Well, after returning from vacation with my wife, I promptly began Project Front Stage in my car. I ripped off the door panels (well, I carefully removed them anyway) and began the tedious task of deadening the door. I added two layers of STFU 80 on the door skin (3 layers directly behind the mid location) 1 layer of STFU 80 on the backside of the metal skin and and 1 layer of Damplifier on the outside of the metal skin. I had to make some MDF baffles for the mids, which was not hard. I had to sand down the edges and cut some slots for the door panel mouting hardware to fit around. Pics will be available soon. But overall I am VERY pleased with the sound, and I have not completely tweeked them. They are being powered by a PG ZX400ti, so that helps provide a nice, clean sound. The Alpine 9813 does it's job well as a source. Currently the xovers are set at the reference levels, but I am going to mess with the settings just out of curiosity before mouting them out of sight. I'd say the greatest part is that I am hearing things I never heard before. Keep in mind I replaced my 7-8 year old stock mids and tweets (the tweets were in a poor location in the dash near the windshield), so I am in another world as far as front stage goes. But the mids and tweets provide very detailed, accurate sound, which is what I was shooting for. The main thing I still have to do is pick a permanent spot for the tweets. Right now I have them stuck via some double sided tape about 6" above the mids. Luckily I have a spot where I can mount them that provides great imaging. It's hard to explain, but the spot is an area of the door panel where the surface is not quite horizontal (probably a decline of 20-30 degrees pointing toward the driver) and sticks out about 3". For the hell of it I placed the tweets up high on the door panel, but the highs and mids did not mix nearly as well as when the tweets and mids are close to one another. Anyway, I thought I'd share the first big wave of my install. This weekend I intend on getting my amp rack built and my sub and frontstage amps installed. After that I have some deadening to do in "non critical" areas.
That's an interesting tweeter location, that certainly wouldn't be intuitive, it wouldn't be the first place I'd have tried... But that's why I suggest sticking the tweeter places, to try it out, with doublesided tape... particularly if you are pretty 'set' on where you want the mid to live. In-car acoustics are part science, part black magic... trial and error can usually give you results that surprise you!
Just out of curiosity, are you saying you wouldn't have tried such a location yourself because you wouldn't think you get good sound? But long before I began my install, I thought critically about what spots to try so I could get the best possible imaging. I am not sure if my description of their current location makes any sense. Basically I have this spot, which is somewhat similar to having my tweets in a kick panel as far as imaging goes, with all other spots being your typical vertical mounting locations. The XR tweets have about a 15 degree tilt to them, but that would not provide the same imaging I am getting with their present location. I intend on trying a few different spots before deciding just to be 100% sure. It looks like poop right now, but I think this weekend I will have them mounted in a permanent location. But while I am on the topic, I can attest that the XR tweets are not too bright and not too mellow. The are seemingly accurate, which is good. I don't find myself squinting my eyes from them being overly harsh, nor struggling to hear the tweets. I am glad geolemon suggested I check these out.
Well, I'd have to see it myself... But generally, having the tweeter aiming down at the floormat isn't ideal, so it's not that I wouldn't have tried that location (heck, try it anywhere! B) ), but I might not have had great optimism at that being my greatest location. But of course, that's all relative to what other locations you have available, too. But ultimately, like I said... what matters most is that you did try that location, and sometimes 'trial and error' can surprise you - both positively, or negatively.
Ahhh, we are not on the same wavelength here. My tweets currently point toward my head, for the most part anyway. Even I wouldn't point my tweets downward. I'll post pics tomorrow and show you guys what I am going to likely do with my tweets.
