Depends on what you have in the way of time correction and processor. I have mine mounted under next to the kick panels. This takes away the harshness of the tweeter and surprisingly the soundstage is up high. With time correction, proper eq, and someone who knows their ****, you can make almost anything sound like a perfect soundstage. This however has been a tried true favorite spot to mount my tweeters.

 

Do you have any pictures of this configuration?
I'm looking to upgrade in the near future.

 

Have you considered Q-Forms for best imaging/staging?

 

Just wanted to point out that I do NOT agree with you here. You have to keep in mind that time correction and EQ's are basically crutches that should not be used unless you have to. Unfortunately the automobile is such poor listening space, that they usually ARE needed to improve the sound. It's still no substitute for proper speaker placement and aiming. They can sometimes make the soundstage much better for one listener (usually not perfect though), but always at the sacrifice of the other listening positions. Still, if your the only person in the car most of the time, that's not a such a bad thing.

As far as kickpanel mounting, it is a tried and true location to get good imaging, but you need to know why. It concerns the pathlength differences between the listening position and the front stage speakers. You ideally want the left mid and tweet to be the same distance from your head as the right mid and tweet. When one side is closer it will sound louder and make the image pull to that side. Mounting in the kicks pushes the speakers further away so that the difference in legths between the left and right side is reduced.

We can again improve the imaging by using a technique known as time/intensity trading. A closer speaker 2 feet away will sound louder than one 4 feet away assuming they are both aimed at you (on axis). If we take the near speakers and angle them away, say 45* then the sound from them will be reduced and will more closely match the further speaker as far as our ears are concerned.

In almost all kickpanels, you will notice that the drivers are aimed towards the other side passenger or maybe towards the dome light. By angling the speakers on both sides towards each other you get time/intensity trading for both the right and left side and this will make the imaging better for both front listening positions.

The exact angles are never going to be identical depending on the vehicle and the speakers used. You will have to go in there and use a towel or something to hold the mids and try different angles and listen from both sides to get them sounding evenly. Then add the tweets into the mix and find their best mounting position and angle.

If your serious about sound quality this is the tried and true method to acheaving that. Now with our F-bodies, we have a unique situation. Our windshields have an extreme rake on them and extends out over the engine. This allows our tweeters to be mounted very far forward near the base of the A-pillers. Now if you measure from that location to your head and from your head to the mid location in the door or in the kickpanel, you will see they are very close to one another. This is very good. Our ears can hear tiny differences in sound timing from left to right which helps us pinpoint the location of a sound, but our ears cannot hear differences in sound from top to bottom very well at all. So you can have the tweet mounted much higher than the mid as long as they are on the same vertical plane and as close as possible to having the same pathlength distance to your head. This is an ideal situation as having the tweets mounted high will raise the soundstage and your knees will never get in the way and hurt the imaging.

I myself was truly amazed at how well the stock mid location and the A-piller mounted tweet sound together. The stock mid locations keep the near side driver more off oxis and the opposite side driver more on axis to help the time/intensity trading and the tweets can be aimed very nicely up and towards the rear view mirror to create a very good image. All but the most pissiest audiophile should be happy with those locations. If your one of those guys, then no big deal you know who you are and don't need any help from me. The other 99.999% should be more than happy with these locations.

If your standards are still not that high (and most folks aren't that serious about squeezing the most you can get from the sound system, I understand that) you can still get acceptable sound from mounting the tweeter someplace else, hopefully up high and angled towards the opposite side of the car or even in the stock location. A better quality set of speakers in the stock location will always sound better than the stock speakers in that location. It all depends on how serious you are about getting good sound. Mounting the tweet in the A-piller isn't THAT hard to do. You just have to cut a hole in just the right spot and mount it. Not that hard and the results are really worth it, so that's why I always recommend that location.

Later,
Jason

 

Yes, that is the person who makes them. I'm just not getting much feedback for some reason. I think he is busy but he said he was making another set but I never got any info on how to do the transaction, etc.

I really DON'T want to drill a hole in my A-pillars but I am needing to upgrade my stereo and soon. I might look into those kick panels or whatever. How hard are they to install and are they worth it?

 

Why don't you wanna drill into them so badly if you can replace them for about $20 if something should happen? It really is the easiest/cheapest way to do it and the results are great.

 

It's only as hard as you want to make it. Just stick them down there and play with the location and angle. They are small enough that they can be mounted on some L shaped pieces of metal. If you want to blend them in to make them look factory, that will be a lot more work. Try it to see if you like the sound first.

Birdie2000, who has them for $20 and do they need to be dyed to match the color?

I got mine from the junk yard and they have a few scratches on them. My originals are stored in a safe place. I may wrap them in headliner material, but it would probably effect the sound. I wonder if I could find someone to sew in a small circle of gray grill cloth right over the tweeter area. That would be super stealth.

 

Ok. Just need a good place to get a spare set and I'll drill them or just keep them in storage for to replace the drilled set. I don't mind where they get drilled, I just don't like any holes in my baby. Especially if for some reason I would have to sell her. But I'll probably just go ahead and have the place do the drilling (as they have done that on setups before).

 

I bought them back in 2002 I believe, straight from the Pontiac dealership parts counter. $11 a piece, so $22. Can order them in any factory interior color, so no need to dye them.

Of course verify that the prices are still the same, I know I was floored when they were only $11 brand new.

Also, as for mounting them... I just guessed more or less, lol. I got a hole saw for my drill in the size mounting cutout needed for my specific tweeter, then made a hole in the pillar where the tweeter would fit with enough space on either size, then just mounted them with their mounting rings. I wouldn't have known what I was listening for at the time when I mounted them, so I just made it look good. Oddly enough, they sounded great too.

 

I would at least use RTV silicone or sticky tape to mount them and see how they sound. It's so easy to do before you go through with buying replacements and drilling the holes. Make sure you like it. Different tweeters have different sounds and each listners has different tastes. If you have good tweeters and want a natural, realistic sound the A-pillar is the way to go.

On mine I pulled the pillar off and made a mark where the shallow deppresion is in the sheetmetal under the a-pillar. Then I drilled a 1/2 hole, put the tweeter in the hollow spot and put the pillar back on over it and then looked at how far off I was. I then marked the area that needed to be cut and used a grinding drum on a dremel to enlarge the hole a little at a time making sure the hole stayed centered over the tweeter. It's actually not that hard and I got a nice round hole in which to mount the tweeter under. It's easier to mount the tweeter on top of the panel as the hole doesn't need to be so exact because the tweeter doesn't extend that far down.

It may not make sense to you now, but once you get the pillar off you will see the location.

 

FYI, I finally got in touch with the guy that used to be on LS1 that made the tweeter pods like I posted earlier. He said he would still be willing to make some. Mine fit perfectly and I have had no problem with them.

sshevy AT bellsouth.net

 

I take it that is his e-mail address?

 

I just got a set of the tweeter pods from Kevin at fbodyaudio.com. I haven't got to install them yet, (still need new set of components). He did a great job on them!! You have to be a little patient waiting for them but all and all it didn't take to long. Here is a link to the site and the thread, I believe that he is working on a few for some other poeple.

F-Body Audio

 

Linky no worky

 

I posted on there too that I wanted a set (I have the same screenname there that I have here). But that thread went dead weeks ago so I gave up.

 

Yes, that is his email address. Obviously replace AT with @.

 

ok well i quite try to fixr that damn link!!!


Darth Cypher- I thought your screen name looking familiar. Anyways Kevin is always busy you just have to keep PMing him it took me long to get my pods then i wanted but partly my fauilt!!!