if you take the top off of the crossover and look into it you're looking at the ends of the coils....so you're saying this will affect it then?

Luke

 

I installed the speakers and hooked up the amps last night. so far everything sounds pretty good. I think the focals are a bit heavy on the high side for me. I'm going to listen to them for a couple of days the, more then likly, I will change the high octive setting to a -2 and see how that works. All in all I'm pretty happy with the install. everything went in without a hitch. The only thing I lack is having my audio installer build me the sub box and I'm done. I'll post pics when everthing is done. :D

 

Yep.. that's what I thought about them too... They seem like a set that should have two midranges per tweeter...

 

I'd be disappointed if I wasn't so happy about how the install turned out. For the price of those speakers you'd think they'd be smoother.

Did you try adjusting the high crossover to -2 oct? I did notice that a home made CD with Nickleback was higher the listening to the radio (country). Like I said before I'm going to play around with them for a couple of days before I make any changes. :thumbs:

 

That's where I kept mine... The TN51 has a huge dispersion pattern, have you tried mounting at different angles to smooth it out?

Do you have a lexan roof on your car?
With my lexan roof, I have to have the radio off. It's painful.
But with the solid top, they sound great.

 

You went through all that to listen to COUNTRY? :eek:

Actually, I was following Neverminds thread on CDT HD 52 and was wondering if all the Focal speakers have the same crossovers you are speaking of? Are the 165 w2 the same Nevermind compared to the CDT HD 52? I know nothing about speakers but if I rip off my door panels I don't want to put in some really expensive speakers that rattle and vibrate. I had a little "fly type" buzz in my stock system that almost made me throw a grenade in the car and walk away. :mad :lol: :lol:


[Modified by vrumvrum, 3:38 AM 1/9/2003]

 

I've never heard of "165W2" I think he just means 165W two way set. (which is what i have)There's a 165k2 which has an improved woofer.

Focals don't "rattle and vibrate" but they will beat the hell out of your door if it isn't deadened.. I have a video of my 6ws midrange pounding.. they have crazy travel.


[Modified by Nevermind, 7:42 PM 1/8/2003]

 

Yeh, I guess I misspoke about the speakers rattling. I meant rattly stuff period. I liked his idea of mounting everything on one board. It seems that if you don't like the sound coming out of only one speaker you kind of inherently know where to go fix the problem. Don't crossovers have an adjustment **** on them? I was under the impression that a crossover splits up the signal between the woofer(?) and the tweeter and that was the adjusting you folks were speaking of. Even if the crossovers are mounted in a place where you could adjust them I would be concerned about rattles.

Would there be a way to mount the crossover and insert some sort of removeable key through a small hole cut in the speaker grill to adjust?

I thought people only upgraded to listen to Pink Floyd :yesnod:

 

theyve got a switch so you can take the tweeter or mid down a few db

i cant imagine taking the mid down in this set. Thats crazy talk

 

I think I've decided to go ahead and put my crossovers under/behind the seats so that I don't end up with these problems.

When you make the C5 adaptor plates, do you put something on the back side of it where it mates with the door to seal it?

Luke

 

Rap, Rock, Country, Techno, Dance, Trance, Jazz,.....I listen to it all! :thumbs:

Luke, I didn't put anything between the plate and the door. The door space is not a sealed area. So there was no need to seal the adaptor plate. It is my understanding that the focals are open air speakers anyway and do not like sealed enclosures to operate. I did put a layer (in some places two layers) of dynomat inside the door on the door skin and also on the inside of the door behind the speaker mounting hole.


[Modified by Randy K, 9:43 AM 1/9/2003]

 

According to JM Labs, the focals should be in a .3 enclosure, with a 2" wide 3" long port for best operation.... They (focal tech support) told me that I should seal the door up as best as possible.

 

Which Focals do you have? I have a pair of 165k2's and I was wondering if I should fab a fiberglass enclosure for them or not.

 

165W

 

the local dealer where I heard the speakers told me (he could be wrong) that they didn't need a sealed space. in fact the ones on demo were in a sealed cabinet and sounded like junk. when I listen too them installed in a car they sounded great.

Additionally, either the area is sealed or it isn't there would be no benifit to have the door sealed "as best as you can" . a mostly sealed door would still let out air which is needed for the speaker's back pressure (just like a sub works). All that to ask, who has completly sealed there doors with the Focal installation or has the focal's in a completely sealed box?>

 

It's not to make a sealed enclosure for the Focal, it's to seal the front from the backwave. (does that make sense?)

Focal told me it's best to run their speaker in that ported enclosure (Yeah, that's likely to fit!) or just infinite baffle in the door (like you're doing.) I believe their words were "a sealed enclosure that small would choke the driver."

I could find the email from their tech if you'd like?
:steering:


[Modified by Nevermind, 5:22 PM 1/9/2003]

 

from some of the emails i saved:

The following are from Focal Techs.

Then I asked what's ideal..

I asked him if I could get away with slightly smaller sealed,

 

Yeah your right "...in a ported enclosure" Yeah right that aint gonna happen. A manufacture would be stupid to thank that an everyday joe would buy speakers that he HAD to make a door enclosure for. It would be impractical and impossable for the ordinary street drivable car.

I got everything back together last night and it looks good. I adjusted the high crossover to -4 db. Additionally, the mounted of the tweeters was a bit high on the adaptor plate such that it is partially blocked by the factory door panel. I think this helped in softening highs a bit. it sounds alot better but with some songs it still pierces my ears, and with other song it makes rock stars sound like ******s. I'm thinking they color the highs in higher end speakers to get a higher wattage rating? I could be completly off base but all of the high end speaker (and higher wattages) sets that I've listened too have very colored highs.

I take my car into the shop today to have someone build the sub box for me (it turned out to be a bigger task that I could handle).

One problem I ran into was after getting everthing together is: The trunk release button on the dash dosn't open the trunk and the fuel door button in the console dosn't work. For you coupe owners the trunk release is on the left side under the fog light swithch. The truck release on the FOB works but not the one on the dash. has anyone had any expierence with the? :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

 

So.. Do you have the glass or the solid top on?

Also, my tn51's were pretty harsh for the first 24 listening hours or so... after that they smoothed out quite a lot.

How much power did you say you were running to the set?

Also, try aiming the tweeters at each other, and not at the ears of the person on the opposite side. You could even angle them slightly down... I'd play with that more..



[Modified by Nevermind, 8:28 AM 1/10/2003]

 

Sorry nevermind, I just realized you were talking to me. :sleep: I have neither a glass top nor a hard top. I have a rag top. Why do you ask.

I am running the 165's with a JL 300/2 (150 watts/ch)

I just got the whole thing back together. I will (like you said) listen to them for a while and the maybe make some adjustments.


[Modified by Randy K, 2:21 PM 1/10/2003]