Hey all,

Wondering if this would help sound quality or stage at all....what if I removed the rear speakers and instead put them in custom speaker boxes (or even generic but quality pre-made boxes) and relocated them further back...up against the strut bar in the corner of that little area basically. Since the speaker wouldn't be playing straight into the back of a headrest any longer I'm wondering if the sound quality of the cabin would improve?

I should add that I'm asking about this configuration with the assumption that the stock audio has already been replaced with something good in both the front and rear channel of speaker setup. Assume good speakers in front and rear...now...would a relocation help things even further? Have even wondered if a 6x9 box for each rear channel would then allow a good 6x9 to go back there. I know some 6x9 design can be inferior to 6.5" generally..but not always..so please no debates on that topic...really just wondering if clearing the sound path has been tried and if it helped?

Thanks for all input and help,

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I personally wouldn't waste my time with it. Invest that time/money into higher end components for your front stage.

I've been running front stage only for about 6 years now in the Z and I haven't thought about adding rears yet.

At audio meets and competitions my front stage can easily keep up with most of the SPL cars.

 

Mind if I ask how you set up your front stage? Where'd you mount your components? You went two way or three way? Which speakers and how much watts you sending to them? You running active or passive?

I'm working on my front stage too, can't help but wonder if a good rear setup could add anything, with my wondering then expanding to what's the best way to setup rear fill? Yes...I think too much.

Curious where you mounted your tweets and mids? That's my main curiosity on your front stage.

Thanks for the input,

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I'm Running an old set of Rainbow SLC265.25NG's in the factory locations. Had to make 1" spacers to keep the speaker from hitting the window. Put the tweeter in the factory location as well. Used a dremel to cut out the tweeter grille and drilled out all the plugged holes in the door grilles.

I'm running them passive right now with 100w per door. I have a 4ch amp so I can run active now but I'm too lazy to run 2 wires.

 

For some reason I don't have a picture of the spacers for the mids. But here is the tweeter and the door grilles.



For some reason Nissan decided to cover half of the back of the grille even though the front looks like its full of holes.





So I took like an hour and I fixed it.

 

Hey thanks for showing that off....must be a great setup as I've heard only good about Rainbow even though I've never had the chance to hear them in person. Hoping that changes soon though as I'd love to hear their "personality" if you will.

As far as running active goes...hold off on connecting those two wires, it won't sound good if that's all you do...you really have to have a DSP and then tune it to make active sound a few notches above passive crossovers' sound quality (depending on the crossover of course...some are bad some are very very good, so running active isn't always a massive jump in sound quality).

Very impressed with the dremel-kwan-do discipline in cleaning out your speaker grill for stealthy goodness. Very nice...never seen anyone do that before and didn't know you could lol

Also like your sail....clean and tasteful....you could even make a small cloth gril and...wait...sorry...dude that won't connect two wires ain't gonna make a cloth grill....

I'll keep ya posted if I do any rear speaker arranging....I'll focus on my front stage for sure, but still want to do a quality rear for nice fill....we'll see....maybe...see how some car repair matters go...money is being drawn to maintenance costs right now...frustrating as that does nothing to improve my sound quality except for the sound of a working car. Actually...that's a great sound.

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My buddy had polk momo's in the front and some higher end CDT's in the rear (both 6.5" comp sets) of his Taurus and it was crazy loud. You couldn't really even tell the rear was there. It was crystal clear and didn't seem all that loud. Then you tried to say something and couldn't hear yourself, so you realize just how loud it is and just sit there. My ears were ringing like I had been at a concert for a couple hours after just a 5-10 minute car ride.

If you're ever in northeastern Oklahoma I'll gladly let you listen to my car. All my youtube videos are way old but when I get home I can pick out a few of the better ones and link them here.

 

I just upgraded my rears with 2-ways in the OEM spot and put good components up front. Sounds terrific!

 

Same here. I'm running Infinity coaxial speakers in the rear speaker space for a slight amount of fill, and 165 V Slim Focals in the front. Sound is excellent.

 

Hey thanks sincerely for the offer. I won't be out that way in any time I foresee unfortunately, certainly would love to hear the car though.

And I never want to ride with your buddy in his Taurus lol ...anything that loud and I would definitely defy the first law of Chris Tucker....I WOULD be touching that man's radio...turning it DOWN

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Yeah I've heard similar setups of a good set up front and decent rears in stock location...but the audio does sound a little "right there in your ear" kinda close...I've ridden in SUV's and their bigger cabin space really makes for a better balanced audio arena, it all sounds more blended and further away in a good way..more natural, so that's part of why I'm wondering if putting the rears further back and have them aimed across to the opposite side would be better than two speakers playing into the back of a headrest.

A lot of work to experiment though....not sure if I'll be able to get around to trying my ideas.

Thanks for the input,

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I forgot about getting you a video. Looking through my stuff my audio videos are very old and my setup has changed a few times since they were taken.

This is probably the best one for internet demo puposes. It's still terrible though.

 

Hey no worries, big thanks for going out of your way to help me and this forum out

Not that terrible of a video either, it does show that you have some good audio quality bouncing around in that interior, I had an SUV a long time ago and I thought the audio was pretty good...until I tried to open the doors and let the sound spill out for an event whose audio went down....thought my car could pipe in some music but nope lol....sound hardly reached very far outside the vehicle. Wanted to go shopping right there.

I don't have many complaints about the 350z, but I do wish the front windshield wasn't quite so close....would love to move tweeter farther forward and to have a little more room there, but...still....sounds like your car has a good setup even back then.

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Oh...and just for fun...turns out I might get to experiment somewhat soon with putting the rears more in the hatch area and maybe criss crossing them axis wise....so if anything worthwhile comes of it I'll share whatever I learn.

I suspect I'm going to learn another confirmation that I'm an idiot that should've left the rear speakers alone...but hey....don't know unless you don't try I suppose....

Probably need a month or so,

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Saved, You can move the tweeter farther forward and gain a big improvement in your “sound stage.”



I mounted the tweeters in the A-Pillars aiming them at the windscreen with an angle that bounces inside the driver and passenger seats.




That provides a good tweeter sound for both seats instead of the compromise you get when mounting tweeters in the Sail Panels.

 

Yeah I've really thought about doing that but some audio shop peeps said it really won't sound the best, that bouncing off the glass is far from an ideal solution? Not convinced they're right though...

I've even thought about mounting tweets flush with dash, pointing up so they bounce off the windshield while the tweet is on it's back basically.

If you had to describe the difference of hearing your tweets off your windshield versus the sail location...what would you say improved or worsened? Or not much difference?

Thanks for your input, appreciated.

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Did the tweets get brighter bouncing off the glass?

Out of curiosity what'd you to use to cut such a perfect sized hole for your tweets in the a pillar? A circle cutting bit or just a dremel and patience?

Debating buying some tools to do some more modding...have the dremel...but might be picking up some other goodies...curious what you used.

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The picture....do you happen to know how to remove that piece with the fake vent? The one that is next to the base of the a pillar basically...has a little vent looking opening but it's fake, there's no air flow through there whatsoever...I'm eying it as a possible location for a mod but I'm not sure how to remove it?

Any help is appreciated, as I've had most of the Z interior disassembled before (by me), but never have I done the front dash....hoping that little piece is easy to get out...would make my little idea much more practical if it's simple to remove and experiment with.

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That's the defrost vent...

 

And you want them angled towards the center if possible instead of just straight up.