Center Speaker/Audio Question

[Lawdog86]

Will a 4in speaker fit in the center dash or just a 3", I am looking to replace all door speakers with JL's. I plan to run the 6.5" C5-650x in the rear, the 6.5" components ZR650-CSi in front, and either the 3.5" C2-350x or the 4" C2-400x. Will I loose any of the Audio features, rear back up chime, Onstar/bluetooth by replacing the speakers? Thanks guys!

[Dizzy82]

I've read members deleting the center speaker and their audio quality improves drastically.

[Snoman]

You're not replacing the center speaker--complete waste of cash and it actually degrades your audio stage. It's even recommended to cut the wires when one obtains the car as their first audio upgrade.

[Lawdog86]

Why would or does the center speaker make the sound worse?

[Lawdog86]

Which speakers control Bluetooth/Onstar, sorry, i only drove my car a year it has been in storage since for 5 years, its still a brand new 2011, loss than 20k. I don't remember, I'm now buying everything to upgrade the car next summer.

[SnowyCamaro]

Mine is disconnected. Couldn't tell you if it get better without it there cause I upgraded everything at the same time. Onstar bluetooth etc works through the front speakers. You won't lose anything.

If I were to speculate I would say it makes the tweeters less pronounced so the left and rights are less distinct with its running.

Just curious... Why are you replacing speakers without upgrading amps ? JL are nice but can't get the most out of them with the stock power behind them. I would even be concerned about blowing them because of distortion on high level from the stock amp.

[Snoman]

yea, don't replace the stocks with JL without buying a quality amp to push them. You WILL blow the JLs using the OEM amplifier.

The center speaker interferes with the front sound stage and introduces 'audio distortion', your ears get confused.

[Lawdog86]

Thank you guys for the reply,SnowyCamaro, Snowman I currently have the XD400 amp running my BA's, which I'm assuming will be adequate to run the new JL set up? I have a slash/1000 running a single 12W7. I am also planning new bumper with clear bra, side skirts, upgrade to mylink with frameless mirror and backup camera. My car has been in storage for a while, i was crazy my last assignment was Italy, were the speed limit was suggestive, hell Nuremberg was close as well. Then i figured my next assignment I would make some mods and supercharge it, well I'm on a tiny island in the middle of the atlantic, after that 3.5 years in slow driving Hawaii so the 6.2 basic should be plenty fast for there. I might tune it, not sure that would make any difference. The car is paid off and collecting dust, my great inlaws start it up and run it around each month, but its really a garage queen. I have done some work to it already, lowered sway bars, cold air intake, muffler delete, 22 rims, I'm replacing with the same brand, they some how rusted or pitted, new hood and grill. Ive thought about buying new and saving my money, but this is paid off its mine, why create a new car payment, but i don't know by the time I'm done i will have invested a good chunk of change its a tough decision.

[Snoman]

the XD400 is enough

go back to your stock 20" rims and/or pick up some aftermarket if your 22" are bad. The 22's and their associated rubber are too expensive and unsettle the handling of the car.

You are on the right track with a paid off vehicle, dealers aren't going to give you a dime and you can drive it easily for another 8-12 years.

[Imdyinhere]

Originally Posted by Snoman

the XD400 is enough

go back to your stock 20" rims and/or pick up some aftermarket if your 22" are bad. The 22's and their associated rubber are too expensive and unsettle the handling of the car.

You are on the right track with a paid off vehicle, dealers aren't going to give you a dime and you can drive it easily for another 8-12 years.

this from a guy who has 21" rims....

[Snoman]

Originally Posted by Imdyinhere

this from a guy who has 21" rims....

[VeeGeeTea]

You need the center speaker, it's the cross-over audio between Left and Right speaker.
It equalizes the audio. Without the center speaker, one side of your vehicle would often sound louder than the other.

Your center speaker is where the vocal part of the audio will be projected, without that, your music will sound very muddy.

The tweeters on each door handles the high pitch audio, things like cymbals, that perfect note when your guitar goes wah wah.

The woofer part of left and right doors handles audio likes drums, just enough for that kick to sound authentic.

The two rear speakers/woofer on the back of your car handles the bass of the audio, just enough boom and thump without distorting the rest of your speakers.


Each of these are crucial to your listening experience.

[Leo72793]

Unless you have a full dsp setup, center does nothing. 99% of the cars ive seen have just unhooked it. It doesnt change the soundstage for vocals. its just a "fill" but it takes from the effect of stereo since 99% of the audio comes in 2ch. Just unhook it OR get a real DSP setup bypass their amp and tune it to work. NOTE its really hard

[Snoman]

Originally Posted by VeeGeeTea

You need the center speaker, it's the cross-over audio between Left and Right speaker.
It equalizes the audio. Without the center speaker, one side of your vehicle would often sound louder than the other.

Your center speaker is where the vocal part of the audio will be projected, without that, your music will sound very muddy.

The tweeters on each door handles the high pitch audio, things like cymbals, that perfect note when your guitar goes wah wah.

The woofer part of left and right doors handles audio likes drums, just enough for that kick to sound authentic.

The two rear speakers/woofer on the back of your car handles the bass of the audio, just enough boom and thump without distorting the rest of your speakers.


Each of these are crucial to your listening experience.

What makes you believe this exactly? The only single time I've heard this language was from a retail car audio shop sales rep attempting to up sell me or a journalist that was paid money to lie about it.

The Camaro system (like all other OEM systems) is a basic two channel (left/right) stereo playback system. There is no front + rear, rear fill, 5.x, DSP or otherwise anything other than the basic left and right playback. The rear signal is a 100% clone of the front signal. The concept of a true 5.1 theater system playback for the vehicle was very short lived and even died before it got off the ground. Primarily due to the expense, programming difficulty and namely; no one needs or wants a 5.1 THX system in their car. In fact, none of the music we listen to is anything other than left/right 2-channel audio.

The center channel is a mono signal that replicates both the "left" and "right" signals which are both played back through the center channel. The center channel is nothing more than a "sonic bridge" to help the misaligned sound stage displacement commonly produced in a two channel environment. In a more technical speak, it is used to offset the limitations of proper timing produced through tuning as the driver will sound terrible to the passenger and vice versa. The use of a center channel in such a manner tends to create two tuning points (listening points) in a vehicle closer to the front seats instead of one at the center of the vehicle. The absolutely mind boggling truth here is that the use of a center channel creates more distortion and problems sonically than without it. What's the old adage? The cure is worse than the problem?

The concept of a center channel in a vehicle took off as a complete sales gimmick after the explosion of the home theater concept in the 90's. The use of a center channel carries zero legitimate basis sonically for use in such a sound stage and will distort a 2-channel stereo sound replication, always. The concept and idea seemed to gain some ground after retailers paid advertising journalists to repeat the concept through "independent reviews". The reason it distorts the sound stage is because for the driver, the left ear hears the left speakers and the right ear hears two different speakers from two different distances playing the exact same sound. This creates a minor echo affect. The passenger receives the opposite affect.

Vehicle door chimes, voices (Nissan), alerts and the like all used to come from a hidden speaker from a system that was 100% independent of the Stereo system. Manufactures saw that they could charge exponentially more for the "Stereo" by integrating the system into the vehicle's CPU and other electronics like the AC, mechanical diagnostics and more. Manufactures continue to use center channels because most of the designers today are too young (or too stupid) to comprehend any of this.

The front left/right tweeters are crossed over independently through an in-line resistor built into the wiring in the doors. The center channel is likely crossed over in the same fashion, if at all. The rears are actively crossed (inside the amp) over instead of passive like the front sound stage. This was purposefully done so that you cannot just go run buy a good set of 6x9's and drop them in the rear deck.