Hi all,

I blew one of my midbass door speakers (kenwood W1705) which gave me the reason to dig into my setup once again. I had a pair of Kenwood Excelons 6.5 and I thought I'd put them behind the seats. It worked and the sound is amazing (!).

Summary looks as:
- Dash speakers are 4'' Kenwood Excelon
- door speakers are Kenwood W1705 bass/midrange driver
- rears are 6.5 Kenwood Excelons
- amp is Alpine 5 channel

Here are my dash speakers. If you want the details of my setup use search - it's been posted on this forum.


Rears


The sound got really personal. 6.5s help 4s in mids, the sound got 3D and I can hear even more silent music when driving top down. I hooked rears with dash - they both share one output on Amp with Hi Pass @ ~100hz

Anybody else did dash speakers (pics?)

 

We've been through this. The consensus was that we didn't want our passenger to get a speaker grill in the face when the airbag goes off.

 

Define 'Us' Woodson.

First your conclusions were completely wrong and based on misunderstaning how airbag in S2k works and deploys.

Second the grill in question (which does not have to be there anyway) has nothing to do with the concept of dash speakers which brings - beyond any doubt - better results then name_your_price_factory_location_speakers. In different words - no matter how much money and what kind of technology you throw into factory location you would always get worse sound then dash install, that's it.

And third I did not ask you for the opinion of others. I am just interested in the experience of others who tried to improve the pure stock sound by intelligence and not by throwing money into bad factory design. If you happen to be the one thinking that more expensive better no matter where it is and purchased dynaudio_or_similar then I am sorry, it's your choice.

I can only say that my experiments cost me probably twice the super brand speakers (not counting the time) but they were well worth it and I am trying to share my experience with others so they can avoid the costly path of pioneers:-)

So - anybody tried something else then factory setup and bigger_better sub in trunk?

 

Enjoy

 

yes.... I installed a 6" JL sub under the dash ... w/ my focal 165k2's, PPI 4100, PioneerP650(I dont burn cd's ), and XM....sounds perfect to me.... no to overpowering.. just right ... but if I want to thump.. then I take the pathfinder out... haha..

 

i'm w/ Woodson on this one... that just doesn't seem safe. i read all the debates, and while your points on how the airbag is perforated do have some merit, you're relying on theory and base level assumptions... in an accident there are a lot of unpredictable forces in action. if that grill is disturbed while the airbag is deploying, it would be a very damaging projectile...

and i still just can't believe you've done that much labor, cut up your dash, and then put in such average sound quality speakers....

 

Woah...dash speakers...why are you guys so averse to kick panels but you're willing to cut up your dash, endanger your passenger, and still not completely solve the imaging problem?

I honestly lost almost no legroom (through the use of a sealed-back mid) and my passenger still gets an unobstructed airbag.

 

Dash speakers not only seem unsafe, they look ugly...

 

Yes, but intelligence should also mean you don't abandon safetyThough proper research and install using factory locations could lead to very good returns (for example, a buddy of mine in Oakland wins competitions using speakers in stock locations and Alpine time correction), I'll agree that money is not necessarily the answerDyns in factory locations actually do sound good though Real good...As do Koda comps. I know (from speaking straight to the man) that Koda comps were designed for standard door-mounting. The same might be true with Dynaudio components though it would take an exceptional mid to have all that range.

Anyhow, I see you're in San Jose. The next time I bring my S up to the Bay Area, let's all get a listen. How are you doing with those crazy Bay Area S-owners? Are they treating you alright?

 

no offense, but do you really need that many sets of 6.5"s in one car?