lightsout

It seems that most of the people on here who have added speakers or have done a custom set-up focus on the doors when it comes to the front set-up. I have seen one example of a guy putting a 8" mid bass woofer in the doors beside the 6.5" mid.

Another guy put a custom tweeter from a component set down in the door next to the 6.5 mid to improve sound quality. All of these setups are very impressive work, however I am curious as to whether anyone has tried to install speakers on top of the front dash? And dose anyone know if there is room in there to do so? My reason for asking is because for a while now I have been flirting with the idea of adding a center channel speaker in the middle of the dash to get a surround sound effect. Something like a 3 or 4" mid. The Cobalts dash is very flat up top so I am thinking it would fit in nicely provided there is room underneath. And this would require a hole to be cut in the dash.

Another idea I have been playing with is replacing the stalk 6.5" front door speaker and door tweeter with set of good 3 way components. I was looking at the Focal Utopia Be N7 series which comes with a 6.5' for the door, a 3" mid and a 1" tweeter. My idea was to place the 3" mids and 1" tweeter next to each other high on the dash close the the windshield of either side of the car. This would also require some cutting and custom fitting.

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

havent seen anything thus far. Im still wanting to have 5.1 but the center channel is going to be one of the last things i do. You may want to toy with the idea of throwing the 3" mid in kick pods as well. Imaging wise it would be a good idea but not the easiest setup to "build"

lightsout

Yeah but I was hoping to try and keep the 3" mid next to the tweeter, and keeping them high up. Thus the reason for putting them in the dash. Plus on the drivers side there isn't much room in the kick panel because the hood release is there.

Actually by placing the 3" mid in the kick panel and keeping the tweeter and 6.5" in it's original location you have the same set-up minus the center channel speaker as the Harmon Kardon logic 7 surround sound system in the Mercedes.

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

a lot of people do it that way because it yields the best sound for the least compromise. IM not exactly sure where your putting the midranges hence making a go for it" comment but there's a lot of good options in our car for fitting a small lil 3" driver

lightsout

My reasoning was primarily to keep the larger bass sounding mids like the 6.5" low in the door and keep the smaller 3" mid and tweeter up high. Also from what I read, when installing 3 way components you want to keep the smaller mid and tweeter as close together as possible, where the 6.5" can be further away. However, when doing a traditional 2 way component set-up you want to keep the tweeter and 6.5" close together.

So basically by having the 6.5" in the door, the 3" in the kick pod and tweeter up top aren't you taking away from that theory?

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

keeping all the speakers close together is really the "best" solution but in a car its hard to do so. Also the kick panel offers the closest equidistant diffrence from left to right so its the "best" location imaging wise.

midrange in the kick and tweeter high in the a pillar offers the best location for the midrange which plays most of your vocals and the tweeter raises the soundstage the midbass is less directional so theres no real best location as long as its infront of your ears. Sure you can argue kick panel is the best but the door offers tons of space to allow it to reach its full potential isntead of being cramped.

Mix the 3 and you have the best possible sound without crazy kick panels and it "fits" within the cars restrictions. Main reason i didnt use the kick for midrange is a the 7" midrange and b the kick panels in the cobalt. they dont allow for pods as well as others