Souch vast differences in opinions - Help me select the correct front speakers

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

it's hard to do but the tweeter higher up gives you a he'll of alot better soundstage..

that's why I prefer to run active with t/a..

 

[disturbed471985 5,000+ posts]

^^ What he said..

 

[gringo7718 10+ year member]

I understand that tweeter placement can make a dramatic impact in the "height" of the sound stage. I actually tried them duct taped to the a-pillar and I thought it was a bit much.

But shouldn't the tweeter be mounted close to the woofer? (equidistant to the diameter of cone)

It seems that the 'rule' of mounting the woofer and tweeter close together has it's benefits and tradeoffs. By separating the tweeter and moving it higher, it did raise the sound stage. But at the expense of the further away they moved, the more they became two different sources and sound with only very high highs (nature of the tweeter) was coming from this "raised" sound stage.

That is not my personal preference and I am much happier with the current setup because of how well it blends with the current speakers. I get the added benefits of improved imaging and a benefit from a small amount of speaker separation that actually seems to have "widened" the front sound stage.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

I second the HAT Imagine recommendation. It's a convertible component/coaxial speaker. It's priced at $250 a set, but it had been compared as equal to a lot more expensive speakers, such as JL C5. There is a review on this web site:

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/subwoofer-speaker-reviews/461810-hybrid-audio-techologies-new-imagine-i61-2-review.html

The cool thing about it is that it is convertible between coaxial and component, so if you change your mind, there is plenty of options. Another cool thing is that it has very high sensitivity. Your amplifier will be too strained with a lot of speakers mentioned above. A lot of people claim they sound good as coaxial, with tweeters having good frequency responce off axis.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

I understand that tweeter placement can make a dramatic impact in the "height" of the sound stage. I actually tried them duct taped to the a-pillar and I thought it was a bit much.
But shouldn't the tweeter be mounted close to the woofer? (equidistant to the diameter of cone)

It seems that the 'rule' of mounting the woofer and tweeter close together has it's benefits and tradeoffs. By separating the tweeter and moving it higher, it did raise the sound stage. But at the expense of the further away they moved, the more they became two different sources and sound with only very high highs (nature of the tweeter) was coming from this "raised" sound stage.

If you use coaxial speakers, sound stage height may still improve if you use time alignment. In fact, for passive crossover setups, time alignment is supposed to work a lot better with coaxial speakers. Having said that, your sound stage will not be as high. It's a tradeoff between mediocre sound stage height vs screwing up your imaging. That's one of the reasons I will be going with HAT Imagine speakers in my next install. With woofer playing into above 5KHz region before tweeter kicks in, the human voice frequency will not be split between woofer and tweeter, and I can time align woofers without worrying too much about tweeters being not time aligned (time alignment above 5KHz will not be that useful)

 

[dontbeaprix 10+ year member]

If you wanted to do coaxial the new hybrid mirus are very nice.

Mirus M61-2 6.5" Coaxial Speaker Set - 12v Electronics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPFr203Ulj0&feature=player_detailpage

 

[dontbeaprix 10+ year member]

[video=youtube;DOAwhlS8R-Y]

 

[gringo7718 10+ year member]

Read something interesting in the MECP Advanced Book (pg221). It doesn't really discourage mounting the tweeters so high, but rather explains there will be tradeoffs. It actually recommends taking advantage of an acoustic phenomenon by mounting the tweeter lower than the woofer.

Tips on Component speaker placement

1. mount the tweeter and woofer as close together as realistically possible. This will help prevent phasing issues.

2. mount the tweeter/woofer on the same vertical plane. this will prevent time alignment issues.

3. Mount the tweeter below the woofer, when applicable, such as in a kick panel location. This addresses time alignment known as the zero delay plane. If the tweeter is mounted below the woofer the combined psycho-acoustic effect will actually lift the sound stage.

(pic is not in the book //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif)