14 replies to this topic

[SimpleHunk]

Since building a Kick Panel is no easy stuff, I better get my logic and concept correct b4 proceeding.

How much would the SQ be affected if I install the mid base (ie: 6inch or 5inch) not pointing right at myself? Should I go for a smaller mid base (eg 4inch) to make it face me or a bigger mid base (6 inch) and let it go off axis and still will do the job?

Easy question, hard to answer i know ..... so pls share your experience, view and opinion and give me some direction.

Many thanks.

[DeeCee]

Depends on the speaker itself i guess. When i put my sony mids into my kicks and aimed them as much as possible, the sound stage was low. The kicks were aimed at the centre of the doors because i had to leave some room for my feet and the accelerator pedal.

I dunno if its just me or not, but mids seem to localise a lot of sound, hence the use of 4"s in kicks to better orientate the sound towards the listener. The 5.25's dragged the sound stage down..

This help?

[SimpleHunk]

Thanks DC

Anything will help as long as you are willing to share and stimulate other to think .... Once again, thanks.

I more or less have the same problem like you coz my accelator is v close to the side, making me stretching my head how to make it good.

We never get enough of good advice and opinion.

More pls.

[DeeCee]

Best thing to do is to mount in the doors for best angling i guess. Will shorten the path lengths unless you mount your tweeters in the a pillers or on top of the dash some where to lift your stage up.

[eggism]

DeeCee said:

Best thing to do is to mount in the doors for best angling  i guess.  Will shorten the path lengths unless you mount your tweeters in the a pillers or on top of the dash some where to lift your stage up.

Tweeters in a pillars dont like the sound of that :cry:

[DeeCee]

it was suggested to lift the stage up because of the off axis mids. I for one have my tweets down low in the kicks.. to each there own listening pleasure

[SimpleHunk]

Thank you for the input guys

i have a pair of 6 1/2 spilt, Macrom EXT 6.0 and a pair of Morel, which I can choose to use which one.

B4 i have fitted a pair of MB quart in my Pulsar N14, redo the trim tray with MDF and the sound is very nice. Great achievement for myself.

This time I am fitting into a Pajero V46. My fear is that the 6.5 inch cannot be fitted into the kicks, especially on the driver side. Fitting the loudspeaker into factory door position is also difficult, because the window winding down will hit the magnet.

Most of the time i have the tweeter in the sail area, a pillar, but this time i thought of something different and consider to give the kick a try, you know we all need our 1st time, :roll:

Another issue is that the door trim is very very weak, unlike most car do.

Headache .....

Anymore input is welcomed.

[roughcactus]

The only way your going to find out is by giving at a crack...not many cars will take a 6.5" in the kicks without some pretty drastic mods...the best way to try your speakers in the kicks without fabricating some kicks is to make a baffle to hold the speaker(s) and then use some metal strapping (radio backstraps work great) to adjust the angle/position of the speakers to how you want them...now go and get some towels and seal the gaps around the drivers with them...then listen to your favourite discs...change position of the baffle...listen some more...repeat until you get the desired outcome...admittedly the towel is not as good as having a solid enclosure around the drivers but it at least allows you to do some experimentation and testing

Also be aware that tweeters in the a pillars can work well in some cars...many cars with kickpanel mounted mids and tweeters use an extra pair of ambient tweters in the pillars to bring the stage height up...as many cars with mids and tweets in the kicks can have a nice center image but you may notice the soundstage height is droopy at the extreme left and right of the stage due to the your ears localizing where the speakers are located...ambient tweets in the pillars crossed over quite hight (typically 6k and up) and run at a pretty low level tend to fool your ears into perceiving the stage height to be consistent all the way across the stage not just in the middle.

There is no golden rule about what works the best...I have heard some fantastic sounding cars and they had door mounted, kick panel mounted, under dash mounted and a pillar mounted speakers...don't let anyone tell you what works or doesn't work...get out there and try it yourself...there is no better satisfaction than making something work and sound great that theoretically shouldn't...theory is all well and good for keyboard warriors but if you really want to learn get out there and give it a go!!!



sorry for the long post :shock:

[SimpleHunk]

Thank you Rough. Your honest opinion enlighten me a lot. My great pleasure to hear from someone so professional like you.

Yes, I have tried to make my N14 Pulsar sound so nice accurate and correct. The person is singing right in the middle of the front, the satisfaction is just ....... beyond words.

I was thinking of kicks this time coz the door trim is so flimsy, not strong enough to make good sound proof and probably i dont want to drill a hole in it too. Door trim installation is much easier. just sound deaden the door, and then some cutting of MDF, screw them up and done. Nevertheless if i find it actually not sounding that good with kicks i would go back to my door with a SAW :shock:

Most of the tweeters I installed are in the sail area, just make them -3db, and will blend in with the mid nicely.

It would certain be nice if you can give me some more idea or issue to consider about and many thanks in advance indeed.

[roughcactus]

SimpleHunk,

No worries at all mate...happy to help

Give it a try and let me know what you think...if you need some advice just pm me...

Cheers,

Keith

[SimpleHunk]

Keith

sure I will and many thanks again in advance.

also like to ask you what is the advantage of going active as suggested ?

Please :idea: me thanks .

Adrian

[bmerigan]

to get an idea of what difference the angled baffle will make. listen to a car with front speakers in it already (doors/kicks).
move your head from normal position down to in direct line between speakers. can hear a big difference. angled baffles sound that much better.
a 6.5 really can only be mounted on the door satisfactorily. consider making an angled pod you can fix to the door lower front corner. mount tweeters up higher. again angled toward opposite headrest.

[Shieldsy]

i have found from kick panel mounting aiming mids to in between the dash and gear stick works very well for staging.
when putting tweets up high i would suggest getting you mids to stage up high first or you will be in a world of trouble.
when i considered high tweets it was purely becos legs get in the way of tweets mounted lower and you get a crisper sound when mounted higher.
but if you stage heiught isn't alrdy up high from your mids you should suffer alot of seperation between the midrange and the higher end.
i would allso suggest trying to equal out the pathlengths. long raked windows are great for this when mounting tweets in the a pillar.

[sil21jun]

I have kick with too much axis...didn't like it The two mid range is angled such that they cross at the centre console where its near the HU and left tweeter is aiming at driver head rest and vice versa.

I am going to redo my kick and try aiming across the car. Prolly going to build a small "box" to hold the 4" mid and 3/4" tweeter and "test" aim to my liking. Hopefully I can squeeze some sound coming from the windscreen.

[blue_6006]

I have my mids mounted in the stock door locations in my car and the tweets on the kick panel, I get a very good stage height but as mentioned before, It can be a bit left bias.

It is more noticable with different CD's. I am running Focal Polyglass mids with Focal TN46 tweeters. When I was using the TN47's the stage was higher but when I put in the TN46's the stage became a bit lower, nothing too drastic but it would be nice if it was a bit higher.

This is probably because I did not change the position from where the TN47's were and the fact that I still using the Polyglass V2 passive XO. Once I run it active it may fix it up.

I should adjust my tweeter position as well as my time alignment.