"sometimes just playing with tweeter placement will get you there too..."
Especially with a TN51. That thing is a biotch to get imaging and sounding right. Odd characteristics of an inverted dome.
Kick panels can work very well with 2 way sets in the imaging department, the main thing is midbass performance. Many people cut a hole in the kick and tighten it to the carpet really well. Tends to bleed off resonant peaks that would otherwise occur with the small kickpanel space. That tweeter tends to do best on axis, off axis response isn't good on those tweets due to the dome configuration.
That's why 3 ways with dome mids are so nice, don't have to worry about this stuff, just play with the angle since it has its own enclosure :) Really, though, you should be able to get good imaging from your doors with some processing. Are you running any kind of processor/equalizer (a dedicated eq that allows you to adjust each channel, or each driver)? Note I'm not referring to the 8455, while it's a loaded HU, it still can't do what a processor can.
If you're not using processing I'd guess you suffer the same thing as nearly all door installs, mid on the drivers side is further off axis and rolls off in the 2khz region or slightly below, while the right side is closer on axis and has stronger upper midrange performance. Pulls the stage to the right in upper midrange and lower treble region, and if you try to lower the level, you end up cutting the right channel so your lower midrange is more left side biased. Just a guess, though, hard to say as all cars are different.
I'd recommend the processor first, as even equalization of both channels has a huge effect on side to side imaging. And you'll need that regardless of the install you do.
No just the 8455 for now, no other processor. Like I said I had always planed on doing kickpanels. So I figured I would build the install to the car, and add processing later if I really needed it.
With the 8455 I can play with the time delays and get the sound stage centered, but it doesn't corect the center to right and left problem.
I did think about putting the tweeter in the door, but there isn't really a good place. Everything is a 3 dimensional curve, and just way to damn close to the ears.
"No just the 8455 for now, no other processor. Like I said I had always planed on doing kickpanels. So I figured I would build the install to the car, and add processing later if I really needed it.
With the 8455 I can play with the time delays and get the sound stage centered, but it doesn't corect the center to right and left problem.
I did think about putting the tweeter in the door, but there isn't really a good place. Everything is a 3 dimensional curve, and just way to damn close to the ears."
Kick panels could help, but really you need to equalize the individual channels in order to get good imaging from each side. Door panels can give a wider soundstage than kicks if done well, many kicks can tend to have the "rainbow effect" (high in center, low on sides), especially without tweeters up top.
atleast you can find some for your car.. i cant find any for my girlfriends.. if anyone knows where to buy some for a 95 Saturn SC2, please let me know
Jonathan wrote:"Kick panels could help, but really you need to equalize the individual channels in order to get good imaging from each side. Door panels can give a wider soundstage than kicks if done well, many kicks can tend to have the "rainbow effect" (high in center, low on sides), especially without tweeters up top.
So what would you sugest? Other than a good processor
Sub LPF 60 herts with a 24db slope
Mids HPF 80 herts with an 18db slope
Mids LPF 2K with a 12 db slope
Tweets HPF 2.5K with a 12 DB slope
That gave me about the flatest responce curve I could get with out using the PEQ.
I didn't try going any higher with the mid / tweet portion. I figured the focals were crosed from factory at about 2k so I didn't try it much higher(found out yesterday its actualy 3k) So I am sure I could go higher and still get it nice and flat.