Fitting In or Adapting with Using Stock Openings

Because the sizes of aftermarket speakers and stock-speaker openings so conveniently match up, one of the fastest, easiest, and least expensive ways to upgrade a factory audio system is to simply swap out the speakers. In fact, some aftermarket speaker companies specifically sell drop-in speakers designed just for such applications .

But sometimes you’ll find that the speaker you want to install won’t fit the hole you want to put it in. If the speaker is smaller than the stock hole, adaptors are available to hold the speaker in place.

read more What a USB in the Dash !

If the speaker is bigger than the stock location you want to put it in, on the other hand, things are not so simple. Although virtually anything is possible in the car audio world, where custom is king, modification usually equates to time or money — or more likely both. Enlarging a stock speaker opening usually requires cutting away some of the sheet metal of a door, rear deck, or other part of the car that the speaker mounts to.

These types of modifications require the proper tools and patience and are best left to professionals. It also requires a willingness to irreparably modify your car, which is a no-no if you leased it, so proceed with caution. 

Fitting In or Adapting with Using Stock Openings

Putting a Speaker Exactly Where You Want It 

One of the cool things about car audio is that you can do virtually whatever you want. In fact, that’s what launched the billion-dollar car audio industry — the desire by mobile-sound enthusiasts to have their tunes their way in their vehicles.

Although there are no rules and you can put your speakers anywhere you want them, there are guidelines to follow if you want your system to sound decent. Also, certain government authorities won’t be too thrilled if, say, you remove your steering wheel’s airbag to mount a speaker in its place. But creative installers can and do find ways to mount speakers anywhere you want them.

Beyond the gaudy and (thankfully) passé practice of simply putting as many speakers as possible into, say, a door or rear deck, your goal should be to install speakers in a way that creates the best possible sound quality.

Most of what I cover in the next few sections focuses on front speakers because rear speakers aren’t as critical to sound quality — at least not to front-seat passengers anyway. Rear speakers in a high-end car audio system usually provide only rear fill, a subtle sense of music coming from behind you that doesn’t detract from the impression of the front soundstage. Some people even claim that rear speaker are not even necessary. Regardless, mounting speakers in stock locations in the rear door or a rear deck should suffice in most vehicles and systems, while keeping those in the backseat happy.

Here are two primary rules that apply for placement of front speakers:

The midranges and tweeters should be evenly spaced from one another. Otherwise, staging and imaging — the illusion that the musical performance is taking place in front of you — suffers. You also don’t want the tweeter mounted too far away from the midrange; otherwise, sound quality suffers.

As much as possible, you also want to mount the speakers at an equal distance from the front-seat occupants’ ears. This creates equal path lengths, the distance the sound travels from the speakers to your ears, so that the sound from the left and right speakers arrives at your ears at the same time. Although this is very hard to do in most vehicles because you’re sitting next to the left-side speaker while driving, it hasn’t stopped innovative installers from trying. 

Years ago, for example, a hot trend in car audio, especially among sound-off competitors, was kick-panel mounting of speakers. (Kick panels are the plastic panels in a car’s foot wells that run between the floor and the bottom of the dash.) Installers began custom installing speakers in kick panels so that the speakers were mounted as far away as possible in an effort to equalize the path lengths.

Although kick-panel mounting started out as a custom application, today you can buy replacement kick panels for certain vehicles, and they even come with cut-outs for speakers . 

Another custom speaker location is in the A pillars of a vehicle. (A pillars are the sections of a car’s body that separate the windshield from the driver-side and front-passenger windows.) Placing tweeters as high as possible in a vehi¬cle can improve staging and imaging, and A pillars provide a perfect location for this. In fact, some vehicles now come stock with A-pillar speakers.