kidwhiz

You're never really pressed against the speaker itself, (unless you're 6'5" ) Try it. I'm 5'11" and have about an inch or more of space from the seat back to top of the rear panel. The rear speaker gets mounted at the bottom of the panel. The sound travels around the seat just fine. The acoustics of the area back there cause the sound from the speaker behind you to surround you. Also, you can use the fader to change the sound stage characteristics. My front speakers are still louder than the rears when the fader is centered. I have stock 2002 fronts and lucid's rear panels with polk ex340's.

amartin

Personally, I love it. All my speakers are amplified (AMP powers all), and SURE I can make the rears too loud... but thats why we have a fader... just tune the rears down so it balances out-- sounds great. I also put a crossover on the rears to remove the highs (I just wanted mid/lows from the rears). I love the way it sounds.

-- Aaron

s2k_redhead

My 2 cents is that it depends on how much of an audiophile you are and how much money you want to spend. If money (and storage space in your S2000) is no object, get a new head unit, add an amp, put a subwoofer in the trunk, get big, high-end speakers for your fronts ... and forget the rears. If, however, you want an affordable way to greatly improve the stock setup, go for the rear speakers. I can't speak to the issue JL has experienced being 6'5", so that's worth considering if you're tall. But for me and my husband (who's 5'11"), it's really enhanced the power available and the ability to hear your tunes with the top down.

shaner

Before I started working on my various sub enclosures (in the spare tire well) I had two extra channels on one of my MRV-1507 amplifiers available to play with. So I experimented with a variety of rear speaker locations to see what all the fuss was about... It totally removes emphasis from my already phenomenal front stage. With my midranges and tweeters on the dash with a plentiful amp power source, I have one of the best front stages around. I am just not going to mess around with such great sound...

gohiking

Great question. The answers posted here helped me make the decision to go ahead and order Lucid's rear speaker panels and wiring harness. S2K_Redhead's comments seemed to hit the nail on the head. If you're an all-out audiophile and maintaining a correct soundstage (in front of you, with the top down, etc.) is crucial, then the rear speakers are an awful idea. Make the investment in subs, amps, etc. that will deliver the sound you crave. If, like me, you're looking for sound that's clear and solid at highway speeds with the top down, a set of efficient speakers behind the seats is a sensible option.

My $.02.

Rick Hesel

I'm a real advocate for the rear speakers, but it takes much fooling around to get the sound right. I have a five channel amp, and I spent nearly a day with a reference CD and much listening to get the staging I liked. Since I listen mostly to classical music and jazz, and wanted a concert hall sound, the rears were almost essential, since much of the quality of orchestral music (since it's all acoustic, thank god!) is in the reverberations and overtones created by reflection off concert hall walls and surfaces. Front speakers alone just can't capture this. I have the front tweeters in the A-pillars, relfecting off the windshield. The rear tweeters are mounted high in the plastic trim in each rear corner near the roof mechanism. They were a bit overwhelming at first and much of the adjustment time I spent was devoted to getting them right. In the end, I couldn't be happier, especially since I never thought I'd get sound of this quality in a roadster.

BTW, the sub proved to be a total waste of money, since it gave way too much emphasis to bass tones and sounded totally artificial, not only with classical music but with jazz as well. I'm happy to have the extra trunk space not having a sub makes possible (mine filled the well).

MyBad

I replaced the head unit and door speakers with upgrades. I didn't plan to put rear speakers in at first, but after reading about it, I decided to give it a try. After all, I had the original speakers sitting in a box in the garage.

I installed the originals in the rear panels and MAN what a difference!! Even with seriously upgraded components, the rears provided a whole different listening experience!

A great move on my part and I highly recommend it!!

matrix

Have you now taken the sub out? What size was it and what type of enclosure did you use?

Rick Hesel

Yes, it's out and in storage. It's a custom box, made by the Reverend to perfectly fit the trunk well. As subs go, it's terrific, but the sound is just not my taste in music at all. I might consider selling it, since it's just collecting dust in my storage bin...

matrix

I don't know if you want to try this, but I will throw it out and you can decide if you want to take the time or not.

Considering that you enjoy classical music and jazz, the last thing you want is overpowering bass. I don't know what size your sub was or what type of enclosure (sealed, ported or bandpass). I would suggest a couple of things, if you want more low end sound back in the car.

1 - use an 8 or 10" woofer, it will give you much tighter bass
2 - cut the sub off at a much higher freq. I need to know about your speakers, but just to show where, I would cut a 8" at about 1500 to 2000 Hz and a 10 at 500 to 1000Hz, again depending on the speaker.
3 - use a sealed enclosure.

An 8 or 10" woofer will be able to move quicker than a larger woofer therefore you can increase its cutoff freq. without having to worry about the speaker being able reproduce that sound.

As subwoofers are usually used for freq. less than 100 Hz and have a lot of power feed to them, they can quickly become overpowering. Cutting them off higher also spreads this power over a larger freq. band. Kind of balancing things out.

Using a sealed enclosure gives the greatest control over the speaker motion, a ported enclosure can easily play 3dB louder than a sealed enclosure with the same speaker/amp.

The only thing that I am a little worried about, but think should be okay with some fine tuning (and I see you have already done that with your rear speakers ) is the sound stage. Cutting off at 2000 could put to much mids to the rear and you may need to tweak the cutoff/level. But I agree with you regarding the reflected sound. You should hear a 5.1 audio dvd...absolutely fantastic.

All 3 of these may help your situation, just my 2 cents and if you tried all of these before and still did not like it, well I tried.