Rearward Soundstage

[Zend3r]

Hey guys, so looking to start up a little discussion.

From lurking here I've noticed a lot of the bigger authorities talk a great deal about 'rearward soundstages' and looking to avoid it.

I have my system setup with a very (very) slight bias toward the front, but if I give the front splits too much and leave the 6x9s low I find the over all 'feel' of the sound system less desirable. I like that "all around" sound. I also have my 6x9s set to a slightly lower HPF at the amp so there is a bit of a crossover in the subfrequencies from the splits to the 6x9s to the sub.

Am I just completely wrong? I wouldn't consider myself an audiophile by any means although I would never go back from my Focal level of audio quality as compared to Alpines/Pioneers etc etc, but I just much prefer to have the 'all around' sound over just directly in front of me. I find it also helps combat hearing a right hand bias in stereo tracks (from being closer to the right hand split, obviously).

What are your thoughts?

(Sorry for the ramble and if this has been discussed before, didn't want to necro an old thread)

[showbags]

I think you gunna open a can of worms here. There's going to be so many different opinions her of how it should be set up and how it sounds. I'm staying well away from this one.

[wraith]

Lose the 6X9's get some decent 6 inch speakers in the rear. 6X9's are a marketers dream.

[vn_v6]

i know of someone who has a top of the line bmw, and if you listen to the system in the it has that "all round" sound your talking about, its amazing, i dont get having just a front soundstage, and 6x9's are just as good as 6's, you will barely notice a difference, why spend more money and hassle of changing the hole size when u can just keep the 6x9, most have the same voice coils and magnets anyway just a different cone!

[StoneX]

People like different things... For rock, punk, metal, soft rock, etc I like to have really good stereo sound from the front of me but for electronic stuff like dubstep, DnB, etc I don't mind being immersed in sound.

Different speakers and installation techniques will affect how just having front speakers will sound too. Most people who listened to my old car with just front speakers thought I had 4 speakers unless they sat in the back seats.

An example of people liking different things, I don't really like Focal speakers for my music.

[edit]
There was no posts when I started typing mine!

[wraith]

People like different things... For rock, punk, metal, soft rock, etc I like to have really good stereo sound from the front of me but for electronic stuff like dubstep, DnB, etc I don't mind being immersed in sound.

Different speakers and installation techniques will affect how just having front speakers will sound too. Most people who listened to my old car with just front speakers thought I had 4 speakers unless they sat in the back seats.

An example of people liking different things, I don't really like Focal speakers for my music.

Agreed. Music is so subjective.

[MAG00]

From a pure sound quality aspect, and Sweefu correct me if I'm wrong with any of this, it's all about getting the sound stage infront of you with an emphasis on stage height, depth and width, of course with the lower sub frequencies coming up the front due to being non-direction. Also, with regards to the crossover from multiple speakers, the issue here is that you have 3 different speakers playing the same frequencies slightly differently (due to having different musical characteristics), from a different position, not only amplifying those frequencies, but throwing the time alignment of the sound out drastically. If you really wanted them playing the same crossed over frequencies, then ideally you would run them all active, time align them and EQ them so that you get a flat frequency response (which is where audio processors or high end head units come into play).

That's from a purely sound quality competition stand point; however if you do not intend to enter sound competitions and prefer the multi-directional sound, then by all means go ahead and install some rear speakers. If that were the case, there is no way in hell I would cheap out on the rear speakers. Honestly, if you cared about the multi-directional sound that much then I would install the same speakers in the rear as well, otherwise you'll find the musical characteristics of a different pair of speakers may be different and completely ruin the effect you are trying to achieve.

Also, it almost sounds as if you feel your mid-bass/sub stage is lacking. If you are just using your 6x9s as a fill between your sub and fronts I would get rid of them, low pass your sub a bit higher and high pass your 6"s a bit lower. Another thing I would look at doing is making up some MDF baffles for your front woofers, so that you can angle them as on-axis as possible, reducing the chance of losing some frequency response from being off-axis.

What box have you got the Focal sub in? Sealed/ported? Volume? QTC/port tune frequency? Prefab/DIY? Although I doubt it with your thorough planning and installation, you could have the sub in a poor performing box and not be getting the most out of it.

Of course if after going over those points you feel that you are lacking the volume, authority and multi-directional sound that you want, I would invest in a similar pair of splits for the back.

At the end of the day, what you like the sound of is purely subjective and because of that you should just build your system to your own liking.

There's strict rules as to what governs the "sound quality" of a system and then there's a system that sounds "quality" to you.