so I ordered some audio gear from Elemental Designs just a few days ago. The sub and custom enclosure hasn't been shipped yet but my amp and e3.65i components already came! Super fast shipping, thanks eD! Heres a pic off eD's site of the components

I have a couple questions for the audio guys out there:

As you can see in the picture above, with eD comps, you can actually mount the tweeter on the woofer like coaxial speakers are set up, or mount separately like other component systems... so to achieve the best sound in my tC where should I mount my tweeters?
-Stock locations
-Kickpannels
-mounted coaxially (is that a word? lol)

(I know the a-pillars are also a popular location, but I'm not interested in mounting them there...)


What should I do about the rear speakers
-unplug the stock speakers and only run a front stage
-leave the stock speakers hooked up
-install some coaxial speakers down the road

and finally I'm going to run the power wire for my amp down the drivers side of the car and run the RCA cables down the passenger side to reduce noise, however is it necessary to run the wires that go from the amp to the drivers side speakers down the passengers side and then across the width of the car up front... or is it okay to run those wires next to the power wire?

Any help would be greatly appreciated :-)

 

Here is what I did........mind you I used 0/1 power from battery.....nightmare to get that to back of car.

Mine went through firewall....then take the gas cap open latch off the floor,take the kick guard on the door seal,the trim piece,off that is where the main wires run down.......use that path for the speaker wires.

pull back the carpet and you will see small tunnels next to the side wehre the gas cap opener is run the power wire there so it is away from the speaker wires........

For the RCAs take out the waterfall,take out the screws in the back of console cubby,take out the lower part of rear seat........pull carpet towards front of car.with all this out you can run RCAs from dash,through the console,under the carpet in the middle to the back,put the RCAs on one side or the other of the rear floor raised area.

How you run the comps is really a matter of what works for the person.my crossovers are in the rear panels,but hey will fit about anywhere from right off the amp to right next to the speakers.

In the tC with ED tweeters it is some what known they are harsh,so if you got ED tweeters put them in the kick panels,you may also want to run them out of phase,which means the tweeters + and - are reversed to take the harshness out of them or they will over power the comps........they area loud.....and it will not hurt the tweeters......speakers yes but tweeters no.

You can also run them in the pillars but I would not recomend that unless you aregonna make custom pods and running active system as it will be right in your face......trust me kick panels for tweeters.

They do not sound good in the comps at all in our cars.......been there done that....it does not aim right......they need to be separate from the 6.5.

Make sure you have a proper fuse within on average 18"from battery.....mount it to the shock tower......works good there.......call them up to make sure you have proper amp fuse too......

If you are sound deadening the car.........do this bare minimun of using the 1/4" thick edead behind the speakers in the door......it cost liek $10 tops and makes the mid bass pop way better if they area not bouncing off the thin sheet metal.

Most of all........be sure to tune your amps.......I am happy to send you the site where to get the test tones from and how to use them.......you can get a cheap DMM from wallmart that will work great for this for $20.......your subs,speakers and amp will love you for it and your stereo will sound clean and clear all the way to the limit of the tune.......zero distortion in a car at loud volume is fabulous.....my car sounds sweet with all the work put into it......is it the loudest for what I spent.......noway......but it is at about 130db,and no clipping,no distortion of any kind....if I had a better eq setup or had gone active I could get even better results.

 

thanks so much man, you have been so helpfull in every thread that I've made concerning my system. Serioulsy you deserve some cookies haha

thanks for the tip about running the tweets out of phase. I've seen people mention that frequently but I never knew how to set that up. How exactly does it help? does it just reduce the power going to the tweeter? just curious :-)

So yeah I guess Ill defiantly eliminate mounting the tweets in the comps... but I really didn't want to have to deal with cutting holes in my kickpannels... I really don't even know how I can accomplish a smoothly cut circle...how much worse is it really to put em in the stock location out of phase? would I really notice?

I didn't buy any eDead... I didnt even think about it, but for $10 I really should have ... i suppose I can always go back and do it some other time...

And yeah I was planning on buying some tuning CDs but if you have a site where I can download test tracks to save me some cash that be great :-)

I cant wait to get started. I'm gonna have at it either tomarrow or saturday :-)

 

give me a miinute and I willpull up the site sto get the tone samples for free and tell you how to downloadthem and tune it......it will really make a big differance and your hard earned money you spent on the system will be safe as it will most likely never blow up.

 

stock location for the tweeters.

 

Here is the link to the site........

http://www.realmofexcursion.com/downloads.htm

.now what you wnat to get the basic tune is to scroll down from the first list to the 0 decible list test tones........basic tune you will need the following......80 db tone for the subs,yes you can use a 30 or 50 but start with 80 as that is where you can start for a good clean sound and good point for the comps to follow the subs from.

Now I am not sure how most people copy stuff off the internet.......the tones are only 15 seconds........it is good to have about 3 minutes of tones so you have time to tune it without it on repeat.......

I just pulled the 15 second tone to my desktop and piled up about 10 of them and then used my media player to download and burn them to a disk........there must be an easier way.......but I am an idiot with computers

that tone level is to tune the subs..........nothing more as it will not give a good signal for comps

Now to use it to tune the subs.........put all EQ settings on stereo to flat,no bass,no treble, no eq,no preset eq waves........all flat.

figure out what 75% is on the decks volume.......mine ont he D3 goes to 40........so mine is tuned at 30 on the volume.......NEVER PLAY IT LOUDER THAN 75% after it is tuned no matter what or you risk clipping.........most decks clip at 75-80 %.....most not all.......but it is the general starting point.

Next on the amp turn all crossover points to the bare minimuns......no bass boost ever.......not needed.....it has a purpose....but not for playing daily music.

this is for sub tuning........figure out the max watts you want the sub or subs to have......example........mine is 550w....then figure out what ohms you want to play them at......ED amps are usually able to run 4 2 0r 1 depending on what amps you got...

then take the number of watts and multiply it by the ohm load.......ok.....550x 2+1100 then take the sq root of that.........I now get 33.16.......that is the AC voltage going to the sub..........that is max you want to giv in my instance to my subs at that load.......my subs will hold 600w at 2 ohms max.......but that is 600w clean non clipped signal and my amp starts to clip at 550w pretty much......bad for subs.

now put in the tone disk........play it at say 15 on the volume.......you are now going to tune the amp for the crossover point......turn the crossover **** till the volume goes up.........think of a wave......you will hear it start to decrease in volume.......take your time..........once it decreases you have gone past the 80hz.......turn it back till it gets loud again and find the point that it seems loudest,and turn it back just a bit more and you will be in the ballpark for the proper hz crossover point.


so you of course have the subs hooked up,you can also use a 2 ohm resister,but that is a pain.......and impossible to get crossover point.
put in the tone disk.......turn volume up to 75%........let tone play.......now this is important.......GAIN is not a VOLUME ****.......

put the + and - leads on the multimeter on the corresponding terminals for the subs on the amp with subs hooked up giving you a load to the amp.........wehn the tone plays slowly turn up the gain........in my case I turned it up till I got the 36.16 AC volts.........at that point I am gettign max clean signal to my subs......at max volume withno clipping form the deck........my amp never gets warm even.......my subs never clip or distort,my bass is clean and responsive and sounds great.

now remember the formula is w x ohm divded by the sq rt........very easy to remember once you do it a few times........

Now bassboost is for burping bass levels......at best,it distorts the subs,heats the amps and sounds bad......it may sound louder using it,but it to anyone who has heard a clean bass wll ask within seconds if you are using bassboost.....it sounds bad.

NOW.........

for the comps.......this is a greay area I have not got 100% down as to waht works best.........

I tuned my comps the same way using the 80hz tone disk........plug in the differant numbers for the watts......mine take 150w max......honestly mine over power the subs at about 85 w to each.......no need to take them all the way up.......as it needs to blen to the sub or you run into a poor sounding end result.

Many people use the 400hz tone to tune the comps.........what I found is use the 80 hz to set the crossover point to them so they pick up the signal at wher the sub leaves off........but use the 400hz to get the proper wattage to the comps.....for some reason the AC volts you will read at the terminals on a 80hz disk will not give accurate reading to DMM.......400 works every time for me.......

Now you have the comps and subs set at max power,no clipping,and if lucky they should blend together........

I found it easier to take volume from the comps to blend the subs in thatn to take power from the subs as we all want to feel the music when we hear it.........if not why did we buy subs and do all this......

NOW.......out of phase on a tweeter means the + and - are turned around to it......why it works I am not really smart enough to explain,but have you ever had a wire crossed on a speaker and it was quieter,still played music,but not as loud.......well tweeter is same way,except the hz levels it plays at are very high,and the ear turns it to a shrill pitch basically that we hear and nothing more......so by crossing it to out of phase we are cutting off some of that higher volume on the higher hz.....I knwo there is more to it,but cannot explain it.Can it damage a tweeter........yes.......the good part is tweeters even high end ones area dirt cheap.

NOW to mount the tweeters in the kicks......very easy......cost about $10

measure the mounting rings for the tweeters it seems like it was 2"..........goto Sears and get a hole cutter for drill in what ever size that ring is.......bring it to the store if ou do not have a caliper or ruler to measure.......just size it up.......drill the correct size hole into the panel.......now this is important......make sure you mount it at proper location on panel as the wires behind it on passenger side and the connectors on drivers side will get in the way,there are several photos on here with kick panels and tweeters mounts to get general idea.


another good thing to do is use connectors for speaker to wire connections and a wire crimp tool......this will eliminate shorts down the road.......loose wires,poor signal......Sears has them for $10 also(i work at sears so i know everytool.....lol....also electrician for them)

To hold tweeters in place in case hole is a bit big......my driver one is larger for what efver reason I was too buzzed to drill ahole at that point I guess.....use some epozy to hold it securely.

If you have access to solder iron........use it to tack your connectors from the wires to the terminals on the speakers....that way they never come loose and can be heated back up to remove wire from if needed,but do not solder bare wire to terminal.......is is half A$$.......also shrink tubing also known as heat shrink it great to use on connections,,,,,,,,it will strengthen the connection......I put it on the wire.......then crimp the terminal on......then pull it over the terminal connection and shrink it on so water or moisture never gets in and caused corrosion.........it too is dirt cheap to buy......you can get at home depot.....radio shack........lowes........even parts stores......and fredmeyers has it.......

Now for wires...........keep power wires away from signal wires as the distortion from the power will cross over tothe signal wire and you will hear in speaker......

let me know what more you need to know.......I am just tired of seeing people blow up stuff........I know I work way too hard to toss my money away on mistakes........and once you learn how to tune an amp and stereo properly you can teach everyone and it is amazing how many are done wrong and sound night and day when done right.

sound deadening makes a big differance.........proper guage wires make a diffearnce to some extent.........good quality RCAs make a differance to some extent.........proper wireing makes a huge differance......

Now tomorrow I will post up how to tune the deck itself using the eq.........this is really up to the deck,the listener,and the vehicle..........but did you know upping the db at 30hz on eq changes the sound levels at 500hz and how your ears hear them......but I gotta find the page on that on ICIX.......it heloped me tune my deck to near perfect........

also you can tune it for the type of music you like.......my wife likes hip hop.........i like metallica..........two totally differant mixes for the stereo......i use two differant eq settings so at a push of a button i can make it sound great for me or her......

 

stock locations are fine for the tweeters. you'll just have to get creative to mount them. leave the rear speaker plugged in, if anything i would fade it a bit to the front? the speaker wire will be fine if you run it on different sides. the main thing you want to seperate is power wire from RCA's. good luck with the install, take your time and make it clean.

 

yeah you can use the stock location for the tweeters,my problem installing mine was they did not fit very well

 

I used double-sided tape to mount my eD tweets. THis weekend I'm going to try reversing the polarity to hear how it sounds. FYI Target sells 3M VHB double-sided tape now. That stuff is awesome!

 

yeah I could not get mine to stick in place for anything and didnt want to hot glue them,I almost did though......probably would of worked just fine.

 

There should be a few hardware pieces that come with your speakers that you can screw a self-tapping screw into the car with.

 

holy crap BZinn thanks for all the info! I'll have to print this page out when I go to tune my system haha.

 

Holy ____! Thanks for that information im going to print this one out as well to tune my eD subs hahaha.

 

You'll improve SQ with the tweets in the KPs, as opposed to coax or stock location.

Rear fill detracts from the front stage and isn't needed for an SQ oriented system.

HTH

 

^definately do not need rear speakers......I just took my rear comps out......got same db reading without them and the SQ actually is better.....the sound waves must cancel out and distort or something with them.

Also the NINe.2 is on sale for $125 right now.....they must be gettign ready to discontinue it and use just the NINe2X....

 

I know the write up looks complicated but it really is a lot easier than it looks.....it is nice to be able to crank it up without risk to subs or amps and it is nice and clear sounding.

 

Last time I tried tuning with a super fancy Fluke meter. The Fluke is way too complicated to use cuz the readings never went past 1! Try again with a cheaper idiot proof meter I guess. =P

 

Anybody have pix of their tweets in the KP? Should I mount it with the directional mounts that came with my eD? Point them upwards towards the ear?

 

I cannot find my pictures of mine there,but they do aim up to the driver a bit using the install pieces that came with them....there is so much crap behind the kicks that you need to check several times to be sure you have a area that is free behind them so they will turn freely.

 

^ There are several threads where people posted their kick panel mounted tweeters, but I don't have time to search for ya.

It's usually best to "crossfire" them, aim the driver's side tweeter at the passenger's head and vice-versa for the other side. That'll get ya close, then tweak the aiming to where it sounds best to YOU, since it's your system.