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Old 11-05-2006, 04:20 PM   #1
elbles
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Default Aftermarket Tweeters in Factory Locations?

Hey all,

I'll be making the 600 mile trip home for Thanksgiving in a few weeks, and the stereo in the Scoob is still stock - it's going to be rough. :-)

That said, I'm planning on putting my old stereo in the Scoob over the break, including all this stuff:

1. Alpine CDA-7894
2. Two Alpine amps (one for the component set, another for the subwoofer)
3. Boston 10" subwoofer
4. CDT CL-61A 6.5" components for the front

I know I'll need an adapter to mount the midranges up front, but they should mount easily once I have that. The larger challenge will be mounting the tweeters - I cut holes in the door panels of my old cars, and that worked just fine, especially considering the car had no factory mounting location for a tweeter.

While I know the Impreza's factory location is far from the best spot for a tweeter, I would really like to mount my aftermarket ones there out of convenience, and so no one could tell that it has aftermarket equipment (just by looking, anyway). The factory tweeters look as though they have a mounting bracket that would be necessary to mount anything in the factory location, but I haven't had the time to take the door panel off to look yet. If anyone has any input on this, I'd really appreciate it - thanks, in advance.
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Old 11-05-2006, 04:26 PM   #2
Drowner
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I'm not sure if your locations are the same, but in my 03 with the "premium" sound, i just unscrewed the bracket from the back of the tweeter, and honestly used superglue on the back of the aftermarket one and stuck it to the bracket since there isn't a screw hole in the aftermarket.
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Old 11-05-2006, 09:21 PM   #3
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Old 11-05-2006, 09:29 PM   #4
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I used double sided tape (3M body shop grade) on mine. For the location, the ones I used (POLK) didnt sound bad at all.
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Old 11-05-2006, 10:36 PM   #5
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i have a MY06 2.5i and i put infinity kappa perfect tweets in the stock position no problem. The only thing that sucks is there is really no way to mount the tweeter other than to double sticky tape it right to the body of the door and just line it up in stock tweeter position, I personally used industrial velcro to mount the tweeters and crossovers but everything else worked out. Im lazy and i ordered the adapter rings for the mid range speakers online, kind of pricey but i dont have much time to fab things
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Old 11-06-2006, 01:31 AM   #6
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Stock location by the door handle = crappy. The tweeters are MUCH closer to you than the woofers. This is a two-fold problem. First they are closer, which means they will be louder. Second, the sound coming from them will hit your ear first, read early, and the end sound will be well out of sync. Unless you want to run active to allow individual tweeter/woofer volume control and time alignment to sync everything together correctly, there are better places.

Put the tweeter down by the woofer. My aftermarket set is down by the woofer now, and even when stock, I mounted the stock ones down there. The secondary option is mounting the tweeters up on the a-pillar. That will help raise the sound stage, but it's not quite as fool-proof as keeping the woofer and tweeter together.
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Old 11-06-2006, 01:46 AM   #7
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the staging in the scoobys are actually VERY impressive for stock. i tested with dire straits. shefield. tested with boston Pros and they sounded amazing in the car. you will do fine with the aftermarket tweets in stock location.

btw, thats a nice little setup you have. i know it did sound good in your old car.
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Old 11-06-2006, 03:28 AM   #8
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On my 04 WRX I put in the Alpine type X components front and rear, for the front tweeters i used the same location and same bracket. Just used a lil double sided tape and ran the wire through the bracket. Up and over, so the tweeter could just hang there with out any help, but i added the tape for a lil extra protection.
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Old 11-06-2006, 08:03 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Back Road Runner View Post
Stock location by the door handle = crappy. The tweeters are MUCH closer to you than the woofers. This is a two-fold problem. First they are closer, which means they will be louder. Second, the sound coming from them will hit your ear first, read early, and the end sound will be well out of sync. Unless you want to run active to allow individual tweeter/woofer volume control and time alignment to sync everything together correctly, there are better places.

Put the tweeter down by the woofer. My aftermarket set is down by the woofer now, and even when stock, I mounted the stock ones down there. The secondary option is mounting the tweeters up on the a-pillar. That will help raise the sound stage, but it's not quite as fool-proof as keeping the woofer and tweeter together.
your going to run into the same problem on the a pillar, i didnt experience any sound issues in the stock position
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Old 11-06-2006, 10:56 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trauma11 View Post
your going to run into the same problem on the a pillar, i didnt experience any sound issues in the stock position
Partly true, but the problem is diminished. I say just stick them in the stock location for now and go back to do it right when you have more time.

offset
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Old 11-06-2006, 03:36 PM   #11
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I've been very happy with aftermarket tweeters in the stock location. I just installed a set of Focal K2Ps this weekend and I have a bracing bar that runs behind the stock location screwed into the back of the tweeter, which allows for excellent aiming through the stock grill.

You shouldn't have to run your own active crossover to find a decent component set that will include a gain adjustment for the tweeter. I run the Focals at -4db for perfect balance on my sensitive ears.
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Old 11-06-2006, 03:52 PM   #12
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I had them in the stock locations for a while and I thought they sounded great, but that was until I stuck them up in the sail panels on the doors.

OMG what a difference in sound and imaging.

There really is no comparison.

I have a thread on it somewhere....
This is the closest I could find:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=600201

-- Dave
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Old 11-07-2006, 12:38 AM   #13
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Another vote for stock location + double sided tape (well foam in my case,) just did a set of focals in my 9-2x this past weekend and I'm very happy with them.
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Old 11-07-2006, 07:04 AM   #14
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Sail panels > Stock locations any day.

But if you have to use the stock locations, atleast find a way to attenuate the tweeters by 3dB or more.

They will be so close to your head that you'll basically lose a lot of mid's from the regular woofers.

-- Dave
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Old 11-07-2006, 08:37 AM   #15
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You'd better get that in pronto: i went to VT as well, and that's a long and lonely drive up 81
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Old 11-08-2006, 12:19 PM   #16
elbles
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I'm going to use the stock location - I know I'll be giving something up in sound quality, but I don't want to make any modifications to the door panels, A-pillars, et cetra. All the advice has been plenty helpful though, I appreciate it guys.

Oh, and lowranger, thanks for the compliment - it certainly sounded decent enough to me when it was in my 240, hoping it'll sound even better in the Scoob.

And Pain++, yeah, the drive SUCKS. :-) Of course, I did it for my first two years in my 240 with 4x6 speakers in front and in back, and sometimes even with a really dumb blonde - the Scoob and its factory system CANNOT be that bad. :-D Oh, and you weren't a CpE/EE/CS major by any chance, were you? (The Pain++ would certainly suggest you were an engineer here :-)).
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Old 11-08-2006, 12:23 PM   #17
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Hey Aquacow, is there a thread with pictures on modifying the sailpanels to accept tweeters? I've gone with the stock locations since I already had a well aimed harness in the stock location, but I'm open to hearing the difference you guys have raved about.

I can imagine removing a circular opening in the sail panels to create a flush-mount, but I would imagine some degree of angling is better for aiming. How did you solve this problem? I haven't done this before.
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Old 11-08-2006, 12:56 PM   #18
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Plastic bodyfiller, MDF and time is what you'll need to have to make a good sail panel/a-pillar tweeter mount.
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Old 11-08-2006, 01:31 PM   #19
AcquaCow
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MorallyBass View Post
Hey Aquacow, is there a thread with pictures on modifying the sailpanels to accept tweeters? I've gone with the stock locations since I already had a well aimed harness in the stock location, but I'm open to hearing the difference you guys have raved about.

I can imagine removing a circular opening in the sail panels to create a flush-mount, but I would imagine some degree of angling is better for aiming. How did you solve this problem? I haven't done this before.
I didn't mod anything.

I took the mounting cup that came with my tweeters and glued it to my sail pane, rotated so that the tweeters face eachother.

That's all.

You can kinda see it here:


I took some touch-up paint and painted the glue (grey) flat black, as well as any exposed wire (less than 1/4in).

-- Dave
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Old 11-08-2006, 08:37 PM   #20
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gonna be installing rainbow cs265's on friday... trying to decide where to put the tweeters as well.
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Old 11-09-2006, 10:46 AM   #21
Limited035
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I can't see the tweeters in this otherwise very cool picture. What are "sail panels", and where is the tweeter? I might try to do this with my tweeters. Sounds like it might make a difference vs. the stock location.
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Old 11-09-2006, 01:01 PM   #22
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Look at where the side mirrors are at in the pic, and you will see the tweets on the inside panel from them. Those are considered sail panels.

offset
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Old 11-09-2006, 01:31 PM   #23
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I have mine in the sail panels as well. Easy to do, and sounds much, much better to me.
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Old 11-09-2006, 05:30 PM   #24
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I've been thinking about this quite a bit over the last couple of days.

My roommate has similarly designed Focal tweets and he's religious about his mounting in the sail panels. I'm quite happy with the soundstage produced with the stock locations (given proper aiming), which seems to sit right about the center of my dash (with time correction).

When I sit in his car, the sail panels seem to produce a much brighter sound, even with his -6db of attenuation on them. I'm not a big fan from that little bit of anecdotal evidence. I may experiment with placement of my own tweeters, but I'm more than a little skeptical.

Any of you in the Bedford/Waltham area willing to demo the joys of your sail panel install?
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Old 11-09-2006, 07:02 PM   #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trauma11 View Post
your going to run into the same problem on the a pillar, i didnt experience any sound issues in the stock position
Only if you have them bouncing off the windshield or aimed in some really goofy direction. The only benifit the stock lcation has is that it provides a very wide soundstage(angle from left to right speaker). However, the VAST difference in distance between the left and right tweeters as well as their MUCH closer distance to the user than the woofers makes for some serious problems, well serious being in the ear of the beholder. Proper positioning or proper processing can greatly improve the end sound. However, without processing power, you're pretty much required to physically position the speakers appropriately.
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