Well I finally have gotten everything purchased and should be having it installed soon. It is going to consist of a 6.5" Diamond Hex series component set up front with the 6.5's where the factory 8"s are, with the tweets in the stock 6x8 position. I'm going to power them with a Diamond D5 600.4 amp rated at 75 x 4 @ 4 ohms and 150 x 4 @ 2 ohms. I'm taking the HiFonics Zeus 6x8's I already had and am going to put them in the rear deck. My new subwoofer is a RE Audio SX series 12" powered by a Diamond D5 1200.1 rated at 1200 x 1 @ 1 ohm. A couple questions I have are am I going to notice the HiFonics in the back much causing some sort of sound differences, and should I upgrade them or just leave them be. Also wondering how much difference a 4" mid included with the tweeter would help out? As far as the subwoofer I'm thinking about going ahead and putting 2 of the 12's back there. How would running the one 12 in a ported box compare to running 2 of them in a sealed box? And would I need another amp to push two of them or could just the one amp do the job?

Id run 1 12 ported over 2 sealed 12s and thats exactly what I have in my Silverado.....(FI Q)Its lighter and louder...
However I would have a custom enclosure made for best fittment and spec -
I had many sealed subs even with as much as 2500 watts and I way prefer the SQ of 1 ported sub...
I wouldent even run rear speakers personally,just the front comps and the HEX's are gonna want 150w per channel
so that 4ch amp you have wont really cut it for the HEX's if you go that route...Rear speakers really mess up the imaging of a car,especially a small Mustang...
I have run HEX's before,better do a door treatment if you want any sorta midbass also if you really want them to shine swap the tweets for LPGs...

That D51200.1 is a sweet amp,I used to run one I think its underrated by about 15-20% :)

ORIGINAL: excelerater

Id run 1 12 ported over 2 sealed 12s and thats exactly what I have in my Silverado.....(FI Q)Its lighter and louder...
However I would have a custom enclosure made for best fittment and spec -
I had many sealed subs even with as much as 2500 watts and I way prefer the SQ of 1 ported sub...
I wouldent even run rear speakers personally,just the front comps and the HEX's are gonna want 150w per channel
so that 4ch amp you have wont really cut it for the HEX's if you go that route...Rear speakers really mess up the imaging of a car,especially a small Mustang...
I have run HEX's before,better do a door treatment if you want any sorta midbass also if you really want them to shine swap the tweets for LPGs...

That D51200.1 is a sweet amp,I used to run one I think its underrated by about 15-20% :)






Sealed will have more SQ then ported, no SQ competitor uses a ported box. Ported boxes can sound good, but a properly build sealed enclosure will always sound better then a ported box. Ported boxes with a low tunign frequency are great for people that want a decent amount of SPL with a small decrease of SQ. One sub in a ported box is not always lighter then two subs in a sealed enclosure, but with FI Q, you saved yourself a few lbs.


Personally, I would ditch the rears all together. I would go ahead and get the 4 inch mids as well and run an active/passive setup using the Diamond amp to power the fronts. I'd use two channels for the 6.5" woofers and cross them over where the stock crossover does, and run the other two channels through the 4" and tweet using the crossovers that come with the comps.

I am currently running a Diamond D5 600.4 bridged on my CDT comps (That is 300 watts per channel, underrated, rms) and I couldn't be more happy with the headroom, but I doubt those Hex's will enjoy getting that much power. With a bi-amp setup using all 4 channels on those Hex's you should be able to send plenty of power to the woofer and still balance the mid sand tweeter.


I also have a strong feeling my diamond D5 600.1 on my sub is a little underrated. Great sounding amps!!!

I also agree about going sealed over ported but this is just an opinion and we all got one. If you are unsure I would probably tell you to go sealed.

Seeing diamond all over this board now, didn't use to.... I think me and preal need to contact them for sponsorship opportunities. I am overdriving my hex 3-ways by bi-amping them with my D9 800.4 but they seem to love it so far and so do I. Get the most power to them you can and you will not be disappointed. I also agree about you will need some sound dampingfor your doors and after working with everything over the years I was recently impressed with my most recent discovery called second skin. Their entry level stuff is the same as other "Extreme" brands and their top of the line stuff leaves it in the dust. It is not as easy to find as competors but the do online sales and it is worth it.

Thanks alot for the info guys, this is exactly the stuff I wanted to hear. I had came so close to already buying a three way comp set with the 4" mids included, sounds like I should have gotten it instead of ever buying the 6x8's. But they did serve their purpose for a while of getting rid of the stockers in the doors until I went with something better. A little different opinions on the sealed vs ported, I have never ran any subs in the past 13 years that I have had car stereos in a sealed box, which is why I'm curious about the sound difference. Right now I still have that ported box in there for 1 12", but I would be fine with doing it over again if I would notice a difference from the two subs sealed. I'm more for SPL than SQ, so just wanting to know which would be better for that. If I do the two subs in a sealed box will the 1200.1 be able to push both of the SX subs? Also how much difference in box size would there be between running two sealed and one ported? I would be nice to get a little trunk room back if I could. Also Scott, I bought the Second Skin due to your recommendation a while back when I first installed the sub and put that stuff in my trunk. I just used Damplifier Pro for now, and that is some great stuff! Thanks!

JTE,

A couple comments...

Sealed sounds better becuase of the slight vacuum put on the cone when the cone is at excursion limit given the power you are giving it. In a sealed enclosure you basically let the suspension of the woofer put it back into place, but the air moved by the cone moving back to point 0 is forced through to port to move more air and therefore more sound.

If you are more into SQL, a mix of SQ and SPL, build yourself a ported box and tune it to around 32hz. A sealed enclosure should be smaller then a ported enclosure, but you sacrifice Db. You sacrifice db both through the lack of a port and the neccesity of more amp power to produce the same spl (the resisitance of the box makes the cone harder to move therefore you need more power...).

That amp will move both of the subs, but RE's really like thier rated power which means you would need two D51200.1's. If you are wanting volume, your amp is the limiting factor and I would go ported.

Like Scott said, more power is better. Like Yoda said, with power comesresponsibility. Youcan run a ton of power to those comps. Bi-amping is your best option, but if you just bridge the amp, watch your gains and you willbe ok.

My only gripe with the Hex's is that they don't have near the midbass of my CDT's...

ORIGINAL: PReal

JTE,

A couple comments...

Sealed sounds better becuase of the slight vacuum put on the cone when the cone is at excursion limit given the power you are giving it. In a sealed enclosure you basically let the suspension of the woofer put it back into place, but the air moved by the cone moving back to point 0 is forced through to port to move more air and therefore more sound.

If you are more into SQL, a mix of SQ and SPL, build yourself a ported box and tune it to around 32hz. A sealed enclosure should be smaller then a ported enclosure, but you sacrifice Db. You sacrifice db both through the lack of a port and the neccesity of more amp power to produce the same spl (the resisitance of the box makes the cone harder to move therefore you need more power...).

That amp will move both of the subs, but RE's really like thier rated power which means you would need two D51200.1's. If you are wanting volume, your amp is the limiting factor and I would go ported.

Like Scott said, more power is better. Like Yoda said, with power comesresponsibility. Youcan run a ton of power to those comps. Bi-amping is your best option, but if you just bridge the amp, watch your gains and you willbe ok.

My only gripe with the Hex's is that they don't have near the midbass of my CDT's...


Good stuff, like hearing info like this. I wish I had some experience with sealed enclosures to give me an idea of how it would sound. I will probably just go with the one sub in the ported box I have now that I had the Eclipse Ti in and just experiment down the road. Needing to run two 1200.1's is probably a bit much for right now. Would I probably be looking at an alternator upgrade if I end up doing that down the road? I'm worried about it right now with just the 600.1 and the 1200.1 that I have being hooked up together. I have done the big three upgrade already, so that part is taken care of. Anyone know the stock alt output on these model GT's?

Sealed VS Ported is subjective....I prefer ported..With the proper enclosure and a great sub either will work
but ported makes me grin ear to ear more than sealed..Try a Diamond TDX or an FI"Q" ported and youll never go back to sealed again

.02

ORIGINAL: excelerater

Sealed VS Ported is subjective....I prefer ported..With the proper enclosure and a great sub either will work
but ported makes me grin ear to ear more than sealed..Try a Diamond TDX or an FI"Q" ported and youll never go back to sealed again

.02


Ported gets loud and can still sound good, but it pure SQ terms, it will never have as much SQ as a sealed enclosure.

You like ported because it makes you grin.

I cannot tell I have a sub unless I crank up the gain.

The best SQ sub is one you cannot independantly hear.



A single Re SX in a ported enclosure tuned low to around 32hz will sound good and get very loud. Re should have box specs for an SQL box on thier site and that will yield you a great enclosure.



I'm running my 600.4 and 600.1 on a stock nissan 90A alt with two optimas and the big three upgrade.

Good choice I had the same Diamond amps ( the 1200.1 and 600.4 ) I also had The hex series comps but I had the 3 ways and for subs I had 2 D9's (but i also had 1 more 1200.1) in my 97 blazer a couple years back. I thought the setup was great! I love Diamond, good choice!

Glad to hear from people that have experience running the exact same items I plan on. The D5 four channel came in yesterday, damn I love the way these amps look! Would be a real shame to have them hidden behind the rear seat like I had the T15002. I would like to have enough room in front of the sub box to have a false floor with the amps countersunk into it, but I just don't see that happening if I go ported. I guess its going to be whether I want looks or sound. I know the topic is subjective, but when my only experiences the past 13+ years are with ported boxes its nice to hear some thoughts on the subject. In my truck I had 2 Eclipse Ti 12's powered by the Fosgate T15002 in a big ported box, and now just having the single 12" in the trunk just hasn't really been loud enough to please me. I wonder how much sound the flush wall blocks from entering the cabin and if I should leave the space open for more sound as well. Hey Rob, were you running a stock alternator in your blazer with all those amps? How did you like the D9's as well? I've looked into them but so far I'm pretty set on the RE's. Running a single 15" has crossed my mind as well...but I've always been really pleased with 12"s before, just this time I'm wanting louder! :)