Rear speakers

[digitalallstar]

I have been hearing that rear speaker are not that important once you get a sub. It negatively affects staging. Why is this? And what is staging anyways?

 

[chuyler1]

When you go to a concert, there is a stage (duh right). Each musician stands/sits in a specific place on the stage (think of an acoustic concert w/o a PA system for a second). When you sit center stage you can hear that the singer is in the middle, the drummer's behind him, the guitarist is off to the right, and so forth.

Recording studios try to replicate this as best they can when mixing music. On a good stereo, with a good recording, you should be able to identify where each player is on the 'virtual stage' (your dashboard). When you can identify where they are it can also be called 'imaging'

What you don't want is the the players swimming around by your feet, or jamming in your back seat. (hey that rhymes) Who goes to a concert and sits facing the crowd?

So staging refers to where the sound appears to be coming from inside your car. By adjusting tweeter alignment and speaker placement you can get the best stage. Sound Processing can also help, but can be expensive.

Rear speakers, destroy the stage you try to set up with your front speakers. Manufactorers add them to give you more sound, and due to the acoustics of your car, you get more bass from them. So if you don't need the bass, why suffer with a poor stage and poor imaging, when all you have to do is disconnect the rear speakers?

There are times when rear speakers are good though...cause there are times when sound does come from the rear. If you have 5.1 surround sound and a DVD player for example, you will still want rear speakers. Also, in some concert halls, you get reverb from sound bouncing off the back of the auditorium. With some processing and/or filtering of the frequencies going to the rear speakers, you can duplicate this effect.

 

[digitalallstar]

Thanks for the answer. Would adding componets to the back of my car then be detremental to staging? I currently have 6.5" componets in the front and want to add 5.25" componets to the back.

 

[chuyler1]

A common practice in the competition scene (before everyone decided to go with surround sound) was to bandpass the rear speakers so they only played from like 80hz to like 500hz. If you are powering them with an amp you could try this. But I would spend my money on other things first.

Another idea is to use something like the Rockford Fosgate RFQ5000 surround sound processor. It will take a stereo signal from any head unit and convert it to 5 channel Dolby Prologic surround sound. You can bypass the center channel and just use the front (left/right), rear (left/right), and sub outputs.
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/processors/

 

[1sty]

Another benefit of rear speakers is that they can rasie the soundstage but only in cars where they are mounted high up and properly filtered and adjusted. Rears should not even be precivable is on.

Now keep in mind this is the audiophile definition of rears if you like to swim in the music and just get it loud and clear then go for a fully functional rear speakers. Its all about preferences.
In the back of the P5 I would run rear speakers from about 200hz to 4K hz but at a very low volume to hopefully create a slightly more filling effect in the car.

 

[chuyler1]

Yeah, 200-4KHz is essentially like not connecting the tweeter. I've seen people snip the leads on a set of coaxial speakers, but its not my style.

 

[digitalallstar]

I see. I'm not that much of an audiophile. My goal is to get good clean midbass and clear sound in my car. Later on I'll get an 8" subwoofer, but not before I get a quality 4-channel amp to run the speakers in the doors. I guess staging is not really that important to me.

 

[1sty]

I see. I'm not that much of an audiophile. My goal is to get good clean midbass and clear sound in my car. Later on I'll get an 8" subwoofer, but not before I get a quality 4-channel amp to run the speakers in the doors. I guess staging is not really that important to me.

There is an easy way to tell.
Have you ever sat in a car and said dan that bass and guitar sound like its behind me and at my feet?
If not, don't worry about it.

 

[digitalallstar]

There is an easy way to tell.
Have you ever sat in a car and said dan that bass and guitar sound like its behind me and at my feet?
If not, don't worry about it..

Good point. I have never done that.

 

[chuyler1]

have you ever listened to a car with just components up front and a sub in the back though?

Do you ever listen to headphones, i mean good headphones? If you do, take your discman or whatever into your car. Listen to a track, then put it in your car cd player and listen to it. Which do you prefer. Loud music coming at you from all directions? Or focused detailed music where you can tell what cymbal the drummer just hit, and where its located on his drum kit.

If you're going to buy a 4 channel amp anyway, why not use the rear channels to power a sub instead of rear speakers. The sub will cost you the same as a set of components and if you find out you need more, then buy a second amp for the sub and a set of components for the back.

A basic 50x4 amp can send about 200watts to a sub when the rear channels are bridged. A 75x4 amp will give it about 300watts.