aiming kicks

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blaube

Member - Posts: 17

Joined: September 19, 2004

Location: Alaska, United States

Posted: September 20, 2004 at 12:06 AM / IP Logged

I am new to this forum but not so new to car audio.

I have built several fiberglass enclosures, amp racks, kick panels, consoles, etc. My problem is I can't seem to be able to get the kick panels to image properly without using digital time alignment equipment. I have aimed them in all sorts of directions with no success. I have even tried to aim the mids and tweets seperately with worse results. I am looking for the best aiming location to get the soundstage an IASCA/USACi judge would want to hear.

Where is the best place to aim the mids and or tweets before glassing the enclosure? I may end up mounting the components in a coaxial fashion.

-Brent

CarAudioHelp

Copper - Posts: 198

Joined: July 18, 2003

Location: United States

Posted: September 20, 2004 at 9:25 AM / IP Logged

I generally aim for the domelight, or the area where the domelight usually is for vehicles like convertibles. Basically between the front passengers, overhead. Another popular way is to aim the right speaker pod at the driver and the left speaker pod at the passenger. Either way I would go for the coaxial mounted configuration you mentioned.

blaube

Member - Posts: 17

Joined: September 19, 2004

Location: Alaska, United States

Posted: September 20, 2004 at 11:07 AM / IP Logged

Thank you for your reply.

I have tried both ways and each time the image was behind the steering wheel.

The car audio manager at the store I work at ( www.shimeks.com) says I should aim them at the map light just above the windshield. (He was an IASCA judge when he lived in Colorado.)

My car is a 96 Buick Regal.

CarAudioHelp

Copper - Posts: 198

Joined: July 18, 2003

Location: United States

Posted: September 20, 2004 at 4:27 PM / IP Logged

That's a good guideline too. Basically up and to the middle is a good rule of thumb. Beyond that you just have to experiment. Get a pile of clean rags and stuff them into the kick panel area. Ideally you want to have a bean bag because it will hold it's shape better but that's a bit harder to find/make. After you have that you can place the midrange into the pile and experiment with different angles. Play around with tweeter placement too. It's all about experimentation.

dpaton

Copper - Posts: 141

Joined: July 19, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: September 20, 2004 at 10:24 PM / IP Logged

DSP is definately the most accurate way, since it puts the drivers at the same "distance" from your ears, but with careful placement and power shading you can indeed get an excellent image without it. In my car, I cheated and did the delay electronically, because I'm going for a stealth install, and the factory locations didn't allow any kind of true imaging without a lot of digital help, or easily visible modifications.

Folks building kicks who have time on their hands should definately play with a few different aimings before cenemting their plans (no pun intended).

-dave

This is not a sig. This is a duck. Quack.

blaube

Member - Posts: 17

Joined: September 19, 2004

Location: Alaska, United States

Posted: September 21, 2004 at 11:34 AM / IP Logged

Thank you all for your input.

I am going to use digital time alignment in the end, but I want to be sure I teach myself the ability to get good alignment without it.

The head unit I am using is an Alpine CDA-9835 and may even use an Alpine PXA-H701 surround processor for future DVD audio upgrade.

My other thought was to put my components and midbass all in the doors since I am going to use digital time alignment. I may do it regardless because people here in Alaska can't seem to kick the snow off their feet before getting into people's cars. The last kicks I made got trashed because of it. Luckily the mids were cheaper Lanzars I bought from a distributor with older Alpine tweets. Now I have Diamond Audio Hex components and will rip someone's foot off if they get snow all over them.

CarAudioHelp

Copper - Posts: 198

Joined: July 18, 2003

Location: United States

Posted: September 22, 2004 at 3:13 PM / IP Logged

DSP works fine but only for one location in the vehicle. If the time alignment is optimized for the driver's position then the passenger's image will be much worse than it was without DSP. You just can't have it both ways with DSP. That's why you want to do the best you can with physical placement and aiming.

dpaton

Copper - Posts: 141

Joined: July 19, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: September 22, 2004 at 5:13 PM / IP Logged

You can't have it both ways with physical positioning either aiming kicks -- posted image.

The best solution in my mind is a combination, if the option is available to you. Get the kicks aimed as well as you can, and tweak it with the DSP.

My $0.02

-dave

This is not a sig. This is a duck. Quack.

CarAudioHelp

Copper - Posts: 198

Joined: July 18, 2003

Location: United States

Posted: September 22, 2004 at 6:07 PM / IP Logged

Yes, I agree. I should have made it more clear that I wasn't trying to trash DSP. Just pointing out its limitations. DSP certainly has its place.

lathan

Copper - Posts: 105

Joined: May 23, 2003

Location: United States

Posted: September 25, 2004 at 11:29 PM / IP Logged

just a suggetion, but I will drill the center of my discs and put a laser pointer light and then point it right at the domelight. works for me.. good luck.

lathan

Lathan Hites

"I'm sorry, without a credit card I'll be requiring a stool sample"

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aiming kicks

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