Hey i have these installed in my 03 wrx. I have a problem with the tweaters, they are very peaky, and it hurts my ears when played loud. Im running them of my SIGNAT amp, cross overs and thru the alpine cda 7894rb deck.

what can i do?

also how do i get more midbass out of the speakers? Im considering sound deadening. Is a roller essential to apply dynamat xtreme or can i put it with jus my fingers??

there's a couple approaches to improving on slightly harsh tweets:
*adjust the passive xovers: i'm not totally familiar with the SPX xovers but you can utilise speaker attenuation/boost to suit your tastes by reconfiguring the 'jumper' inside the xover unit
*reposition the tweets: where are they positioned now? if they are at dashtop level, there may be problems with reflections off hard surfaces like glass that can accentuate some frequencies; the proximity to you ears will also contribute; consider repositioning them down low, in the kickpanel areas, angled up appropriately (eg: angled up towards opposite seat headrest)

if these simple methods don't help, you may require an EQ to help cut the offending frequencies.

improving the installation of the door woofers will significantly improve midbass. ideally:
*mount woofers on solid baffle, say made from mdf wood; plastic baffles resonate and are relatively poor
*seal off all major airleaks: esp around the woofer itself, using foam-rubber gaskets (eg: self-adhesive 'closed cell' strips from clark rubber stores); seal off the large service holes in the doors with mdf panels
*sound deaden

the self-adhesive SDer is easy to apply by hand. it will stick better/not fall off if it's really firmly applied, which is where a roller can help. they are fairly cheap from art supplies stores (under $15). some brands of SDer (eg: dynamat) have an aluminium backing that can cut your fingers! be very careful or you'll get cut up.



also, what's the HP filter on the signat amp set to?

The tweeters are mounted in the stock locations, in the door above the handle. they point straight at the haed almost, there is really nothing u can do to change this.
With the dynamat on the picture, have they just applied it to the front metal side? or is there another layer hidden from view?

i've also SDed inside the door cavity. more difficult to cover the lot, so i've covered what i can, plus used G-spot paint-on SDer to get into the corners.

can't relocate the tweets? of course you can. you remove them from the stock location. experiment with different positions and angles by using long speakerwire with enough slack to do it. then try out different positions to find the best. it may be atop the dash, or down in the kickpanels. it's up to you to decide whether you wish to try it or not.

the splits may have come with various mounting options for the tweeter to help. say 'cups' for surface mounting or flush mounting?

good luck

I dont understand how u get dynamat into the cavity of the door, how small are your hands? So you say dynamat the door then use sound deadener paint on top of that?

Whats a cheap but good EQ to get hold of?

one Q at a time.

there are large service holes in doors. that makes it possible to get your hands in enough to lay on some SDer. where it's not flat, i slapped on the paint-on stuff.

here's the door without the mdf panels sealing up my service holes:



whilst it takes a fair amount of work to do it so comprehensively, it's all stuff you can DIY with time and patience. no special tools requires aside from a jigsaw to cut the mdf panels and a drill to make holes for the screws to secure them.

as for any EQ: depends on your budget and how comprehensive you want it (eg: 11~15-band graphic EQ vs 30-band EQ). but remember, an EQ cannot make an 'average' sound system sound great, but it can make a great system sound even better.

i think you have a long way to go to optimise things before an EQ is worth trying.

i dont want to mdf my holes , can i just lay the dynamat over it covering it up ?
Im purchasing a Dynamat 4-door kit, they say that this should be neuff for 2 doors, and hopefully a bit of the boot.
Would switching the x-over on my tweeters to low pass filter my tweeters work?

you can. but for best performance, the door cavity must act as the enclosure for the door woofer. imagine if you cut a window out of your subbox and slapped SDer across the hole. it'd work but not nearly as well as a solid piece.

mdf panels are no big deal. whilst i screwed mine into place, you could place them there then slap SDer over the top to hold it in place. or silicone it into place if you don't want to drill holes.

anything less than securely adding panels will be a compromise. not necessarily a bad compromise, but just not optimised.



should be heaps. i used the 2-door kit which covered the outside skin of both doors with a little left over.



LP the tweeter? huh? you must be mistaken; you won't want to LP the tweeter as that will send it frequencies below treble and fry it.

do you have the manual for the splits (not that i've read them, but i presume it explains use of the xover).

alpine claim '60 different tuning combinations' with the 2-way SPX xover. there is an 'integrated sound pressure and off-axis adjustment circuit' for the tweeter. locate it, read about it, and experiment with it.

Don't low-pass your tweeters. They will die.
If you're unhappy with your mid-bass and your tweeters seem too loud maybe they are wired out of phase and causing cancellation problems.

Hey same deal with mine, the tweeter is really bright.

Just put them in last week, have not finished playing yet but my head unit has some EQ control wich has helped heaps. Will have to play with the cross over still and i can't shift the tweeter cos i want to keep it hidden in the stock location (out of sight, out of mind...)

But i know what your saying, to get a nice sound out of the 6-1/5" the tweeter is painfull!

Morphy

what about playing with the features on my deck?
Does anyone here have any reccomended setting for the SPX x-overs?

umm, you can try what you like.

no-one can really advise on how to set things without hearing it. have you had a look at the xovers yourself? it's pretty self-explanatory i would have thought. remove the fuse-like jumper and plug it into a different socket.

do you know how to adjust the EQ on your HU? have you had a go at doing that?

well i dynamatted my doors using the 2-door kit. Only had enuf to do half inside and out on each door.
I can notice the difference ,alot more mid-bass. The strange thing is my tweeter doesnt sound so peaky anymore.

First impressions tho, so i'l drive around with different music n see .

excellent. SDing can make heaps of difference.

did you cover over the service holes?

No Shiny car, i got the two door kit but i only had enuf to cover half of the doors(inside and out). The tweeter does sound a bit nicer, but took it for a drive today n its still peaky. I think im gona swap the connector to -3db or -6db and see what happens. If i do this will i put them out of phase with the woofer?
Also i think i might be needing another 2-door kit to finish off. IM having problems with the door trim hitting my woofers, i cant put the woofer into the door no more because they will hit the glass. iv shaved as much off the trim as i feel comfortable but still hits. any ideas ?

shallow trims/doors is a fairly common problem. there's nothing you can do about it other than remove the stock grill (if that helps).

'attenuating' the tweets (-3/6dB) will not affect phasing. worth a try.

play around with your x-over a bit, try think and see what differece it makes, dont be shy with it, they put the features there for a reason, if its the crossover im thinking about theres a bit in there that you can change to make your mid sound more on axis to the ear try this it might bring the mid level up and give you better staging aswell

play with your tweeter level a bit, if its really that sharp drop it down a few db and see what its like
adjust some settings and take it for a drive to listen, cause thats when youll listen to the system the most, and youll fins its at its sharpest
cheers Specail

what happens if your knowledge of playing around with the crossovers isnt very big wheres a good place to learn?

nah, it's only easy to play around with xovers that have settings to do so. the alpine SPX ones have lots of adjustments to do using 'jumpers' and what not. the manual should take you through it.

speakers with manuals, whats the world coming to

owners reading the manual...now THAT i'd like to see!

played around with the tweeter setting. changed it to -3db. they sound a bit better and not very peaky. seems like a good thing atm. I didnt touch anything esle as i dunno what it does.

*yeh* *waves hands in air*

hehe im happy too.
BTW i was looking at the other settings i dont have the manuel so i dun know they do. Anyone with these x-overs have a pre-defined setting they'd like to share?

realise that every car and setup is different. therefore you cannot simply copy what others have done as it may sound very different.

you must tailor your own setup to suit your tastes. you have lots of tuning to contend with. spend the time to research and read about how it all works (incl the 9815 manual). the xovers are fairly self-explanatory i would have thought. simply experiment with the various combination of settings.

your right about the tweeter 0db default setting being too harsh dropped it down a setting and sounds alot better on mine too.. changed the woofer setting to 45degrees and gives alot more midbass.. they sound awesome very happy on what my 550$ bought. the only prob was havin to mount the Xovers in the boot had to rewire everything to the back and then forward again big pain but now well worth it.

getting my spx's on monday, so ill join in then too!!

hey silly248 where u getting yours from?

waxdass if your subaru doors are anything like mine getting those splits to fit in stock location would of been a bitch, I know I just did it last week. But anyway the manual for those splits isn't the most helpful but you should also check you got the correct jumper settings for your woofer because I noticed my tweeter sounded harsh as well at first and needed some fiddling around. I can't remember what jumper settings i got now though so I cant really help.

yeh they was a real bastard to fit in!
had to cut the door metal to make them sit lower in the door, to try and stop them hitting the door trims.

the problem really hasnt been solved tho, iv just unplugged a couple of clips at the bottom of the trim so they wont hit when being played loud.

i will have to get custom pods made up, but am scared it will ruin the doors as i want to keep the looking stock as possible.

btw, iv played around with the tweeter setting etc, and iv put it on -3db, and the woofer to 45 deg.
getting the best sound in that config.