[QUOTE]Originally posted by MacGyver
[B]I wouldn't hold your breath for true plug-and-play stereos to come out.

 

Sorry I missed your post before. Two-ways are better than three-ways in most situations. The exception is when you can spend a lot of money on the crossover (and cabinet for home speakers). Some of the advantages of having more drivers are for higher SPL without distortion, better dispersion, and avoiding the natural mechanical resonances of the speaker. However, blending three drivers becomes much more difficult from a crossover design and speaker placement issue. Phase linearity, transient response, damping, and efficiency will all suffer if not carefully handled by the crossover. Rarely can you find a good home three-way for less than $1k/pair.

If you look at the car situation, you will find that most "woofers" are 6 1/2" or less. That makes them easy to match to a tweeter. Cars are not the size of a large living room, so power handling and SPL is not a problem either. In this case, a two-way will sound better and be easier to mount. If you add a subwoofer to get the missing low end, you then have three-way system. But that kind of three-way does make sense in a car where you can't have 8" woofers in the doors. If 8" woofers could fit, the door is too poor a cabinet to get any benefit.

Of course, this is just my opinion. I'm sure there other equally valid, but different, opinions out there. My opinions are based on my 25+ years experience as an audiophile, and completion of a graduate based class in speaker design. In the end, always trust your ears. If you love the sound of some three-way speaker, buy it.

 

Well, that's exactly what we're doing with the relay, we're standardizing the output. To do something closer to the actual button would mean removing the hold circuit and reversing the polarity at the switch itself, but then you'd lose the green LED. Trust me, this is the easiest way to deal with the mute circuit without major surgery.

 

Hey Mike L, let me know what setup you go withl, I also interested in changing my speakers, and getting an amp, allthough I was thinking getting components. I ahve a friend from UMd that gave me some good ideas. He replaced the head unit in his red S2K.

 

Fed --

Still debatiing -- hope to make a decision soon so that I can go ahead an get it installed. Right now, I am leaning towards the JBLs and a two-channel amp...

I am having a hard time priortizing all of the mods I want to do! Not a bad thing...