Speakers in the door panel?

[Hindsight]

Anyone done this? Seems like everyone is putting them in other places. Seems like there is a lot of room in the door panel.

[billjr212]

I was right on the edge of going in the door panels but decided it was easier to replace/repair the aluminum kick panels if I screwed up. Seemed like there were a couple of placement options in the door panels that should work though.

[07FIREBLADE]

If your not planning to upgrade to the coupe with power windows. You should be fine. I personally did the kick panels and I love them.

[longislandwrx]

If I was going to put them in the door, I would use a rigid baffle/enclosure tied into the door bar for structure.

[Hindsight]

Thanks all. For those that have put them in the kick panel, what diameter speaker were you able to make work? I'd like to go with a 6.5" and it didn't seem that was going to fit down there.

[svanlare]

I put them in the kick panels. I went with 5.25" mainly because I thought that would be the easiest to fit. I think 6.5" would be hard to do.

[DSR-3]

Is there a potential issue/limit with the depth of speaker in the kick panel- not just the diameter?

[billjr212]

Thanks all. For those that have put them in the kick panel, what diameter speaker were you able to make work? I'd like to go with a 6.5" and it didn't seem that was going to fit down there.

I went with 5.25" as well. 6.5" would "probably" fit but would be very tight and you would need to get placement perfect to avoid hitting the steel bars IIRC.

http://www.amazon.com/Kicker-41DSC54-5-25-2-Way-Speaker/dp/B00I2YX1KW

Depth didn't look like it would be an issue. As a note though, I am planning to add a 1/2" plywood wrapped in black vinyl on top of the kick panel to remount these just to get a little cleaner looking install.

I'll try to get a picture tonight for a reference point.

[RM1SepEx]

I modified the kick panel area and put 6.5 in there... I'm off to dyno, I'll update with photos later, the car is already in the trailer...

[Hindsight]

Good luck on the dyno Dan! Post results. Interested in seeing the speaker pics too. Thanks!

[K3LAG]

I managed to put 6.25" Rockford Fosgates in my kick panels, but it was a close fit. You have to get the hole in exactly the right spot.

Larry

[RM1SepEx]

Sadly my throttle cable snapped just as I started the first pull today! :mad: No dyno results for a while, back to the interior so I can get her registered (fingers crossed) next week?

Here is a couple shots of what I did with the 6.5 speakers. You need to block it off in back as that area opens into the whole rocker panel area and the volume is just too big!

53820 53819 53818

I made that area much smoother and it's easier to cover with vinyl or carpet. I need to trim the carpet, just laid it in before I went for my failed dyno excursion. The passenger side is done, now the driver's side and then the humps.

The foot rest area is covered with that anti slip tape, boy does it stick. I used 1/8 foam under the vinyl and use velcro to hold in in key areas. It's held in place in others with indoor/outdoor carpet tape. I cut one of the sides off the door entry aluminum and finished the edge with vinyl edging. Now that the State is done titling it I can add stuff that obviously doesn't come with the kit. Maine charges excise tax based on 2.4X the build cost... Mine was presented as a 9995 kit and a 1850 2005 WRX donor. "everything you shee here came from that donor or the packaged kit" :)

[Hindsight]

Doh, sorry to hear about the dyno issue.

The speaker location looks good. Have you done a sound check yet? Sound ok down there?

[RM1SepEx]

T least it's a simple fix, pull the cable, cut the sheathing 3-4 inches, add a couple of bike brake cable ends, readjust. My problem is it isn't very accessible with fenders hood etc mounted. I have a "fleet" of convertibles, you need something close to your ears for any semblance of musical sound with the top down at even 40 mph. I'll attempt headrest speakers later on. For right now it's fine. I think some tweeters in the dash will help. You MUST close off the back of the speakers making an enclosure, the volume of the side sails is open to them w/o anything there.

[Hindsight]

I was thinking about using component speakers and putting the tweeters high op on the door panels, near where the panels meet the dash, to help with the ambient noise.

Are you saying not enclosing the back of the speaker will mute the volume too much? I'm not much of an audio guy really. Haven't installed any aftermarket components in a car in over 20 years.

[wleehendrick]

I was thinking about using component speakers and putting the tweeters high op on the door panels, near where the panels meet the dash, to help with the ambient noise.

Are you saying not enclosing the back of the speaker will mute the volume too much? I'm not much of an audio guy really. Haven't installed any aftermarket components in a car in over 20 years.

This thread spurred me to look at speaker positioning last night... I will definitely mount woofers in the kick panels where most are doing so, but will probably get components so I can put a tweeter in the dash. High frequencies are more directional, and the angle of the panel means the tweeters won't be very audible down low unless angled upwards.

Regarding closing the woofers off: the volume of the enclosure will affect bass performance, and it depends on the woofer. Too small and the low bass will roll-off; too big and the driver can experience over-excursion when pushed hard. Unless the enclosure is pretty air-tight, it won't be an effective acoustic suspension anyway. You can model it with the T/S (Thiele/Small) parameters of the woofer if you want to go overboard, or simply follow the speaker manufacturer's guidelines for enclosure volume. However, there is nothing inherently wrong with having a very large volume enclosure, as long as it's sealed from the listener... that's the whole idea behind infinite baffle subwoofers... some of the craziest bass you can produce. The effect of the enclosure is only significant for bass, so if you have an active subwoofer in the system and the woofers are high-passed around 100Hz, it's not really an issue. If there's no subwoofer, and you want the best bass out of the woofers, then you do need to pay close attention to the enclosure volume and sealing. If you just want music for cruising, and have a loud exhaust an open top, l wouldn't worry about it.

[Hindsight]

Thanks for the added info. My plan is to use 6.5" components in the doors. 6.5" down low, tweeters up high. Then a small under-seat sealed powered 8" subwoofer mounted to the REAR firewall behind the driver's seat (yes I have room - I measured).

Given that setup, you think I should crossover the front speakers to 100hz+ and not worry about any sealed enclosure behind them?

[wleehendrick]

Thanks for the added info. My plan is to use 6.5" components in the doors. 6.5" down low, tweeters up high. Then a small under-seat sealed powered 8" subwoofer mounted to the REAR firewall behind the driver's seat (yes I have room - I measured).

Given that setup, you think I should crossover the front speakers to 100hz+ and not worry about any sealed enclosure behind them?

Precisely... given your proposed setup, I wouldn't worry about it. The frequency at which the enclosure will start to affect the bass will depend on the particular woofer's parameters, but in general, for a woofer of that size the enclosure will essentially make no difference >~100Hz. (Without a subwoofer, relying on the woofers for bass, however, the enclosure volume/sealing/porting is critical).

If you want to get really picky, because of the angle the woofers mounted at, I'd look at woofers that will offer wide angular dispersion through the mid-range; so either drop down to a 5.25" cone, and/or look for one with a phase plug over the dust cap; this generally provides a more even mid-range frequency response off-axis:

53847

However, the most importing thing will be to get your cross-overs dialed in: make sure to both high pass the woofers and low pass the sub at the same frequency (100 +/- 20Hz) for the smoothest transition.

[Hindsight]

Thx for the insight!

[Harley818]

just getting ready to mount mine.... and i was planning to mount my 5.25 in in the door panel at the dash level. The closer you get them to ear height the better. maybe some tweeters on top corners of the dash, and if it works out, a couple more in the humps, woofer location wherever it fits.