First build in a long time.

[Fugley01]

With the subs up and running it is starting to sound pretty good. I still am not to pleased with the vocals that sound like the singer is trapped in my door. I realize. I wanted to do a cheap build but now I'm thinking of taking the 6x8" pioneers out of the doors and putting them in the back panels of the cab. I'm thinking of adding these to the doors in their place.
Infinity kappa 6x8" components. Maybe moving the tweets up to the A pillars or the dash might help with imaging. Any thoughts?
One other thing.the pioneers in the doors sit back at least an inch from the panels. If I switch them out, should I surface mount the new mid bass drivers on the door Panel or just use the original mounting location? I'm thinking a lot of the sound may be reflecting back towards the door.
Your input/experience is well appreciated.

Mike.


If it ain't broke. It soon will be!

[Fugley01]

Well I bit the bullet and picked up a set of Infinity 6x8" Kappa comps. The 6x8" pioneers will get moved to the panels in the rear seat.
I really need some advice on the best way to get the most of the new speakers. As mentioned in a previous post the door speakers sit back roughly 1" from the installed door panels. When I install the mid bass speakers should I space them out from the door closer to the panel and cut out the factory opening in the panel? Or just drop them in and call it a day?
Another question, what would be the logical place to mount the tweeters? I have room at the bottom front of the door glass on a small panel that covers the mounting bolts for the mirrors or I can mount on the pillars or the dash. I've read they should be kept fairly close the the mids, true? Or is the best way to just hook them up with long wires and try different locations?
I really need some advice from someone who has comps. So I can get this right without having to keep moving speakers if I don't have to.

Mike.


If it ain't broke. It soon will be!

[benny]

I'd put the tweeters in the sail panels (mirror-bolt-covers), and maybe try to fab up some kind of foam gasket to go around the woofer to cut down on reflections and junk in the gap between the door and the door card.

[SublimeZ]

if you have that much room, fab a baffle from 3/4" mdf. My '02 did not have that much room, IIRC, this was 3/8" plywood

[Fugley01]

I was thinking of a baffle but the thought of the foam never crossed my mind. I haven't even opened the box with the speakers. Do they even come with grills? I'm not at home so I can't check and see what is in the box. If they have grills, should I cut out the louvred area on the door panel and cover the speakers with grills? As well as using a baffle and foam?
One other thing. I am currently running the Dual amp bridged on the door speakers. At first I wasn't but since I hadn't installed the rear speakers I decided to run it in bridge mode. Now for some reason I seem to have lost the balance control. Should I swap the Dual out for the Kicker ix252? I've been reading reviews online and haven't read anything bad about the amp. It is only rated at 25w/ch but all reviews say it perform far above expectations. Then I could run the Dual in bridge mode to power the pioneers in the rear.
Any recommendations on a head unit with time alignment and Bluetooth?

Mike.


If it ain't broke. It soon will be!

[Fugley01]

Here's what I'm up against. The door speaker is set back almost an inch from the door panel, but it also looks to not be in alignment with the opening in the panel.

The passenger side looks fine.
Any ideas on how I can make things work? I am considering making an offset spacer to move the speaker out and down. I'm sure that I could angle my bandsaw table and cut two 3/8" thick spacers and glue them together where the bevels meet. Do you think this will work or is there a better way to go about it?
I pulled an adjustable vent from my dash panel to see if there was room to mount the tweeters, but decided to locate them in the upper door panel or possibly the sail panel if they'll fit.

Mike.




If it ain't broke. It soon will be!

[astrochex]

Doesn't it seem curious that the door installations are asymmetric? Shouldn't they be the same?

[Hic]

Anything in front of your speaker could affect the sound reproduction [ grill cloth is transparent ].

I'd try the foam you can find at a hardware store for insulating doors, b'tween the speaker face and door panel.

Put the 25 watt amp on the rear speakers, keep the front ones on the Dual.

[Fugley01]

I was considering cutting the door panel open and putting a shop made cloth covered grill over the opening. I ended up putting the tweeters for the comps in the top of the door panel. The sail panel is too small. These tweets are pretty big. Funny thing, either I'm going deaf or I want to add another set of smaller tweeters either on the dash or in the pillars.
With the doors all sealed up and the high pass set at 125 and the low pass for the subs at 85 it has some pretty tight sounding bass.
I picked up a pair of small Rockford Fosgate 2.3 amps for $20.00 so I was considering using them to run either more tweeters or a set of 5 1/4" in the kick panels. I'm also going to pick up an old alpine 3541 amp tomorrow. Don't know if I should try get it in there somewhere or keep it to run a small sub in my wife's truck.
I was going to put the Pioneer coaxials in the panels in the rear seat but now I'm considering another set of comps for there. If I go this route should I stick with the Kappas like in the front or does it make more sense to go with something a little less expensive like a set of Kicker or Alpine comps?
The Dual amp might be coming out as I have a crossover switch on it that when it warms up it starts to cut in and out.
I also still have the yet unused Kicker ix252 inverter amp.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Mike.


If it ain't broke. It soon will be!

[Fugley01]

I ended removing the Dual amp and replacing it with an Alpine 3541 2 channel amp. It's rated at 40watts rms @ .04%thd. At 12volts. I'm not sure if it is under powered for the Kappas or not (thoughts?). I still haven't installed speakers in the rear panels as it is just too bloody miserable out until about May. Originally I was going to install a set of pioneer 6x8" 2way co-axials so had but ended up ordering 2 sets of infinity reference co-axials. One set for me and one for the wife. At $54.00 a set I couldn't pass them up.
I found after installing the Alpine amp that the right speaker was still cutting out. I ended up cutting off the screw terminals on the pigtail and soldering the wires on direct. Problem solved.
After running this set up for a while I wanted to try a JBL MS-2 but was told they are discontinued. Not really a problem. I went to the App Store and found an app called car vitalizer.

For $7.99 I now have time alignment and other features to enhance the soundstage and presence.
Once it warms up a bit I'll get my 2 kicker ix252's in to replace the Alpine which will be used to power the reference speakers in the rear.
Any thought/suggestions?

Mike.




If it ain't broke. It soon will be!