Rear fill is for rear passengers. Sure you could do an L-R setup in the rear with some heavy delay to 'enhance' the front stage.. but ultimately the front stage is where it's at.
kids in car, rear on. Kids not in car, rear off. 2 daughters, 9 and 13. First thing said EVERY time "dad, put it on this station" "turn it up, that's my favorite song" "turn it up more". doesn't matter what song it is.
I personally need Front and Rear. When I initially had my front stage installed HSK 163.3 (3-Way Comps) I didn’t have any rear speakers and it sounded like it was missing something. Its possibly because I have a high-end home system that of course uses Fronts, Mids, and rears (Surround Sound) so not having any type of sound from the rear sounds FUNNY…
My (HU) Eclipse CD7200MII produces surround sound with its built in processor so it truly sounds AMAZING when I listen to music. I also use the Time Alignment function to get the best out of my setup.
I wonder if this is a little car specific. When I had a single cab truck, I only had front stage (of course), and it sounded great. In my Yukon, if I only run front stage, it sounds a little empty. If I fade in the rear speakers a bit, there is quite a bit more 'fullness' to the sound. The emphasis is still on the front speakers, but it sounds tons better with a little input from the rear set.
i dont think i have used rear fill in over 20 years.
but i usually drive saller 2 door sports cars or pick up trucks. i would imagine if i had something with a larger cabin i would try it out. always wanted to try a large midbass in the rear of the car.
to the op, why not try it without the rear and see how you make out. you can always add someting later.
i dont think i have used rear fill in over 20 years.
but i usually drive saller 2 door sports cars or pick up trucks. i would imagine if i had something with a larger cabin i would try it out. always wanted to try a large midbass in the rear of the car.
to the op, why not try it without the rear and see how you make out. you can always add someting later.
I think I will. And I do think it's car specific. In a truck or small sports car you may not need or want rear fill. This system is going in an 87 Conquest TSI. I will be running a 12" Alumipro Audio Alchemy MX sub enclosed 4th order in a small box in the back seat with 300W to it. So I will be getting great bass and a little mid bass out of it from the rear. That may be all I need from the back.
PS: Like you said, they can always be added later.
Last edited by Lance_S; 03-10-2011 at 01:59 PM..
Reason: added PS
I have a large sedan and it sounds very full with just 2 way front. There should be no reason why the front seats need more then a pair of speakers in front. 99% of music is recorded in stereo, so you are not loosing anything not running surround sound. I have been playing around with a few sacd and DVD-a rips using digi out. Sounds great on stereo mode. Even a lot of sacd and DVD-a are just stereo but some are surround.
IMO I like natural stereo, the same the recording studios are using to fine tune and tweak their music though high end studio monitors.
Also a 2 or 3 way active all time delay should give you amazingly full sound. Like the music is everywhere.
The only thing I would consider rear fill for is passengers, and I would just run a pair of coax off the deck and fader them in, but keep the deck fade to front the rest of the time. Also a little more bass reinforcement would be ok maybe a pair of 8s running 60-125hz
If you feel like something is laking without rearfill, I would seriously loom at you front stage. Obviously something is laking and the rearfill is making up for it.
Hey one thing for sure is that rear fill is standard. The (Automotive) industry thinks that Rear-fill is a must, because almost every automobile has some sort of rearfill......
Hey one thing for sure is that rear fill is standard. The (Automotive) industry thinks that Rear-fill is a must, because almost every automobile has some sort of rearfill......
Just figured I throw that out there.... :-)
They also include OEM head-units and wonderful speakers.
Hey one thing for sure is that rear fill is standard. The (Automotive) industry thinks that Rear-fill is a must, because almost every automobile has some sort of rearfill......
Just figured I throw that out there.... :-)
yes, its become a more is better type of thing. if someone asked how is the stereo in this car at a dealership and they said it had 2 or 4 speakers, you would think the stereo sucked. my car came with 10 speakers, they where all pos paper cone crap that failed withing 10,000 miles. they are thinking about your rear passengers, and if they have to put 10 speakers in the car, then they are going to be the cheapest ones china can make for them.
i would like to exclude some MB and other higher end car companies that do use decent speakers, and put time into designing a decent audio system.
usually when you use cheapo speakers you need 8 or 10 of them to give the car enough sound. too bad my 10 speaker stock system still sounded crappy and bottomed out the front midbass drivers with any heavy bass music.
I have 6.5 2-way components in the front with plenty of power. While front-only sounds good, the sound seems to become fuller if I also turn on the rear speakers. Perhaps it's the midbass or perhaps it's the additional surround sound effect, but I like it. My rear speakers are coaxial speakers that happen to have relatively weak tweeters, strong midbass, and low sensitivity. They don't interfer with the front stage. They run off head unit, and their volume is set really low. I heard in some cars having a sub in trunk can damage rear speakers, but it's not an issue in my car because the rear deck has an empty hole for a factory 6x9 IB subwoofer.
I use both. I have an 02 Dodge xcab pickup. It came from the factory with front and rear speakers, so when I decided to upgrade the speakers, I replaced all four.
Polk db 6x9's in the front, and db521's (?) in the rear doors. Once I got the tuning closer to where it needed to be, It sounds really good, but is still missing something up front. I'm going to a component system for the fronts, so hopefully that will bring the front alive a little. The soundstage is fairly low.
By adding the tweeters in the front, it should definitely help raise the stage, and get rid of the void.
I like the sound better with a little rear fill. I don't necessarily want to "hear it" but I can tell when it is versus isn't there. (I can no longer hear much over 12k Hz, but I want me speakers to go to 20k too! Lol)
I'll be running an ms-8 soon, and that is my biggest dilemma-- I'll have 8 channels, so I'll need to decided between the following options:
1) Active front 3-ways, center, sub
2) active front mid-bass, active as a pair but passively crossed mids to tweets (run off one ch each side versus two as in #1 above), rears, center, sub
3) active front 3-ways, rears, no center, no active on sub
Front Stage vs. Front and Rear together
Linear Mode
