Elduderino says that rear door speakers are a commie plot. They also mess up the front stage. However, for the times that I have rear seat passangers I would like to have them enjoy the music as well, not just the boom boom of the rear 6x9s right behind their head. I was thinking of installing an easily accessible switch to turn the rear door speakers on/off. I think the area right above or below the door hinge is a good spot and can be easily accessed (kind of like the child proof door lock). All I would need is a waterproof (or water resistant) low profile switch to interrupt the (+) wire to each speaker.



What do you guys think?

 

sounds like a plan

 

I think a weight sensor under the rear seats, which activates the speaker, would be better

 

ooooo slick!

 

Sounds like a very interesting idea. Doesn't sound like it would be very difficult to get working at all.

You might want to put it in a place that the driver can get to it though. If you happen to forget to turn both of them on and start driving with your passengers, you would have to stop, open each door, and turn the speakers back on. That way you would be able to turn them off/on while you were driving and also test the sound difference.

 

I think a varistat would be better since you could turn the speaker up and down as well as off.

 

 

The problem with either solution (switch or L-pad volume control) is that you really want to hook it up at the amp, so you can affect both speakers at the same time. I'd prefer this anyway, as was said, so that it'd be easy to change. I dunno where I'd hide the switch, tho.

Myself, I changed the wiring so that the rear speakers only play the "out of phase" material. This is similar to how surround processors work, except that I'm missing the forced delay (which is probably a good thing anyway). The volume is greatly reduced, and you only get ambiant sound from the rear, so it doesn't mess up your front soundstage. If anything, it helps give you a more 3D sound (at least with some material). I don't know if it'll give the rear passengers acceptable sound, though.

The problem with any solution is that the rear passengers are going to be overpowered by the 6x9s (when it sounds fine to the front passengers). So, regardless of what else you try, you'll probably still want to fade forward when you have rear passengers (or keep the volume pretty low). The last time I had rear passengers, I think I just had the overall volume low enough that it didn't matter; most of the time, my passengers are not picky about what things sound like anyway, so if the system is designed to my tastes, noone really cares.

 

orrrrrrrrrrrrrr..

Why not place a hi/pass crossover on them at 150hz and fade to the front.

 

I could be wrong, but I think Jay Luke Ja replaced his speakers and left the rear doors as stock? Not for sure though. From what I understand he likes the 6x9's on all the time, thats why the fader won't worksince he will loose the 6x9's and doors that way. That's why he's opting for a switch to cut them out.

I still say, ask YOUR ears if all that needs to be done. Your ear isn't the same as a little frequency measurng device, so even if a little tuner says it sounds perfect, your ears may still want you to tune it in so it sounds good to them.

 

He replaced all of the speakers with the Avincar kit, except for the rear doors. So did I.

His goal is not to give his passengers too much boom from the 6x9s, but I think it still may be a bit loud for the rear seat, with or without the rear door speakers. I can't say that I've spent a lot of time looking into this problem!

Measuring can help you to verify that you're hearing what you think you're hearing. It can also be more precise about pinpointing the frequencies in problem areas. (For example, in tuning crossover points...)

 

Front doors, tweeters, and 6x9 are all Avincar. Rear doors are OEM and still connected.

What I'd like to happen is: if I have rear seat passangers then to play music through all 4 door speakers but if I don't have rear seat passangers then disconnect the rear door speakers. All this without using the F/R fader control on the HU.

I think an in-line switch under the dash somewhere, after the amp, is probably a better idea.