Thinking of getting a 4 channel amp to power a front Infinity 6.1 component set and a set of rears....but here's the million dollar question...does someone make a great mid-bass speaker that would work in place of a sub? I'm not a huge bass guy...I just would like to hear nice tight bass without having to go through the sub/amp ordeal.
I suppose what I'm asking for is as close to sub like bass without the sub and extra amp to power it. Someone mentioned RE X_X_X components...are these any good at producing decent bass?
Bottom line, I'd like to only buy 4 speakers and a 4 channel amp.
okay, what you're trying to do can work as long as your expectations aren't too high. you will never have solid bass down to 30 Hz without a sub - but you can get close if you choose the right components.
first off, you're planning to use 6.5" components. that's good, but the ones you've mentioned may not be the best for the job.
from what i've heard of infinity components, they aren't the best at producing bass. my friend used to have the kappa components, and they were weak in the bass area. so, for what you're trying to do, infinity wouldn't be my first choice. they're good speakers, but just not for what you want.
however, some components do a pretty good job of pounding out the lows. a few that come to mind are JL ZR/XR/VR, diamond audio HEX, adhire coda, and i've heard kicker's new line is pretty good as well.
once you have speakers that can handle bass, you need power. i'd suggest 100 watts rms per channel to left and right front, no matter what the recommended power says, and if they'll take more, give them more!
another thing that can come in handy is a parametric EQ with atleast one band that goes down to the 40Hz-100Hz range. this will let you dial in power where you need it - in order to extract bass that you can enjoy without maxing out the drivers.
mounting the 6.5" drivers will require that you beef up the mounting locations with some kind of wood or other solid baffle. using dynamat will help here also. the idea is to make the mounting surface stiffer and heavier so that it won't move as much when your speakers are making bass.
one last thing: instead of mounting coaxials or components in the rear, you can find small subwoofers that mount in 6.5" or 6x9" locations. JL audio used to make 6.5" subs, kicker had some free-air 6x9"s, and focal makes a 5" sub. if you have rears doing bass-only duty, you can crank them up without messing up your front sound stage.
if you decide to go forward with this plan, just know that while it's possible, you'd probably have saved a little time, effort and money by just going with an all-in-one powered sub system such as infinity's basslink, or a bazooka tube - and of course, you'd have more bass. i like your the idea though. hope you decide to go for it.
forgot to mention - i have 6.5" components in one of my cars, with twin 100 wrms amps (one on each channel), and NO SUBS. i can can honestly say that i have useable bass down to the 55Hz-60Hz range. this doesn't sound like it's very low, but let me tell you - it slams! really hits you in the chest when you put some primus in. i use older SAS euphonic drivers, but with better components, i'm sure the results would be even more amazing. just letting you know i've tried everything i've said, so i know it can be done.
Honestly, midbass drivers won't replace subs, and they shouldn't be in the rear if you expect them to play midbass range too. If I were you, I'd personally bridge the rear channels of that amp and drive a subwoofer with it, that will work much better than midbass drivers in the back. 8" subs free air in the deck might work pretty well, depending on which one you'd want to use, but really 6" subs etc. won't impress. The RE X.X.X. and Adire Kodas are great for midbass, but it's still midbass, not really good for lower subwoofer range. You can expect a flat response down to around 50-60 hz from the Kodas and X.X.X. components, but that also depends on the vehicle they're in. If you really want pretty low bass and good sound quality without subs, you'd be best off with a 3 way component set up front with an 8" midbass driver, for example I use the Dynaudio System 360, and while I don't use it into subwoofer range, it will go down to around 40 hz without problems. Still isn't a subwoofer, though. Remember that this is a SQ application, I don't go subjecting the drivers to tracks with extremely high bass levels either. You could also consider a custom 3 way component system, putting 8" drivers in your doors, such as the Adire Audio Koda 8", it will extend low (in the 30 hz range) and will blend very well with midrange drivers such as 4" or 5.25" components.
Anonymous
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Thanks guys for your input!
Anonymous
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To Jonathan and Blownriv,
Ok you guys have convinced me to utilize a sub. Here's the plan now:
Set of 6.5" components in the front kicks and (1) 12" sub in the rear all driven by a 4 channel amp.
Now that I'm going the sub route...would the set of Infinity 6.1 work well with an Infinity 12.1d sub? I plan on using a decent 100x4 amp with the rear bridged as you suggested Jonathan, perhaps even a DVC to get more from the sub.
So any of the sets you mentioned above would work well for the front components...I've read good things about the Infinity 12.1d....what about the amp? PPI, Kicker, RF?
you really can't go wrong with any of those brands. sounds like your idea of using the infinities will work fine.
be careful though bridging the rear channels to a DVC sub. make sure the DVCs are 8 ohm or 2 ohm apiece. a sub with dual 4 ohm coils is hard to match to a bridged amp. if i were you, i'd just use a single coil sub - they sound just as good, and it would be a safe load for the amp to drive.
Yep. If you want the Infinity Perfect 12, then just go for the 12.1 since it's a single 4 ohm voice coil. Most 4 channel amps are only stable to a 4 ohm bridge, anything lower than 4 ohms will risk overheating and damaging the amp, or just trip protection circuitry and you won't get any sound out of it.