Hi all. I have not posted in awhile. I got a '06 Mercury Grand Marquis a few months ago and am in the process of putting in a nice stereo system. My question is-why do front speakers in every vehicle I've had sound like crap? I've tried good speakers and amps in the past, but just can't get good sound. I've always liked the rear deck speaker location on a sedan-sounds good to me. Could it be because the front speakers are aimed at your lower body and the speakers are too close to your head(especially the left one)? Am l right about that? I really don't want to do components in the front-don't wanna cut the car for the tweeters. And where do you put those HUGE crossovers?? Could speakers that have the swivel tweeter help? Thanks in advance.
Pointing front speakers at your big toe is bad. But for reasons unknown, most auto manufacturers insist on doing just that. We still need to upgrade the factory front speaker, make sure its mounted solid. Dynomat or Dynomat equivalent will definately help. Swivel Tweeters will help. Stay with full range speaker but also buy an add-on tweeter. It will help bring the sound up. One word of caution, dont mount the add-on tweeter to high. Mount them high up in the door. It really works
I n general I agree with ranger.... But one key point I would like to add is this....experimentation Try different locations with the add on tweeters...on the dash, on the door, even on the kick panels, all aimed at you. every automotive enviorment and every ear is different ... use double sided sticky tape for temporary try outs, when you are satisfied, go with that location
Thanks for the advice. I really don't wanna do add on tweets, so I may get a pair of Memphis 6X8s with the swivel tweeters. I'll hook them up to the head unit, and if they sound decent, I will go thru the trouble of putting an amp on them. When I get my big amp for the Alpine Type R 10", the Blaupaunkt can be reassigned to front speaker duty.
dont give those front speakers a lack of power, they can really make a difference. you may like the sound of the rear speakers in your enviorment, but to not try and give some juice to the front speakers might make you disapointed. the highs need as much power as the lows...ya really....if you like to hear it ALL...you need to put as much into your highs as your lows.... the dynamic range of the most music demands it...... but most all folks on hre do not realize the importance of that.....
Well, I checked out some Memphis 5X7/6X8 with swivel tweeters at a car audio shop. I may give them a try in the front doors. I talked to a sales rep at Crutchfield. It seems that he did not give me good advice. I explained my front speaker disappointments in several vehicles. He blamed it on bad speakers/bad amps. And said if a speaker sounds good, it will sound good regardless of the location---what??? He also said swivel tweets won't help at all.
LOL! "sound good regardless of location" Lets mount his car audio speakers in the air filter assembly under his hood... Swivel tweets can make a difference, albeit not DRAMATIC...but we try and do what we can to get the best sound with what we have.
Ya I'm not real happy with Crutchfields or Pioneers help/knowledge (lack there of) or reccomendations. I have a '95 Lincoln Mark VIII, so no after owning it 10 years I'm not to worried about cutting some holes to put tweets in. There's actually a spot on each door that looks like its designed for tweets. It has 2 inch circular "box" if you will on back of door panel thats perfect for mounting and helping response of them with plenty of room to work. They are also located at about chest level curving inwards towards middle of car. Near rear side window has similar angle to mount tweets to aim towards center of car/passnegers with lots of room to work. I will probably run some new silver tinned 16awg twisted pair Kicker wire to all speakers. I'm Replacing my Infin. Ref 6x8 w/ swivel tweets in the back and Pioneer 4 way 6x8-(which sound great if you put head down but lose staging and highs otherwise) with a component Kappa 680.2cs or Alpine spx-13pro. I may look into Polk and I like the C5-570x and Focal, but these are only brands so far that handle 88 W RMS per channel @ 4 Ohms that seem like solid bets. ( I'm running Kenwood kvt-815DVD -- Treb-8~10kHz -- Mid-6~1.5kHz -- Bass-4~80kHz Q 1.25 -- Sub (-3), Kenwood kac-x541 4 channel amp, Fosgate 2 channel bass amp to 2 X JL Audio 12W3v2 in slot ported box, battery isolated Optima Yellowtop in battery box in trunck on trickle charge w/1.3 farad cap and good ole Costco battery for regular car use (don't ever buy Optima Redtop to run your car on, they fry/short/stop work quickly and often) The swivel tweets helped with the imaging and presence from the back for sure, but adding tweets up front with swivel tweets for rear at the very least will make a huge difference it seems to me.. from one Ford vehicle owner to another.
Hi Fly Guy. Thanks for the advice. Well, I went ahead and ordered a pair of Clarion 5 1/4 components from Crutchfield. I hope this makes me a believer in front speakers. Where am I going to put the tweets? Don't know. I will try different locations with double sided tape and see what sounds best. I really don't wanna cut holes in the door panels-hoping that they sound best mounted on the dash with adhesive tape or industrial strength velcro.
I'm not crazy about Crotchfeelers either. You should try to mount tweeters as far forward as possible. The worst location I see a lot is mounting them on the pillar behind the seats. People have no clue. The reason you want them mounted forward is because you don't sit in the middle of the car. The best listening position is an equal distance from left to right. The closer the speakers are to you, the greater the differential from left to right.
