Okay, after figuring out my
Amplifier Settings I started on the changes this past weekend. After removing the seat, I made all the necessary adjustments. The stereo was sounding great, but I had one more thing to check.
I have Infinity Kappa Components in the front. They came with a separate crossover to divide frequencies to the mid and the tweeter. Within the crossover is a jumper that can be switched between two settings, flat or contour. The contour setting reduces the mid range and results in more percieved bass, or something like that.
I decided to test to see the difference, with the music playing I faded all of the sound to the front, to my suprise, the volume was so low coming out of the fronts, that it almost sounded like it wasn't working correctly. I checked both crossover settings, and the sound didn't change much. The only sounds coming from the mids were vocals, very quietly at that. The tweeters were putting out the expected frequencies, but not loudly, even though I had the volume at a decent level.
When I initially set the gains, I was listening to the entire system. I just assumed that because the fronts and rears were rated the same (RMS and frequencies), that the gains should be set the same. However, the volumes coming from the rears (3-way 6.5") was much greater than the fronts. Does it make sense that the gain on the fronts would have to be set 30% higher to get the same output as the rears, even with the same RMS ratings? And is that what I want to do?
I always thought component sets were meant to "scream", not whisper.