Tweeter location distance from listener vs distance from woofer

[Lakes_Puma]

I want to install some components in my Kia Rio and will fit the woofers in the stock location after deadening the doors etc. but there are no tweeters as standard so I'm trying to find the best location which will require some custom fabrication.

I could mount them in the A pillar which would get them high and also reduce the path length difference to the primary listening position however this would place them quite a distance from the woofers.

Or I could mount then on the doors closer to the woofers but with one being about twice the distance to the primary listening position compared to the other.

Which is preferable?

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[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

You have to experiment to see which will sound better. I tend to like kick panels on-axis. PLD is going be close to 2x whether you go a-pillar or kicks.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I'm trying to find the best location

Get some sticky tape or something so that you can temporarily mount them in either spot to test.
You're on the right track here thinking logically about the pros and cons either way. Understand, if you were installing this in some bookshelf or tower speakers in a listening room in your home you would be looking to make an equilateral triangle with you, left, and right speakers at the vertices and equal distance between the VOICE COILS of mids and highs and your ears.

This would be optimum but we obviously cannot do this in a car (inb4 "back seat driver" SQ car 30 years ago) so you sort of have to pick the next best thing and solve whatever issues you have with DSP/time delay, running one tweeter out of phase, or similar tricks.

I have also had great success with on-axis in kicks but this may be impractical and some speakers aren't even designed to sound good on-axis and to be fair we're not even shooting for "flat" or "linear" response, but just getting it to a point where it sounds good to you.

Good luck, see if you can test before you permanent anything and let us know which way you go and how it turns out.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

I use duct tape and move tweets around until i find that sweet spot one likes and look at mounting techniques. The dash is also a great location for most that can be mounted with Extreme Velcro(75lb. Hold) with the Spike/Grab side on bottom of tweeter and the grab/fuzzy side on dash to keep from drilling any holes near the corners of the dash and wiring can be tucked just behind the dash crease may be an option for you?

 

[winkychevelle 10+ year member]

Typically you want the tweeters as close to level with your ears as that will be the height limit of your sound stage. most everything else can be adjusted with a dsp through time alignment and eq.

Upfiring into the windshield can also result in a higher stage height than the tweeters height but is dependent on the angle of the glass.

Personally I like my tweeters in the apillars or in the sails panel and try and stay away from dash placements granted a 2-3.5inch midrange in the dash is usually a good thing for adding depth to the sound stage.

This is all assuming you have a dsp with the capability to adjust time alignment at minimum.

 

[Lakes_Puma]

thanks for the responses, I have an Alpine iLX-705D ( iLX-507 in the US) which has some inbuilt time alignment and fairly advanced EQ.