is this off or on axis?

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

is this on axis or off axis? i'm kind of confused about what it means. and how it affects sound.

i think the woofers are off axis being in the door just pointed to the side, and the tweeters are slightly on axis or what?

thanks, i just wanna learn.

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[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

I have a question concerning this.....what does on/off axis do to the sound stage and imaging

 

[mapolley07 10+ year member]

on axis means pointed to your ears/toward the listener. the RSD tweets will rotate to get on axis

 

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

on axis means pointed to your ears/toward the listener. the RSD tweets will rotate to get on axis

ok. but the way i have them mounted(even if they are not angled at all) are still pointing back, not directly to the opposite side. what does that mean?

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

Take both of your hands..... bring your wrists together and make a V.

This is what the output of a tweeter may look like in space..... the waves propagate out only so much.

Now bring your finger tips closer together making the v narrow.

That's what "beaming" is. A tweeter or mid will not spread high frequencies as much..... so if your ear isn't in that sector created by that particular frequency.... then it isn't reaching your ear at 100%.... that frequency will be down a few dB.

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

This isn't totally a bad thing. A very bright tweeter will sound much better slightly off axis, which most car tweeters aim to do, as you can rarely install them aiming perfectly at your head.

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

Another way to put it is that, aimed right at you, let's say a driver has perfectly flat 20hz to 20khz freq. response.

But, if you aim it just 30 degrees off center, it now only has flat response from 20 to 10khz.

 

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

hmmmm, so mine are slightly on axis then?

 

[James Bang 5,000+ posts]

looks more off to me.

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

Anything other than pointed exactly at your ears is off axis..... how far off axis dependson the install.

 

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

so should i try to point them as much at my ears as possible? what are the pros and cons to this?

 

[blong131 10+ year member]

just mess around with it till it sounds good to you

 

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

yea it seems better when i have them kinda pointed to the side more but i'm still playing. maybe i'll try them pointed directly at me as much as possible just to see again.

 

[jdc753 10+ year member]

can always do the laser pointer trick if you want to start from a baseline of on-axis. Get a laser pointer and hold it to the center of the tweeter as best you can and move it till the pointer is aimed at your headrest and go from there making small adjustments till you find the best aiming

 

[PatFitz9 10+ year member]

sit in the seat with music playing. when you move your head around, you will notice the sound is different depending on where you are listening from. since sq is subjective, where you like it is how it should be mounted. maybe you like an off axis sound, maybe not.