a component set will ALWAYS sound better than a coax set. just be sure to get something reputable, not audiobahn or pioneer or some crap like that.

if you are not going to amp them, then get a low power component set. jl TR series is good, as well as alpine type R, and a few others made for low power applications. a head unit will not do ANY justice for most high end component sets.

but, more CLEAN power is always going to make it sound a million times better. for example, i used to have a jl TR component set. ran them off the head unit at first, they sounded pretty damn good (eclipse 5442). huge improvement over stock, though the head unit did have a build in xover. then i put a JL Audio 300/2 on the component set, giving them a VERY generous 150 watts RMS a piece..... worlds of improvement. much cleaner highs, and it REALLY filled out the bottom end.

thats just one example, but i would recommend a comp set and a small amp over anything. comp set and big amp is even better. you can never get too big of an amp... that's what gains are for just keep in mind that CLEAN power is more important than power alone. a small clean 100 watt RMS amp would sound a million times better than a 1000 watt fosgate, pioneer, sony, etc.

check out jl audio, boston acoustics amps are very nice, xtant, a/d/s, alpine.... for a good low budget amp soundstream is good. if those are still a bit too pricey, alpine, or the DEI viper amps are pretty decent bang for the buck.

enough rambling. i'm outta here

 

Well, it depends on the coaxials and components. Some coaxials are really components with the tweet attached to the woofer. If you go for coaxials, look for ones that have a tweeter, woofer, and outboard passive crossover. Don't buy three way coaxials.

Honestly, I would never put speakers in the dash, as it kills the image. If I were you I'd put some GOOD components in the doors, and a sub in the back, and get a GOOD powerfull amp for them. That combo will sound better than door/dash/6x9s run off of a head unit.
Most importantly listen to the speakers before you buy them. Don't buy or not buy anything on name alone, as name means little. I bought a pair of eclipse point source coaxials over a mb quart reference component set once because they SOUNDED so much better. Many people tell me I'm dumb cause MB Quartz ow3z y0! But they just buy shit based on marketing, not on what matters.
I hope I have helped out.

 

Yeah, it has helped. I would only go with what truly sounded good, even if pricier. And the tweeter setion of the components would be put in place of the stock speakers in the dash. The woogfer would go in the door, giving a clean install (and yeah a custom install to make shit fit is JUST FINE with me).

 

Several people have told me (including some on here) that a woofer in the door and tweeter way up in the dash is too much separation between the two drivers and it wouldn't sound good. I'm not quite convinced, but it's got me thinking of possible alternatives.

 

Several people have told me (including some on here) that a woofer in the door and tweeter way up in the dash is too much separation between the two drivers and it wouldn't sound good. I'm not quite convinced, but it's got me thinking of possible alternatives.

True but the space we are talking about here is small and if you overlap your x-over points you will get a smoother transition from midbass to hi.

 

I don't think I understand your reply. What space is small? The distance between the door woofer and dash tweeter? Sorry for being dense...

 

I don't think I understand your reply. What space is small? The distance between the door woofer and dash tweeter? Sorry for being dense...

You got it man

 

OK, now what do you mean by overlapping your cross-over points? I'm not too familiar with component setups so I just thought you hooked up each speaker to the appropriate terminal on the crossover, and hte crossover to the wires coming from the CD-player. ANYONE correct me if I'm wrong here.

 

You can only do this if you use a separate crossover. The one that comes with a component set usually doesn't have settable crossover points. With an outboard crossover unit, you could, for example, have the tweeter frequency range set at 8Khz and up, and have the midbass frequency range set to go up to 10Khz. The range between 8Khz and 10KHz is the overlap.

 

Oh yeah!! I know exactly what you are talking about. Now I feel dumb... Though what is the next best thing to that set-up... Q-forms? And if you did that than what about the dash speakers?

 

I have a first gen. and after talking to an installer for a while, i think that the best solution would be to have the tweeter from a component set fabricated so that it will fit in those dash spots up front. you might get some "inaccuracy" when going with coaxials in the doors and the same thing up in the dash.

 

I have 4's and tweets in the dash and the same down in the kick panels and dual 6.5's in each door. I do have an outboard digital crossover which gives me extreme flexability. The only passive x-over in my system is between my 4's and tweets. The rest of the x-over points are handled by my digital x-over/freq processor.

 

Damn bro!!! What setup... what kind of processor are you runnin? I was looking into something like that for an X-mas present to my car .

 

with the components.. what do you think would be better for a 1G... the mids go in the doors of course... however the woujld the tweeters be better at the top of the doors near the front or in the dash where the 4" ers go... i know bouncing the highs off the windsheild isn't great.. but it will pull them further from ur ears