here are the links: Mitsubishi Pathfinder they are both mine and my own installs... tell me why you think one would be better than the other...
I'd vote the Pathfinder because I have a 1995 Pathfinder that's the same body style. But sports cars, of course, look nicer - and drive nicer - than SUV's. But truthfully, I can't HEAR either car - so how to vote? Why don't you describe a little bit about the listening experience you have with both cars? The noteworthy stuff... Perhaps in one car, the stage height is really impressive... And the other one, perhaps midbass impact? (I haven't any clue, just giving examples!) Perhaps I'm the wrong one to post first on this topic... Equipment doesn't make an impression on me, in that I've heard some top-dollar stuff that sounded ho-hum, and some cheap stuff that I've assembled myself without any particular thought process that happened to sound wonderful... not to mention some products just offer the potential for more confusion and fiddling... Based on equipment... I like the Mitsubishi because it seems like a simpler setup (more my speed)... ...but I like the hand craftsmanship that you put into the Pathfinder, and that you are pursuing a bit of an experiment with that one... by that virtue alone, it is a bigger winner in my book, even if it didn't work out!
LOL, this is a great reply... I knew you would be interested in Pathfinder for personal reasons... I just wanted to take things a step further with Pathfinder (always wanted to run 8 in midbass in a car) since I have torn up this car so many times and more or less wired most of the electrical gear myself (I had fun wiring remote window rollups and rolldowns to the Autopage paging alarm). Both systems are actually very very simple (except for the 2 way tweeters in Pathfinder). I had all this Morel stuff lying around so why not? Heck, the most expensive pair of speakers in this car must be the rear fill midbass drivers, LOL... I had fun practicing my limited vinyl skills on both cars plus sheetmetal cutting on Pathfinder... If you notice, there are no fasteners visible anywhere on Pathfinder install BTW. Both systems sound completely different. Morel set up is much more detailed and staged. Imaging is great in both, allthough tweeters in Mitsu took some work to aim right (they are mounted in swivel bases). The bass is so much different in both too, Brahma is extremely transparent, almost invisible. Brahma has great output but the Mitsu subs really make my hair move!!! very weird feeling to experience that air moving throughout the car and bouncing off your hair... Mitsubishi is way louder too, much much louder... Pathfinder can run at max volume and it is still not that loud but Mitsubishi can be just obnoxious... Very interesting to compare Illusion and MaxFi vs Morel and Brahma vs TC Sounds... I think they both came out pretty nice actually considering no professional help was employed (except for the bare box built by Mr Marv for Brahma... BTW, I am quitting car audio install part after this... I just do not think I can do much better than what I did in Pathfinder... :lol:
There's always better! B) I think my vote is for the Pathfinder after that... I like the way you described the image in that install. I'd love to hear it myself - particularly with two sets of tweeters, since that doesn't fit inside the usual definition of a mix that works well! In fact, I am curious about them... how are they crossed over? Are they split at some frequency, or do their frequency ranges overlap some?
they are not really just two sets of tweeters... It is more like a 2 way tweeter system, LOL... each pair is powered by a separate amp and each pair has its own crossover ouput. I used my JVC crossover this way: I run the front high output to run the Morel MT-1 fabric tweets from 3.7k up to 9k. At 9k, Morels are lo passed with 2nd order passive filters that I built from Madisound parts (not the cheap caps or coils at all BTW). The rear high outputs from my crossover go to old school Lanzar (yes, made in US) titanium tweets that kick in at 10.5k and up... I picked my crossover because it was the most flexible unit I could find anywhere with 4volt signa (otherwise I had Premier CD-1000 but could not use it due to its 2volt max output). This crossover has all independent filters, 3 way front plus 2 way rer and sub (not using this one). Anyway, the highs high pass goes all the way to 10.5k and the midrange lo pass ends there too (I have no seen another unit that could do this). So since I run the supertweeters from the rear highs, I run the rear fill from the rear mid output and bandpass it between 100 and 7k thanks to my crossover... The rear fill uses passives so I run the rear with just two channels from the 4 channel amp that also powers the supertweeters (I think this was actually a pretty simple way to handle this). I did not want any noticable highs to come out from rear fill and it is really pretty transparent and adjusted to keep the stage fully up front (you would not guess the rears are playing and the only way you could tell was to notice lower output with just front playing). The front tweeters are actually placed ABOVE the supertweeters not to pull the stage too high, it is actually right on the height of the dash. The supertweets make a big difference in broadening the stage alot, I mean the whole music plays out right on the top of the entire dashboard... I actually did not even have to aim the midrages because the dispersion pattern is very wide on them, pretty cool IMO... AnywaY, thanks to the 2 way tweets, I am completely free of eq (well, just had to cut a bit at the midrange/tweet region) but otherwise there is no loudness, DSP or anything else employed... It really works like a charm and those 8inch midbasses (lo passed at 250) make the Brahma very very transparent without even noticing the sub is all the way in the rear. Could it be better, sure it could be but like with spekers, the difference between the very expensive ones and the middle of the pricing level is not large enough to justify messing with it... I thought about putting the midranges in the kicks but after setting them in there for a trial and then having them in the doors, the staging was better and imaging did not suffer too much at all... Very simple system when you really look at it, just seems a bit complex on the surface...
