I know some of you guys have put your tweeters in locations other then the stock speaker location, why is that and who has pictures? Is it for looks or function, or a little bit of both? I was just going to mount mine in the door, but then I figured I would ask you guys to get some other ideas.

Thanks

John

 

The stock location in the doors are high enough, you won't have to mount them in a diff. location. I used 2-way JL Audio 5x8's and they sound awesome! They make a mounting plate for the stock location if you want to go with separates.

 

Old school thinking was you mount it very near the woofer. New school thinking is it depends on the vehicle and where it sounds best is the right answer!. Before mounting them, get some long speaker wire and hook them up. Use double sided tape or something else to tack them in place in the doors. Give that a good listen. Then move them up to the pillars pointing at the windshield. Try that out.

Eventually you'll find the sweet spot.

-Mark

 

A-Pillars

 

The only reason to move the tweeters is for sound imaging. I put mine in the doors in front of the handle.



-Kimball

 

I've got Polk Components and the tweeters are just
northwest of the the speakers in the door ... I have seen
lot's of L's with the same setup ... Sounds great

 

If you have a pic of that northwest setup That would be great. i am getting ready to install a system I think this weekend.

 

oooh, focal is nice... howd you paint your door handle? I like it, what did you use?

 

LOL, I got a 2000. I am guessing you have an 03+? The chrome handles didnt get added till 03. I might be interested in a trade if you want black ones.

-Kimball

 

ohhh, too bad mine are peeling nasty

 

The trick to imaging is to get the speakers an equal distance apart from your ears. If the left is only 20" away from your ears and the right is 40", your going to hear the left one first and it going to pull the soundstage to the left. It has nothing to do with volume, its all timing. You need to find a spot to mount the speakers that is closest to an equal distance apart from the drivers listening position.

Measure the distance from the left door speaker, then mesure the distance to the right one. Its damn near twice as far away. When you turn on your stereo, close your eyes and try to picture where the voices are coming from. In a perfect imaging vehicle, they should seem to come right from the middle of the windshield. With the stock speaker placement, it'll be hard to find a definate spot where the voices are coming from but they will tend mostly to come from the left because the speaker is closer.

This is the reason why kick panels work so well. Your placing the speakers closer to an equal distance apart. Get out your tape measure and you'll see what I'm talking about. If you can get the speakers less than a difference of 8", you'll notice the "image" move closer toward the center of the windshield.

Tweeters are VERY directional. Aiming tweeters toward the center of the vehicle also helps with imaging, but there is alot of trial and error. Lower frequencies are not AS directional, especially the sub-bass frequencies which are OMNI-directional. Meaning placement doesnot matter as much due to the fact the sound waves move so slowly.

Another good thing to note:
To get the best sound from component speakers, mount the tweeter close to the mid range. The rule here is to mount them no further apart than the crossover dictates. For example: if the crossover point is 3500hz try to mount them no further than 3.5" apart. If its 4000hz, no more than 4" apart. The purpose is to keep from hearing where one speaker stops playing and the other one starts.

Ultimately your ear is the judge!!!!

Sorry for the lengthy relpy.

I hope all this helps
Jason

 

I believe my head unit allows me to compensate for the actual distance with whatever technology is in there. I'm too inept in the subject to figure it out. Good post though.

 

Mine lets me do that.

-Kimball

 

I'm not an audiophile (is that a word or did I make that up?) or expert or anything, but when on my last two trucks I had the tweeters mounted in the a-pillars.

IMO, it really makes the highs reach out at you. the sound bounces off of the glass and you hear it like it is right in front of you.

it's especially great on DVDs.

I used to love watching that lobby shootout scene from the first Matrix. it sounds like the bullets are flying right past your head.

just my .02

some pics:




they can even paint the speaker grill to match the interior if you prefer an extra stealthy approach.

later,
chris

 

A little hard to see in the shadow...but that's a tweeter high up on the door, near the A-Pillar.