Car Stereos: Speakers, oldsmobile delta 88, bass speakers

Question
I have a 1966 Oldsmobile Delta 88, and I'd like to install component speakers up front.  I found there were two choices, a pair of component speakers with woofers, or a pair of component speakers with midranges, along with the seperate tweeters.  Would it be a good sounding arrangement to have component speakers up front with midranges and tweeters, and get the woofer frequencies by installing two woofer speakers in the back speaker locations?  Should I add a crossover for the back speakers to only channel the low frequencies to them?

Answer
Hi Carl,

Personally, I think I'd try to go with a full-range sound in front (down to around 100Hz or so) rather than sending the bass to the rear and the mid and treble up front.  You can add bass speakers in the rear for low-end reinforcement, but they should be used in addition to, not in place of, front bass speakers.  If you have a range of sound that only comes from the rear, the effect will be to distract you from the front imaging.  The exception is sub-bass frequencies (around 100Hz and below); bass tones this low can't be localized easily, so a well-designed subwoofer setup can often make it sound like the front speakers are playing the deep bass.

My advice would be to try to reproduce the full frequency range (except for sub bass) up front, then add a subwoofer in the rear for the low end.  You might also consider installing some mid-range drivers in the rear, but I'd adjust them so that they just give you a rear fill effect.  The effect should be to make the system sound more spacious, rather than make it sound like audio is being produced behind you.

Hope this helps!

Brian