Should be in stereo section but ill get a better response here.

I am buying some boston acoustic components for the truck and need to figure out where to place the tweeters. I have a few choices as of now.

1) I could mount them close to the stock 5x7/6x8 location along with the 6.5" woofer
2) I could mount them in the stock kick panels
3) I could mount them right below the a-pillars on the door
4) Buy aftermarket kick panels that are made for components and just mount them in there

I think mounting the tweeters at the top of the door (#3) would be the best for "sound image"

What do you guys thinks? Any pics of what you have done?

 

i installed my tweeters up on the plastics by the back window, they sound pretty good there, i like it loud and that was the only spot i could find close to my ears, just disconnected the plastics ran the wires up and mounted them there have no complaints so far. sound really good hope it helps

 

yeah that's where i mounted my B.A.'s at the bottom of the door A- pillar.. or right where the mirrors are,... sounds great !you can kinda see it in the top left corner of this pic.

 

I have mine mounted under the A-pillars, but centered. They look factory.

 

Mount them in the door...

 

The tweeters should be mounted as close to the woofers as you can for best imaging. By putting the tweeters in the A pillar, you will be much closer to the left tweeter than the right and your midrange and highs will have to much seperation. This will give you an unbalanced sound. The ideal imaging should put the music in the center of the vehicle. Kick panels are the best for imaging, but you can get pretty close by mounting the tweeters in the door panels close to the woofer. LOCOSVT's location is a pretty decent compromise. What a lot of high end stereo shops do, is mount the woofer and then put velcro on the back of the tweeter and try different locations. Once you find the spot that sounds best, then you can permanently mount the tweeters. Good luck in your decision.

 

Yea, you should mount them as close to the woofer as possible. If you want to mount them without cutting anything, there is enough space next to the factory door speaker mounts even if you adapt it for a 6.5" woofer. Just get some epoxy and stick those tweets to the metal inner wall. This way you will still have factory look.

 

why buy seperate's anyway if you mount them right next to the midrange....?!

 

Actually, you want the tweeters to be up where you can hear them without obstructions. The tweeters are the very important in presenting the soundstage, because they are very directional. The higher the frequency, the more sensitive the human ear is toward it's location. Subs can be placed anywhere, because they're only directional front/back(phase).

I've had coax's and triax's in the door, and the highs just didn't have the 'presence' that higher mounted tweeters give. You could turn up the treble until it hurt your ears, but it still didn't sound right to me. The separate tweeters mounted higher up are by far the best mod I've made to my stereo.

 

I mounted Kicker RS6.5 tweeter on the kick panel.

 

Bi-amping with active crossovers is one reason.

SQ is better when the frequencies are allowed to blend. This is harder to acomplish the farther the spekers are apart. How far you should mount components from each other depends in part on the x-over frequency of the woofer and tweeter.

Ultimately your ear is the judge.

 

Best place IMO, and looks sweet to me...

-Mike

 

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.

Like LOCOSVT noted, 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.

svtdvm said it best.......Ultimately your ear is the judge!!!!

Sorry for the lengthy relpy.

I hope all this helps
Jason

 

That was an excelent explanation Struckby99.

LOCOSVT,

Talk to any one in the car stereo business and they will tell you that it's not always advisable to seperate the tweeter very far from the midrange. Tweeters are very directional, but the majority of the sound you here is actually produced in the midrange. This is easy to demonstrate by first disconnecting your tweeter and listening, and then connecting it back up and then disconnecting your midrange. The midrange will produce way more sound than the tweeter by themselves. You are correct on the sub bass being non directional and not near as critical, but even proper placement of the sub can really enhance the sound of a system.

ROUSHFAN-1,

The reason seperates are better, is because each component is typically made of better quality than your less expensive co-axial type speakers. Co-ax's usually have a very cheap capacitor for a crossover, where as your more expensive component speakers have a much more elaborate crossover system. The combination of better build and material and a superior crossover system will get you much better sound quality and higher power capacity, which enables it to play louder.

 

It depends on the speakers, some warming sounding tweets will sound better up high in the door panels because if you mount them low you will barely hear them. If you have some brighter or more accurate tweets like MB Quarts they will sound the best in the doors mounted close to the mid range.

I myself have MB Quart Q's mounted in the doors next to the woofers...looks totally stock but sounds totally incredible!