Tuesday, July 06, 2010 - 05:20 pm, by: Marty Price(Fhrx)
Hey guys,
Recently I've had quite a few people email me asking if I could write up a quick tutorial on how we install speakers into Soarer doors (as I’ve done a few tutorials for various other forums). So without further ado; this is how to install midrange drivers into the Soarer doors.
Step one: Take one original door complete from factory. Remove the plastic splash guard and the goo that holds the plastic on (don't stress about water getting through - the deadening will stop it). Remove the whole mounting plate.
Step two: Apply sound deadening to outer skin. This will stop the outer skin resonating during heavy midbass transients.
Step three: Add diffuser panels behind the speaker. These stop wave reflections.
Step four: Run aftermarket speaker cables through the door loom tubes. This is important because there's no fuse between the amplifier and the speakers - if the factory wires are too small they'll get hot and eventually burn.
Step five: Make the baffles. These take a similar shape to the factory ones and screw into the factory screw holes (thus avoiding damaging the door). They're usually constructed from MDF but we've made them from perspex or even 6061 alloy depending on application. If they are MDF then they should be painted with polyester resin to avoid absorbing water and then sound deadening paint to strengthen them a little more.
Step six: Sound deaden inner skin and remove all air bubbles. Make sure you leave enough clearance for door handle and lock control rods to move freely. Also leave a little deadening around the top of the speaker hole to act as a 'roof' against water when it rains.
Step seven: Screw the baffle onto the door and seal the baffle onto the deadening with gap filler. Make sure you also install a gasket between the speaker and the spacers because air leaks out here too (ever tried to run your car without a head gasket)?
Step eight: Solder the trimmed speaker wires onto speaker. Don't use crimp terminals because their two best traits are falling off and creating resistance.
Step nine: Heat shrink around the terminals to protect them. Unlike electrical tape, heat shrink will not begin moving after a couple of months.
Step ten: Sit back and enjoy your new found midbass. This is what the door looks like when complete:
So there you have it; one Soarer door with midranges installed. Using this method you have plenty of mounting depth thanks to the window not going past the magnet (it's a little further along the inner door).
Tuesday, July 06, 2010 - 05:48 pm, by: Marty Price(Fhrx)
If you want to further enhance your listening experience (staging and imaging wise) then you'll probably want to make a set of custom doors or a-pillars to mount your tweeters on (in the case of a two way component set) or midranges and tweeters (in the case of a three way set) like this:
Apologies about the pillars not being from Soarers. I'll have a rummage around the various hard drives we have here for the Soarer variants and post them as soon as possible.
If you wish to read more about what sound deadening, diffuser panels and sealing does click here and click here.
If you wish to find out more about staging, imaging and how our ears relate to them both click here and click here.
Tuesday, July 06, 2010 - 08:44 pm, by: Aiden Cheese(Chillpen)
I always thought that tweeters were mounted around ear level/facing the ear because treble was very directional. Is there a benefit for having the tweeter in the lower part of the door?
Tuesday, July 06, 2010 - 10:23 pm, by: Marty Price(Fhrx)
Have a quick read of that link I posted above regarding tweeter positioning.
Basically; when it comes to tweeter positioning, each and every application is different. On some cars we mount them in doors, some in the a-pillars and some even in the kick panels. It all depends on the cars acoustics and what time alignment tuning abilities you have.
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