Fitting speakers on the door of a hatchback

Question

I'm thinking of fitting an audio system for my hatchback. I'm a little bit confused over fixing the speakers. I have three options to fit the speakers.

1. Fit them on an MDF tray above boot. [6x9 oval speakers]
2. Fix them in the boot lid/door. [6x9 oval speakers]
3. Fix them in the doors [6 " standard speakers]

A friend of mine told that fixing on the boot lid may damage the hydrolidc/shock system of the boot lid. Using MDF tray will result losing some space. I think i should prefer fixing them in the doors as there are default provisions(by the car manufacturer) for speakers in the door(and saves a lot of space). But my question is do speakers fixed in the door show short life span (as they are more open to moisture coming in through rubber beadings, shocks from closing the door etc.). And what about the quality of music output.?

And it's helpful if anyone can suggest advantages and disadvantages of the above three methods and (any) other methods.?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hatchback or not - it does not makes a lot of difference. I would go for doors and install speakers there. After all car manufacturer specifically designed so. When choosing the speakers make sure they fit depth-wise, some might have too big magnets on them.

Having speakers in my doors for 16 years now - they work perfectly, no corrosion whatsoever. The only quirk are the wires - you need to make sure they don't obstruct windows going up/down. (I had windows and locks replaced a few times and each time I assembled the door I discovered that wires were in a way of a window, had to redo)

Speakers in the boot are usually complementary to the speakers in the front, they add more power and surround sound effect (when properly balanced).

EDIT: Sound quality highly depends on speakers and amp. There are multi-band speaker models that employ up to 3 speakers in one (tremble speakers installed in front of bass). They generally sound better than single-band speakers. Some models go in pairs, each side has a main 6" speaker and a small 1" twitter that is installed separately (under the side mirror or someplace else). Spend some time in a shop listening and comparing speakers to each other. Make sure your amp has enough power for the speakers and your wires are thick enough to carry it. Professional audio specialist might give you a better advice (sound dampening, amp choice, etc)

Answer 2

For the best sound quality you want your speakers as high and as far forward as possible. This will result in the best imaging and staging possible. Which means that it sounds like a band is on stage infront of you and you can individually pick out where each instrument is coming from vocal, bass, drums, rhythm, lead, etc...

The lower the frequency the less important it is for the speaker to be higher and forward this is because we start to feel the noise through our bodies than hearing through the ear canal. This is why often you will see a 6.5" midbass/midrange in the lower door or kickpanel then a tweeter higher in the door. This is not ideal because it can cause a split between the instruments. The lower frequencies of vocals guitar will sound low in the stage but the higher vocals and guitar solo etc will sound bright and high in the stage.

Ideally you don't want your tweeter to be more than a foot away from your midrange driver. Coaxial speakers are speakers which have a tweeter mounted inline with the midrange woofer so they can have very good imaging and are easy to install. This is probably your best option. If you want to go very high end you might look into doing a three-way component setup.

A three-way component setup consists of a tweeter (usually 1") a 3" midrange and midbass (usually 6.5"). This allows you to fit the tweeter and midrange high and forward in the vehicles A-pillar or dash then run the midbass lower in the door or kick panel resulting in a very flat and accurate response and great imaging. The disadvantages being that it is the most difficult to install and the most expensive way to go aswell.

All that being said I would recommend you start by getting a good set of coaxial speakers and mount them in the factory door location.

Answer 3

Door speakers should not suffer problems such as you describe. Mounting them is actually very straightforward, and if the doors already have space for speakers, I would definitely use them.

I have fitted speakers in the parcel shelf in cars before, and it does provide some more depth and clarity to the sound, as the sound bounces off the rear windscreen and forwards at head height, but you are right, it can cause problems with hydraulic raisers if the shelf rises with the door, although these are easily fixed by adjusting or replacing the hydraulic raisers.

My preferred option would always be speakers in dash, front doors, rear doors and a sub in the boot if required, then balance phase and power at the amp (if you have those options) - if you are going for high quality sound you do need to ensure all speakers are correctly timed and in phase, but to do it you will need tools to measure the delay and phase on each speaker and an amplifier that can alter these as required.