[ebag4]

Hi Guys,

My 16 year old son has a 99 Chevy S10 extended cab.  He has purchased some decent equipment within his budget.  We will be building a sub box and mount for the the amp this weekend as well as installing the new head end and the component speakers in the door. 

This is my question, where is the best location for the tweeters.  I have read through the web and there does not seem to be a concensus (no kidding, right??).  In my Dodge PU I have the tweets in the upper door but a similar location does not seem to make sense in his truck due to the smaller cab, the dash would be in the way on the passenger side and the steering wheel is in the way on the drivers side.  If I mount them within a few inches of the midbass driver the drivers and passengers legs will likely be in the way.  There are locations on the upper door that may be usable but this leaves the tweeter very close on one side as opposed to the unit on the opposite side.  The A pillars look promising but I would have to come up with a surface mount (which I believe I could do).  There is a factory tweeter location on top of the dash but it will fire the tweets straight into the windshield.

So what do you think?  Does anyone have experience with this vehicle?  What location did you determne to be the best.

Thanks,
Ed

[lonewolfny42]

Ed....

Not sure if you'll get any replies here...AC did have a 12Volt Circle at one time....

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?board=26.0

I can move this to the Cars and Bikes circle...might have better luck there....or...you might check out other automobile forums on the web concerning car stereos.

Good luck....

[Crimson]

Rule of thumb for tweeters is to keep them in close proximity to the passenger, not more than 30", and pointing toward the passengers' head. And yes, symmetry of placement is important.

[hibuckhobby]

Unless you want to go to a great deal of work fabricating kickpanels and doing your best to get equal pathlengths to the driver, mount the mids in the doors and mount the tweeters in the a-pillars a couple of inches above the dash.  If they have swivel mounts start by aiming each one toward the rear view mirror.

You can get pretty good center-of-dash imaging that way for the driver.  For the passenger the sound will be somewhat "side-biased".   There are times when putting the passengers side out of phase with the drivers side will also aid in soundstage width and center image.  Don't knock it unless you've done it.  I used to compete as a pro in IASCA and this was a common practice in all but the most high end cars.
Hibuck...

[ebag4]

Thanks for the replys guys.

Chris, thanks for moving the thread, I looked but didn't see the Cars and Bikes circle.  I think I have what I need.  I have been checking the other car audio site and the responses were all over the map as you can imagine.

Crimson, the 30" will be tough, even in an S10.  I am striving for symmetry but in the end it will just be close (hopefully.

Hibuck, thanks for the response.  This is the direction I am leaning.  I would have liked to keep the mids and the tweeters in closer proximity but I believe a clear line of sight of the tweeter is more important.  And yes, these tweeters do swivel.  I will try swapping phase on one of the the units to see what difference that makes, thanks.

Best,
Ed

[Hebrew Hammer]

sorry for the late reply ed!!!

it really depends on a few factors... if you are able to go active then your placement opens up.. I typically try to keep mid and tweeter together in the kick panels, but realistically that's not an option for allot of people as cutting and fabrication is involved..

A pilars are ok.. but unless you are able to point them on axis which would look like poo, then I'd avoid that because your stage will brick wall at the pilar and will be very noticable..

This leaves you 2 very good options

1. In the sail panel " the little triangle at the top corner of each door panel" this is normaly the widest and highest part of the car without cutting..

2. pointing up at the corners of the dash.. the off axis will give you a very wide and deep soundstage and with a little t/A will give you a very good image..

I hope this helps!!!
 

[ebag4]

Thanks for the reply Hammer.  I have decided to get everything else going and then experiement with a few locations.  Thanks for the additional info concerning aiming the tweters at the corners of the dash, I had not heard that one, we will give it a shot.

Best,
Ed

[Levi]

I agree with the recommendations above.  Since I did the installation myself, I had the luxury of experimenting with tweeter locations e.g. doors, kick pods, sail panel, dash etc. 

For me, careful placement of the tweeters in the dash precisely above the midrange speakers for better time alignment yields the best sound.  They also look stealth.  Using foot pods to angle your midrange speakers towards the listening position gives the best imaging.   This will prevent the image from being perceived below the dash.  Don't worry about the reflection from the glass, some tweeters sounds good this way specially if your dash angled towards you. 

The end result were pretty amazing no matter where you are sitting in the front.   

Lastly, I put dynamat in the doors inside and outside including the trim panels.






6.5" Bass driver on the door

[coke]

Install your mids and put the door panels on.  Wire up your tweeters with a couple feet of slack.  Get some velcro or something similar and try the tweeters in different locations.  You'll probably find 1 or 2 places where the tweeters and mids blend together very well.   

Some crossovers have adjustements for different angles between mids and tweeters. You might want to look at that while you're trying the different locations.

Don't forget to adjust the levels as you're trying the different locations.

[Levi]

Some crossovers do have settings you can play around.  Mid flat, high, -1 db etc...

[coke]

Some crossovers do have settings you can play around.  Mid flat, high, -1 db etc...

Before I went active, I had a set of Alpine Type X components.  You could measure the distance and angles to the drivers and the manual would have recommended crossover settings based upon your measurements.  There were a LOT of jumpers in the crossover which allowed you to do this.   Below is an excerpt from the manual.

"WF-LP:
In addition to functioning as a low-pass crossover, this section also serves as a part of the phase and
response compensation section of the network. By adjusting the phase within the crossover region, it
is possible to achieve “phase linkage” with the tweeter, producing a seamless blend or transition
between the two drivers. This is affected mostly by individual driver placement in relationship to each
other, but also by relative distance to the listener
WF:
Functions as off-axis compensation, by changing the upper frequency response in order to
compensate for natural roll-off when the listener is off-axis.
TW-HP:
In addition to functioning as a high-pass crossover, this section also serves as a part of the phase
compensation section of the network. By adjusting the phase within the crossover region, it is possible
to achieve “phase linkage” with the woofer, producing a seamless blend or transition between the two
drivers. This is affected mostly by individual driver placement in relationship to each other, but also by
relative distance to the listener
TW:
Functions as off-axis compensation, by tilting the frequency response to correct for natural roll-off
associated with extreme listening angles. Additionally, it also serves to allow precise level adjustment.
Signal Link:
The signal link section provides a parallel connection between the input sides of the terminal blocks,
allowing the input connection to be made at different terminals. Caution: These jumpers must be
removed when used in bi-amp configuration to prevent possible amplifier damage."

[Levi]

It would be nice to have spectrum analyzer for that purpose.