KKMmaniac

Although I don't really care for Bose home audio speakers and audio systems, (I haven't heard any of their mobile systems) I gotta give them credit for coming up with a novel woofer design to fit in the front doors. http://www.bose.com/products/auto/tech-doors2.html

However, because of the thin design of the speakers, it looks like the RX-8 may be another car with limited depth for mounting aftermarket speakers in the front doors. Most low frequency drivers available in the aftermarket have pretty deep baskets, and thick magnets.

I for one, intend to install the largest drivers I can, without cutting the metal in the door. (given equal mechanical design parameters in comparing drivers, and if optimized for enclosure size, larger drivers will generally reproduce deeper bass) This will probably mean going to an 8-inch woofer, with a plate to step down the hole size if necessary. I don't want to go with a subwoofer due to bulk, weight, and added complication.

However, the mounting depth concerns me. I know a few manufacturers like Morel and DEI have thinner speakers larger than 6-1/2" that use the more compact neodymium magnets, or other design specifics that make them thin. Does anybody else know of any large, thin, high quality speakers? (that might fit, I don't mean Magneplanars!)

Sputnik

While you are contemplating this, remember that the Bose 9" speaker will be acting as a mid-bass, not a sub. So if you decide to replace it with an 8" subwoofer, you will also have to install a mid-range speaker somewhere up front.

---jps

DreamWarrior

Wow, good for Bose to steal credit from the company that did it for cars long before them. Illusion audio has been creating an 8 inch mid-bass driver for a long time just like this. Now that Illusion is no more, it wouldn't surprise me that Bose either bought them out, or just stole their concept out right and started using it. But hey, Illusion 8" mid-basses were great speakers, but I'll leave it to Bose to mess them up. I guess I'll have to let my ears decide, but I just lost a 10,000 stereo setup in my car to theives, I doubt Bose will top that in this car. But hey, it'll be a nicer car than my Camaro, so that'll make up for it.

KKMmaniac

Huh! Interesting. Bose always tries to come off as THE big innovator, and no doubt, they have some innovation. I'm still not convinced they have acheived the best end result in some cases though.

In regards to the door speakers, I'm not suggesting I would install subs. Midbass, woofer, what ever you want to call them, I would want the low frequency drivers to reach high enough into upper frequencies so I wouldn't need a dedicated mid-range, but also reach low enough to where I wouldn't need a supplementary subwoofer. (for my tastes)

Some tweeters will reach fairly low (flat to 2000 or so hz) making a dedicated midrange driver unnecessary, although I also realize, the larger the bass (or midbass) driver gets, the more directional it generally becomes at higher frequencies.

And as always, a person needs to consider how flat the frequency response of a driver is, throughout the frequency range it will be used to cover. At least some of us appreciate flat frequency response, but then the car's acoustics add more variables to the mix, and supposedly, that's one area Bose concentrates their efforts.

DreamWarrior

How flat the driver is will be some of your consideration, however regardless the right tuning can fix a driver that is not flat to an extent anyway. Besides, you typically don't want to listen to your music entirely flat anyway, it tends to sound bland that way. At least IMO, and in just about every IASCA judge's opinion.

Secondly, regardless of driver size, a higher frequency sound is always more directional. However consider that to play 20khz a driver needs to move back and forth 20000 times in a second. A larger driver will be heavier and depending on the motor strength it'll have a harder time moving that driver linearly at that speed. This is why large drivers do not typically get made to play high frequencies. The reason small drivers do not get made to play lower frequencies is because they just can't move enough air to play those frequencies at sufficient amplitudes. Trying to make a tweeter play 45hz at an acceptable listening level without a lot of power, which would certainly blow the tweeter apart, would be near impossible.

KKMmaniac

Yes, all very good points. At home anyway, I like to listen to my music as flat as the equipment (pretty good stuff, doesn't have tone controls anyway) and room acoustics will allow. Everybody has his or her own tastes as to how accurately music should be reproduced, but I like to try to hear it as the engineer intended it to be heard. (again, as close as I can get, given my listening environment/equipment) The listening environment in a car has many more uncontrollable variables though!