I guess this is more a topic on 2-way vs 3-way splits and if 3 ways have any more benefit. I mean if i had a 6.5, 6, 5.25, 4, and a tweeter in each door and it was setup for SQ, would there be any benefit over a 3 way setup, or does it degrade the sound? This is probably extreme, but would it work or is it just to much?
Similarly, I dont know what everyone at SQ comps run but I think T-Bro only has 2 way splits, but does have a centre channel. Can good SQ be achieved with only 2 speakers? I guess my question boils down to: If 2-way is enough, then why buy more, and if not then why doesn't everyone have 3-way splits?

The pro's and con's of 2 way vs 3 way are many and varied.

2 ways are mostly waaaay easier to instal, 3 ways in doors are mostly a rebuild of the door trims, or alternatively you play with kick installation of mids and tweets.
2 ways are tweets in kicks, door trims or in pods with mids. All of these are less dramatic

T-bro's pod instal deals very effectively with the natural beaming of the bass-mid before it gets to xover with tweets plus he has as near as poss to a point-source location.
Down-side is they are quite bulky things but he has a wide-ish car and a compromise-be-damned approach

Ultimately a 3 way set-up is always gonna be the Final Solution IMO so long as it is done thoughtfully but that is a Big Deal for installation.

Short of a Big Horn 2 way that is tho that is tougher again........

Much better to spend the money on higher end 2 ways as their much easier to install and much easier to attain high SQ as a result.

There are some vehicles that are suited to 3-wat component system by dint of the fact that their factory front speaker locations are awkward. I found this when I looked at a friend's E36 M3 the other day. Each kick panel houses a 5.25-inch tucked well down low, and the tops of each doors feature a 1-inch and a 3-inch position for mids and tweeters. I have recommended to go with a 3-way system since the 5.25-inch is positioned way too low and angled so badly that it will sound woeful otherwise. Being an M3 he doesn't want to cut the doors up.

For most other cars I stick to this mantra:

Turning a cow into a hamburger is easy, but turning a hamburger back into a cow - now that's something else.

What this means is that it is easier to reassemble the music back into one seamless mix when you've split it up into less parts in the first place.

Damon Dupriez

i agree, that you should take into consideration your car and what may suit it better. still, if you like a challenge, most obstables can be overcome.

the benefits of a well-matched 3-way setup include:
*midrange and tweeter are relatively small drivers, so can be easily angled for better imaging and soundstaging (on-axis): this means more of the frequency range will originate from optimised speaker positions (ie: down to around 600Hz rather than ~3kHz)
*less of the frequency range is off-axis: from the woofer
*high quality midrange driver will provide better midrange reproduction than a bigger driver like a 6.5", especially as it won't have to also contend with reproducing midbass

so you would want a properly matched set of speakers that compliment each other nicely. each driver will be dedicated to a more specific bandwidth (midbass-midrange-treble). and you'll have more on-axis speakers.

which still boils down to installation, installation, installation as much as anything.

OK so if we put installation and "Will it fit in my car?" asside, does a 3 way or even 4 way setup have any downfalls? Does it allow you to better tune the system? Also how do you achieve the same setup with 2-ways? Does it not lack midrange?

I think everyone's had this thought at one time or another: I know it kept me up at night a few times while planning my last system!

More has to be better, right?? More speakers, more expensive exquipment, more ooohs and aahhhhs???

After having a really sweet 2-way system running Boston Pro's in my last decent set-up, I thought "bugger it, I'll go 3-way for something different".

$1600 worth of front stage speakers, $3400 worth of amps and balanced active crossovers for the front stage alone, and........... 5 months later it still sounds CR@P! It's honestly the most idiotic decision I've ever made in car audio, and I WANT MY 2-WAY SYSTEM BACK!!!

5 months worth of hell, compared to the 2 way set-up which, after installation, didn't get fiddled with ONCE, and gave 2 years of trouble free musical enjoyment.

But, I'm going to make this set-up work. More is better, right??? More speakers, more expensive exquipment, more ooohs and aahhhhs??? It's got to be better, doesn't it???

I dont necessarily mean that more expensive and more speakers = better sound. I just am trying to understand, how it sounds better. For instance, in a 2-way setup you have a woofer and a tweet, I am just wondering how that plays the midrange sounds butter than a speaker deigned to play the specific frequency range? And why doesn't that sound lack in a 2 way setup. Again, not worrying about install, if you were to assume 2 setups were tuned well how they manage to reproduce the same sounds? I would think that the midrange in the 3-way setup would sound much better than a 2?
I am in no way trying to push a 3-way setup or say one is better than the other. I am trying to get into SQ and learn more about it so I just would like a good understanding about why and how

OK if all other things are equal, and as above they so often aren't, then the 3 way is more ideal, so long as xovers are not taking you more backwards than the extra drivers are taking you forward.

It is also true in another sense that the perfect set-up is a full range driver where every sound "starts at the same place" as in a co-incident driver, from an imaging perspective.
This is why Boston has this mounting option for their Pro series for eg.

Reality is that there are ALL SORTS of compromises in so many ways and that is really what SQ is about, making the best of those compromises.

Hope that helps. There will never be a single "pat" answer with SQ, it is about assembling a store of knowledge, trying things and seeing how you go.

what would people rather have then $2000 2 ways or $2000 3 ways???

assuming the price is directly related to the quality, chances are the 2 way for 2g would be a better set.... Why? Because there's less money in xover's, less money in speakers, and more money in designing speaker that actually work!! To be honest, 2 way's are easy to install compared to 3 way, but if you compare a $500 2 way to a $500 3 way, it makes sense that the 2 ways are better, yeah? It does to me anyway
That said, there's ALOT of good 3 ways out there for well under 2g's.... So yeah
Aaron

exactly right, too much possibility for problems installing a 3 way setup