[Msquared]

Originally Posted by Thill444

Thank you for your post and all your research in this area. As I was reading up on audio options on the 1LE I stumbled across many of your posts and you were one of the reasons I considered the Audio Frog midrange driver. I honestly may still go that route but my buddy is an avid car audio enthusiast and has bought and tested many of the midrange speakers out there and he told me to try the Sundown's first. So we will see. I actually owned the Morel 2.5 midrange speakers in my last car and was very impressed with them and it was night and day vs the stock Ford midrange and another midrange I bought at Parts Express. So Sundown being better than that midrange (at least it tests better) will make me happy for the price.

I'd never heard of the Sundown line before, so I'm interested to get your impressions...especially at a much nicer price! I'm sure that Morel and the Hybrid you mentioned are wonderful, but the AF seems a better match for the stock amplification (just a chip in the tuner module) due its sensitivity. I hope the Sundown works well for you, but if not, you won't be out that much money.

Yes I am adding a cap to the midrange, even though I am not adding an amp it seems like cheap protection. Thanks for the tip

Right, that cap serves double duty: it provides some protection, and it provides a crude crossover between the dash and door speakers, allowing them to work as a component set. The stock speakers have a 68uF cap, and that's what I reused. In retrospect, though, the GS25 speakers can be crossed over lower (AF recommends 200hz) and that comes out to roughly 200mF capacitance. So if I were not adding the amp, I'd be adding those. I probably still will even with the amp's active crossover, just for protection.

Door speakers.. You have me really thinking Audiofrog there. It is so hard to find 6.5" or 6.9" door speakers that are not coaxial (I don't think having tweeters firing so low in this car in the doors make sense to me) but that midrange bass is so important. I was just worried about not using an amp to power them, but it sounds like even off the stock amp/tuner they sound good and to your point an amp down the road will likely be possible.

Given that your adding a sub, you would probably be better off using the 6" round GS60 in the doors instead of their 6x9s. It's probably a teeny bit better sound quality, and you won't need the extra bass extension the oval speakers give you. I used the 6x9s specifically because I will not be installing a sub - I don't want to add weight because I autocross and track the car.

BTW, for the sub please make sure you tap the front speaker outputs and not the rear ones. The rears are not full-range signals. Also, I agree 100% with you about not using coax speakers in the doors.

I am just not dealing with the door chime business right now. If the sub and improved tweeter/mids get me 80% of the way there, I may just stop.

It might very well work out that way. I don't actually think the stock door woofers are terrible. They aren't very detailed and they don't have good bass extension at all. But especially if you low-pass the sub at, say, 80hz, they will probably perform a lot better because the sub will handle the area where the door speakers struggle, and the dash speakers will handle the most important frequency range (the mids). I agree with your approach to go this far and evaluate. Keep us updated!