Better kickpods in 60-66 Trucks

[DaddyOh]

In your experience, is it better to put your mid driver and tweeter in the same location? Is there any benefit on moving the tweeter up to the stock dash placement grill area for your highs? Would that give a better 'center channel' feel. Great write up.

[par4tom]

Originally Posted by DaddyOh

In your experience, is it better to put your mid driver and tweeter in the same location? Is there any benefit on moving the tweeter up to the stock dash placement grill area for your highs? Would that give a better 'center channel' feel. Great write up.

10 years ago the answer to this question would have been a definative yes. However, to understand the answer you need to understand how acoustics work at different frequencies. Mid-bass and mid-range frequencies up to about 1500 hz do not give your brain many directional cues because of location. Their directional cues are a result of different arrival times of the wavelengths from left and right side. Because our trucks are so small, time alignment is really a bandaid.

Suffice it to say, if you align your midbass and midrange drivers like I have advised, your directional cues for these speakers will not be a result of placement in the kickpod...only a result of different arrival times between left and right channels and you can't change that.

Tweeters and higher frequencies is a completely different matter. Frequencies above 1500 hz now start giving cues as to where the sound is coming from due to their placement. This is why a large number of competitors winning national competitions have won with midbass and mid range down in kickpods and tweeters up on top of the dash. There is no reason to absolutely leave the speakers together anymore as was the thought 10 years ago.

What I liked about the CDT System, is that they get all of this technical stuff, and the tweeters that I am using are at the very top of the A pillar and firing down at a special center channel where I have two more 2" mid-tweeter speakers on a special volume control circuit. Click on the bottom link in my signature and you can see what CDT has done with the Center Channel design.

The tweeters are crossed over at 8 khz by design, and their placement at the top of the A pillar is an interesting phenomena. On our first listen last week (with almost zero tuning and time alignment work done). We heard the image at the height of our heads...stable and centered over the top of the hood. But when you listen to the signal coming directly out of the tweeters...there is really not a lot of audible material about 8 khz. Completely defies my sense of thinking about the issues of soundstage...but then again...that's why I'm not a sound engineer.

In sound competitions, this soundstage issue is critical because you are judged as if the judge was sitting in a live concert and the musicians were ahead of you and on stage. Musicians on the left side of the stage should sound like they are on the left side of the stage. Musicians on the right...the right side. Drummer in the back and to the left...should sound like he is in the back and to the left.

So...to keep it simple, there is no reason to keep these speakers physically grouped together anymore. Midbass can be in door or kickpod, midrange as far forward and in the kickpod as you can get them (to equalize pathlengths between left and right channels, and tweeters can be up high in the A pillars and as far apart as possible.

The key issue is to address as many of the physical issues in your system as possible with physical solutions (I.E. - Driver alignment, spacing, subwoofer box design, etc). Then get to tuning. Too many people do a lousy job on the physical design (I.E - Like my old system where I had 6 1/2" drivers in sealed kickpods - sounded weak at best) or just take speakers off the shelf because of the brand and then spend the rest of their time tuning and trying to overcome the physical shortcomings of their choices!!! An example of this is the car audio industry trying to tell you you can get great, phenomenal bass out of a 12" woofer in a .25 cubic foot box. Ain't never going to happen because of the laws of physics. That is why I put 8" drivers in a .35 cubic box...done properly they sound like 2 12" inch subs.

From there...its all about tuning.

[DaddyOh]

Thanks for the detailed response... you just confirmed I am old and have not kept with the times, lol..... thanks again

[par4tom]

Originally Posted by DaddyOh

In your experience, is it better to put your mid driver and tweeter in the same location? Is there any benefit on moving the tweeter up to the stock dash placement grill area for your highs? Would that give a better 'center channel' feel. Great write up.

Sorry...let me simplify...yes, you can put mids down low and tweets in A pillars. Not best to put tweets on center channel opening...

For what it's worth, I felt like you did 3 years ago when I started...behind the times...
Tom

[duallyjams]

great info thanks