03-13-2013, 02:31 AM
Given the poor location of the factory door speaker in these cars, my mission here is to improve the stereo image by moving the sound field up and forward, while managing expectations within the envelope that comes with a cabriolet.
The primary constraint for this project is my fear of cutting new holes in the door panels and making an irreversible mess of things. The secondary constraint is to avoid redesigning the door panel all-together and/or replacing it with a 944 door panel (although Flash makes it look way too easy).
The starting point for this project is a Kenwood head unit that claims to put 22 watts into 4 channels, but i think it's more like 15 tops, Memphis Audio 5.25 inch 2 ways in the doors, Memphis 4x6 coaxials in the rears, and a 100 watt Eclipse mono amp driving a shallow JL 10 inch sub in a homemade [custom] enclosure.
Realizing the head unit is underpowered for the task at hand, the mono sub amp was replaced with an Alpine 5 channel amp; 60 watts into 4 and a mono 250 sub amp all in one compact footprint that will still fit in the rear passenger side cubby.
The 2-ways (both tweeter and 5.25 midbass) are mounted in the stock location under the arm rest, with dynamat and the crossover behind the plastic mounting panel,
The stock tweeter came out and was replaced with a CDT Audio midrange driver. The midrange pair come with a crossover that allows both adjustment of the high pass cut-off (from 100 to 800 Hz) and level control attenuation to blend them into the front mains. The crossover is wired in parallel with the front mains. The best part from an installer's perspective is that these midrange drivers are drop in, no cutting required, with a backside ring mount similar to the stock tweeter.
On top of that, a pair of 1 inch CDT "presence" tweeters are added at the top of the A-Pillar firing downward and into the windshield at a 45 degree angle. Each of these has their own crossover with 5 adjustments for high pass cut-off from 1kHz to 2.5kHz and 5 level adjustments to blend them into the sound field.
First impression with all this is that the sound field has moved both forward and up, with the image just above the dash board. I may have also exposed the bottom end limitation of the Memphis 5.25 and will have to consider replacing them with JL Audio or Focal's that can get down to 60Hz.
With so many adjustments in the crossovers, and time alignment and EQ in the head unit, this setup will take some time to properly tune. One advantage that the head unit has is the ability to store up to 6 tunings, so at a minimum, there will be one tuning for parked, one for mobile, and one for talk radio. Hopefully, I will have it dialed in by Paso so ya'll can hear for yourselves.
now for the pix -
The primary constraint for this project is my fear of cutting new holes in the door panels and making an irreversible mess of things. The secondary constraint is to avoid redesigning the door panel all-together and/or replacing it with a 944 door panel (although Flash makes it look way too easy).
The starting point for this project is a Kenwood head unit that claims to put 22 watts into 4 channels, but i think it's more like 15 tops, Memphis Audio 5.25 inch 2 ways in the doors, Memphis 4x6 coaxials in the rears, and a 100 watt Eclipse mono amp driving a shallow JL 10 inch sub in a homemade [custom] enclosure.
Realizing the head unit is underpowered for the task at hand, the mono sub amp was replaced with an Alpine 5 channel amp; 60 watts into 4 and a mono 250 sub amp all in one compact footprint that will still fit in the rear passenger side cubby.
The 2-ways (both tweeter and 5.25 midbass) are mounted in the stock location under the arm rest, with dynamat and the crossover behind the plastic mounting panel,
The stock tweeter came out and was replaced with a CDT Audio midrange driver. The midrange pair come with a crossover that allows both adjustment of the high pass cut-off (from 100 to 800 Hz) and level control attenuation to blend them into the front mains. The crossover is wired in parallel with the front mains. The best part from an installer's perspective is that these midrange drivers are drop in, no cutting required, with a backside ring mount similar to the stock tweeter.
On top of that, a pair of 1 inch CDT "presence" tweeters are added at the top of the A-Pillar firing downward and into the windshield at a 45 degree angle. Each of these has their own crossover with 5 adjustments for high pass cut-off from 1kHz to 2.5kHz and 5 level adjustments to blend them into the sound field.
First impression with all this is that the sound field has moved both forward and up, with the image just above the dash board. I may have also exposed the bottom end limitation of the Memphis 5.25 and will have to consider replacing them with JL Audio or Focal's that can get down to 60Hz.
With so many adjustments in the crossovers, and time alignment and EQ in the head unit, this setup will take some time to properly tune. One advantage that the head unit has is the ability to store up to 6 tunings, so at a minimum, there will be one tuning for parked, one for mobile, and one for talk radio. Hopefully, I will have it dialed in by Paso so ya'll can hear for yourselves.
now for the pix -
