Mini Me

Hi i am wondering what the difference in sound quality is between 2 way & 3 way speakers.

Are 3 way speakers really worth the extra money, or is the difference really that small that it doesnt warrant the extra cash.

Any advice, thoughts or comments would be great.

Cheers

ViGiLaNtE

There is a big difference between 2 and 3way, but not much between 3 and 4 way unless you have your ears trained.

Two way deliver basically mid-range and bass and a little bit of treble. 3 way deliver all 3 at once, bass, mid and treble and you can easily distinguish between them all. Just go to an auto/audoi store and stick your head on there sound board. You will notice the difference. But after saying that, Fosgate (as an example) their 2 way speakers are bloody good, and you can hear pretty much the full audio range with these. Pioneer have the new 5-way TSA-6990s series now and Kenwood still have their 7x10 range of 4-ways at very good prices. To summarise, use 2 way for rear speakers...and 3 way for front so you get that 'staging' thing happening.

ViGiLaNtE

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Nothing beats the sound of a V8

dcstraight

Every man and his dog will have his 2c on this...I'd suggest doing a search...but a quick answer would be if you're going a componenet setup - 3 ways are better than 2 ways if setup right etc etc, but you're probably referring to coaxials yeah ? If so - stick to 2 ways, feed them enough juice from an amp and you'll be laughing - that's me and me dog's 2c =D

Cheers,
Steve

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Wagons are rarer ;-)

302_supra

dont be fooled though...most "3 ways" for car speakers (coaxials) Are not noticeably different to 2 ways. Seperate component 3 ways are a different story..for example in a door if you have an 8" bass, 4" mid and a 1" dome tweeter that system would be great providing you're using a right crossover to split the relevant frequencies to the relevant speakers. It comes down to how much do you want to spend? I own a set of pioneer 4 ways, jbl 3 ways and pioneer 2 ways (all coaxials) and the only noticeable difference is the bass output of the bigger coned 4/3way speakers. Trust me on this one...let me know if you need to know anymore...i do this for a living.

XRated

Hey 302_supra - I have Pioneer 2-ways (about $150 a pair) in my front doors and sometimes they sound good, sometimes shite. I have got them running through an Audioline amp ("2x200 watts", bah, yeah) and my head unit is one of the highest model JVC offers (2002).

My mate has a poverty-pack Pioneer unit running through Kenwood 6x9 4-ways and it sounds three times better. I consider myself a bit of an audiophile, and the lack of crisp treble and bass I get from my set up is shithouse for the money I have spent! All my mates seem to have basic head units and speakers, but sound a lot crisper and tighter. I have spent about two-three times as much as my friends... They either have Pioneer head units or Alpine. WTF am I doing wrong? Would 3-ways give better performance? Would my amp be giving me this grief? Driving me insane.

In a couple of months I plan on getting some real decent splits, but for now I need something to tide me over.

Cheers.

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snavy

i find the 3 and 4 are way too sharp, not nutrual sounding.

ViGiLaNtE

XRated - if you want serious sound..try Infinity splits. guareented to please. Their Perfect 6.1 and Kappa serious of speakers are very high quality and a very high price but you will be very happy.

ViGiLaNtE

__________________
Nothing beats the sound of a V8

XRated

Hey, thanks for the advice. I was actually trying to decide out of:
Rockford Fosgate
Infinity
Polk Audio

I was leaning towards Infinity. Not many places in Melbourne stock Infinity - and when they do, the price is pretty high.

Cheers.

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Walkinshaw

mabey add to that list

Morel
Dynaudio
MBQuart
ID
Adire
Focal

happy listening

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Ive been described as a vault of usless random knowledge.

Ill take it as a complement i think.............

Resin

XRated, If you want really good sound you're going to have to replace both your amp and speakers. The JVC head units are very nice so that's not going to be your problem. The Audioline amp will be sending a pretty crappy signal to your front speakers, and although your speakers are ok, if you want clearer bass and treble you're going to want some component speakers or at least higher quality coax's.

Obviously you're not on a huge budget so if you don't want to spend a heap of money I suggest you look at JL Audio speakers - their VR series splits are really nice and they'll only set you back about $350-$400. For the amp, well most things are better than Audioline :) I've got a Kicker 200.2 running my front stage, I'm quite happy with it, cost me around $500-$550 from memory. Not sure what else is good in that price range, just shop around, have a listen and see what you like.