Discuss the uses, advantage, and disadvantages of rear speakers.
The uses of rear speakers has come up alot as of late so I thought it best to make a sticky about it.
Typicly rear speakers have 1 of 2 functions:
1. Provide more direct audio for rear seat passangers
2. Provide overall louder volumes when a seperate amp can not be used with better front speakers only.
There are also 2 types of listeners:
1. Some want a quality sound that can obtain a certain volume with out distortion and they want to be consumed by sound. These are not true SQ listeners as this setup would be anything but SQ. It doesn't mean they want crappy sound, just that they don't really care about staging. The typicle uses of rear speakers fall into this catagory of listener. In these situations, the rear speakers need only match the fronts in tonal quality so that they sound is the same throught the car.
2. The others want to create some form of stage like at a concert or atleast like a home audio system can create. This is not an easy task and rear speakers can play a role here although the role is that of manipulation.
Now, the arguments of late have been rear speakers role in an SQ setup. The reality is that the rear speakers can play a small part in a true SQ system but it is not the role most people think. First, lets deinfe the ideals of sound quality. First and most important, all sound should appear to come from in front of you. Nothing by Sound Quality terms should ever be audible from behind you. This is to create a sound stage. This stage should be as wide, as deep, and as high as possible. Almost like a litte concern on your dash board.
Becuase of this, the more expeirenced members will be quick to tell a newb that rear speakers are useless for SQ. This is true in regards to the way most people use rear speakers. For instance, powering the rear speakers equaly to the front is actualy anti SQ (sound quality) this is becuase they will draw the sound to the rear of the car where it should not be by sound quality standards. If the rear speakers are in the rear door, they will also lower the sound stage and kill its depth.
However, the placement of the rear speakers can actualy aid in staging.
In either posistion, the rear speakers should be audible but not to the point that you can tell they are on. In other words, they are for "Effect" only.
Rear Doors:
Rear door speakers can be used to widen the stage. Since the speakers are low, they will also lower the sound stage. However, their position will help in tricking our ears into thinking the stage is wider then the front speakers can produce on there own.
Rear Deck:
Rear deck speakers are cool in that their height will allow them to actualy raise the sound stage higher as they are typicly higher then the fronts. However, they will also kill the depth of the sound stage and often its width too.
In either case, deck power is often more then enough to do the job. However, this "effect" takes a good amount of tuning with crossover points and gain levels. Often an EQ needs to be involved too. Becuase of this, an amp is usualy needed as you don't have the needed amount of adjustability in a head unit. And a unit that has this level of adjustability won't typicly have it on the speaker outputs.
Another part of this is the frequencies being played. Most often, rear speakers in SQ are not full range. Infact there is rarely any form of tweeter. This is becuase high frequencies are the most directional to our ears so if we play them behind us, they will totaly distract us from the front stage, even at very low volumes.
So in short, rear speakers can alwasy be useful but they must be used properly based on the listeners wants and their positioning. For true SQ they should be not audible and should be used for effect. Yes, they should be amplifier in these situations to properly tune them. However, they should not ever have even 1/2 the power the front do as it will be wasted. So even if you have to use a 4 channel amp, turn the gains way down on the rears or fade the radio foward to lower the rear speakers output level.
The uses of rear speakers has come up alot as of late so I thought it best to make a sticky about it.
Typicly rear speakers have 1 of 2 functions:
1. Provide more direct audio for rear seat passangers
2. Provide overall louder volumes when a seperate amp can not be used with better front speakers only.
There are also 2 types of listeners:
1. Some want a quality sound that can obtain a certain volume with out distortion and they want to be consumed by sound. These are not true SQ listeners as this setup would be anything but SQ. It doesn't mean they want crappy sound, just that they don't really care about staging. The typicle uses of rear speakers fall into this catagory of listener. In these situations, the rear speakers need only match the fronts in tonal quality so that they sound is the same throught the car.
2. The others want to create some form of stage like at a concert or atleast like a home audio system can create. This is not an easy task and rear speakers can play a role here although the role is that of manipulation.
Now, the arguments of late have been rear speakers role in an SQ setup. The reality is that the rear speakers can play a small part in a true SQ system but it is not the role most people think. First, lets deinfe the ideals of sound quality. First and most important, all sound should appear to come from in front of you. Nothing by Sound Quality terms should ever be audible from behind you. This is to create a sound stage. This stage should be as wide, as deep, and as high as possible. Almost like a litte concern on your dash board.
Becuase of this, the more expeirenced members will be quick to tell a newb that rear speakers are useless for SQ. This is true in regards to the way most people use rear speakers. For instance, powering the rear speakers equaly to the front is actualy anti SQ (sound quality) this is becuase they will draw the sound to the rear of the car where it should not be by sound quality standards. If the rear speakers are in the rear door, they will also lower the sound stage and kill its depth.
However, the placement of the rear speakers can actualy aid in staging.
In either posistion, the rear speakers should be audible but not to the point that you can tell they are on. In other words, they are for "Effect" only.
Rear Doors:
Rear door speakers can be used to widen the stage. Since the speakers are low, they will also lower the sound stage. However, their position will help in tricking our ears into thinking the stage is wider then the front speakers can produce on there own.
Rear Deck:
Rear deck speakers are cool in that their height will allow them to actualy raise the sound stage higher as they are typicly higher then the fronts. However, they will also kill the depth of the sound stage and often its width too.
In either case, deck power is often more then enough to do the job. However, this "effect" takes a good amount of tuning with crossover points and gain levels. Often an EQ needs to be involved too. Becuase of this, an amp is usualy needed as you don't have the needed amount of adjustability in a head unit. And a unit that has this level of adjustability won't typicly have it on the speaker outputs.
Another part of this is the frequencies being played. Most often, rear speakers in SQ are not full range. Infact there is rarely any form of tweeter. This is becuase high frequencies are the most directional to our ears so if we play them behind us, they will totaly distract us from the front stage, even at very low volumes.
So in short, rear speakers can alwasy be useful but they must be used properly based on the listeners wants and their positioning. For true SQ they should be not audible and should be used for effect. Yes, they should be amplifier in these situations to properly tune them. However, they should not ever have even 1/2 the power the front do as it will be wasted. So even if you have to use a 4 channel amp, turn the gains way down on the rears or fade the radio foward to lower the rear speakers output level.
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Takes away from a nice front sound stage IMO.
