how to raise your soundstage

... and get more detail out of your highs.

First i have to say that this was not my idea but someone elses on another forum and it worked perfect!!!!

So i have a 3 way front stage , fully active crossover and eq set up. My midrange and tweeters are mounted in the kick panels and my mid bass are in the doors. ( i can list all equipment if needed but i dont think it is relevant for this discussion). With my frontstage speakers in these current mounting locations my system sounded good but lacked stage height , depth , width and to me there wasnt enough detail in the music.The music sounded like it was at about chest high at best ,and the width was very narrow wich made the music kind of in your face and harsh sometimes.

I described the above problems on another forum and got some good responses like "adjust your crossover points" or "play with your time aligment" , These worked ok but not that much improvement.Then someone suggested to add an extra set of tweeters up high on the dash or on the apillars and use an inline cap to play them from 10khz and up.

So i found a set of tweeters for $7.00!! Dayton ND20's to be exact. I tried this method with an inline cap @10khz as recommended and in after about five minutes of tuning my system sound fantastic!!! My stage height is now at at least eye level,the width now sounds to be coming from outside the apillars and the depth of the music is beyond the glass. Much more detail and sparkle in my upper end frequency. It is incredible how much of a difference this has made. If you have any of these same issues i would highly recommend this.

Here is some pics to show how i mounted them. There run of the rear ch. of my h/u with about 22 watts rms going to them .





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-A vision without a plan is just a hallucination-

Wow I've never seen tweeters mounted like that before!
I can't see any down side to doing that if it makes that big of an improvement.
Maybe a picture of your kick pods also?


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Dodge Magnum in progress:
Pioneer DEH-80PRS - PPI Amps - Dayton Subwoofer(s) - Exodus Anarchy's - Vifa Tweeters - Kinetik Battery

I don't know if they were the first, but CDT Audio has had the "Upstage system" available for several years.  It relies on the crossover freq that you described, and the additional high freq tweeters are aimed at the windshield much as you have done.  Here is a link to the CDT site:  https://www.cdtaudio.com/image_enhancement_08.htm  The system attaches to the regular CDT crossover.

You have probably done just as well with your Parts Express selection, although you haven't provided the ability to adjust output levels of the tweeters.  An adjustable L-pad like the CDT model has would be the easiest solution.  Sometimes, though, you get lucky and hit it on the head.   That may be the case with your setup.

Just as a side note, the 10k+ tweeters won't take as much as one watt of power, so powering them with the head unit is certainly the thing to do.

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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

z03mz03m wrote:

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Wow I've never seen tweeters mounted like that before!
I can't see any down side to doing that if it makes that big of an improvement.
Maybe a picture of your kick pods also?

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pics of my kicks



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-A vision without a plan is just a hallucination-

stevdart wrote:

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I don't know if they were the first, but CDT Audio has had the "Upstage system" available for several years.  It relies on the crossover freq that you described, and the additional high freq tweeters are aimed at the windshield much as you have done.  Here is a link to the CDT site:  https://www.cdtaudio.com/image_enhancement_08.htm  The system attaches to the regular CDT crossover.

You have probably done just as well with your Parts Express selection, although you haven't provided the ability to adjust output levels of the tweeters.  An adjustable L-pad like the CDT model has would be the easiest solution.  Sometimes, though, you get lucky and hit it on the head.   That may be the case with your setup.

Just as a side note, the 10k+ tweeters won't take as much as one watt of power, so powering them with the head unit is certainly the thing to do.

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Someone else on the other forum pointed this out as well, the only way i can adjust the output with them now is with the fader/ balance control of my h/u wich is the only downside, I will look into the l-pad set up so that the rest of my system is not impacted. Any idea on the type of l-pad i would need? Thanks for the info.

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-A vision without a plan is just a hallucination-

Oh I remember you!
Your the one that made the enclosures for your doors with the foam baffles that you glassed and stretched carpet over the back to keep out water, right?
I'm finally working on my first fiberglass projects. I just put a second coat of resin on the inside of my tweeter pods to stiffen them up completely. I don't think I will need extra tweeters to raise my sound stage lol.

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Dodge Magnum in progress:
Pioneer DEH-80PRS - PPI Amps - Dayton Subwoofer(s) - Exodus Anarchy's - Vifa Tweeters - Kinetik Battery

Yes i am that person , those enclosures that i made are call aperiodic vents, they are used for fine tuning the F's of a speaker or for tricking the speaker into thinking that its in a bigger enclosure than they actually are .Lets see some pics of those tweeter pods!!!!

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-A vision without a plan is just a hallucination-

Here is my post. Just scroll down to the "Tweeter pods" link.

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Dodge Magnum in progress:
Pioneer DEH-80PRS - PPI Amps - Dayton Subwoofer(s) - Exodus Anarchy's - Vifa Tweeters - Kinetik Battery

hey, they sound good, you don't need an adjustment.  That's what I always say.  But anyway, you have them powered on the rear channel, and yes you should just use the fader to attenuate if necessary.

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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

I know this is an olde post but if you are still here I have a couple of questions. I just became a member today finding this site after another search.

What value capacitor did you use, and when you wired it in line do you mean you placed it in series with the positive lead?

Bryansong

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bryansong
2008
Chevrolet Colorado
Independence, Mo.