[druzBBB]

Does anyone have any ideas on something I can do in the defroster vents w/ a tweeter set? I have an extra and think it might sound good-looking for any input since I am taking up the dash for my new Z28 cluster install soon.

 

[musky]

With the dash pad off I was able to trim enough plastic from the center of the defroster duct to fit a 3.5" coax. the speaker was used for a center channel. Just tape off the back of the speaker basket and the defroster flows just fine around the speaker. Hope this helps!

 

[sharp95ss]

musky
Member # 5670 posted 10-05-2004 01:55 PM
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With the dash pad off I was able to trim enough plastic from the center of the defroster duct to fit a 3.5" coax. the speaker was used for a center channel. Just tape off the back of the speaker basket and the defroster flows just fine around the speaker. Hope this helps!

did you use the defroster grill, or did you have to cut the dash to get the sound out. was it placed right before the duct? i'll be running a 5.1 set up in the ss, and don't want one of those big center channel speakers sitting on the dash.

 

[musky]

the speaker goes into the black plastic defroster duct. the original grey vent on the dash pad remains intact and the speaker fires right out of the vent. you can't even see the speaker unless you look thru thr windshield and straight down into the vent.

 

[druzBBB]

What would be a good way to set that up-run a channel from an amp to the tweeter I want to put in there?

 

[musky]

Back when I used to mess with stereos alot(late 80's-early90's),there was a company called audio control that made a center channel processor. The processor would basicly take the info from your left & right channels and send the common info from both to an amp for your center channel. I don't know if there are any components like this on the market today.Some of todays head units have 5.1 outputs. If you don't have a head unit yet you could get one with the 5.1 output and run your center off of that. There's also the cheap but not as effective way. You would use a set of y-jacks off one of your rca outputs from your head unit. I used the rear to keep the center & the rear together as fill which they should be used as. the output from the y-jacks go to a box that you have to construct.On the box you would left & right rca's going in one side and one center rca comming out the other side.In the box is a network of 4 or 5 resistors. This takes your left & right common info and send it to the center.There is no adjustment on the box, you would adj. the center level with the gain control on the center amp. The parts should cost less than $5 at radio shack. The big problem is I don't remember the values of the resistors or how to wire them up. I got this info from a old car audio mag that I don't think that I have anymore.If I find the wiring diagram I will post, but hopefully someone else knows how to do this and will post. Also if your only using tweeters make sure there crossed over high enough or you will fry them right out of there. They don't need to be played very loud,there just ment to solidify your center stage.Kind of like if you had a group of singers on stage,you would want to close your eyes and if you had to point out the lead singer he would be sitting right ther on your hood.

 

[sharp95ss]

ok, lets see if i get what your saying. you taped off the back of the driver and fired it into the defroster duct? what about the extreem heat produced by the heater? i have a pxa 510 alpine processor. that has 5.1 biult in w/ a center out, and would love to make this work w/ a 4
" woofer, and would probably hide a tweeter and cross over somewhere in there also.

 

[musky]

OK The speaker fires out of the defroster vent.The back of the speaker is taped off to stop the rear sound waves from canceling the front.I don't think this will work too well with a woofer because with bass frequencys the cone moves too much. The taped speaker basket will restrict cone movement resulting in bad sound. I don't know if you've ever had your dash pad off, but I don't think theres too much room under there to hide a crossover. You would have to hide it under the dash and run seprate mid&tweeter wires to the speaker.

If I did this file uploader correct heres the pics.

3.5" coax - I used one with four mounting tabs. two of the tabs extend over the duct work to mount the speaker. I did this 5 years ago so I don't remember what there screwed into, you might have to fab somthing up.

Here's the speaker mounted in the duct work(the black rectangular area that the speaker is sitting in the center of. The duct is soft plastic, I think I used tin snips to trim it. The magnet is actually sitting in the duct. You would have to trim for the particular speaker you use . As you can see (thats a 3.5") there's not alot of room for anything bigger.Don't go too large on the magnet either, my magnet is about 2.5" , try not to go bigger then that.

Here's the finished product with the grill installed.

Almost forgot, the heat has no adverse effects on the speaker.

Hope this helps!

 

[musky]

Looks like I got the dreaded red X !

 

[chevmdnss]

 

[PistonHead]

I was able to add a 4" component set, with a little modification.

First I had to make the component set fit together a little closer, by grinding the basket a bit.

Then I heated cut and fiberglassed the ducting underneath the dash pad.

Then I modified the dash pad and added the speakers.

And finally finished it off with a speaker grill.

It ended up working out fairly good. If you are only adding tweeters, you could probably get away with just heating the ducting up and pushing it down a little, or you may have enough clearance already.

Later,
Brad

 

[druzBBB]

Pistonhead-that looks awesome!

 

[musky]

Ok I got my pics fixed. I guess if the pic link has CAPS you better use them, lower case won't work.

 

[PistonHead]

Originally posted by druzBBB:
Pistonhead-that looks awesome!

Thanks !

It took a bit of time, but turned out pretty good in the end.

Later,
Brad

 

[Mendonmafia]

Any way to recover the pics from this thread?

 

[Mendonmafia]

Since i already bumped this thread, Here is a great resource for this topic

How To Install A Center Channel

This Car Stereo Review article by Wayne Harris describes how to install a center channel into your car stereo system.

www.termpro.com