After installing new speakers in my doors, with one door panel on and one off, the sound was much better without the door panel on. Has anyone noticed this filtered effect too?

Has anyone cut away the door panel's sound hole to improve the SQ? If so, what did you use to cover the hole?

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Matt

 

If your new speaker setup is a bit taller than the OEM (and it probably is) there is a chance the baffling is touching or interfering with the cone. Trimming that might make a difference. Of course, measure first to see if that's the problem.

 

Thanks Reach, I'll check the stack up and make sure there is nothing impeding the speaker.

The filtered sound I was referring to was one of the main reasons I pursued new speakers. Voices in music always seemed quiet relative to the other sounds with the old speakers. The new speakers sound better, but with and without the door panel there's a night and day difference.

 

You're making me want to take off my door panels and fire it up to see if there's a difference! I'll have to do that one of these weekends if I can get some time.

 

just trying to help Reach


Assuming the door panel isn't touching the speaker, it seems like there could be 2 causes.
1-the funky hexagonal support network and pin holes in the door panel are blocking the frequencies of interest
2- the line sight between me and speaker was blocked by other parts of the door panel.

Thinking some more about it.... I did this experiment while sitting in the driver's seat with the driver's door panel removed and the passenger's door panel attached. There should be less line of sight issues from the driver to the passenger's speaker compared to the driver to the driver's door speaker. This would lead me to think its a filter effect of the door panel sound hole. Hopefully, i'm not getting ahead of myself....

Thoughts?

 

I know theres a write up in the FAQ to make door spacers and it says that you won't your total stack to be 1-1/8", which is the same thickness as the OEM speakers. Maybe your speaker is not perfectly centered with the hole in the door panel?

 

It's a line of sight issue essentially. Check that the speaker mates up with the door panel definitely, but even if it does, the speaker is still firing into a small tunnel. The panel itself is impeding the sound from the speaker. I would strongly recommend against cutting the door panel as you don't want the speaker firing behind the door panel, just through it. It will sound worse that way and sound pressure behind the panel will result in vibrations.

 

Thanks for your good ideas...

Jeff_B, I'll check the total stack-up height. That would be a problem if there's a big gap. Centering... there shouldn't be any gross alignment issues since the speaker adapter i used utilized the same position the stock mounted speaker... unless the stock speakers were misaligned to begin with.

Spoon,
Do you know if the original stock speakers were mounted flush against the inner rim of the door panel's sound hole? If not, like you said, some acoustic waves will certainly be reflected back into the door panel cavity. That would be a distortion making machine

Seems like the speaker needs a small horn to tunnel the sound towards the door panels surface without the impeding door panel grill. It would have to be flexible to allow for vibration of the door panel relative to the metal door itself, but stiff enough not to lose low freqs. hmm...

Tonight i'll take some measurements...
-Speaker height stack up
-gap between door panel and speaker

 

It's been a long time since I've seen the stock speaker, but from what I remember, it fits pretty snug inside the door panel. The frame of the speaker fits inside the door panel rim and there is a little foam padding on the rim to provide an air tight seal.

To replicate the effect of no door panel, the speaker would have to be mounted on the surface of the door panel. One already sits severely off-axis to the speaker and with it slightly behind the panel, the cylindrical part of the door panel which covers the speaker likely helps force the acoustic energy into you legs. That obviously doesn't happen with the panel off.

If you could get the speaker essentially right up against the grill, that might be your best bet. You could try looking thru the grill with a flashlight to see how far behind the grill the speaker sits. Or at least get a rough idea.

 

Unfortunately, i was too busy to get measurements last night, but tonight I'll measure the gap, if any, and stack up height.

I have speaker foam to create a snug fit between the speaker outer wall and the door panel rim. The speaker can always be shimmed up a bit. Why oh why did they design a system so far off-axis???? Took the easy route...

I wonder how difficult it would be to create a sloped shim/mount to angle the speaker more towards the listener. Line of sight issues would still be a concern (panel wall blocking part of the speaker) and it wouldn't be flush. perhaps a 30 degree tilt would be possible (+/- 1.5" shimming), probably less though.

Perhaps i can mimic the line of sight problem with an added cylindrical sheath around the speaker without the door panel on to hear if that's the main problem. If its not, then the grill is also an enemy and a potential target