Dash Speaker Question

Don Bulee

Don Bulee

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
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297
Location
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Hello,

I recently went for a several days trip and I noticed that the sound of my speakers were way in the rear part of my jeep, I do have an amp for all the speakers, the roll bar speakers, two 6x9s with pods in the rear as well, the dash and two subwoofers in the back so that's not the issue... the issue will be in the front because even with the good volume and clear sound of my set up the direction of the sound is just messing me up... way too in the rear part of the jeep and nothign in the front and when topless well.. even worse.. so I want to improve my almost-muted front 4x6s pioneers in the dash... when checking if they were wired to the amp they are.. (when I unplugged the sound bar channel in the amp the front speakers and the sound bar went mute at the same time) so I think they are wired in parallel or something like that with the soundbar.. so maybe I'm not being clear with my concern but... if the soundbar speakers sound way louder than the dash speakers (more than twice I'll say) and they are wired to same channel in the amp.... is the fact that the front pioneers are only 35 RMS vs the 100 RMS of my soundbar speakers are affecting the sound output? then.... if I add some polk audios (looking for the DB522 round 5.25in with the brackets) would they sound more like the ones in the soundbar since they are pluuged into the same channel of the amp? I checked and I have a pod for the 4x6's not sure if they worth something.. but.. opinions?

Ps. I'm planning in getting rid of the pods and connector and wire them directly with to the round speakers.

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In a TJ, since the roll bar speakers are right at your head, you need to fade it waaaaaay to the front. If the front and rear are wired in parallel though you won't be able to do that. And nothing you do is going to help.

If your amp is already 4 channel I would ditch the 6x9 pods and wire the dash and roll bar speakers properly to each channel. Then adjust the sound to the front using the amp gains.
 
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freeskier93 said:
In a TJ, since the roll bar speakers are right at your head, you need to fade it waaaaaay to the front. If the front and rear are wired in parallel though you won't be able to do that. And nothing you do is going to help.

If your amp is already 4 channel I would ditch the 6x9 pods and wire the dash and roll bar speakers properly to each channel. Then adjust the sound to the front using the amp gains.
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that's a good idea... thanks!
 
You can also get pods that accommodate 5.25s. If you go with components, you can also add tweeters to the dash. With the tweeters mounted higher, you get better sound-staging. That plus the improved front speakers (with pods, and amplified) means you won't have to fade your volume so far to the front.

A lot of members on this forum like the Polls that you mentioned. I don't, and I went with Rockford Fosgates.
 
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The front and rear speakers may have mismatched Sensitivity ratings which is measured in dB (decibels). Like if the rears had a 90 dB Sensitivity rating but the fronts only had an 87 dB Sensitivity rating the fronts would require exactly 2X as many watts to drive them to the same volume level as the rears.

Every 3dB less Sensitivity rating doubles the amount of power (watts) required by the speaker to produce the same SPL (sound pressure level).
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
The front and rear speakers may have mismatched Sensitivity ratings which is measured in dB (decibels). Like if the rears had a 90 dB Sensitivity rating but the fronts only had an 87 dB Sensitivity rating the fronts would require exactly 2X as many watts to drive them to the same volume level as the rears.

Every 3dB less Sensitivity rating doubles the amount of power (watts) required by the speaker to produce the same SPL (sound pressure level).
Click to expand...

Holly mother! never thought about that... the 4x6 that I have are rated only with 88dB while the component speakers in the soundbar that are connected in parallel are rated with 94 dB!!! that's an incredible difference... thank you Jerry, I'll be looking for something close to the 94dB to add in the dash... nice catch...
 
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Don Bulee said:
Holly mother! never thought about that... the 4x6 that I have are rated only with 88dB while the component speakers in the soundbar that are connected in parallel are rated with 94 dB!!! that's an incredible difference... thank you Jerry, I'll be looking for something close to the 94dB to add in the dash... nice catch...
Click to expand...

One thing to point out is human ears have sensitivity too, so when it comes to perceived loudness a 3dB increase in power doesn't mean double the loudness. Generally speaking, it takes about 10dB of increased power to get 2x in perceived loudness.

6dB is still a pretty good difference in speaker sensetivity though. You should definitely try to match speaker sensetivity.
 
freeskier93 said:
One thing to point out is human ears have sensitivity too, so when it comes to perceived loudness a 3dB increase in power doesn't mean double the loudness. Generally speaking, it takes about 10dB of increased power to get 2x in perceived loudness.

6dB is still a pretty good difference in speaker sensetivity though. You should definitely try to match speaker sensetivity.
Click to expand...

Agree, the Polk DB522 are rated with 91dB which is one of the highest that I've found if I wanna keep it budget friendly, the other option may be the DS18 midrange speaker rated at 89.6dB but, I think I'll go for the polks, 91dB polks paired with the 94dB that my Orion midrange speakers that are already installed should do the trick.... thank you!!

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As a start, you should definitely fade the stereo to the front as someone else has said. Sound should come from in front of you, not from behind. The next easy upgrade is to 5.25" speakers in front. I found some brackets on amazon last year that angled the speakers up so they're at least perpendicular to the ground and not aiming toward the ground as is the case with the stock mounting locations. These upgrades have given me a surprisingly high soundstage for a wrangler.
 
Fred85 said:
As a start, you should definitely fade the stereo to the front as someone else has said. Sound should come from in front of you, not from behind. The next easy upgrade is to 5.25" speakers in front. I found some brackets on amazon last year that angled the speakers up so they're at least perpendicular to the ground and not aiming toward the ground as is the case with the stock mounting locations. These upgrades have given me a surprisingly high soundstage for a wrangler.
Click to expand...

I havent found those brakets you are talking about, only the flat ones, would you mind sharing the link?
 
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