I will say after a fair amount of prep work they turned out pretty good. Pics dont do the paint any justice its a damn good match to the plastic on the window and lock controls. Just did not like the vinyl this is a much closer match.

Damn kicker tweets are huge and the trim ring was to big for the stock tweeter surface area. Fear my dremmel skills

 

The pods look great! What prep/paint did you use to get the right texture?

the sail panel tweets look good too. The trim rings aren't even needed. Trim rings are for those that can't cut straight!

 

Looks nice. I love my pods.

 

looks nice not sure i would have placed the tweeter there but the job with the pod to make the speaker fit is great!

b

 

if you get bored sometime soon can you give us some detail on the process and materials and stuff?

 

Prep with bondo and auto primer spray paint. Paint is krylon smooth texture black indoor outdoor. Has a picture of a lawn chair on it.

 

I just laugh when I see people posting about terms "imaging" and "warm" its a freaking tin can that you sit in off-center in. Being an architect, I talk to and deal with alot of aucousticians and anytime I ask opinions about car stereo they have no comment. I want good imaging and soundstage I'll fire up the adcoms and the martins.

Buy decent equipment and go with it.

 

well, i beg to differ, if there was no such thing as imagine and staging in a car, then there wouldnt be such a thing as SQ comps or oriented install infact, i would say that it is MORE important to install and tune for imaging and staging in a car...as in the home, as long as you stick decent equipment equidistant from where you sit, imaging and staging is set...

but again, it all comes down to the type of listner one is, if SQ in terms of imaging and staging isnt important to the listener, as well as some tweeter brightness, then stock locations in the Z is definetly fine

but i still definetly say there is a MAJOR noticable difference between stock locations and door pod/kickpanel/horn set ups in the Z...juts ask anyone whos has had a set done by me hehe

either way, not flaming or putting you down, just my opinion only

B

 

Well said Bing.

 

Looks good man! Now you can practice not kicking them when you get in and out.

 

Yeah, good point… Wondering about this myself. I still have the stock front speakers (bad). I was looking at the pod option to fit better speakers, but I have some difficulty exiting the vehicle (I’m old and a little stiff). With the seats positioned so far forward relative to the Z’s doors, you have to be careful opening the door (i.e., cannot open it wide) when parked next to someone. I notice I must hit the speaker area by the shoe-scrapes I see on the stock grill. Opinions, anyone? --Spike

 

Does the component fit if you use the regular stock speaker as spacer (without doing the pod thing)?

If so, would the front hit the grille if volume is turned up loud?

tony

 

Funny you say that, the guy that owns one of the best high end audio stores in the north east has the stock radio in his car, and I asked him why. He said after listening to the best home stereos that anything he listens to in a car sounds like crap, so he may as well keep the factory radio

 

who might this be? hope its not will castro lol

 

Bing .. great argument ... just one problem

People drive thier cars ... the noise floor is so damn high you can't (outside of a Rolls or LS460) even call it critical listening at any speed.

If you enjoy sitting in a parked car and listening to a stereo to actually hear it correctly ... well .. more power to you.

I'm sure OPs sound 90% as good as the setups you install (I've installed in pretty much every spot in the Z (pods, kicks, sail panels and on the dash) and it all sound the same once you hit 30mph.

As long as its loud, clear and distortion free ... this stock locations are all you'll ever need.

 

Yeah, well, he does have something like 150 sq ft of Dynamat in his car, right?

Good arguments all around. When I did my install, I could deffinitely hear a SQ difference between the tweets in the sail as opposed to the kicks (much better in the kicks), but once driving, it's pretty much out the window (I didn't want to dampen the heck out of my properly loud sports car). I still put them in the kicks, though; I figured I might as well have the best sound to begin with before screwing it up with road noise.

To the poster above that asked about using the stock locations instead of the pods, yes, you can do that and it'll be fine (that's what I did). You can either gut the factory speakers and use them as spacers or buy the Zenclosure spacers on Ebay for $20. It's the stock grills that are the problem. They block alot of sound b/c of the way they are molded (like half of it is blocked off from behind; all the holes aren't really holes). My solution was to cut out the center and cover the stock grill frame is speaker cloth (see my write-up in the how-to/DIY section of the forum), which was a very cheap, great looking, great working alternative to using pods (though I'm sure the pods have even more advantages, but they are pricey and stick out, which can be a problem for some people, as noted above).

 

to me, the stock loations misses out on certain things that i notice at any speed, even in a Z.

1. imaging, having a solid center image is noticable to me at pretty much any speed, when a vocal hits, regardless of how high the noise floor is, imaging doesnt change.

2. midbass reporduction, this is a biggie for me as I love my midbass, and the stock location, whcih IMO produces mediocre midbass with lots of door buzzing when the car is off, fades even more at speed.

3. highs from the high stock location, screaming highs is something htat gets worse to me with road noise, as the road noise in the most cases is in the midrange and lowr midrange spectrum, so if road noises dislutes the midrange of a system, then in turn it applifies any sharp highs, this is why in a car with a stock system, you drive by them on the high way with lots of road noise, what do you hear? the horrible, raspy highs, cause road noise doesnt drawn out hte highs that much...

anyway, thats just my opinoin, i am hoesntly not hte kind of person that acutally likes to sit in a parking lot and listen to my car, i prefer to build the kind of system that at high volumes, still remains crisp, warm (not harsh), lots of midbass, and overall balanced, that it drawns out most of the other noise int he car.

i think a few of my customers can attest to this having driven their car day in and day out with the systems in place, even a Z roadster benefits...

i guess it all comes down to being relative, if you have only heard your car wtih stock locations installed, honestly, it will probably sound very good and most people would be content wtih it, but i would honestly argue, a well isntalled system with kicks or combo door pod/kick panels, well installed, using hte SAME gear, would generate enough of a difference that almost any one would notice...this is based on my experience with customers at least

b