Anyone change out the tweeters?
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mikeromeoooo
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 11:07 am
Recently upgraded my stereo and the speakers. Bought a component system and was planning on just swapping out the old tweeters with the new ones that came with speakers but the area for the stock tweeters is tiny...has anyone put larger tweeters in by cutting or anything? pictures?
Seems more of a hassle than it's worth. I would leave OEM tweeters and focus on the new speakers. What sound system do you have? The Rockford Fosgate 10 speaker or the standard 7 speaker?
The RF system has two tweeters on the front doors (near the handles) and two tweeters on the rear doors inside of the rear door speakers. The rear door tweeters are mounted on a bridge literally inside of the speakers. I learned this recently after getting very confused about the speaker count. I can't imagine that this set up can be easily modified.
The RF system has two tweeters on the front doors (near the handles) and two tweeters on the rear doors inside of the rear door speakers. The rear door tweeters are mounted on a bridge literally inside of the speakers. I learned this recently after getting very confused about the speaker count. I can't imagine that this set up can be easily modified.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Preferred Hybrid
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Sold)
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Sold)
An option might be to simply disconnect the factory tweeters and fit the new tweeters in a different location (possibly on the "sail" panel behind the external door mirrors?) It's something I'll be looking into later myself as I already have speakers that should fit.
Disconnecting the centre speaker would probably be a good idea too. From the wiring diagrams I've seen it's simply a small speaker with dual voice coil windings- hooked up to both the left and right stereo channels. (I wrongly assumed the headunit did some extra sound processing to create a dedicated centre channel!)
Disconnecting the centre speaker would probably be a good idea too. From the wiring diagrams I've seen it's simply a small speaker with dual voice coil windings- hooked up to both the left and right stereo channels. (I wrongly assumed the headunit did some extra sound processing to create a dedicated centre channel!)
David
A car isn't optimal for anything to do with stereo reproduction! 
I believe (ideally) all the speakers should be on the same "plane", so angled tweeters on coaxials would go against that. Then you'd have issues with the high freq sound path to the driver's ear from so low on the driver's door. If you have a passenger in the front seat the other speaker would be muffled too.
I've used the back of the door mirror on a few vehicles and always found it a good location for DIY projects with higher sound quality in mind.(I haven't had the door trims off on mine so have no idea how much space there actually is in the stock tweeter location.)
PS: Is there a difference in speaker placement (location) for a Rockford Fosgate vs a non Rockford Fosgate equipped Kizashi? Just want to be sure we're all on the "same page" when discussing the stock locations.
I believe (ideally) all the speakers should be on the same "plane", so angled tweeters on coaxials would go against that. Then you'd have issues with the high freq sound path to the driver's ear from so low on the driver's door. If you have a passenger in the front seat the other speaker would be muffled too.
I've used the back of the door mirror on a few vehicles and always found it a good location for DIY projects with higher sound quality in mind.(I haven't had the door trims off on mine so have no idea how much space there actually is in the stock tweeter location.)
PS: Is there a difference in speaker placement (location) for a Rockford Fosgate vs a non Rockford Fosgate equipped Kizashi? Just want to be sure we're all on the "same page" when discussing the stock locations.
David
Back when I was winning sound quality competitions across the country, my experience was the opposite. You want to get the speakers as far away as possible so the path length difference between sides is less (as a percentage).
As to being on-axis vs off, that depends greatly on the speakers, but being off- axis seems to help the 3D imaging as it gave you a better "reference". Imagine you are directly on axis and move your head slightly - the sound drops off the same. Whereas if you're off axis, moving one way it gets "better" and the other gets "worse", and that helps you position the image better.
If you really want the best sound out of any particular vehicle, you need to spend A LOT of time trying different speaker positions, especially the ones you think will never work! THEN figure out how to install the speakers there, and how little EQ you can use from there.
As to being on-axis vs off, that depends greatly on the speakers, but being off- axis seems to help the 3D imaging as it gave you a better "reference". Imagine you are directly on axis and move your head slightly - the sound drops off the same. Whereas if you're off axis, moving one way it gets "better" and the other gets "worse", and that helps you position the image better.
If you really want the best sound out of any particular vehicle, you need to spend A LOT of time trying different speaker positions, especially the ones you think will never work! THEN figure out how to install the speakers there, and how little EQ you can use from there.
2011 Sport SLS with nav Black Pearl Metallic
Plenty of space to fit aftermarket tweeters. You might need to do a few small mods on the back of the door card, but nothing too dramatic.
Changing over the stock (non RF) woofer is a lot harder IMHO as it's some sort of el-cheapo custom molded speaker with a built in spacer (total height with foam sealer ~32mm.) The replacement speaker also needs to be sealed against the door card for best results- so the spacer height is critical as well as some sort of adhesive foam/ rubber to seal against the door card. PS: There's plenty of depth to play around with for even the deepest 165mm speaker.
Changing over the stock (non RF) woofer is a lot harder IMHO as it's some sort of el-cheapo custom molded speaker with a built in spacer (total height with foam sealer ~32mm.) The replacement speaker also needs to be sealed against the door card for best results- so the spacer height is critical as well as some sort of adhesive foam/ rubber to seal against the door card. PS: There's plenty of depth to play around with for even the deepest 165mm speaker.
David