Car Audio Tweeter Installation Procedure

If you are think that OEM car audio is just enough and you are more enjoying listen the music at home rather in car, maybe this upgrade can change the way you think about having good music in car as good as home.

Car is the worse place for music. To much noise distorted to the music itself. I used to ignore good music at car. I mostly listen to the radio while driving.

Anyway, this upgrade is a start to improve the car audio sound quality. This is only adding tweeter on the pillar of the front door. The goal is to make the sound-stage wider and fuller. The total working hour for this installation is around 2 hour but the result is worth to try.

On hand I already have a pair of tweeter. It is no name tweeter but the sound quality in my opinion is outstanding. The high frequency deliver with this tweeter is silky smooth and not dominate to the overall sound from the mid-range speaker.

So, I am counting how much this upgrade cost is almost nothing.

Right now I have to find the good spot for this tweeter placement. I can simply place on top of the dash board attached with double side tape, but that is not my style, I want the installation is just like OEM car audio, attach on the door A pillar.

So I take out the door panel and then install them on the A pillar plastic cover located at the back of the side mirror. In this installation, each panel need two small holes to hold the tweeter and one hole for the cable.

To get the best sound imaging from this tweeter, I should make some trial and error, especially for the angle of the tweeter. Finding the angle is the most consuming time. The final position for the tweeter is off-axis aiming to the center mirror.

Once it all set, then I should routing the tweeter cable inside the door panel.

Before I connect the tweeter cable to the mid-range speaker, I should build the high pass filter for those tweeter. This to prevent the low frequency beyond the tweeter can handle pass through the driver.

I made the 1st order cross over that consist of a capacitor for each channel. I am using bipolar Sanyo electrolytic capacitor in the positive cable. The value each 10uF. You can also try any different value from 2.2uF, 4.7uF, 6.8uF or 12uF to obtain the best cut-off frequency of the tweeter. Different tweeter will result different sound. The thumb rule for this capacitor cross over calculation is the higher the value, more lower frequency would pass to the tweeter.

Because I don't want this tweeter too loud and dominating the overall sound, so I also need to put the resistor in series after the capacitor. I experiment with the resistor value around 5 - 15 ohm and end up with 10 ohm resistor on the left and 15 ohm resistor on the right. With this different value of the resistors, the sound from the tweeter blend to the mid-bass on left and right channel better. Anyway, my car is right hand drive, so this configuration will be reverse in left hand drive car.

The last step is how to connect the polarity of the tweeter cable? This could be in-phase means positive of the tweeter connect to the positive of the mid-bass, same also with the negative. Or out-phase which reverse between polarity from tweeter and the mid-bass driver. This will effect to the delay time shift by the cross-over point and should be match to the mid-range. Both channel should have the same treatment, means if one channel in-phase, then the other should be also in-phase, vice versa.

I suggest to experiment this connect and find the most transparent, most pronounce sound from it. The louder the sound means the tweeter are in-phase and correct.

Once you have satisfied with the sound, put back everything in place. Double check all connection and tidy up cable placement to avoid the cable to be contact with moving object such as window mechanism or door handle mechanism. Trying operate those window mechanism up and down then make sure no obstacle cause by the tweeter cable installed.

To make it more tidy, I am using cloth tape to sealed the plastic cover on the door panel. You can also using commercial sound absorber that will give better result.

This car audio tweeter installation is all done. It is not as simple as just put them in and set, but many procedure such as measurement and trial to get the better sound from it.

The improvement after this installation is the better sound and wider sound-stage. This is will depends on how you choose the proper angle, the value of the capacitor and resistor and the quality of the tweeter itself. It is a fun project after all and they looks awesome too.

Disclaimer: Any statement and photos in this article are not allowed to copy or publish without written permission from the writer. Any injury or loss from following tips in this article is not under writer responsibility.