CLown

i am looking to install my infinity ref. series components in my 99 CL this weekend. I have been doing some searching and looks like people have different ideas about where to mount the crossover (in the door is most common). My question is, what are the pros and cons of mounting it other places? Will I have to build a drip shield or something similar if I put them in the door? I don't want them to corrode and live in a place where cars get real rusty.

dragon084

i have mine underneath the coinholder, sort of by the fuse holder.

i wanna relocate to the trunk w/ longer wiring and build a new box with display,

no neons just regular 168 bulbs.

phipark

Mine are in the doors. The only con I could see, placing the crossovers elsewhere, is running to pairs of wires through the doors.

ou sig

need to get them as close to the speakers as possible - aka. in the doors for best sound quality.

elduderino

Here's the deal:

Inside the door cavity - between the outer door metal and the inner door metal skin - is bad. Water damage can occur, either from direct dripping or condensation (this is why plastic-bag water-shields still have problems). The PCB gets wet, swells up, and then the connections become intermittent and break.

The way Derrick did it in his photos - on the outside of the cavity, on the surface of the inner metal door skin, and under the door panel - is preferred if going into the door. Condensation and water are not as big a deal here due to being inside the water barrier. The xover has to be smaller to fit, tho...

When the xover doesn't go in the door (it's not "supposed" to, but it does) - like in the TSX if the tweet is in the factory dash location - you want to avoid putting the xover where it can pick up engine noise.

That's right - the inductor in the passive xover can pick up engine noise! This engine noise is audible even with the stereo OFF, so it's easy to detect. The inductor can pick up noise from blower motors, ECUs, and big power wires (like your amp wire). For instance, the Airbag ECU in the tranny hump - I wouldn't be surprised to find out it can induct noise onto passives, since it has done so onto GLI filters.

Mine in the TSX are under the passenger carpet against the firewall. They do not pick up any blower noise (although I was a bit concerned: )

elduderino

So what would you prefer - factory wire into the doors to the door-located xovers, or upgraded wire and the xovers on the amp board in the trunk?

CLown

Engine noise... wow, did not even think about that. so it sounds like in the doors is asking for trouble so perhaps i should look inside the car. Maybe by the coinholder is a good spot since the wires are just going to the fronts. I guess it is also good to have them accessible for adjusting, or do you set it and forget it?

jz-97-c7

my crossovers for one of my vehicles is under the passenger seat...out the way and it's still a fairly short run to the speakers...but i run kickpanels in that one.

and for passive crossovers it's pretty much set and forget. unless you want to attenuate the tweets later (like on Mbquart passive xovers)

ou sig

Factory wire...hell no, I have the crossovers in the door and upgraded wire to them from the amps in the trunk and upgraded wire (short) from the crossover to the speakers in the door.

DerrickM

My two cents: if you're installing decently powerful speakers, you'll want new wire. If you have to pull wire anyway, pull two and put the crossovers somewhere safe. (Mine is done the way it is because I had the speaks/xovers installed before I understood how much the factory wire and connectors were hurting my sound--I'm actually pondering pulling another set of wires for the tweeters).

The other advantage of this: you won't be as constrained by xover size when shopping for new speakers (like I am now).

dragon084

if your crossover is in the trunk and your speakers are in the door, what is the difference in the sound

quality, i really dont get it?

DerrickM

Well, the resistance of the drivers is a big factor in crossover design, so having lots of wire between the drivers and the speakers makes it more important to have good size wire. Any extra resistance could potentially alter the crossover. Whether or not it would be discernable to the average listener I couldn't say. I seriously doubt that 15-20 feet of 14 or 12 guage wire would make much of difference.

elduderino

Ditto. Not that it couldn't be audible in a really good system, but you have so many other things to deal with before you get to that point, IMO, that it's not a deal.

But we all focus on our own bugaboos, I know I do...

Scott P

presonally i rarely run all new wire, pretty much i only do so when i have no other choise (aka getting rid of those pesky common ground system). The gains between 18g and 12g speaker wire are so minimal (as in pretty much undetectable to the human ear) that unless you are hell bent on new wire or you are having a massive amount power to move (say about a true 250w rms) there just isn't any real gain to doing so.

As for the crossover locations, just throw them away and go active. it would be fun

elduderino

LOL

Real men don't use passives?

I have an Alpine PRA-H400 and a 7939 I';ve been meaning to put into my CR-V... just never got around to it. Need a 5-channel amp...

DerrickM

I am lazy, and wouldn't pull new speaker wire unless I had to. Scott, in this case I disagree--my 01 TL had very small wire with multiple harness connections in the path, and replacing it made a very noticable improvement. I'm not sure, but I don't even think all the speaker wire was even 18awg--looked like 20/22 at the fronts.

ou sig

ya the stock wire is very thin and very poor quality...you could see that if you look at the shitty Bose speakers they try to say are so good, when you can buy something of better build quality at WalMart - that should say something