Tweeter project: PE vifas in OEM pods

[318Joe]

Sound check with "Great gig in the sky" off Dark side of the moon. They sound good with those Jamos. They are strong down low so I had to knock down the midrange a bit, but they sound pretty good for $24 and an hours worth of whittling and sanding. I have them crossed over 6db at 2.8k. Probably need to drive around and break them in a bit before passing final judgement.

I would have them bi-amped with a kickin sub box by now, except the molex connectors for the Amps were the wrong gender so the amps didn't get installed. I'm running them off the headunit with some PE caps. Don't know how I missed that.

Mounting not ok. Seems there are about 170 ways to orient the tweeter in the pod where the speaker leads do not touch anything in the door. Leave it to me to find out the one angle that does not fit. The right side fits, the left side needs to be rotated about 10 degrees.

[318Joe]

...Here is an example of good quality inexpensive aluminum tweeter that still sound smooth - http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=275-130

Nice, but the body of that speaker is 3.25" in diameter, it isn't fitting into a stock tweeter pod. Gotta be under 2".

Door mount?

[318Joe]

In this picture, the bottom pod has the factory mounting ring left in, the top pod's mounting ring came out with the tweeter.



The difference is about 1/8th inch of available mounting depth...

[stumble_t]

Wait a minute, I just did a set of PPis in the stock pods, just a couple weeks ago...

Did you pull the grille off the PPI? Did you get all of the BMW tweet out?

The groove that the grille fits into was a perfect mount to the stock pod, I mean flawless!

I tried mounting them on the surface of the pod and they fit A+ but they would hit the dash a little when I closed the door. Mounting them from the back side of the pod the magnet wouldn't clear. I removed the grill but it looked like the beveled plastic housing was fixed to the tweeter so I didn't try to remove it.
Is that what you did, removed the housing?

[Jean]

I seriously love my old silk domes in the stock location, most metallic ones are much too harsh for me... guess it just depends on the tweeter?

This is why I always tell people to go out and listen to as many different speakers as possible, as hearing is not the same for all people :)

I like the silk domes myself as well, followed by quality aluminum tweeter. Here is an example of good quality inexpensive aluminum tweeter that still sound smooth - http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=275-130

[StereoInstaller1]

Wait a minute, I just did a set of PPis in the stock pods, just a couple weeks ago...

Did you pull the grille off the PPI? Did you get all of the BMW tweet out?

The groove that the grille fits into was a perfect mount to the stock pod, I mean flawless!

[stumble_t]

Nice work!
I attempted the same thing with my PPI tweets. The radius fit, but the magnet depth on the back side wouldn't allow the sail to fit properly. I'd say just keep that in mind if you use any other tweeters. I ended up using some of the angled cups and surface mounting them to some tweeter blanks.

[Schnitzer318is]

I seriously love my old silk domes in the stock location, most metallic ones are much too harsh for me... guess it just depends on the tweeter?

[318Joe]

Thanks for the input. Harsh high end goes through me like a knife. What exactly did you end up using?

Part of the draw to the vifas was the fabric dome, but a big part was the ability to install in the stock location. In this regard I had few alternatives. There are quite a few tweeters available, but it was unclear how many could be removed from their housings and be made to fit the 2" diameter limit of the OEM pods.

I plan on testing them out today.

[der affe]

vifa makes nice home stuff. you may be a little disappointed with the sound from a slik dome in the stock location though. i ended up swapping to a titainium coated tweeter after the silk domes i installed. it was a nice inbetween the silk and an actual titanium dome (really harsh)

[318Joe]

Difference in mounting adapters; shaved in the foreground



Also, you can see how the OD is sanded on two sides to fit

[StereoInstaller1]

No, Zap is a brand of crazy glue, but you use it with a spray accelerator.

I buy it at hobby shops. Personally, I like the "thick, gap filling" type, it kicks ass and is slightly slower than normal crazy glue, but when used with the accelerant it is immediate.

[318Joe]

Holy shit.

Looks like it is at least gonna sound good, right?

"Zap" glue is your friend.

Heh. I hope they sound good. I am out on a limb, here.

Zap glue, eh? Is that like goop or rtv?

[318Joe]

Aren't you guys afraid of using hot glue, you know, in a car, where it, ummm, get's really hot? I'd think anything you put together with hot glue will sag and separate over time.

Ahhh, hadn't thought that far out yet. Thanks

[StereoInstaller1]

Holy shit.

Looks like it is at least gonna sound good, right?

"Zap" glue is your friend.