Hello all,

I'm a newbie and have been lurking around this forum for a couple months and have a question(s) about front speakers and their typical placement in the door. BTW - greetings to everyone.

Right now I have the Bose stock garbage in my 2001 C5 coupe and it sounds horrible. I'm kind of a big guy (OK fat and wide but dieting) and my legs really block the sound coming from the drivers side door. I have to turn my legs inward to not muffle the sound coming out.

I'm a bit of an audiophile in the house side of life and consider the placement of the front speakers in the car to be lousy as far as physics and ergonomics go - way too low and poorly aimed.

From what I see here the regs usually frown upon rear speakers, but what I also observe is they would be necessary to help fill out the sound lost due to the crappy location of the fronts.

I'm building a new system piece by piece and so far have purchased (but not installed) the:

Alpine DVA-9860 HU
Alpine MRA-F350 theater amp (So I will be using rears)
Alpine SPX-17REF 6 1/2" component speakers
Subthump box with 12" cutout
iPod cable with AiNet connect
Front speaker mounting plates by Dave at MadVette
Still planning on buying rear speakers, subwoofer & Amp

What I'm asking is:

1. Will quality aftermarket front speakers rectify the issue with muffled speaker sound?

2. What other methods will improve stereo imaging, besides soundproofing?

3. Do others perceive the stock front speaker location as a poor engineering decision?

I love everything about my car (except the auto trans) and was quite disappointed to see it came with a wack stock stereo system and only provides for a 1 1/2 DIN HU.

Any input would be appreciated.

Louie

 

1) Some have better off axis response than others. This is not hand in hand with cost. Though the ones you picked are not particularly expensive speakers, I've heard they are pretty decent for the $~200 going rate. Those are ring radiator tweeters, so you're pretty much going to have to aim them at your ears.


2) Speaker aiming. You can do what you will with tweeters. I like using low playing tweeters. My system images fairly well.

3) A car is a terrible place for a speaker, no matter how you cut it.

 

Thanks Kale,

The speakers do come with a angled mounting bracket which looks like it should allow aiming in the general direction of my ears.

BTW - would you happen to know what coaxial is the best natural fit for the rear speaker? 5 1/4 or 6 1/2? I found plenty of info about the vert but not much regarding the coupe.


Louie

 

rear speakers cause more cancellation - wiping out more frequencies, possibly. and destroy any possibility of imaging.

 

I'm just hoping the DTS and surround sound material I have will justify the negative impact caused by the rears. I imagine I can dial down the rears and let the fronts do most of the work.


Louie

 

turn the rears off when playing stereo material for sure. coupe fits shallow 6.5s, dont expect any midbass from them.

 

YOU WILL NOT LIKE THE REARS !!!

 

Well they shouldn't cost a lot, so I'm not worrying too much, I'm just hoping I don't feel the same about the fronts.

I'm figuring my stereo will just be used to crank some good road tunes, the critical listening will still occur at the crib.

If and when I ever get this system installed, I'll try to post some good pics of the lot.


Louie

 

1. Will quality aftermarket front speakers rectify the issue with muffled speaker sound?

- Yes. The OEM stereo has no tweeters therefore everything sounds muffled....even with the trebleturned way up.

2. What other methods will improve stereo imaging, besides soundproofing?

- physical speaker placement/aiming. I mounted my woofers on a 30degree tilt to the door and 45 degree elevation.



this was the tweeter's original location...they have since been moved to the A-pillars


Tweeter placement is more essential since the human ear is more directionally sensitive to higher frequencies. A varaity of A-pillar mounts have been the most popular for quality imaging.


Here's the tweeter's current location. I will probably aim them more in the coming weeks as soon as i can find some more vinyl.


3. Do others perceive the stock front speaker location as a poor engineering decision?

- it's crap

 

Thanks for posting the pics RF.

Do those tweeters belong to a component set mounted in the doors?

Is mounting the tweet on the pillar like that destructive to the interior of the car?


Louie

 

Well you could mold new pillars.
To get proper aiming and location.



I still chuckle, because I did a better job of matching the dash color than GM did (with the door or airbag cover)

 

Wow dude - those are friggin' awesome!

Are the left and right pillars reverse images of each other, or are they aimed to locate on the drivers listening zone?

Does anyone sell something like this in the forum?

 

These are a bit driver centric and they are aimed slightly differently to account for off center listening. Still sounds great in the passenger seat, though.


I dont know of anyone that sells them on the forum. Audio shops usually charge around $300 for a set of custom pillars.

I did these myself, and probably spent around $180 in materials (including new pillars) as well as countless hours of sanding, glassing, aiming, testing... bondo...ing, texturing and painting.

getting the texture right took a few tries. I couldnt find a vinyl that would conform to it.


Looks OK dont you think?

 

Looks great to me. Do you think this kind of mod is within the reach of your average Car Audio place?

 

Kale: I want to mount my tweeters at an angle like youre but a little more forward (in the same general location)

how did you:

a) mount the tweeter for test-positioning?
b) mount the ring for final tweeter mounting?

 

A ring, some dowels, and hot glue.


As far as could many stereo places do it? Probably... who knows how good it will look.

This is my first attempt at anything like this, if that helps.

 

Kale .... I think you should go into business to fab and sell custom A pillar covers w/ tweeter mounts. Can I place my order ?