Dash vs. door mounted tweeters???

beenthere

The OE system in my VW Passat (supposedly) has 6.75" coaxial front door speakers, dash mounted tweeters and rear door mounted components, which seems backwards but... I've purchased Polk DB6750 components w/cross-overs for the front doors and Crutchfield's "advisor" recommended mounting the tweeters in the dash as the factory did on directionally angled 4" (plastic) plates.

EDIT: Turns out the rear door speakers are coaxials too with upper armrest mounted tweeters.

Since most people don't like the tweeters bouncing off the windshield is it better to door mount or A pillar mount the tweeter? I've read that it's tough to get good imaging with the tweeters mounted on the doors or near the A pillars. The door mid-range speakers of course are very low, which doesn't help either because then the mids and tweeters are 2.5 ft. apart.

Thoughts ???

A side note for other VW owners: Despite the fact Crutchfield claims the DB6750 are a direct replacement for the OE front door speakers, they are not. The bolt circle radius is 1.5mm too small and if you try to install them you will bend the plastic screw mounting pods and they will eventually break after installation. Polk does NOT recommend the DB6750 as interchangeable according to the online fitment guide. I have slightly slotted the DB6750 mids mounting hole, and machined appropriate screw spacers (mandatory) so the speakers can be properly mounted. Crutchfield should NOT be recommending these as a direct replacement speakers without advising people there is considerable work and mods required. If you just try to force them, you'll ruin a $200 set of speakers... which ain't cool.

MacLeod

There is some credibility to this method. Mounting the tweeters in the mirror sail can localize your sound to that tweeter. This is especially true in full size trucks like my 02 Ram because the passenger door is about 20 feet away! The "premium" Infinity sound system that is available on the Rams has the tweeters mounted in the dash. Its just a guess but I would say that Infinity designed it this way on purpose in order to create better imaging and to overcome this localization. The part where the tweeters mount is angled slightly to the rear of the truck. This has the highs glancing off the windshield rather than running straight into it. I havent heard this set up but I would think it wouldnt sound as harsh as tweeters firing straight up.

I was thinking of mounting my tweeters there using the angled mounting brackets and in theory this would not only raise my soundstage but give it quite a bit of depth as well.

If I were you I would get some 3M tape and stick the tweets on the dash, angled back and see how that sounds versus sticking them in, say, the mirror sails and see if it makes a difference.

I have no doubt that mounting the tweeters in the dash will yield superior imaging but it may not be worth the difference in sound quality.

beenthere

Thanks for the comments. Yeah I was thinking the only way to really tell is try them in a couple positions and see what the image sounds like. VW could have put them in the sails or even in the upper armrest like they did in the rear doors. Maybe with the angle mount, the dash will turn out to be as good as you can get with the interior design??? I'll try a few spots and see what my ears like. The tweeter location is probably more critical now since I'm using components vs. the original coaxial. I expect the upper OE tweeters were fill to compensate for the low mount door speaker location.

MacLeod

Yeah, thats what a lot of competitors do. Theyll mount the tweets in kick panels with the mids, the mid bass in the door then stick some tweets in the dash or A panels crossed over high like around 12K Hz and attenuated to raise the soundstage.

Scott Buwalda wins SQ comps like theyre going out of style and he has his mids in the kick panels and the tweets in the A pillars and it apparantly works cause hes like the grand dragon poo-bah or the SQ world.

exalted512

agreed...get some 3m double sided tape or velcro and put em in a bunch of different places
sometimes the best place is where you would never think it would work
and if you seperate your tweeters more than 18" away from your mids, you will have massive seperation of frequencies...
-Cody

beenthere

Cody,

I don't really like the tweeters being so far from the mids so I'll have to experiment. Obviously there is no easy way to move the mids up where they belong so I'll stick and try...

Mac,

Seems odd to place the tweeters and mids low down in a kick panel, but maybe the competition folks are just working around the physical limitations similarly but more effectively than the "cost effective" OE systems.

Should be interesting to see just how bad I can make the image!

MacLeod

I know thats the general rule, to keep the tweets close to the mids and for the most part I agree. However, Buwalda keeps winning with his mids in the floor and the tweets in the dash! Im sure theres a little more too it though.

If my Momo 6x9s die then Ill be getting some component speakers a lot sooner than planned so Ill be able to experiment and see if the dash theory works!

neomagus00

originally, i had my tweets in my dash and my mids in my doors, and that worked well; the stage was quite high enough and imaging was decent; i detected no issues... however, when i mounted them over my mids in the doors (refer to cdt's braxials for what i'm talking about), there was something a little extra there... i don't quite know how do describe it, it sounded a little more full and yet more focused at the same time... then i kicked in the time alignment and my imaging was awesome, and the soundstage adequate (it's kinda in an arc across the front, reaching from the actual speaker in the door up to the driver's wheel, then over across the dash to the airbag then back down to the speaker).