Speaker placement/direction

[neonblack]

What's the best position for front speakers wrt car driver? I've read that they should try to be aimed towards you? What's a good placement to try and get a balanced sound from the pair?

I'm pretty happy with my ADS placement (in the doors) but always looking for advice. My ADS are not level w/the door but tilted inwards maybe 5 degrees. I'd like to know if they should be angled more.

[zako]

Up to a certain frequency, all speakers emit omnipresent sound. Above that frequency, there is a fall off off axis. For example, a 0.75 inch tweeter (in diameter) is more likely to sound flat off axis (assume it has flat sound on axis) than a 1.25 inch tweeter (Granted, a 0.75 inch tweeter is also more likely to start distorting sound in the upper midrange if you let it play too low). I believe the phenomenon called beaming, the term that refers to the tendency of sound dispersion to become directional at higher frequencies. For the standard 6.5 inch woofer, the I heard that beaming starts at around 2.5-3KHz. So if your woofer/tweeter crossover frequencies are near those numbers, you shouldn't worry much about the woofer being off axis. If your woofer is affected by beaming, and you have it installed off axis, you can still correct this issue with equalizer. At the same time, having the speaker off axis from your ears may be a good thing if your speaker has audible break up at higher frequencies (on axis). There is no single answer to your question. It probably depends on the entire system setup.

[gckless]

Basically, from what I've seen, without doing a lot of testing, to include with gear that you do not have, the best way to find out is to figure it out yourself by playing with mounting directions and places. You think it might sound better a certain way and aren't sure? Go ahead and do it and find out. Not to be rude, but I say that because what may sound good to me, might be too harsh for you, at the same exact speaker placement. Woofers are a little harder to move around than tweeters, but it's best to experiment. One thing is for sure though, you will want to seperate front and rear waves off the mid. @keep_hope_alive ; has a couple builds on here and from what I've seen he's just about the most knowledgable on, well, just about everything concerning sound. Also, DIYMA has a lot of good info on front stages and actual SQ. This site tends to be more about getting loud, though you will find some good stuff.

[trumpet]

This is one of those questions that opens up a can of worms. It can be depressing once you really dig in and find out what happens in the car with sound waves in respect to our hearing, but then you use that to your advantage and learn to live with it.

Speakers low and forward in the door will reflect sound off the center console. Reflections cause phase interactions that can be constructive and deconstructive. In this case the reflections off the console cause a null. Nulls can't be fixed with EQ, only with installation. Your 5 degree angle of the speakers might be helping slightly, but probably not enough to be noticeable if you went to a 0 degree baffle.

As for a balanced sound with those speaker locations, the farther speaker will naturally sound louder because it's pointing more directly at your right ear. There's no easy way to get it to sound balanced for both you and your passenger. Tweak your head unit settings to sound good for you and it will sound worse for the passenger.

[neonblack]

Several sites say this about front speakers: "try to minimize the distance between the right and left speakers to your ears." (How Do Car Stereo Speakers Work?)

...which isn't really clear.

I have played with woofer position and especially tweeter position in lots of positions. Moving a tweeter 1/4" in any direction can make a big difference. I settled for keeping the tweeter not very far from the woofer (some people do the opposite) to keep the sound whole. You can see I've moved tweeter to left and right and above and they all produce a different sound, not much I can do w/the woofer. My tweeters sound best slightly off-axis. (Of course, left tweeter is much closer than right tweeter so you might have to compensate somehow.)

[mkoldus]

Sorry not to hijack the thread but i am not able to post being a newb. Hey guys i am new to the forum and looking for a little advice. I had just bought a new deck for my 2004 vw passat and am looking to put some subs in. I have 500 to spend between the amp and subs as i already have a dual 12 sealed box. Just looking for some input seeing i have been out of the game for 4 years since i had kids. The last setup i had was 3 12 elcipse aluminum series which was great but too loud now. I am looking for something that provides thump when i need it but also clarity. I have never had an acoustically ported box and have always favored sealed. I am open to suggestions and appreciate the help. Also my trunk is fairly large so size accommodations shouldn't be a problem. And my hu is a pioneer avhp8400bh.

[>>SQL<<]

Sorry not to hijack the thread but i am not able to post being a newb. Hey guys i am new to the forum and looking for a little advice. I had just bought a new deck for my 2004 vw passat and am looking to put some subs in. I have 500 to spend between the amp and subs as i already have a dual 12 sealed box. Just looking for some input seeing i have been out of the game for 4 years since i had kids. The last setup i had was 3 12 elcipse aluminum series which was great but too loud now. I am looking for something that provides thump when i need it but also clarity. I have never had an acoustically ported box and have always favored sealed. I am open to suggestions and appreciate the help. Also my trunk is fairly large so size accommodations shouldn't be a problem. And my hu is a pioneer avhp8400bh.

This must be your first day on the internet - Welcome friend.

Now please post a new thread in the proper area, it is rude to hijack a thread.

click here, >>> General Discussion at the upper left side of the page you will see a box that says "POST NEW THREAD" click that box.

[ramos]

Several sites say this about front speakers: "try to minimize the distance between the right and left speakers to your ears." (How Do Car Stereo Speakers Work?)

...which isn't really clear.

You will commonly hear this referred to as "pld" Path length Difference. Boiled down all it means is difference between the distance of the speaker to your ears. Ideally the perfect install of your speakers in your car would be both speakers being the exact same distance from the listener. I.E. your left mid is 48" from your left ear, your right speaker is 48" from your eight ear.

[>>SQL<<]

OP - have you tried your tweeters up on the sail panels?
They seem low where you have them right now.
I always find that mounting on the sail panels aimed at the opposite seat head rest works very well.

[zako]

Several sites say this about front speakers: "try to minimize the distance between the right and left speakers to your ears." (How Do Car Stereo Speakers Work?)

...which isn't really clear.

The standard way to accomplish this is to put the woofers in the kick panels, which requires some custom work, if speakers fit there at all. Both end up being farther away from listeners, so the relative path length difference in reduced. This has more impact on the imaging.