Hey Jason, I'll answer in line-

I'm planning a stereo upgrade shortly and have a few questions for you experts. I only listen to Spotify off an iPhone, and primarily listen to EDM and classic rock when driving. I'm not a true, true audiophile, so I don't feel compelled to go 3 way up front, use an active processor, or to build a custom box/amp rack.

My goal is to keep the build simple - Double DIN with CarPlay, 2 ways up front, no rear speakers, one 5 channel amp, no DSP.

Here's my planned build:

• Pioneer AppRadio
• Alpine PDX‑V9 or Hertz HDP5 5 channel amp
• 8" midbass in the doors
• highs in the stock tweeter location
• no rear speakers
• TBD - sub in a box or an infinite baffle sub in the deck
• a lot of dynamat

Here's my questions:

1. Would you recommend the Hertz amp or the Alpine? The Alpine does have more power at 4 ohms (100W vs 75W RMS)
   I would pick the amp with the most power right now - which would be the PDX-V9. Have had no complaints with that amp personally. Plus, I doubt you'd be running your front stage at 2 ohms, so you'd never be realizing the full power from the Hertz amp.
   
2. Would I be better to use the highpass and bandpass of the amp to drive the highs and mids or use the AppRadio's adjustments to drive the midbass with the 'rear' channel and the highs with the 'front' channel? Looking at page 88 of the head unit manual, this appears pretty easy to do in the AppRadio.
   Don't have any seat time with the appradio, but it's good that you have options both on AMP and within the HU. In my setup, my 8" Dyns are getting bridged channels off the "rear" of the Alpine for 200watts each. My HATs are getting 2 other channels from a Genesis amp. In your setup, you could just feed all 4 speakers in the front 100 watts a piece and decide to upgrade down the road (if you ever feel as if you need it).
   
3. Am I better off running a 6.5" mid or 8" mid if I want to avoid the complexity of a 3-way setup?
   If you want true midbass, go 8". Our doors can fit it, and depending on your front drivers (widebander approach), you can cover the whole sound spectrum in a 2 way just fine.
   
4. What 8" mid-bass should I look into if I want to run it at a relatively high frequency? L8v2? ZR800? MV180/182?
   No reason to cover a relatively higher frequency..let your midbass do midbass duties. But from that list the MW182 and ZR800 (if you can get them to fit) would be my choice.
   
5. Is 75W or 100W RMS at 4 Ohms enough power to drive an 8" midbass?
   Yep, though some drivers perform "better" with more. Better is subjective.
   
6. What highs should I look into if I want to mount them in the factory location? the L3SE look appealing.
   Scanspeak 10F's, L3SE or L3 were my choices. Hertz were good, but needed too much massaging.
   
7. Is it a dumb idea to remove the rears and just run fronts? I've never had anyone in the back of the car.
   Hell no! If I didn't have my 2 little girls riding in back, I'd have just the front stage installed only. That's where the music is coming from for positioning.
   
8. What are the pros and cons of an infinite baffle sub in the deck (coupe) versus a sub in a box? I don't listen to a lot of rap, so I favor tighter bass. If I do a box, I lean toward something prebuilt like this 12" JL
   
   I've yet to hear a IB sub sound good for SQ (not spl). If you want tight bass and don't want to give up a ton of space, go with the JL 13TW5, Sundown SD310 or 12, or if you can find it the SI BM MKIV shallow mount subwoofers with the appropriate airspace needed for box enclosures. I've got the sundown SD3-10dv4 in my car and it's tight, not boomy. To be honest, most of the bass work is being done up front by my midwoofers and the sub is providing sub 63hz sound duties. All of my bass sound is localized up front, where it should be.

Thanks,
Jason

 

Thanks for the answers - super helpful!

I have a set of L3SEs coming, so the highs are taken care of.

Noob question, but what's the difference between running 100W a channel to both the highs and midbass and running bridged 200W to the midbass and another smaller (75-100W) 2 channel amp for the highs?

Another noob question - I have a buddy with a JL 12W7 in a ported box that he'll sell me for $400 and a JL 10w6v3 he'll sell me for $150. I worry that the power of the PDX-v9 is not enough for the 12W7, so I lean toward either running the 10w6 off the PDX-v9, or possibly stepping up to a Audison Voce AV5.1K to run the 12W7. Assuming that I don't want to wake up the neighborhood, and don't really listen to rap, what's the upside of the 12w7 over the 10w6?

Thanks,
Jason

 

How goes your install progress? Car sounding a lot better?

 

Haven't started yet unfortunately, been busy launching my company (Ada Diamonds) and the car has taken a back seat.

While I have your attention, It's about time to need a new battery for the car. Any recommendations to best accommodate an Audison Voce AV5.1K? It's a beefy amp.

Thanks,
Jason

 

I don't object to any previous comments. Just here to add my own:

1. A delta of 25w isn't going to amount to much so just get the amp that has better specs and fits within your budget. Low signal to noise ratio, high dampening factor and high crossover slopes are important in amps.
2. I would use the amp's crossovers b/c it probably has better slopes. The tighter the slope, the less "bleedover" you'll get at the crossover frequency.
3. What others have mentioned previously are good candidates. The Dynaudio mw182 is actually a 9". I would not suggest it in a 2-way though. I don't think it will be able to play high enough. I am using a mw182 in a 3-way. Which is something you could consider and run no sub (but you'll need more than 100w to the 182s). If you already own the voce 5.1k, then this a moot.
4. I'm only running 75W to my mw182. My installer said it will be "OK". Generally speaking, I shoot for 150w to a dedicated midbass.
5. Pretty sure someone here is running a HAT L3. I briefly considered using one but decided to use the same brand throughout for no other reason than preference.
6. Biggest benefits for IB: less power needed, no box (weight savings). IB should theoretically play the lowest of all enclosure types. I plan to go IB. Biggest issue so far is the little metal bar (deck support???) that runs just in front of the OE sub. This will cause you to have to drop the sub baffle below it. If you have a deep sub, the magnet will show and limit trunk usability.

FTR, my shit isn't installed yet. It's a glorified pile of expensive components at this time. Hopefully the aftermarket HU will get installed in a week or 2.