How easy is it do damage your speakers if you feed them to much power. For example: a set of focal utopias 100w nominal, driven by a bridged nak putting out 200 x 2. I ask because if i install the focals running at 100w per chan with the nak and they arent loud enough can i just feed them more power or what?

 

The focal 165w speakers need 100w constant and 200w max. If you are running a 200w x2 nak amp you should be ok. But I would turn down the gains or level 10-15% from max output so you don't blow them. They should be loud enough in the vette for you. They are meant to keep up with your subs. If you are looking for bass, this is not what you need. You need a sub or two. I would house them in a sealed enclosure. If you hear distortion instead of clean sound, this means you are close to damaging them. Back off on the volume. You should be able to win comps with just a single set of those front and rear and a good sub setup in a vette.

 

I am not sure what you mean by keep up with the subs. I was planning on using a 12 in jl in a sealed box with a jl 500w amp. None of the shops around here have the focals so the best speakers i have been able to listen to are the diamond hex series. Also are you saying i should put 165w's in the rear as well? Will this affect imaging? I was just going to go with 6x9 in back.

 

If you are going to have a sub, I would get focal seperates front and rear. The sub is a woofer. It makes your bass. This would be the JL. If you have a JL sub, you don't need the other speakers to make the bass any more than the sub should try to make the mid or high range frequencies. The 6x9 is best if used in a system that doesn't have a sub. It gives you more bass than a set of seperates. This is at a cost of clarity in the midrange. They are oval speakers which are not as clear as circular speakers. If you put in a sub, the 6x9 doesn't need to make the bass anymore and then the seperates would be a better choice. Imaging is also called staging or sterio seperation. Your imaging will not be affected really that much by what you put in the back as it is mostly produced by your front speakers. The rear is just to add fill noise to the sound and make it sound more full. The seperation is mostly dependant on your front tweeters and their placement. Ideally high on the door panel near the A piller is the best placement but this is difficult in a late model C4.
The JL subs are good subs but make sure you choose wisely. I would look at their W3 line. I would also consider one 12 or a pair of 10s. The 12 will allow you to go deeper and hit lower notes. The 10s will have more power and produce more sound. The 12 will be cheaper as it is one woofer and needs less amp than 2 10s. It will also take up less space. A sealed box will give you the tightest bass. A ported box will dramatically increase your bass output but it is bigger and won't sound as tight. A bandpass box is best for sustained low bass like you find in rap but it won't work well for mid bass and is the largest and most difficult type of box to make.
i would use a different amp for the sub than JL. Thier subs are good but the amps are average and not in the same "class" as the rest of the equipment.
End result, get two sets of seperates if you are installing the sub, 6x9 if you aren't. Hope this clears up your questions.

 

Thanks for the simplified explanation. I know about the purposes of what you describe but maybe someone else will benefit from the description. I chose a 12in (yes the w3) in a sealed box because my main concerns with bass are that it be tight (i dont listen to rap) and take up relatively little space. When i built my girlfriends stereo on a budget i opted for components up front and 2 tens in the trunk. The imaging was satisfactory despite the lack of rear fill. My main concern with putting components in the rear would be the deterioration of the soundstage. Instead of the music coming from in front of you with the very directional high frequency stuff at ear level it would be coming from every where. I have not personally heard a car with comps front and rear. I imagine sound quality would be superior if i went this route. Would i have to fade the back so the front remains dominant? I live in a fairly desolate area of pa and there just isnt anyewhere to go to listen to top rate systems. What would you recommend for the sub, mmats? Thanks again triple black.

 

You want to adjust the fade front to rear so you just begin to hear the rear a little and make it sound full but not go far enough so the rear's sound starts to overpower the front. The JL is ok a sub. Sounds like you picked it for the right reasons. I would power it with a different amp. The naks are good. You also might want to look at a soundstream, orion, or a/d/s amps for the sub. Since the tweeters generate the greatest amount of staging and since they don't project well from the back as the fronts do, it shouldn't be much problem to get good staging with front and rear seperates.