More Car Audio Questions..

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

Ok.. I'm not completely car audio stupid.. I know there are EQs and Cross Overs and what not.. But I really don't know what a Cross Over does for sure.. I'm going to be spending some time beefing up my g/f's 2000 Altima's sound system and want it to be nice, but I don't want to do a lot of modding to the body of the car.

I have a 94' GrandAm and it's got some old equipment in it (I won't be using it in the Altima) but my car sounds really good. I have a Pioneer DEH-11 Head Unit and 2 Clarion 3-way 6x9s in the rear and 2 Clarion 3-way 4x6s in the front. And these give me plenty of kick for what I want.

My g/f plans on keeping this car for a while and wants to do some mods and beef it up some. So, I'm looking at what I can do with the stereo first.

So, questions..

I would like to stick with the standard speaker holes for the most part. I don't mind getting some kick panels and installing extra speakers in those. But the stock speaker holes don't leave much to be desired for good speakers.. They're 5 1/4" speakers all the way around with tweeters mounted in the front doors. Crutchfield seems to think you can mount bigger ones, but I'd like to see them try, I already replaced the rear speakers and they barely fit.

Anywho, it's very difficult to find any speakers that, I feel, are good replacements for the ones that are in the car. What arrangement would be best?

Something like : Mid-range in the rear deck and door panel and a couple of nice low range in some kick panels as well as a decent Bass Tube in the trunk with a decent amp?

What kind of equipment do I need to get to install all of these extra speakers? I'm assuming this may be what the EQ could be used for? Or possibly the Cross Over? If I come across sounding completely Car Audio illiterate then maybe I am? hehe.. I don't think I'll have any problems installing this stuff, just would like to know what I should install for a nice system that will have plenty of Bass and still be able to hear the singers.

After I do this we will probably start working on some engine mods.. I've already got my eye on a nice Cold Air intake for her.. hehe..

TIA

eGo

[Pugsley]

a crossover only allows certian frequency to a speaker... like a sub crossover normaly cut out everyting above 120HZ. its a way of sepereating it so that the speakers dont try to reproduce frequencey that they just cant do. like if you feed sub in to a tweeter it will ruin it... and tweeter into a sub and you probbly wont hear anything. so thats what they do in a nutshell.

now they areent like a brick wall to all other frequencys... it has a dropoff rate.. and that differs depengin on what you want to do.

[Viperoni]

Pugsley pretty much said it.

A crossover starts making frequencies above or below (AKA: lowpass or highpass, respectively) a certain frequency (AKA: crossover point) quieter at a progressive rate/slope.

If you have a 100hz lowpass crossover with a slope of 12db/octave, that means for every octave above the crossover frequency, you end up with 12db less loudness. So a 200hz tone would be 12db quieter than a 100hz tone, and a 400hz tone would be another 24db quieter than the 100hz tone.

Crossovers can be either active or passive. Google them, but basically, an active crossover works at RCA level signals and requires more amplification channels but is better for sound quality than a passive crossover, which works at the speaker level.

[Pugsley]

that and most actives can be tweaked while just about all passives are set only one way.