad experiences at some shops. Unfortunately, there are more bad ones than good ones....i guess that's why I decided years ago to do everything myself. If it was my system, I'd bridge the f300 for the fronts, and get a small 30x4 for the 3.5's and rears or run them off the deck if possible...depending on the SQ of the stock speakers that is. If they don't sound very good, I'd forget about them, and either replace them or just use the rears for fill if they sound ok. Anyway, nothing wrong with your set up as long as you don't care for rear fill.

i running component speaker from frontstage and disconnect or not connection to rear speaker.

I'm looking for SQ and staging and imaging.
I like the singer singing a song infront on me and not singing behind ..