Tweeters in A-pillar
 

I just finished (I thought) a complete removal and reinstall of my audio gear is my new 09 C6. The speakers are in the stock locations, but I am not happy with the sound stage being somewhat low. I would like to move the Tweeters into the A-pillar, but do not have that kind of expertise to pull that off and I live VERY far from any pro installer.

Question: Is there a company/Individual that makes a A-pillar replacment with a tweeter opening? Sorry if this falls into the stupid question bucket!

It can be done. I might have a link to a recommended shop that you could send your blanks to and have them done.

I am not sure what level of gear you have, but without proper tuning capabilities, your stage will certainly raise, but your overall sound accuracy can suffer (and honestly end up worse) unless aimed and tuned properly.

There is another vendor, Simplicity in Sounds who does first class work, and could likely get you in the ball park from an aiming and installation perspective remotely. Not optimal, but it all depends on what you are looking for, and your budget.

G'luck
Fej

Thanks, any help would be very welcome. I have about 5k invested and would like to get the imaging and sound stage better.

Avic Z110BT head unit with XM and backup camera

JL W3v3 Sub running off a 400 watt mono block amp.

The front stage I started with was a set of CDT PSS-0626i with silk tweeters, I found that the tweeter in the stock location was very harsh even with them cut by -3db.

I have Focal Focal K2 Power 165KR installed and find them better, but not GREAT. Front stage is being driven by 150 watts per side from a CDT SQA-4100.

I have the whole car insulated and dynamateed in key places.

I will second the recommendation for simplicity in sound. That guy does some amazing work. I wouldn't hesitate to have him do audio work on my car. He is a member here, so you can search for his threads to see his work. Here is one to look at for sure: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/audi...rt-for-ya.html

Been looking at A pillar mounts myself. Thanks for the info guys.

I would be willing to pay him for his time too discuss with me and to build me some A-pillars.

Contact him, he is a good guy and very knowledgeable, and does great work. He also can make recommendations on how to achieve what you are looking for out of the system. Your ear might prefer something more laid back than your typical "car audio" tweeter, and tuning can make a night and day difference with the same components.

Just like "the best" bolt on component list for your engine does not necessarily make the most power, "the best" list of audio components, if not installed and tuned correctly, can really sound, well ... bad.

PM him here on the forums

Fej

I sent him one. thanks!!

Hey Framewise. I just got an email back from him and he said it would be about $550 to do a pair. I don't know about you,but that's a little much for me. Still damn good work tho...

Do you know if that is with him supplying the A-pillars?

thanks

He didn't say. Just said that they were a huge PITA and that he would need a C5 locally for a couple hours to get the aiming right.

hey guys,

yeah...unfortunately for the vette it is that much. at least from me

the main reasons are:

1. taking the stock vinyl clean off the plastic is a royal pain. unless, the c5s you can just rip off, but if you cannot, it needs to be literally ground offf little by little, but you cant be too hard, or you risk damagine the plastic. everytime i do one of these, it takes me a good 3-4 hours from start to finish, meaning from stock pillars to totally stripped, clenaed up, ready to glass.

2. its a very flexible piece, so a lot of care must be taken when stretching mold cloth, or you risk warping it.

normally, i charge about 350-400 for pillars, even though they are small, the amount of time it takes to properly mold, sand and finish them is quite a bit of time.

if you can take off the stock vinyl yourself, then its around the same price for you as well. if you start to do it, then you will know what i mean :)

back to original question, framewise, when you say low, waht do you mean exactly? where o you feel the stage height is? beucase the reason i do the A pillars isnt neccessarily for height, but for depths, tonality and center image with time alignment etc.

but let me know a bit more and i will try and help ya :)

b

I find that the stage is slightly higher than the tweeter by a few inches and very close to the doors/dash, not out front coming from the windshield.
I also hear what seems to be harsh reflections coming from the driver side tweeter. Could be bouncing off the steering wheel?
No rear stage, would be open to change this if needed as I am open to trying other speakers, amps or A-pillars from you. I would like this thing to kick butt in sound quality and imaging not volume even though I have a bad habit of doing so.

Thanks for your help and look forward to your reply

Would love for someone to chime in on the difficulty of removing that vinyl as I'd really like to have these done.

I just purchased a set of Focal K2 Power 165 K2P to try instead of the 165KR to see if this helps. I am thinking of installing a Rockford 360.2 to see if it will have any effect.

Back to the garage to start removing the 165KR.

hey guys, here is my opinion

1. well, the harshness comes from two things, the first is the inherent characteristic of the tweeter you have. focals, arent my cup of tea as far as sound, primarily becuase their tweeter, when left untouched, is IMO inherenetly peaky and a bit harsh. now i dont deny they are a well built speaker, but i prefer much more smooth and laid back sound. if you go from kR to K2p, i dont think you will find much of a diference in the peaky sound to be honest.

2. the upper door lcoation is prolly one of my least favorite tweeter locations, becuase it has a tendency to make any tweeter sound harsh, even a smooth tweeter can be a bit harsh there, and an already hot tweeter will really tear your head off. so yeah, i think moving the tweeter further away will help you tame some of that peakiness.

3. having a full tuning dsp such as the 360.2 will definetly help, though the 360.2 isnt my favorite processor becuase i dont think its that clean, but i do admit for its capabilites, there isnt anyhting else in that price range :)

4. my ultimate suggestion, if you find yourself really liking a smooth laid back sound that you can listen to for hours and hours without any fatigue, is to go with a different kind of tweeter, brands such as seas, dls, morel, IMO are much more warm and smoother. also mount hte tweeter in the pillars, and add dsp. one thing to keep in mind is that the A pillar mounts are designed for a specific tweeter, so unless you find a replacement that is the same size, its very hard to just swap the tweeter out for another if you decide to change equipment, once the pillars are molded :)

b

just give it a shot :) take the pillars off, and try to lift a corner, you will most likely see the vinyl top separating from the foam bottom. this foam is hwat makes life hell for the pillar, it comes off in patches, and this must be removed to bare plastic before molding can be done.

last few times, i bsaically had to slowly roll all the foam and residue off with my thumb, whcih resulted in a sore thumb for 2 days after quite a few hours at it hehe...

but again, thats a C6, if its a C5 it may be different. :)

b

Is it an adhesive holding the foam to the plastic? If so, have you tried soaking it with Goof Off for 15 min or so?

Check out these threads:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/audi...-location.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/audi...some-pics.html

This is the one to look at:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/audi...p-by-step.html

And you can look at this also:http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/...eter-pods.html

I this mod to my C4, and it really did the trick, same problem as you site, the sound stage was too low. This brought it up and made a very real difference in how the system sounded.

Good Luck,

Randy