| OT-ish: Car speakers - placements - and stuff... [message #94228] |
Mon, 31 December 2007 20:12  |
Kim
Messages: 1246
Registered: October 2005
|
Senior Member |
|
|
Well, it's audio, so I'm sure some people here have opinions on it...
So I'm planning to complete the stereo in my "classic" 29yo car, and ideally
don't want the stereo to be a visual highlight. Obviously I want it to sound
good, but I'd prefer you couldn't see it at all if possible. I'm willing
to make small sound sacrifices to make this happen.
Now I've bought a bucketload of speakers already. I've got some 4 ohm 8 inch
and 5 1/4 inch woofers, and some ribbon tweaters, which are on their way.
It's going to involve 3 stereo biamped tweeter woofer pairs, with the smaller
woofers in the doors and the larger in the cargo area. The trick is, how
to get them in the car without looking like one of those "my car stereo is
my life" types. Sure I love audio, but I'd rather let sound buffs be impressed
by the sound, not the visuals. They don't call it "audio" for nothing. ;o)
So a couple of questions...
How would a woofer go behind car carpet? Worse still, what if the situation
necessitated the woofer being one third to half covered with wood at the
front also. I'm picturing carpet hurting the mids somewhat. What about thick
cloth? This cloth doesn't appear to be dense, but it's got a kind of backing
sponge. I suspect that even 2-4k would pass through alright, which might
just get me to tweeter territory...
Other options include just getting some color keyed paint and painting the
speaker grills or whatever to make it look like it belongs. Mmm.
Any general stories on how you guys have handled car stereos would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Kim.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: OT-ish: Car speakers - placements - and stuff... [message #94247 is a reply to message #94246] |
Tue, 01 January 2008 21:38  |
Kim
Messages: 1246
Registered: October 2005
|
Senior Member |
|
|
Paul Braun <cygnus_nospam@ctgonline.org> wrote:
>Save your money on those ribbons and mids. Nobody who knows ANYTHING
>about car stereo actually uses those things -- well, maybe some really
>nerdy old people, but certainly nobody cool.
Hehe. It's really very like that isn't it. ;o) I love the irony of having
everything gold plated to play your MP3's. ;o) People don't seem to realise
that the quality degradation of a good non-gold connector is so minimal that
it makes an MP3 look like Everest...
I actually just discovered that, well, I'm now suspicious that I have revolutionised
car audio in Australia without actually knowing it. ;o) Back in about '91
I put a car stereo together from 8 ohm house speakers by using two in parallel
to make 4 ohms. Suffice to say it blew away spending the same money on normal
car speakers as I had twin 8 inch woofers and "real" tweeters back when subs
and split systems were just a dream in the pants of some dude from the hood.
;o) We demo'd it to both the store where we bought the head unit, as well
as the electronics store who sold us the speakers and crossover components.
A year later the electronics store we bought the speakers from started having
their own brand of 4 ohm "non-car" speakers made in Asia somewhere, and my
mate who had helped me install the system in my car was training the stereo
installers at the shop we bought the head unit from. It's a chain store so
he trained people for maybe 10 stores in the top car audio shop in Melbourne
at the time (JB HiFi for those from Aust).
The following year the Australian car audio show was blown away by some dudes
who bought these speakers and installed them in a couple of cars. They won
every category because they got good speakers rather than crappy 6x9 thingies
and built a home stereo into a car.
So while I don't actually know what went on in between, I am highly suspicious
that I made a fair difference. Ironically they still don't listen to me about
the gold plugs though. ;o)
Suffice to say I am benefiting from the spoils of my work here. That store
now sells amps which also win every show, which will be in my car. There
was talk of class A amps until I was told of the current drain issues...
;o)
....but while subs are different, I don't think many people are biamping
the tweeters. I might win a car audio prize yet, and if I do I'm going to
stand on that podium and say "If you use gold connectors to play MP3's you're
a bloody moron". ;o)
I doubt I will bother to enter though somehow. ;o)
Cheers,
Kim.
|
|
|
|
The PARIS Forums
Search
Help
Members
Register
Login
Home
