Do speakers in the rear deck really mess up the sound stage?

 

mind me asking why you assume that is the case in the first place????

 

He's probably been reading elduderino's (among others') posts.

 

yea lol....i plan on gettin a 02 or 03 tl type s soon and plan on customizing the rear deck wit 4 6 1/2s but i keeep reading that speakers in the rear deck suck...guess i'll have to try it out and see for myself

 

Well, I used to swear by having rear speakers. I now just have the fronts and I absolutely love it.

 

Thats not to say elduderino is wrong. Ideally when you listen to music you face it. It happens in front of you. A very good system will stage the music so that you'll be able to pick out various locations of the instruments across the soundstage in front of you. The rear speakers would only be used for ambiance, to try to reproduce the reflections of the soundwaves from the concert hall/theater walls that your sounsystem is trying to simulate. High/middle frequencies are directional (i.e. your ears will be able to pick out from which direction they emminate) so, to be true to the soundstage, you want to locate the source of those high/mid frequencies in front of you. Low frequency signals are not directional so, for instance, there is no problem in placing a subwoofer in the trunk. If you place speakers that play high/mid frequencies behind you and they play the same signal (ie. stereo) then your ears will hear both the front and the rear speakers and will not be able to infer the soundstage location of various instruments. In this sense, rear speakers do mess up the soundstage.

 

well said