Why 4" fronts? Why not keep with 6 or 6.5"?
I went with some dayton 6.5" reference and some separate 1" seas tweeters and love the sound.

Also, I have a polk C400.4 amp for sale if you're interested.

 

Using 4" simply because I'm reusing the stock 3.5" dash location, and that's all the bigger I can fit in there. Door panels for my car are getting pretty rare too, so I don't have the heart to cut into them.

I'm also trying to keep things simple, so no tweeters for me yet.

 

your can run your pre out from the sony into an amp and run the output from the amp to any speakers (front or back or both)

if you get new speakers for the front and leave your polks in the back, and put all the speakers on an amp AND WIRE EVERYTHING CORRECTLY you will probably be pretty happy

could be done in 1 day for $150.

3.5"

Four Channel

 

Hey, thanks for the suggestion, If I wired it as you suggested I'd have to wire each side in a series, correct? and that would give me 2ohms on each side?

I would also lose the ability to fade front/back, right?

Also, couldn't I then just use a 2 channel amp?

 

people will rape me for suggesting this, but i would wire the speakers/amp so your balance becomes your fade, not ideal, but it would work and give you some control of front to back balance, or setting the gains on the 4 channel amp carefully would balance the front to back well and leave the balance as normal?

you have options,

speakers are typically 4 ohms, and most amps do 4 ohms per output, no need to series anything, just wire em up

 

Good Ideas on the balance/fade situation.

Sounds like I should be good to go with just the one preamp out, and wiring the speakers "sideways"

I'm gonna do some more price checking (and check a few pawn shops) tomorrow.

Thanks for the help.


Edit: Actually, could anyone suggest a quality pair of 4" speakers? Looking to spend about $60-70. Right now I'm looking at rockfords, inifinitys and polks in that range, is there anything else?

 

be certain you can get 4 inch speaker in there if your going to buy 4". for what your doing the selection and price at this place cant be beat.

4"

you can probably find a $100 speaker for $60 if you look (huge discounts on some models) any of the well known brands will be good

sony,polk, alpine pioneer kenwood etc etc

id get these

http://www.woofersetc.com/p7980/GTO428--JBL-4"-Grand-Touring-Series-2way-Speakers.htm

http://www.woofersetc.com/p7981/GTO328--JBL-31-2"-Grand-Touring-Series-2way-Speakers.htm

you CANT GO WRONG with jbl

 

After looking again, I'm not so sure I can fit 4's in. So I'm going to use 3.5's.

Current shopping list is:

JBL 3.5's - $50
Amp wiring kit from woofersetc - $20
Some extra speaker wire - $10

Refurbished JBL GTO75.4II 520-Watt 4-Channel from harmanaudio, last one ended for $83, I'll be happy if I can get it for <$100\


Looks good to me, any comments?

 

Hey again, re-bumping this thread.

I got a decent deal on a JBL GTO75.4 II at $82
ordered speakers and a 8g wiring kit also.


Now I have some more questions,

#1. This amp has the option of high-level inputs, I'd only have to use them for the front channels. I've heard that these kind of kill sound quality, but do they really? I would think that the ability to both fade and balance, and also set the input level of the fronts separate from the rears would be worth it if the sound degradation isn't too much.

#2. When wiring the remote turn on lead for the amp, I patch that into the 12v switched (ignition) wire, right?

 

I've heard the same thing about high-level imputs but I don't know how accurate my source was. so someone else more knowledgeable will have to give the final word on this.
Your HU should have an amp remote turn on lead it's typically blue like the remote wire. Use that. Other wise your amp will be on when your car is on even in your radio is not. It's not a big deal but it's not the ideal way to do it.

 

Get some RCA "Y" splitter cables and split the (1) pair output to (2) pair and feed the 4 channels of input on the amp. Be sure to get the correct "gender" ends...they come in many different combinations!

As far as balancing the sound levels, just turn down the gains on your amp for the rear channels.

Yes, switched +12v will work, but as borahshadow stated, there should be a blue remote turn on wire coming from the HU.

Robert