tweeters in vents?

[ez2hotwire 10+ year member]

I was thinking about a stealth install where I put the tweeters in the vents. I searched this and found a few people mentioning possible "condensation" on the tweeters. I personally have never noticed my vents to be wet but I'll pay closer attention to that in the future. Has anyone seen this done before?

I got the idea from a friend who has a shift light in his drivers side vent and of course I had to tie this in with car audio.

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[fish1234 10+ year member]

I was thinking about a stealth install where I put the tweeters in the vents. I searched this and found a few people mentioning possible "condensation" on the tweeters. I personally have never noticed my vents to be wet but I'll pay closer attention to that in the future. Has anyone seen this done before?
I got the idea from a friend who has a shift light in his drivers side vent and of course I had to tie this in with car audio.

That's a cool.....idea!

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

That is a true statement...Condensation.My vents did that when I was low on freon, and also when I went to the coast, and the humidity was high, and i had the a/c blowing with windows cracked to let the smoke out from my cigarette.Ya, dont do that man,.There may be a vendor that sells water proof tweeters like for boats that might work??Other than that, i wouldnt recommend it.Thats like hooking a speaker up outside under the awning..hot, cold,hot cold, dew ect, and the corrosion begins to take its toll on the wiring/connections.Thus my Opinion of course, and something I would not do myself, nor recommend:nono:

 

[>>SQL<< 10+ year member]

We used to do that back in the 90's

def not good for imaging at all.

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

I did it in my car for a while and nothing happened to my tweeters. The imaging wasn't too bad but I mean if youre just looking to get sound and not too worried about having a stage where you can pinpoint each musician then I think it'll be fine

 

[chillin 10+ year member]

I did it in my car for a while and nothing happened to my tweeters. The imaging wasn't too bad but I mean if youre just looking to get sound and not too worried about having a stage where you can pinpoint each musician then I think it'll be fine

This.

I know an installer that used to do that for stealth installs and never had a problem with condensation and i live on the coast. Personally I only ever use the defrost windshield and foot vents so it wouldn't be a big deal anyway. I think the sound will be fine for loud and clear, but you're not going to win any sq comps because of the imaging.

 

[ez2hotwire 10+ year member]

Thanks guys. I am aware it's not ideal for staging but I worry about people breaking into the car if they see tweeters from outside. I guess there's no real way to hide them besides going coaxial. I wish a car could be designed just for car audio.

 

[>>SQL<< 10+ year member]

Mine are mounted on my sail panels - they cannot be seen from the outside very easily at all.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Mine as well, and I got the same Grey/Infinitis, color so you really cant tell and the dark tint.Have to be inside to really notice

 

[06goat 10+ year member]

If you put them up high and then get a strip of tint accross the windshield they wont be seen. Or just put them in your doors.

 

[ez2hotwire 10+ year member]

The sail panels would be my favorite spot but my car has the little knob for the manual side mirrors. I wouldn't be opposed to taking it off but then they can't be adjusted. Also I think I'd have to make a special cover for them so they aren't visible when the car is parked. Same goes for the head unit- mount it an extra inch back and take the faceplate only off the stock hu and use that as a cover.

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

The sail panels would be my favorite spot but my car has the little knob for the manual side mirrors. I wouldn't be opposed to taking it off but then they can't be adjusted. Also I think I'd have to make a special cover for them so they aren't visible when the car is parked. Same goes for the head unit- mount it an extra inch back and take the faceplate only off the stock hu and use that as a cover.

i mounted my tweets in my vents for a second today just to see what kind of imaging I could get and....when i flipped the phase of the driver side one. the center image was actually very good, it also raised my stage a bit. Downfall though, is that it pulled my stage closer (but you can fix that with EQ). Also I'm using a very high xover point (12khz) so the vocals didnt seem to move around, they were pretty solidly placed. I wouldnt say it decreased my SQ, just made me have to adjust to compensate for it. looks pretty nice too since my tweets fit perfectly //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

all in all, i'd say try it, and play around with EQ settings, phases, crossover points, and time alignment if you can. You may be able to make the vents work for you. I like it much better than my stock locations I will definitely say that.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

put them where you want, then cover the panel/tweeter with a vehicle matching grill cloth. stealth and optimal placement.

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

his ideas are always better than mine //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[Stookie1]

In the 90's when I first started with Car Audio I had a Golf GTi and had set of Kenwood tweets out of their casing and mounted in the vents with a Capacitor. As I lived in a S Africa the AC was always on. I had the set up for over a year and never had any issues with them failing. It was great as I could 'direct' the sound and volume by using the Vents direction