speaker aiming

[fearthepand 10+ year member]

When building kick panels... where would be a good place to aim your speakes? I've read of some people who said their tweeters were too harsh when they were aimied directly at them. So where would be best?

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[fearthepand 10+ year member]

ttt

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

The "best" thing to do is get the speakers on a baffle, wrap the rear of the mid in some towels to help block the rearwave and start aiming the speakers and see what sounds best. What works for your situation is going to be completely speaker/vehicle acoustic dependent. There is, unfortunately, no one-size-fits-all aiming scheme. There are some various techniques to get you started....but from there it's just going to be sitting in the vehicle w/ the speakers playing and fine tuning.

A good place to start is with aiming the speakers at the rear of the headunit.

 

[fearthepand 10+ year member]

Sounds pretty good to me thanks

 

[fearthepand 10+ year member]

Also would you get some pretty decent mid bass out of kick panels?

 

[Oak244 10+ year member]

Also would you get some pretty decent mid bass out of kick panels?

Probably not. Most people who have speakers in the kicks, tend to later install a midbass driver in their doors I find.

As for aiming, a method I read that sounded right was this. Imagine a light in the passengers seat, so that your head casts a shadow on the window. Aim the speaker at chis level and about 2 inches in front. This will keep the stage in front of you and not directly in your face.

It also depends on the speaker used. My Midrange driver barely had any fall at 30 degree's, and still not much even at 60 degree's. I was limited on how well I could aim the speaker, but it did not matter much. On the other hand, my tweeter falls off badly between 30-60 degrees of axis, so I will spend a lot more time finding the best place for it.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Also would you get some pretty decent mid bass out of kick panels?

You can with proper consideration given to airspace.

If you seal the speakers up in too small of an enclosure for their design....then you will choke out their low frequency extension.

But with adequate airspace and/or venting them for more of an infinite baffle alignment, low end response can remain unhindered. My kicks, for example, are really little more than a frame to hold the speaker baffle and prevent interference from the backwave. The majority of the rear of the kicks were cut out.

 

[fearthepand 10+ year member]

Are your Kick Panels Fiberglass if not what did you make them out of?

 

[enzowho 10+ year member]

I found this thread a little while ago. Its got some good information in it, which may or may not help you out. Link

 

[acold7dusta 10+ year member]

my SLCs in the kicks can hit pretty good, but like squeak said, they lack extension. if you can fit your speakers in the door (IB) put them there, if not, you may be stuck with kicks. nothing wrong with kicks though, still will get very accurate sound

 

[fearthepand 10+ year member]

if nothing else my sub would help with the low end extension i guess

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Are your Kick Panels Fiberglass if not what did you make them out of?

Mine ?

'glass

 

[fearthepand 10+ year member]

so yours are glassed Squeak? Ive been reading on that site enzowho posted and really i dont understand alot of it but from what i sort of understood is that one of the best sounding installs would be mids in kick panels and tweeters in the a-pillars. so have you ever tried this?

 

[enzowho 10+ year member]

My bad, I forgot to say post 12 is a good place to start.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

but from what i sort of understood is that one of the best sounding installs would be mids in kick panels and tweeters in the a-pillars. so have you ever tried this?

That's not really what it said.

It said that imaging cues for high frequencies are intensity-related, and not time-arrival related. So having high-mounted tweeters can work. But everything in audio is a compromise.....you gain a little here, you give a little there.

I personally am a fan of keeping all the drivers as close together as possible. But maybe I just haven't heard the right cars yet. I'm sure there's plenty of cars that do great with high mounted tweeters. I've yet to hear them though //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif The cars I have heard, haven't pulled it off well. Thus the sour taste in my mouth I guess.

In my car, getting the upper midrange/treble to a good stage height isn't a problem at all (IMO atleast). What I do have some problems with is the lower midrange, though I think right now that's largely due to some resonance/reflections I need to tame from the underside of the dash.