W210 3 way speaker ideas?

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coneybiller

Active Member
Joined
May 11, 2016
Messages
227
Location
Cheltenham
Car
'06 W211 E320CDI OM648
I would like to upgrade my bose speakers in my W210. I have had an alpine head unit installed complete with steering wheel controls and now find however much I EQ them, I just can't get them to sound right. They're too bright, so have adjusted that down but the mid bass is lacking around certain lower frequencies. (I have a sub that's crossed over around 100hz).
Anyways before I look into upgrading the speakers, I wondered if I could buy a 3 way system with the intention of utilising the phone speakers in the dash for the smaller mid bass speakers? Would there be any issues with the sound, as they'd be a bit close to the tweeters?
Has anyone added speakers to this location before?

Cheers

Ben

I mean utilising the dash speaker locations, not the speakers btw...
 
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Unfortunately the sub will only cross over up to 160hz but it doesn't sound like it really plays with any umph. I have a JL Audio JX 500/1 powering an old Alpine type-R 500w Dual 4ohms, wired to show 2ohms for the amp. So it's getting the full beans but tbh sounds underwhelming. I need to have a play with it really but it's a bit of an obnoxious thing to play with on the drive way haha! I have the gain maxed out on the amp but it just doesn't seem all that really. It doesn't quite drop low enough for some music and doesn't extend high enough to fill in on the lower end of the mid bass!
 
I might of missed it, have you the car speakers powered from the headunit or a separate amp? What did it sound like before you installed the sub?

I had a 2-way set up with the tweeters in the original position but outside the plastic if that makes sense. Are you planning on having mid and high on the top of the dash?
 
I had the alpine unit installed with a completely factory system, including the bose sub on the O/S/R of the boot. It sounded OK but had no depth to it and the highs were ear piercing. I had the sub and amp from my previous car, so put it in around a day or 2 after the head-unit. I played about with the parametric EQ and shaved some volume from the higher frequencies which sounded better. The only problem I can find really, is that the mid bass seems to be in the middling to poor category. It just seems that there are holes at certain frequencies that lack oomph...
I am starting to think that I would like an entirely new set up, including HU! I had an old but brilliant high end pioneer HU before, but had to sell it with my previous car. Now I have this fairly high end Alpine unit (CDA-178BT), I just find the EQ a bit fiddly and difficult to get right. Now I don't know if its the speakers that just aren't up to the job and no matter how much I EQ them, they wont sound right. Or if its me and this HU not getting along!

Speaker wise I was thinking of a 3 way setup:
Mids in factory door location
Highs in the dash (phone speaker location)
Tweets in the A pillars (either mirror panel or in pods).

My concern was that the highs and the tweets being close together and the highs being at an awkward angle pointing up and back. Ive never had a 3 way (ohh err) setup before, so don't really know if it would provide much benefit over a similarly priced 2 way setup. Obviously I'd look at a suitable amp to power these too and not just HU power.
 
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From my experience trying to drive them from a standard amp never sounds good.
Bose speakers are meant to be driven by a Bose amp.
They have a much lower impedance than standard.

The only real solution is either go back to stock using the Bose amps or replacing the speakers (and probably the wiring too).
 
You haven't got any kind of "Loudness" control switchd-in?

I'm taking about the type of EQ control that gives you way more bass at low levels but progressively reduces it at high levels.... That would explain why the highs sound piercing at hiogh volumes.

Might also be that the amp is clipping at high volume and the high frequency harshness you're hearing is a result of that....
 
I've seen other Bose/HK stereos where the speaker has there own amp/driver which receives a low signal from the headunit. When you then install an aftermarket unit and send a full signal to the speakers it can't handle it and needs wiring directly.

I would have had the woofer in the door and mid/high on top of the dash facing you however a good 2-way system would save messing with building pods etc.
 

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