In Pursuit Of A Soundstage

[CadillacMatt 31]

*sigh* So those of you who have been following my build know I'm knee-deep in my door pod project. My initial goal was to create a front stage that was pleasing to listen to, had accurate imaging and soundstaging, and produced good volume. So after trying all different combinations of mounting locations, gain adjustments, balance shifts, attenuations, and equalizations, the best solution I came up with was mids in door, crossfiring, and tweets in sail (attenuated away from the driver). It produced no soundstage to speak of but it sounds decent.

So after disconnecting my new fronts to finish the pods, I hook up my old Kenwood 2-ways on the rear deck (facing upwards) so I'll have some music while I finish the pods. I play some music to make sure they're working, crawl back and position myself between them and BAM! soundstage! I sit there in amazement for a while hunched between the speakers, listening to Hotel California, and mapping the location of every instrument and vocal cue in the song on the stage with pinpoint accuracy. Even hip-hop I threw on produced a staggeringly real field of listening!

I snapped back out of it realizing I was sitting in the back of my car listening to them for a while. I mean, I wish so much I could have this kind of quality up front... maybe I'll try mounting the tweeters on the dash?

Is this out of my reach? Have I reach a point of diminishing returns? I'm open for advice.

But until then, I shall stay...

In Pursuit Of A Soundstage!

Edited January 22, 2009 by CadillacMatt

[ABXX49 20]

How far away are your mids from your tweeters?

[CadillacMatt 31]

How far away are your mids from your tweeters?

The mids are in the door crossfiring, and the tweets are in the sail panel.

Before anyone says anything, I tried the kicks, and my car has too deep a footwell to allow for accurate imaging there. I tried mounting the tweets by the mids in the door and it sounded decent, but I could definitely tell the music was coming "from below".

[///M5 2,833]

??? You are saying you had a stage with rears but not with fronts?? lol

[CadillacMatt 31]

??? You are saying you had a stage with rears but not with fronts?? lol

Technically yes... but not really... I just positioned myself between them just right to get that "stereo effect"

[anarchyaudio 0]

So have you tried the tweets in the A pillars, generally will bring the sound stage up for you

[KU40 173]

I've found that having speakers in the rear deck can help raise the soundstage, even up front. But as for your solution, perhaps try going 3-way and putting a mid up-firing in the dash?

[jonbearsmt 919]

im having problem with my front stage too!!

matt im off this weekend.

[CadillacMatt 31]

So have you tried the tweets in the A pillars, generally will bring the sound stage up for you

How high up should they be? I haven't tried that.

I've found that having speakers in the rear deck can help raise the soundstage, even up front. But as for your solution, perhaps try going 3-way and putting a mid up-firing in the dash?

This is a serious consideration I've been making... I'm still thinking that everything sounded much better with rear speakers. I am leaving the comps disconnected until I can wrap my pods, run the wires, and clean up the install a little bit but I could toy around with the idea of keeping the Kenwoods in the back.

im having problem with my front stage too!!

matt im off this weekend.

Cool... I need to replace a bad belt tensioner on my car before I do any serious driving, unless you want to come down here

And we can talk about some door pods on the Linc