Tweeters - where to put them?

[merckx]

I'm In the process of fitting my focal speakers, but I'm not sure where to put the tweeters.

After doing a search I've found that some put them in the plastic kick plate trim in the footwell .

I considered putting them in the door card next to the main speaker but not too sure.

Is the position of them that important. How do they perform in the footwell, aren't they out of the way a bit?

Cheers

[JustGav]

Ideally tweeters need to be inline with your ears...

However you don't want to put them to far away from the mids, otherwise you will get phase problems..

Pillars?

Gav

[merckx]

Pillars?
Gav

Unfortunately they aren't deep enough to flush mount them. :(

[SimonB]

You can mount them where the standard ones are, but it's a bit of work, and you have to destroy the old ones to get them out really so there's no going back once you've started!

[Pete]

I didn't know what to do with mine either. I've heard of people yanking the factory ones out from the top as it's just too damn difficult to get to them otherwise.
What I did was mount them in the top corner closest the dash on the door card. Didn't like the idea of cutting into it, but it turned out fine in the end and I don't notice it.

[michael]

If you put them in the kick plate area but pointing towards the person on the opposite side of the car you should get a lovely sound stage, that's what I'm planning when I eventually settle on the rest of the system / decide if I'm keeping the car.

I've been in an MR2 with just a headunit and a pair of Focals - they were setup in a similar way and it sounded fantastic, I believe Matt H has his like this too?

[Pete]

Surely you'd get a weird left/right channel mix?

[michael]

*shrug* I don't know about the tech side of it, I just know it sounded good :)

[merckx]

If you put them in the kick plate area but pointing towards the person on the opposite side of the car you should get a lovely sound stage, that's what I'm planning when I eventually settle on the rest of the system / decide if I'm keeping the car.

I've been in an MR2 with just a headunit and a pair of Focals - they were setup in a similar way and it sounded fantastic, I believe Matt H has his like this too?

Thanks everyone

Never thought of them pointing across to the other side of the car, think I'll do it this way. If for some reason I want to sell them I'll be able to take them out, blank the holes and refit the original speakers without too much bother! :thumbs:

[Matt Harwood]

If you put them in the kick plate area but pointing towards the person on the opposite side of the car you should get a lovely sound stage, that's what I'm planning when I eventually settle on the rest of the system / decide if I'm keeping the car.

I've been in an MR2 with just a headunit and a pair of Focals - they were setup in a similar way and it sounded fantastic, I believe Matt H has his like this too?

IMHO, this is the one of the best locations, (considering ease of installation).
You don't get a mix-up of left/right because the panels are angled towards you this naturally makes the tweeters 'on axis' - pretty much facing you.

In an ideal world, you want all the speakers facing you. It's also a good liocation from a distance point of view, effectively creating a nice stereo image.

It does come down to,
a) personal preference - The closer the tweeters are to you, the more influence they'll have on the overall sound, more suitable to some modern styles of dance music - The further away, (but close to the midrange), the better quality definition you'll get, better suited to a more 'musical' sound.
b) How much effort you want to put into the mounting. (they could be flushed into the A pillars if you wanted to).
c) Similar to 'a', the way people hear/percieve music is a very personal thing. Ideally, get the rest of the system installed, then sit in the car playing a peice of music you're familier with, and stick the tweeters in various locations (using Blue tak or something), and try listening to the same track, with the tweeters in dofferent locations. - See what YOU prefer.

[JustGav]

See what YOU prefer.


Well said that man... at the end of the day once all is said and done, you are the one who has to listen to the car, so as with home cinema stuff it is purely personal choice... try them in various locations with a bit of bluetac and see which YOU like to listen to.. once you have established that then work out the mounting *grin*

Good luck chap..

Gav

[The Hornet]

Using blue tak is exactly what I did, ended up with em surface mounted at the lower end of the A pillars. When I have taken my ICE system out of previous cars etc I've just bought some cheap tweeters for a couple of quid from ebay and mounted them so it looks good when selling the car.

[oxygene]

Mine are mounted in the plastic panels in the footwell, the height of the treble in the stock tweeters is too high.

mounting the tweeters where I have mounted them, the sound is great.

To get an idea what I mean, sit in the car and close your eyes and see if you can gauge where the treble is coming from heightwise.

Sorry if you dont understand exactly what i mean, but i know since changing the location of my tweeters, the sound is so much better.