# 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?



## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

I am sorta confused on this one. I have an old Boston Acoustics Pro Series 6.5 2-way component speaker set.

It comes with 2 tweeters and 2 6.5" drivers which I'm not sure are midranges or midbasses? Can somebody please clear this up so that I can set the proper crossover points. In the manual it is listed as a midbass. So does this mean I'm missing the midrange frequency since it doesn't come with a dedicated midrange driver?

Thanks


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## gt6334a (Sep 9, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

in a 2 way, you have a tweeter and a midbass.. works just like many home speakers with just 2 drivers...

when you say, you want to set the crossover points, are you running active or passive?


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## bloobb (Apr 14, 2011)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

the 6.5 in a 2 speaker component set acts as more of a midrange, covering 80hz- 2/6k hz depending on the manufacturer. most of your vocal cues will come from the 6.5 speaker.

generally you highpass your components at about 80hz to prevent blur in the vocals due to cone flex from the 6.5" trying to do vocal and extend for a bass beat.


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

I am running a 3-way active crossover from my HU. I have my midbass bandpassed at 200hz-3.2k and my highs HP at 3.2k, my sub is LP t 80hz

I have a gap or underlapping between my sub and mid is because i guess thats where the peak is in my car and it sounds much cleaner this way, the midbass doesn't sound as boomy, or sloppy and it's more cleaner and crisp to the sound. I have a 24db slope on all my crossover points. Sounds the best to me. I'm still experimenting to see how high I should bandpass the mids and highs though. I wonder if i should go higher than 3.2k.


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## FG79 (Jun 30, 2008)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*



turbinez said:


> I am running a 3-way active crossover from my HU. I have my midbass bandpassed at 200hz-3.2k and my highs HP at 3.2k, my sub is LP t 80hz
> 
> I have a gap or underlapping between my sub and mid is because i guess thats where the peak is in my car and it sounds much cleaner this way, the midbass doesn't sound as boomy, or sloppy and it's more cleaner and crisp to the sound. I have a 24db slope on all my crossover points. Sounds the best to me. I'm still experimenting to see how high I should bandpass the mids and highs though. I wonder if i should go higher than 3.2k.


Am I reading this right? You have a gap between 80-200 hz?

Not good...system will sound thin and hollow. Drop that midbass down to 100 at least. 

If you cannot do this for whatever reason, then you'll need to fix the system so this can be done.


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

I can drop the midbass LPF down to 100hz, but it will start sounding sloppy and take away from my sub. It seems the lower I go on the MID-L the muddier the sound range gets in the mid bass frequency. Is there a way to fix that? Can I set my sub to LP at 125hz and keep my MID-L at perhaps 160hz? My sub does a much better job at playing 125Hz and under than my midbass driver.


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

This is my current crossover settings for my car.


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## Timelessr1 (Feb 12, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

Something doesnt sound right if you cant get your 6.5's to play lower then 200hz cleanly. How are they mounted in your doors? are you using any sort of baffle? are they just mounted to the door card? I'd take the sub out of the equation first and try to gt your front stage set up correctly. Once your front stage can play down near at LEAST 80hz cleanly (i'd persoanlly even shoot for lower) THEN bring the sub back and blend it with your front stage.


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

My 6.5's are mounted to a thick wooden baffle that was custom made for my speaker to provide a nice sealed fit. So I don't think the problem lies in the mounting. I just don't like how my midbass sounds. It's not clean, punchy or accurate.

It's a 2-way component not a 3-way so keep in mind that this 6.5" driver has to play a much broader range of frequency. I don't have a dedicated midrange speaker. so this 6.5 will have to play those frequencies as well.


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## Timelessr1 (Feb 12, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

what source unit are you using? Are you getting a clean signal from the source unit. something is definitely not right. Just to give you an idea...my 6.5 a/d/s mids are crossed over at 60HP, while my sub is crossed at 50hz LP. My mids are doing alot of the work and the sub jsut adds the ining on the cake.

could there be any damage to your mids? How old are they? where did you get them? I had a pair of 6.5 that when ever i played them loud, they started to break up way to easily....ended up they were blown!


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

I am using an Alpine CDA-9833, 4v pre-outs, yes I am getting a decent signal. My components are bi-amped to a JL 450/4 amp


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## Timelessr1 (Feb 12, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

its sounding like its the actual woofer. might want to try to get your hands on another set of 6.5's Maybe go to parts express and pick up a pair...they are cheap, and maybe you might end up keeping them in your set up if you like them!


have you cheched polarity also? Usually polarity wont cause muddiness...just a loss of bass


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## bloobb (Apr 14, 2011)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

another thought: you could just have super leaky doors, assuming you havent sound deadened them. and a leaky door definitely affects 80-200hz range
edit, before i went semi 3 way active, my 6.5 jl woofers were playing cleanly down to 60hz, where i had a 12db high pass set.


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

Hmm, could be leaky doors then. Since my doors have no sound dampening whatsoever. I don't think my 6.5" speakers have any problems.

Will sound dampening such as dynamat correct this issue? How much does it usually cost to get the doors dynamatted and is it a difficult task to do?


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## Timelessr1 (Feb 12, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*



turbinez said:


> Hmm, could be leaky doors then. Since my doors have no sound dampening whatsoever. I don't think my 6.5" speakers have any problems.
> 
> Will sound dampening such as dynamat correct this issue? How much does it usually cost to get the doors dynamatted and is it a difficult task to do?



What kind of car? I've had 6.5's play down to 50hz cleanly with 50watts, and no sound dampening at all on a car door that had 2 pretty large holes in it. Its def a good idea to damp your car doors will it fix your problem? IMO i dont think so...also...your not dampening anything...unelss your making your doors wet. it's damping....


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

Its a 07 g35 coupe. Oops my mistake, damping. If i decide to dynamat my doors, should I also get the dynamat extreme speaker kit as well since I already have my door panels taken apart? I already have a custom fit thick wooden baffle to mount my 6.5's to my door, so I'm not sure if I'd be wasting my time and money by getting my speakers dynamatted as well.


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## Timelessr1 (Feb 12, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*



turbinez said:


> Its a 07 g35 coupe. Oops my mistake, damping. If i decide to dynamat my doors, should I also get the dynamat extreme speaker kit as well since I already have my door panels taken apart? I already have a custom fit thick wooden baffle to mount my 6.5's to my door, so I'm not sure if I'd be wasting my time and money by getting my speakers dynamatted as well.




This is why im thinking its your speakers. I jsut finished an install on a 2003 Maxima ( the g35's bastard kid) 6.5's in teh door....used 3/4 mdf baffles (i didnt have any MDPE on hand) and there is zero sound deadening in this door! I am running 50 watts to each driver and its corssed over at 40hz HP, yes...it sounds damn good!! I cant blare it, otherwise id have to up the Xover point to 60. but for higer then average listening levels, it sounds amazinlg y blended, and clean. For your woofers not to be able to sound clean lower then 200hz...somethings broke..and i dont think any damping material is going to fix that....have you tried swapping channels on your amp? maybe theres an issue with your amp....you have to try all diffrent variatios before throwing good money after bad


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

I don't think my amp is having any problems. I'm sure the light on the amp itself would notify me if something was not functioning properly. But I'll double check when I get home again. Do you also think that it could also be a polarity issue with my 6.5's? Maybe I have to swap the negative and positive going into the amp? I'm not sure which part of the wire is negative and which is positive, there are no marks at all.


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## Timelessr1 (Feb 12, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*



turbinez said:


> I'm not sure which part of the wire is negative and which is positive, there are no marks at all.


so who did this install? how do you/they know they got it right when they were hooking it all up? do you have a DMM? I'd use that to check speaker wire continuity. This way you know for sure which wire is which wire. and when you do figure out which wire goes where, but a label on it or some sort of marking so you know for future tweaks/issues


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

I did the install myself, and yes i have a DMM laying around somewhere but have no idea how to use it to check the polarity of the speaker wires. Care to show me how to do this if you don't mind?


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## Timelessr1 (Feb 12, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*



turbinez said:


> I did the install myself, and yes i have a DMM laying around somewhere but have no idea how to use it to check the polarity of the speaker wires. Care to show me how to do this if you don't mind?




so you did the install, but you dont know which wire is the positive or negative b/c there arent any markings on the wire? 

sure...set your DMM to ohm's (your checking continuity) you will have to have access to the speaker wires at the actual speaker. Now take your two DMM prongs...and touch them together...notice how your DMM display goes from a "1" to like a " .02" or something like that? What that means is that there is almost no resistance between the prongs.....why? b/c they are touching each other. Now what you want to do is have one prong hooked up to one side of the speaker wire (while its not connect to the amp) and with the other prong touch one of the two wires in your door. when the DMM changes from 1, that means you have found the other end of the wire...now label that wire. do the same for the other door. Now you know when you hook that label wire up to the "positive" or "negative" side of your speaker, then you hook it up to the corresponding positive or negative on the amp.


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

I was hoping I can get away with doing this at the amp, really don't want to take apart my door panel just for this. 

Guess I have no choice then. 

I have been hearing people say that the poor response in midbass in the door can be solved by dynamatting the door panels. Everyone is pretty much saying this which leads me to believe I should just get my doors dynamatted and be done with. 

I also heard from people that you shouldn't set cross your midspeaker too low or else they will start sounding muddy and interefere with the rest of your soundstage. I know my 6.5's are rated down to 50hz but I don't think they necessarily sound great when crossed that low, they almost sound like they are bottoming out, either that or its my door panel thats causing a lot of resonance. Which I believe is the latter, because I even tried shutting off all the channels except for the midbass to see how it would sound, and it plays fine. I am also using a 3/4" MDF baffle for the 6.5's


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## Timelessr1 (Feb 12, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

Well...you nkow somethings wrong..right? so you might as well take the door cards off, if your going to damp the doors, which at that time you can check the polarity. Also..did you set your gains correctly for your midrange/midbass? Honestly...200hz high pass on a 6.5? somethings not right...you might as well have a 4 incher in there.

Have you played your system with the door cards off? maybe the 3/4 inch mdf is too thick , and the speaker surround is hitting the back of the speaker grille. you have to just try different senerios, untill you track the problem down.


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

my gains are properly adjusted using the DMM method that was described in my amps manual. But I will go ahead and remove my door panels apart and check the polarity to see if all my speakers are in phase and then go from there.

Now I have 1 10" sub in my trunk firing out towards the rear of the car, should I set the sub in phase or out of phase with my frontstage? I have a setting on my headunit that will allow me to change this setting on the fly so I don't have to reverse my speaker wrie running into my sub.


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## Timelessr1 (Feb 12, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*



turbinez said:


> my gains are properly adjusted using the DMM method that was described in my amps manual. But I will go ahead and remove my door panels apart and check the polarity to see if all my speakers are in phase and then go from there.
> 
> Now I have 1 10" sub in my trunk firing out towards the rear of the car, should I set the sub in phase or out of phase with my frontstage? I have a setting on my headunit that will allow me to change this setting on the fly so I don't have to reverse my speaker wrie running into my sub.



First get your front stage set perfect. Then bring your sub into play. when you have the front playing perfect, and you bring the sub in you will notice that when you switch phasing on the sub from the headunit, one setting your bass will drop out, while the other setting it comes back and is more prominent. that will be the setting you want to keep it at...no need to change the wires back at the sub if your head unit does it. My sub is set to "reverse" phase on my head unit. If i really wanted to...i could set my head unit to normal, but then id have to change the wires back by the sub to get it back in phase withthe rest of the system.....so either way..its up to you..


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

Timeless, I really appreciate your time and efforts in helping me out. I have an IASCA soundtest CD and was curious if I can use that to test for my speaker polarity as well.


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## jpswanberg (Jan 14, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

I had a Pro 653 back in the day (95 Camaro). 100 plus watts going to each side and still no midbass to speak of. I ended up running the high pass at 120 hz. Car Stereo Review reviewed the Pro Series 2 way and also found there not to be much below 100hz. JPS


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## turbinez (May 7, 2009)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

joswanberg, wow thanks for that information. Well if that holds true, then I guess it would be a waste for me to set the MID-L any lower than 120hz. I currently have it at 200hz which I may bring down to 160hz. IMO 80hz is too low for them.

I have about 150w rms running to each 6.5" from my JL 450/4


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## Timelessr1 (Feb 12, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*



turbinez said:


> Timeless, I really appreciate your time and efforts in helping me out. I have an IASCA soundtest CD and was curious if I can use that to test for my speaker polarity as well.


You're welcome... 

you could....but I found that section of the test disk a little tough to really benefit from. If you want to give it a try....go ahead. 
Let me ask yuo...how did you know which wire you were hooking up to the amps outputs? how did you determine which wire went to which positive or negative of the amp?

just to throw something else out there. You might actully be correctly in phase according to your amp outputs and your speakers, but sometimes depending on where your speakers are located and distace from your head, and xover slopes used...you might have to acutally put your speakers out of phase to sound the best.....this is the world of system tuning



I also used a set of Boston Pro 5.4's that helped me get to the IASCA finals in the late 90's...they had plenty of mid bass


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## ZAKOH (Nov 26, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

The name of the woofer should be based on the frequency range it plays. If it plays above 1000Hz, no way it's a strictly midbass speaker IMHO.


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## kanez (Jan 28, 2010)

*Re: 2-way Component speaker, is the 6.5" considered a midbass or midrange driver?*

Just a thought, since your not sure of the wiring to the mids.

Determine if your right and left mids are in phase with each other.

Easiest way to check for that is to use your balance on the HU and switch left to right.
If it sounds louder on the left or right channel than when it is centered then your mids are out of phase with each other. This would explain for your lack of bass response.

Switch the wires around on either the left or right speaker(not both) will bring them in phase with one another.


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