Speaker Layout

[CootieWild]

hey, im doin an assignment for Physics and i have to find out the Ideal speaker layout of a car for maximum sound and quality n that. i was jst wondering wat do u guys think is the best layout...like in front doors, back doors, the bit above the back seat, boot, dash where eva u can put a speaker

Kind Regards,

Cootie

[jlaudio_33]

what sort of criteria defines the best layout in your assignment?

I would base the whole thing on the main set of speakers being built into the kick panels, which is the part in front of the door next to your feet on side of the car i.e. left of your feet if you are a passenger and right if you are on driver side.

The idea behind this is that it lessens the difference in distance between the listener and the two speakers either side of the listener.

The reason for this is to make it as close as possible to a situation where you are sitting directly in the centre of the two speakers like in a home HiFi environment.

Remember that high frequency sounds are the most directional so where you mount and direct your tweeters (assuming you are using component speakers) is the most important. You should point your tweeters so that the sound from both sides meets in between the two front seats or at the drivers head if you didn't have to worry about it sounding good to a passenger.

hope that helps

[CootieWild]

Yeh it does help thanks...the criteria is that is has to have good quality sound comming from it...no interference, loudness has to be good enough, not muffled by anything. and last i guess how easy it is 2 install the speaker and hide the wiring...hehe might not sound like a physics experiment but yeh i gotta make it sound like one.

[race_snooze]

do not run power cables with rca's or speaker cables, use oxgen free copper for all cables running to and from the amp, use all gold plated connetions all connetions to be solder as well. As for speaker lay out, subbs to be facing windows eg back window. splits to be facing the centre of the car say just above the centre console, if you have 6x9's dont run them of the amp they will conflict with the sub noise they are to be used as rear fill only.

Good luck thats about all i can give you.

oh amp cable should be 10g which is 10 gauge oxgen free power cables.

[342Four]

usually mounting two 6x9's in the rear parcel shelf is a good idea as the sound hits the back window and reflects back towards the front of the car

subs work on sub sonic sounds so the main aim is to get a decent amount of reveberation throughout the cabin - thus they are usuually mounted in the boot as it has heaps of unrestricted space fro reberveration

two subs mounted facing inwards just behind the rear wheel arch is a good idea - ie one on each side

or go custom boot mount and have them mounted in perspex in teh middle of the boot facing upwards and slightly backwards

[342Four]

ohh yea - and i wish i did an assingment like that when i did physics last year

damn - that would have been really cool

[Ruffels]

dont place a speaker facing dirrectly at another speaker or a completly flat surface, otherwise it will suffer from sound cancelation

you should learn this from the idea of superposition and peaks and troughs of sound waves

[rocketboy]

If you wanna learn a bit about car audio, especially SQ - sound quality, go and do some searching on www.nzicemag.co.nz should help you out lots. Be warned though, search first, ask second:-)

There has been a bit of debate about SQ recently.

Ideally a car would run a 3-way front and sub. Thats Tweets, mids - say 4-5" speakers, mid woofer - 6.5-8" speaker. Then one or two subs, whatever takes your fancy. Your sub doesn't 'reverb' to get sound, it actually plays a portion of the sound spectrum, ie deep/low bass in music. Usually from 50-80hz and below.

Paramount in getting a really good sounding system is installation. I can make my average joe speakers outperfom some very expensive speakers because mine have been installed well, ie custom pods/baffles, fully sound deadened doors/panels, tested speaker placement, proper wiring, quality equipment. Custom sub enclosure to sub woofers recommended volume.

Seriously I could write a fair few pages on details of getting the most out of your system, but go have a look at above site.

[kralster]

Copper is a better conductor than gold so i'd rather have copper connectors.

[342Four]

ummmmmmmm it is but it corrodes very quickly

gold doesnt corrode and is almost as good, maybe if not better than copper as a conductor thus gold is used in high quality systems in the connectors

[kralster]

My dad uses copper in our home hi-fi, just 2 speakers pre amp power amp and cd player. the speaker cable connectors are copper and the interconnects are silver. And this is a 30,000 dollar hi fi he's got.

[342Four]

whatever

like i said the advantage of gold it doesnt corrode and it is as good a conductor as coppper

in a car stereo there is a greater risk of corrosion than in your home hifi system

[kralster]

"Conductivities vary for material being greatest for metallic solids, lower for nonmetallic solids, very low for liquids, and extremely low for gases. The best ordinary metallic conductors are (in decreasing order) silver, copper, gold, aluminum, beryllium, and tungsten."

http://hypertextbook.com/physics/thermal/conduction/

[GTRsean]

Put 5x7 two ways in the front doors and they sound good, had ripped out originals cos they were stuffed. Managed to pull out plastic speaker mount and cut it out a little to suit the 5x7s. reinstalled everything and it still retains the clean stock appearance. Put 6" 2 way kenwoods in the back. Just have to sort out what sub install I can fit in the boot without loosing to much room and gaining xtra weight.