I can hear clearly now

It seems like there are lot of car audio nuts tuned in to AudioFile. One reader, Lito Estrella from Ayala Alabang, wants a more detailed discussion following up on our last topic. He writes: “I heard that speaker placement in cars has a lot to do with sound quality. But how can you do that when car speakers are fixed at its front side doors?”

You’re right on the dot, Lito. Car speaker placement is essential in reproducing quality sound. But since most car speakers are factory-installed in the doors and in the back dash, one has to customize in order to achieve the right sound mix. What you want is a seamless harmony of sound waves — one that does not hurt the ears, but which elevates the listener to Cloud Nine.

The problem is that car manufacturers install the sound system last in its assembly line. An afterthought, if you will. Only after all the bolts, metal and rubber have been assembled is the placement of car speakers given consideration.

If you are at home, the size of your music room limits the capability of your system to reproduce quality sound. In mobile audio, your room is your car, which is by no stretch of the imagination an ideal listening haven. Inside your car, good music competes with road, engine and wind noise. Any clatter inside and outside your vehicle will alter your sound system’s sonic performance. However, there are several ways to dampen, if not totally take out, all this interference. One of these is the right speaker placement.

We locate sound in space with our brain, measuring how fast or how slow the sound travels in our two ears. In technical terms we call this “time delay.” When there is no delay, the sound must be coming directly in front of us. It is only after recognizing this sonic event that we start hearing tones. Studies suggest that this was a crucial part of man’s early survival. Prehistoric man had to first locate where sound was coming from, because it could possibly be danger, before he could even determine what made the sound.

For us audiophiles, it has become important for the sound to reach our ears first before it is reflected. Let us use our home’s audio room as an example: here, the ideal location for the two speakers is at two center points of an ellipsoid near the room walls. The best listening position is for us to sit exactly between the two speakers, at a distance of about one to three feet away from the rear wall, creating an imaginary triangle. Your position in the triangle is called the “sweet spot” or where the music is harmonized and sounds the best. 

This position allows the sound from the speakers to reach our ears before it is reflected from the surrounding walls. What we have now is better sound staging and an unadulterated tonal balance of the speakers.

But how can we sit in between the speakers inside our cars? The answer depends on how much you are willing to alter your car’s interior. The choice location for the speakers is the “kick panels.” They are located under your dashboard in the far left and right corners of your car’s interior. You have to look for qualified installers to customize your kick panels. DB Audio is superb at performing this task. They can even make your kick panels look like a part of your car’s original design.

Now you may ask, how can locating your speakers under your feet be the best placement choice? This has a lot to do with the time delay we earlier discussed. In your home audio setup, sitting directly between your two loudspeakers gives you perfect balance. Your speakers have an equal distance from you while you sit at the center, right? What about your factory installed car speakers? How far are you from the left and how far are you from the right? There lies the difference.

With your kick panels, you get closer to the ideal soundstage. Music will emanate from the center of your listening area instead of tilted to the speaker closer to you. Since humans are more sensitive to the location on the horizontal rather than the vertical plane, the distance from the car’s flooring to your ears will never be a factor.

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For comments or questions, please e-mail me at audioglow@yahoo.com or at vphl@hotmail.com. You can also visit www.wiredstate.com for quick answers to your audio concerns.