I'm sure the pods made a big difference. Speaker placement and aiming are a huge part of a good sound stage.
Yeah...
I was torn...
I initially bought them with zero reservation but after interacting with others on DIY forum that have these trucks, I had so many various opinions....
Some guys running SGS & MTI pods which still appears to run the tweeter & mid off axis & cost $1500+, but theyre pretty.....
then there was LMDesigns on Etsy, talented kid in the 3d printing world & an installer, making pretty pods also for $350, but off axis also.
The pods I bought were $120 on BF...
Yes, the driver side kind of is somewhat aimed toward the instrument cluster hump, but doubt theres any 1 perfect solution for everything.
Then theres guys that are getting the upgraded defroster grill assy that mounts on the dash by the windshield, has built-in grills, used by the f150's with the upgraded b&o system, mounts mids in the dash. That was a $250 grill panel.
My installer was all about that, he has "tumors" mounted on the a pillars in his own vehicles but he prefers to keep things clean & factory looking.
Then once he got in there, he decided there was to much cutting of the lower dash skeleton to make it work, just a huge open cavity, no baffle, etc, to much work to make it sound good, me shelling out more money, so he aborted.
Retuned the panel to the dealer I worked at & got a full refund.
Overall im happy with the A pillar pods from speaker pods.com.
Dont think the look over the top stupid in any way, personally.
Yes, im sure there ay have been some way more aesthetically looking speakers that may have tied it all in better, but the grills are ok on the cat's, dont look overly cheap.
Only other speaker I can think of for the budget would have been NVX x series, maybe some CT's?
Just glad its done...
Still need to dig into possibly flattening the signal even though at this point im not seeing any downside.
He got in there with his forscan but stated it wouldnt allow him to make changes, im assuming outdated program?
Guys are going into forscan & turning off the factory EQ & ANC.
Not as easily done as some other manufacturers.
Did notice at lower volume just sitting in the driveway bass kind of drops off, not very impactful when the bass knob is in the lower settings.
Meaning drops off more than I think it should,
Can easily be overcome by just increasing the bass level,
My head hurts, glad its done.