Review: Tweeter Positioning
Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!
Aim:
To explore the benefits of different positioning of tweeters when installing component speakers. I've seen a few threads of people asking where to put them, so when i got a bit bored i thought i'd do a bit of experimentation.
Required:
1 Car to test in (EG Hatch in my case)
1 Set of component speakers (I'm using Rainbow CS-265)
Various CDs
Too much time on your hands
OPTIONAL:
Amplifier
Equaliser
Steps:
I. Dismantle your car as necessary to gain access to your tweeters, add some length to the speaker wire for your tweeter if necessary to be able to manoever the tweeter about the front of the car.
For whas its worth here's my mid bass driver (this will be the constant throughout the tests)
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...a83/woofer.jpg
II. Place the tweeter in various spots around the car, and listen for a while, try different songs/ genre etc.
Make sure you have a bit of a break between listening sessions, then move the tweeter to another spot and repeat.
III. When you find the spot that's best for you work out a way to secure the tweeters there; Beit make kickpanels, attach it to the trim, attach it to the dash etc.
Other comments
The results I achieved were encouraging but i must say they weren't conclusive. I am still unable to give a decisive answer to which is best, I don't think there's a definitive answer.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...weeterhigh.jpg
TWEETER HIGH: For this i had the tweeters about as high as practical, sitting on the a vents on the dash. With the tweeter i found them to sound best when they were aimed at the windscreen. It did seem a pretty strange aiming which you don't really see too much but i think it worked quite well.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...tweeterlow.jpg
TWEETER LOW: For this I had the tweeter nice and low, and too be honest it sounded absolutely crap. It was as if there was no tweeter connected at all. I know this is a very popular mounting position which people have had great success with, so I didn't want to give up on this too quickly.
I have my splits running active so i was able to adjust the balance between the woofer and tweeter.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16.../crossover.jpg
as I started to ajust the woofer/ tweeter power levels the speakers seemed to start to come to life, they still weren't great but they were getting better. The tweeters sounded best when aimed pretty much at the opposite seat headrest. Equalisation can also help at this stage.
I moved the tweeter back and forth between positions with breaks between listening sessions (as described above) and to me the tweeters on the dash always sounded good, but the tweeters down low started sounding better every time i listened to them.
Conclusion:
Ultimately, I don't think anyone can definatively say what is the best position for tweeters. My tests took a few hours (with breaks), i think this was inadequate to make a final decision. For my next install i'll be temporarily installing my tweeters for at least a week for each position, however i think down low might be the way to go once you get used to it.
Nb: Time allignment turned off/ Subs turned off/ faded all the way forward
Comments, or anything I've forgotten to mention?
