components....

[Luke M]

whats the best possition?

for those who have seen my door cards i currently have both the mid and tweeter above the handles on the door. however i seem to get more sound from the passenger side. shall i leave them there or move the mids lower and put tweeters in the A pillars?

cheers

 

[chaos]

The reason why the passenger side sounds louder is that the passenger speakers are more on axis towards the driver (i.e. they're pointing towards the driver more than the driver's side speakers are).

The usual thing to do in most cars is have the mids low down in the doors angled towards the opposite person (i.e. passenger speaker towards driver and vice versa) with the tweets in the A pillars set above the instrument pod, usually firing towards the windscreen slightly. The position of the tweets is more important than the mid posiitoning (but mid positioning is still vital to a good stage too).

The problem with Centos is this. Most cars have their stock positions low in the doors and these are vented into the door cavity. Most car speakers are designed with this in mind i.e. they play better when in a fairly large enclosure. Centos don't have this. You can build a fairly big sealed door pod to replace the whole door pocket (a la Paul) or you can vent the pods to the door cavity, which will need a bit of design work. You can get speakers which will play very well in fairly small enclosures though

The only thing I can suggest for now is the get some blue tack, and put some long lengths of wire on the tweets and trial fit them on the A pillars, play with the firing angles and see what sounds better to you

 

[paulbfd]

You can build a fairly big sealed door pod to replace the whole door pocket (a la Paul)

But even I'm thinking of destroying the door and venting, not sure yet.

For tweets, I have mine where the factory speakers sit. Not 100% sure about this, the imaging isn't great and they sometimes sound quite harsh. This could be down to the tweeter though. I am now in the position to run a rully active setup, so I'm going to try the old blue tack trick at some point to see if I can improve things.

I've heard some amazing setups with tweets in the kicks.

Mids (well, in this instance midbass / midrange - playing from say 70hz to 4000hz) is a difficult one in a 'Cento as Dai says. From what I can gather, mounting them high up is a bit of a no-no. Problem with the cento is there's so little room, mine are mounted flat against the door build, imaging wise I not sure if that's a bad thing or not. You're closer to one, but more direct to the other. Having them "facing you" would mean they would have to stick out a huge amount, especially if you're using a 6.5" driver.

Again, I've heard stunning front ends with the driver in factory location (ie, door, flat) so perhaps it doesn't effect things too much????

I'm hoping to get all the equipment (crossover, EQ's, mad PG remote turn on thing) in my car over the next few weeks and then take it to my brothers mate to see what improvements can be made. I could spend days farting about when someone with a clue what they're doing would sort it in a few hours.

Then there's the big TalkAudio event but it's frickin miles away so not sure if I'll be attending that one.

 

[chaos]

Again, I've heard stunning front ends with the driver in factory location (ie, door, flat) so perhaps it doesn't effect things too much????

I suppose it depends on the speaker - some are better off axis, some are better on axis.

 

[Luke M]

sorry i didnt reply yesterday, was working and partying

The reason why the passenger side sounds louder is that the passenger speakers are more on axis towards the driver (i.e. they're pointing towards the driver more than the driver's side speakers are).

yer thats what ive got atm. the passenger side is angled straight at my right ear but the drivers side is angled at the passenger, and the steering wheel in the way.

The usual thing to do in most cars is have the mids low down in the doors angled towards the opposite person (i.e. passenger speaker towards driver and vice versa) with the tweets in the A pillars set above the instrument pod, usually firing towards the windscreen slightly. The position of the tweets is more important than the mid posiitoning (but mid positioning is still vital to a good stage too).

this is where im having my problems then. both my tweeter and mid are in the same enclosure which is very high up (above the handle on the door.

The problem with Centos is this. Most cars have their stock positions low in the doors and these are vented into the door cavity. Most car speakers are designed with this in mind i.e. they play better when in a fairly large enclosure. Centos don't have this. You can build a fairly big sealed door pod to replace the whole door pocket (a la Paul) or you can vent the pods to the door cavity, which will need a bit of design work. You can get speakers which will play very well in fairly small enclosures though

this is what the current enclosures do. they vent into the door by a hole in the sound deadening.

The only thing I can suggest for now is the get some blue tack, and put some long lengths of wire on the tweets and trial fit them on the A pillars, play with the firing angles and see what sounds better to you

will give it a shot. looking at talkaudio they seem to point the tweeter almost direct at each other, this create a good sound? what height am i looking for?

But even I'm thinking of destroying the door and venting, not sure yet.

For tweets, I have mine where the factory speakers sit. Not 100% sure about this, the imaging isn't great and they sometimes sound quite harsh. This could be down to the tweeter though. I am now in the position to run a rully active setup, so I'm going to try the old blue tack trick at some point to see if I can improve things.

this is something i noticed when i moved from 4" stocks to 6.5" comps. obviously the sound was ALOT better but the imaging was brilliant! stunned me at first!

I've heard some amazing setups with tweets in the kicks.

how? i thought the best sound was with the tweeters higher up?

Mids (well, in this instance midbass / midrange - playing from say 70hz to 4000hz) is a difficult one in a 'Cento as Dai says. From what I can gather, mounting them high up is a bit of a no-no. Problem with the cento is there's so little room, mine are mounted flat against the door build, imaging wise I not sure if that's a bad thing or not. You're closer to one, but more direct to the other. Having them "facing you" would mean they would have to stick out a huge amount, especially if you're using a 6.5" driver.

possibly with them facing each other firing into the footwells creates a more all round sound? not an expert though!

Again, I've heard stunning front ends with the driver in factory location (ie, door, flat) so perhaps it doesn't effect things too much????

I'm hoping to get all the equipment (crossover, EQ's, mad PG remote turn on thing) in my car over the next few weeks and then take it to my brothers mate to see what improvements can be made. I could spend days farting about when someone with a clue what they're doing would sort it in a few hours.

Then there's the big TalkAudio event but it's frickin miles away so not sure if I'll be attending that one.

let me know what you discover! really keen on this atm. and a talk audio event sounds amazing! really want to hear those cars!

 

[chaos]

will give it a shot. looking at talkaudio they seem to point the tweeter almost direct at each other, this create a good sound? what height am i looking for?

Almost. Most find it better if they reflect off the windscreen at a slight angle.

The TA meet is at the end of June IIRC.

 

[paulbfd]

how? i thought the best sound was with the tweeters higher up?

Don't know why, but it did. Was like Phil Collins and the rest of Genesis were stood right in front of me. The lad who's car it was swears by having them in the kicks. Infact I heard his car again later when his installer put tweets in the A-pillars and it sounded awful, he's going back to having them in the kicks again.

FWIW, this install is in a Honda Accord and was using either CDT or Dynaudio components.

That's the only thing with car audio, there's no rules on what will and what won't work as there are so many variables.