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Car Audio 301


Jdubs99
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Last class.

 

A lot of physics will get tied into this one. As much as this will fly in the face of many car enthusiast, your subs don't really matter much to get to a true sounding (SQ) system. Sure, they are important. But the most important speakers are going to be the ones in the front. Think of any concert you have attended, where are you getting blasted from? THE FRONT.

 

The roadies may have a few 12" drivers and a couple tweeters behind you, but that is just for "rear fill". 95% of the sound is coming from the front speakers. As in my car, my 6.5" rear speakers are hardly used. The midbass frequencies are cut high, limiting output. You generally don't want much coming from the rear deck. The subs (sub) don't matter much because extremely low frequencies are omni-directional (impossible for the human ear to pinpoint). The "front stage"(front speakers) are the heart and soul of building an SQ auto audio system. The speaker placement of the two front midbass drivers and 2 tweeters are KEY to making a realistic sounding concert experience, hence me moving my crossovers and tweeters out of the doors. My tweeters are now located in metal brackets near the kickpanels. The reason I did this is because I want to attain front speaker position as close to point source as possible.

 

What is point source? Point source is getting the same audio signal playing as close as possible through two different audio drivers (midbass and tweeter) as possible. Common sense would dictate that using a regular coaxial speaker would be the best way to achieve this. In rare instances, this is true. The dividing line is that most coaxial speakers use the cheapest capacitors possible, and limit the listener/installer on angling the tweeter (the most important part of creating a point source) unless you have the means and know-how to create a custom set of kickpanels.

 

The midbass/midrange (the 6.5 driver in most component systems) plays frequencies that have a bigger amplitude, which means the placement is not that important, hence most vehicles having a 6.5" mounting point in the lower driver doors. They have low directionality. The tweeter, however, is KEY. Tweeters play high frequencies with high directionality. They must be angled to achieve a good front stage. The driver side tweeter should be aimed to the left of your left ear slightly, the right tweeter aimed just above your head. This will ensure a balanced front soundstage with a little tweeking on your balance. Generally speaking, the only time you want to mount your tweeters in the sail panels are if you have an extremely high end set of components including a tweeter with great off-axis response (Focal comes to mind), and you have a source unit that has timing adjustment and the tweeters are recieving source and power on an independently adjustable channels.

 

Unless you are considering getting into SQ competitions, this advice will get you a sound system that most people will be damn impressed with.

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