Okay so mu stock tweeters are in the dash, pointing straight up into my windscreen.



Some have told me this is good for SQ, some have told me this is really bad. Obviously my car has no provisions for mounting in the door, but I've been told by a few that they should be mounted as close to the speaker as possible.



What's the general consensus? Id rather not hack up my door, but I wouldn't just mount them on top of trim dodgy, I'd rather install them in the trim like factory if I had to.



Thanks,



Dan.

This topic has been covered before, might want to run a search on tweeter mounting. There's always going to be a tradeoff no matter where you place your tweeters.

Pointing "at" the windscreen isn't ideal,

side pillar mounted pointing away from the windscreen (towards the passenger/driver) is probably the most ideal High Position.
(although still not perfect)

however High Mounting is only good, when the midrange speaker can be mounted a reasonable distance from the tweeter, where the midrange speaker is in the bottom of the door, a high position will still work but is more suseptable to separation, this is where Ambient tweeters are good for 2 way splits to help keep a high sound stage, while maintaining low separation issues by keeping the mids and tweeters together.

In 3 way sets, high up is ideal where the midrange can be mounted much closer to the tweeter.
Pretty much, most installers use the facing at the windscreen position because it's easy and neat to install in many cars,
however reflections can in some cases be a issue. Alternatively they use the little a pillar at the top of the door, which keeps the sound away from the windscreen, but presents it's own problems of being too close to the driver, and compressing your soundstage.

The Front Side pillar with angled mounts is probably the most ideal high position, but is is also the most difficult to install neatly, therefore most basic installers will avoid this approach and have many supposedly valid reasons why you shouldn't use it. The real reason is to save time, money and headaches, or it's just outside there capabilitys.

Don't take Audio Advice from places like audiocom, strathfield or even JB Hifi.. Visit a real Car audio store that does real installs if you want some face to face advice, and don't just get 1 opinion.

Juls

it really depends on the car and the speakers.
the vic am. st. champion is running tweets on the dash firing up and slightly forwards (towards the listener) and it really is a great car to listen to.
i used to do the same and found height and depth to be very good, but couldnt get a perfect centre image.
other cars again simply cant get it to work at all.

juls is right about separation though, unless u can get the midwoofer higher up into the door (near knee height) then you will most likely suffer from audible separation issues.


the best bet is to have some slack in the speaker wire, grab some blu-tac and try the tweeters in as many positions/angles as possible till u find what suits u best. and when u do, then come to a comp and get some judges feedback to give ideas on how to improve the staging/imagnig even further

speaker positioning, and angle is the single most important aspect of good stereo imaging in a car.

It's the position where the sound 'appears' to come from where the other speakers are actually located - like the subwoofer 'sounding' like it's up the front of the car.

only way is to move the tweeter around and see what works for you..

in my VS, tweeters are in standard locations, while my midrange & midbass are down low.. in kick and door pods respectively..

its all trial and error to get what sounds best to your ears!

Pointing straight at the windscreen can really work wonders if you know what you are doing, by using the windscreen as a reflection surface. However, it can also work out really bad because it tends to diffuse the higher frequencies, which muddies up the image.

There is no hard and fast rules, because it changes from car to car, but understanding the reasoning behind it (the basic physics) can allow you to circumvent all the 'months of trying and failing' and start on the efforts you know have a reasonable chance of success.

One such 'rule', which I believe is pushed too strongly, is the midrange being next to the tweeter (or close). If you know what you are doing, and can effectively increase the sweet spot through diffusion, the midrange and the tweeter can be miles apart without any seperation effects. Its all in the setup.

Like the others have said, playing around and testing spots is the best method really available, but knowing a bit about acoustics (or having an installer that does) really does help to 'speed up' the process.

I'll be doing my own install. After paying a local "professional" store to re-wire my system and finding the factory wiring still there. Also having them wire up my headunit incorrectly with the antenna wired up to remote, and they told me the headunit didn't support antenna up with radio. I found out it did.



I have no desire to pay my hard earned money to be screwed in the same way again.



Also the A pillar in my car isn't really an option due to the angle at which it comes to the dash and the fact I'll be installing guage pods there.



Before my tweeters blew they sounded pretty good bouncing off the windscreen, just hoping a high quality tweeter wont end up sounding bad in the same set up.



So having them installed in the door next to the speakers would be bad? Too close to the driver? My speakers mount high up in the door as well.


Dan.

Having them installed close to the driver isnt that bad, you can simply correct with time alignment. This will, however, bias the listening position to the driver only.

My tweeters are mounted on the A-pillar and my mids on the sails (inside of rear-view), but because its T/A'd fairly well, the image is rock solid and it has a good soundstage. But the passenger cant enjoy it.

As mentioned before, there is no right or wrong way, simply better or worse for your situation. The tweeters are easy to try out multiple positions because of their size, so give it a go.