just wondering what other wag owners have done in the way of audio.
currently the headunit is a lowish-end blaupunkt CD unit. it seems the stock front speakers are in the dash (they suck). and it has 2 rear speakers right at the back of the wagon in the cargo area.
i want good sound quality, so i was thinking of putting some dome tweeters in the dash where the front speakers currently exist. and perhaps mid&bass units in the front doors.

so i wanted to heat what others have done, and where is the best opportunity for bass located in the wagons?

It's a matter of trial and error. A lot of different members here will point out many different systems.

The easiest method would be to get 6" in the front doors and tweeters mounted in a suitable position, which you can work out by trial and error, once you "feel" the staging is at the optimum level. You can mount tweeters in the dash holes, but many will say the reflections caused by the window will create timing issues. IN fact having tweeters up there and woofers down below will create timing issues anyway, but it can be done.

If you have woofers in the back already, you could fitting aftermarket speakers and adding a small subwoofer in a correctly sized box if you don't want any big "doof doof" noise. Other ways you can tackle it is by putting 6x9's in small boxes and secure it behind the rear seat just like a setup in a sedan where the 6x9's are mounted on the parcel shelf.


Theoretically subwoofers should not need to be position specifically due to its subsonic properties. But facing the subwoofers at a particular side does make some differences.

Personally I have a totally complete opposite system to what I had in my TS wagon. My TH wagon now consists of the stock head unit, an amplifier driving two 6.5" Alpine component splits, with all the components in stock positions (woofers in doors and tweeters in tweeter pods on the mirror sails) and i've disabled the rear speakers. Not a bad system, but it can be better, its let down by the poor Alpine splits unfortunately. It's what you get with entry level components I guess, i'm glad I got it at a heavily reduced price. In fact so far my cabling has been the most expensive material so far :bowrofl:

In my opinon, then most important thing you need to worry about is where your sitting, the drivers seat cos most of the time your the only one in the car, and who really gives a sh*t what it sounds like in other parts in the car.

I would go for a really good set of splits in the front, brand doesn't matter too much as most speakers sound really good now. I personally live by pioneer but thats my choice, i have mates with alpine and they sound wicked as well. I wouldn't worry about changing the rear speakers cos your not ever gonne hear them, its just waisted. Then you will be needing a sub, i would recomend a good quality 10-12' sub in a sealed small inclosure. Not that i have anything againced ported or free air its just in a wagon, the amount of space inside will make it loud enough for most. An Alpine type R would be a good sub for this, or if you have the $$$ go for something in the kicker range, a compVR or kicker square L5 or L7 would pound. I have had a 12' compVR before that absolutly rocked, now i've just gone crazy and got a 15' L5.

And for amps, i would just get a 4 channel amp bridge 2 channels for the sub and run the other two channels into the front 6' splits.

And the deck just go for something that has the features that you want in it. Something with sub control is always good, unless you get a kicker amp, cos they have a remote sub control sweet :P

One more thing, you may want to save a bit of money on the hard ware and spend it on the install. You will find that if you actually install them right they will sound much better. ie using quality wire and terminals but the most important thing is sound deadening. ie using dynamat or generic products, this stuff is bloody expencive but worth every penny. I'm talking bout $150 big ones for 12square foot so you dont get a lot to play with. make shore with this stuff you put **** loads on the front doors (most important spot) to mold this stuff heat it up with a hair dryer, it does the trick a treat.

I realise you probally wont go to the extreams that i have, but the result is worth it, i'll post up some pic's soon

In addition:

I've found that the best spot for tweets is as close to the midbass driver as possible. Say withing a few inches. This will stop separation issues.

As for staging. As has been said, you are in the drivers seat, the drivers seat is not central to the car. So you need a spot that has the shortest path difference.
For example. Some people choose to place their tweeters on the dash. If you measure the distance between your head in the drivers seat to each tweeter you will see that there is a big difference. ie: Tweeter on the right is much closer than the tweeter on the left.

If we place the tweeters in the kick panels or closer to the driver, you will see that this path difference decreases.

By having a short path difference you will get better stereo imaging. Right signals will be of approx the same volume as left signals. In comparison to having the tweets on the dash where you will hear separation of the midbass and treble frequencies. (best stereo reproduction comes from one source point each side) and also you will hear the right tweeter much louder than the left. (also bad for imaging).

SUBishi is right on with sound deadening, I spent around $300 on deadening all up. And it is money well worth it. Also be sure to mount ur driver on a solid baffle for best midbass response, consider mounting acoustic tiles behind the driver to stop reflections etc etc.

Some people beleive that mounting the tweeter down so low will cause the soundstage to drop. Ideally you want the soundstage at head height, but you will notice a rainbow effect, even though the tweets are down low, as most music has a strong centre, the sound will rise up high above the dash. For extreme left or right signals i do notice the soundstage dropping, but another way to combat this is to install ambient tweeters on the dash. These play at barely noticeable levels to raise the stage at the corners. I've noticed from this incredible depth and width to my stage. Sounds appear to come from well outside the car...

As for brands I would recommend not going for the commercial stuff straight out. Alpine and pioneer etc are good brands, but in terms of quality there are many more options. Have a listen to morel, diamond, focal, dynaudio and as many brands as possible. Then you will appreciate good sound. If you cant notice the difference, save your money and buy whatever suits your tastes...

As for rears, a bit of rear fill is handy if you cart people around. Anything cheap will do though. Spend 90% of ur speaker budget on ur fronts...

Peace

Tim

here's my morels in the kicks.

Actually after driving around tonight with some decent music (rather then the trash you get on the radio) I've gotta change my comments I said earlier. The current setup is really really nice when the volume is up loud, but I loose fidelity at lower volumes because the crossovers suck, so these splits I have are made for SPL rather then SQ. Ahh well, its definitely better then the stock setup at least. Must save up for some Focal's or Morel's (still gotta decide), but thats after I get my suspension and light engine mods and my para's :P

Who listens to quiet music anyway ;)

thanx for all the feedback guys,
i've noticed that there is no space for say a 6in driver in my front doors. there's nothing there at the moment except a little map pocket or something which would force me to mount speakers further back into the door and effectively fire into the seats when the doors are closed. were there different door designs for the TR/TS magnas?
alternatively, what's it like in the dash? is it possible to get squeeze a bunch of good quality 4 or 5in in the dash with a ton of deadening and have a woofer-sub in the back doing 300Hz down for example?

thanx for all the feedback guys,
i've noticed that there is no space for say a 6in driver in my front doors. there's nothing there at the moment except a little map pocket or something which would force me to mount speakers further back into the door and effectively fire into the seats when the doors are closed. were there different door designs for the TR/TS magnas?
alternatively, what's it like in the dash? is it possible to get squeeze a bunch of good quality 4 or 5in in the dash with a ton of deadening and have a woofer-sub in the back doing 300Hz down for example?


Actually there is space for a 6" driver. You won't notice until you take the door trim off. I think it was only the Verada's and the Elite which had speakers down there. You will need to take off the map pockets to fit them in.

Many people have found fitting 4" speakers in dash has lost its depth, even when using subs.