Full range speakers?
 

I'm no audio guru, but while looking for new door speakers for my blazer I stumbled across "full range" speakers. Does anyone have experience with these? What is the difference between full range and regular speakers? The ones I'm looking at are Rockford fosgates.

Would I get more bass from full range speakers than regular ones? They're considerably more expensive than the non-full range ones, but if they'll give me more bass without having to take up cargo area with a subwoofer, It would be worth it to me.

Full range are made to hit all or most of the frequencies the human ear can pick up, just in that speaker. So you won't need tweeters, mids, etc. The full range should encompass it all.

You should get more bass out of them than the stock or normal mid range speakers that fit in the door.

But have you seen the 8" subs with the small boxes that fit under your seat though? :icon_naughty:

8" subs that fit under the seats? Tell me more. I am shying away from subs since they take up cargo space and aren't edible, potable or useful to power the truck when 4 wheeling.

Thanks for the explanation, n. Jensen.

8" subs that fit under the seat!? You have my attention...

Here's one of the options:


Www. amazon.com/Alpine-Electronics-PWE-S8-Restyle-Subwoofer/dp/B00OYGGMXK

But there are YouTube vids that show how to make some custom boxes, too.

Full range speakers are generally just a great drop-in speaker replacement, and the majority of the time an upgrade. Almost ALL aftermarket full range speakers are what's called "coaxial", in that they have a main mid-bass driver when is generally the size of the entire speaker, and in the center will have a separate tweeter (sometimes multiple tweeters tuned to different frequencies) to help play the higher tones more clearly.


If you're just looking to drop in a set of speakers to replace the worn out originals and get a little better sound out of them at the same time, you can bold the Rockford's into the door and you will most likely be very happy.


The next step up would be a component set. Components separate the larger mid-bass driver and the tweeter into two separate, well, components :icon_teeth: The benefit of this is that you can place the tweeter remotely from the mid bass driver for better sound staging. The "boom boom" sounds the mid-bass driver is playing travels better and you can pick up the sound even if you don't have your ear right by the speaker, but the "tsst tsst" sound a tweeter makes is very directional, so if you're not in its "line of fire" you'll miss out on a lot of the audible details. So with the components being able to mount the tweeter separate, you can bring the tweeter up higher closer to your head and often aim them so that you can hear them more clearly.



This is especially the case in the S-series since the door speakers are mounted way down low in the door which is a terrible spot for tweeter sound staging... Thus why I personally have components mounted in mine. Now keep in mind, components are more difficult to install, because it's not as easy as just dropping the new speaker assembly in place. You have to find a spot to mount the tweeter. In my case I mounted them right into a hole that I drilled into the door panels. A little more work, but sound WORLDS better in my honest opinion.


BTW I'm a huge Rockford fan myself :D


http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...929_180550.jpg








Oh and who needs cargo space anyhow?


http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...701_224546.jpg

I think the component set up is a bit further than I want to go right now. But it definitely sounds like something I'd be interested in setting up down the road... I just have too many other things that are waiting for attention on it at this point lol.

It does sound like the full range speakers are going to be the way for me to go then. And for now the tweeters in the dash should suffice.


Cargo space is important for me... not so much for cargo but because I've been known to break my truck and/or get stuck in the woods in the middle of the night and sleep back there hahaha.

Eventually I'll probably make up a box for a sub and amp where the right interior panel is in the cargo area, so it doesn't take up much more space... but my list is a mile long ahead of that still lol

Thanks for the advice!

Yeah after installing the components in my 04 I actually completely disconnected the tweeters in the dash, so they're not even hooked up to the audio system at all any more. They also make full range speakers sized for those spots as well to replace the tweeters, but some people have ran into fitment issues since there's not a whole lot of room as far as depth goes to put a speaker with a larger magnet on it in that spot... The only time I've ever put full ranges there on the dash is in my father's Sonoma that was just a standard cab 2 door truck. I knew he wouldn't car too much to have a full component set in it, but I wanted to bring the sound stage up a little high for him without going too crazy, so I just installed some matching Memphis brand full range coax speakers in both the doors and in the dash and they sounded amazing, especially paired with the 8" sub I tossed behind the seat that he didn't even asked for but LOVED it :D


As far as subs and cargo area go, if you're not looking to rattle the windows in the car next to you at a red light, there's actually a lot of good removable setups that you can do. I've ran two different setups in the Blazer. For short time, a Rockford unit that was a 12" sub, box, and amp, all in one unit, pop two plugs off and it was quick and easy to just toss it in the garage when I needed the cargo space. Was a ported box setup so it had some decent low end to it, but it was definitely not super loud by any means. I took it out when I let the mother-in-law borrow the Blazer for a little while though and whipped up this contraption. An 8" sub in a slim sealed box who's wires were connected to the sub and rand out via an actual 10 foot extension cord. The other end of the extension cord ran to a little 400 watt amp I had hidden in the right side rear quarter area in a cargo bin that I pulled from a Bravada in the junk yard. Worked out great because with one easy plug she could remove the sub and have all the room in the back, the plug was keyed so there was no plugging it in backwards. The amp and sub would never pull too many amps for the extension cord. The only downfall was if you jammed out for more than 30 minutes or so the amp would heat up and shut off, but you could overcome that by just popping the lid off the cargo area thingy :D Again, not super loud, but it helped with the lows a lot


http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...531_213415.jpg


http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...531_213212.jpg


http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...531_213138.jpg


http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...527_194523.jpg

Blazen, how did you remove that right side cargo stash? Is it just riveted on? I'm looking at grabbing one of those, myself... :p

If I recall correctly, yes they are riveted on, but it's been a while... To hold it in place I just used several short self tappers paired with some washers (you can see them dotted across the top ; they get covered with the lid is on, see my earlier posted pictures) to go through the carpet and into the inner structure of the quarter and it holds strong. I don't have that amp in there any more, I use it as a convenient spot to hold some winch recovery gear at all times :D