Door Speakers - Sound Quality?

[Minimike20]

I have a 450 Fortwo Cabrio and I am trying to avoid fitting a sub in the boot.

Evilution and other sites show that you can cut a hole in the door skin and fit a 6x9 (eeww) or a 6.5 Inch inch speaker there wiring the cables through the nose of the car.



I am all for this but I also know that if its a stuffup I will hate myself and the car forever.

1. Is there an improvement in bass? This is my goal, a bit better rounded sound with a bit more kick.
2. Does it rattle?
3. Who regrets doing this to their car?

I am well versed in the pulling apart of Smarts, so I know how to do it etc, it will be done properly with deadening applied to the area and surrounds - I just want to know if it is worth it.

Talk me into this guys!

Mike

[Nickkimbel]

Hi Mike,

I have that 6.5 3 way speakers in the hole (as pictured) however i have not seen much better sound. However maybe my set up was dodgy (not tuned). I can recommend getting the speaker pocket adapters which works very well. Then get a blaupunkt sub gtb8200 (brilliant little one) and dynomat your car. I had over 1.5k rms watts in my car, so i had to take it all hard core but dont drill a hole unless you have no choice.

Nick

[adrimo]

That position and sound quality does not go together and adding sound deadening to the door will not help.

Mid bass and bass speakers need a really solid mount to work well which is why they should be mounted on wooden or steel baffles, no speaker will sound good playing into your leg or the back of the seat. That must be one of the worst position I can think. Also stay away from 6x9's

As Nick suggested get proper door adapters then also strengthen the door around it or fit dash bins with decent components and put a small sub under the seat or behind passenger seat.

Get sound deadening for your doors and floor plus add ccf on top of that as that will cut road noise and improve sound quality in the cabin.

[137699]

Do you have the bass bins in the dash? If not, fit them, you may decide you don't need a sub. If you DO need a sub, why not mount a slimline one under the seats?

[Minimike20]

This is my second Smart.... My first one had door pods, a 12 inch sub, bass bins with splits and tweeters off a JVC Headunit.







The issue is that this car does hectic mileage, it travels on crappy roads and has lowered suspension so things get crashy. I do not want to lost half the boot, have a sub rattling away etc if I can avoid it. Current car has bass bins and decent splits with deadening in the dash already.

How do those 6x9 boxes sound? They are cheap as chips, remember I dont care for clarity from these speakers - My mids and tweeters up front give me a great sound stage as is, what I do want is better bass. I can even set them up only to play bass via an amp.

Mike

[adrimo]

If you want bass then why do you want full range speakers like 6x9. All they will do is mess up the sound stage you say is good, if you want bass then add a speaker that plays bass only.

It has already been suggested that a small sub can fit under the seat or behind seat, u can get a cheap 6 or 8 inch sub and make your own box. If you want do do a really good job make a box to replace the foam box where the passengers feet go.

That sub above does no way take up half the boot

[cougar7609]

I made my own door pocket speaker holders and they work very well, made from MDF and covered in a material that is similar in colour to the interior of my car. Fitting 6x9s isnt a good idea, the type of speaker has never been a good way forward for sound quality.

I still have my Kenwood 6x9s that I bought way back in 1995 even back then it was realised that they werent that good for sound quality. Its all due to sound dynamics and how the vibration is converted into sound. Round speakers are a much better alternative and give better sound quality.

If you fit separate Lower/mid range speakers with separate tweeters the sound quality gets better still. This is what I put in my door pockets. For Bass it is better to make your own Bass box for under the passenger seat. (See Evilution for details) Dynomat is very expensive for what it is and there are other alternatives. Any roof repair strip that is Butyl based will do the same job as Dynomat. It has to be Butyl based because bitumen based materials will melt in high heat during the summer and cause your car to smell as well as make a gooey mess where ever you put it.

You could also go with making venting for the speakers in the door so that you dont get a baffled sound, but make sure there is a channel for that vent so it doesnt cancel out the sound from the main speaker. The plastic panels of the Smart vibrate alot but all you really need to do is to add small sections of the above butyl material onto the inside of the outer door panels rather than coating the entire thing. This reduces the weight but also reduces vibration. All Dynomat does is to add weight to a panel and the same goes for any other product. This reduces the resonant frequency of the panel and therefore reduces vibration, so bear that in mind. Also it will only really make a difference in the middle of a panel as thats where most vibration is caused.

Plastic is not a good material to use to place speakers in as mentioned above so alwyas try to keep to wood, the resonant frequency is much much lower in wood.