Silk/Polymer Tweeters Installed

[sstress]

I've upgraded the head unit, installed all new door speakers (front and rear) and added a sub/amp in the back. But, the one thing that seemed to be missing was "staging". I had plenty of highs, but not the best stereo imaging.I noticed that the new Vibes come with tweets up high, behind the outside mirrors, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm truly impressed with the results. The quality of sound is truly amazing.Install notes: This is what I purchased: Polk silk/polymer 1" tweeters.The tweeters came with a filter and resistors. I wired it up before I mounted anything and as I suspected, the filters made the tweeters wayyyyy too bright. So I removed the filters, but used the resistors (soldered them inline with the positive tweeter speaker wire). That gave me a 3 ohm drop at each tweeter, which was perfect with fader balanced evenly front and rear.Here's a panorama shot of the dashboard... you can see the tweeters mounted left and right, in the window sails.Tweet close up... Picture of resistors (removed from Polk board and soldered to + lead):Peace!!

[kunkstyle]

Nice job! If you ever go into business selling aftermarket dashboards, let me know. I love that DVD setup.

[keithvibe]

x2 on the indash monitor...

[sstress]

If I were more experienced with fiberglass and shaping I could prolly kick 'em out quicker... but making that thing took me forever. I dont think I'd have the courage or patience to do it again

[keithvibe]

are you running an in car pc setup with that monitor or just a gamming console such as PS2.... details man details.. and more pictures... PLEASE

[sstress]

I posted this up awhile back - some pics of the install... http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=30101And its plugged into a portable DVD player which allows me to plug a vid-game console into it. Pretty flexible. No PC though... my wife has a laptop for that.

[keithvibe]

how the heck did i miss that post That is SWEET

[02csnow]

Quote, originally posted by keithvibe »how the heck did i miss that post That is SWEETYour not a Genvibe God, meaning your not on here enough and not associating with members.

[tribalman]

awesome setup! keithvibe, you are almost a genvibegod, it's at 1k posts... i think.

[Sublimewind]

That looks real nice, but without the filter added to the tweeter, it won't be long before you'll have wasted your money... The filter (a cap) is there to keep the low frequencies from reaching the tweeter, which has very little (none) capacity for bass...

[sstress]

Quote, originally posted by Sublimewind »That looks real nice, but without the filter added to the tweeter, it won't be long before you'll have wasted your money... The filter (a cap) is there to keep the low frequencies from reaching the tweeter, which has very little (none) capacity for bass... I have titanium tweeters in my door. They are so pitchy that adding any additional filtered frequencies was literally deafening. The silk polymer speaker is designed to deliver a more natural softer sound. I only needed fill, not highs.I know what you mean about frying a tweeter with full frequency delivery. Alll I can tell you is that the tweets handle 60 watts (180 watts peak). My head unit (Kenwood DPX502) isnt even close to that at 22 watts rms, 50 peak. And with sharing the same speaker lead from the front door speakers and the 3ohm drop at each tweeter I believe I have dropped the load on the tweeter even more. I dont think there will be damage, but I'll let y'all know if anything happens.BTW, my ear cannot hear a single note of distortion and the volume being produced from the tweeter compared to the door speakers is absolutely minimal. The only reason I can hear them at all is because they are closer to ear level. And man, it sounds so good!I appreciate your concern about them popping, but I think I am in the safe zone with this current setup.Thoughts?

[Sublimewind]

Well, I am glad you are happy.... !!!!You are correct in saying that silk delivers a more natural, smoother sound, that's common... The tweeters power handleing has zero to do with them being able to handle a full range of frequencies though... The distortion you "cannot" hear is still there, being masked by the fact that the tweeter simply cannot couple to the surrounding air and doesn't have the linear excursion to produce the frequencies that will be slowly killing them.... +1 on adding the resistor to them though, without any "active" tuning ability, all you can do is limit them electricly to bring them down a little in level to match the rest of the system... If you hadden't added the resistor that would over-power the otehr speakers and sound terrible... I'm not dissing you "hear" man, just passing on info learned over years of car audio being both a hobby and a job at points in my life... Good luck and keep us posted on there performance over time...!!! Cheers,Aaron

[sstress]

Aaron,I did some reading and I can see what you mean. Tweeters are rated for handling power based on use of the filter, not on total system power handling. Without the filter, most tweeters cannot handle the direct full spectrum power of an amp. Basically, the tiny little speaker is getting hit with 85% of the amps power at lower frequencies, where it was never designed to perform. While it cannot reproduce those sounds because it cannot move like a woofer, it is still absorbing those frequencies and generating heat, which can cause a meltdown of the tweeter.I will indeed keep my eye on it. If they blow, I'll have to rework the system to balance it out. Thanks for the heads up! Much appreciated!

[Sublimewind]

No problem man, glad that you are one to go looking for the "proper" way in things like this.... all to often people "think" they can do no wrong and NEVER learn anything... it's the ones that truely learn from prior mistakes that fare well... On your above statement, you are 100% correct in saying the ~85% of the power goes to the lower frequencies... If most tweeters got 15-20w they would be happy, while a 12" sub getting 500w may NOT be.... It takes MUCH more power to produce the lows than the highs...

[~MRVIBE2006~]

Is that mount that you have for the tweeters a factory/OEM piece or is it something that you made? If you bought it, where ya get it? I'm getting the itch to do a stereo upgrade and was thinking about replacing the tweeters as well but everyone I talk to say that aftermarket tweeters would have to have a custom enclosure/mount. Also some just leave the factory tweeters in because they work just fine. Opinions?

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by ~MRVIBE2006~ »Is that mount that you have for the tweeters a factory/OEM piece or is it something that you made? If you bought it, where ya get it? I'm getting the itch to do a stereo upgrade and was thinking about replacing the tweeters as well but everyone I talk to say that aftermarket tweeters would have to have a custom enclosure/mount. Also some just leave the factory tweeters in because they work just fine. Opinions?He just used a hole saw and cut the sail panel the proper size for the "flush mount" cup to drop through and used the supplied clip to hold them in... Many tweeters come with at least 2 if not 3 different mounting options, tipicaly surface and flush.... some have a "behind" mount as well for "factory" locations...

[sstress]

... I bought 'em at Crutchfield. Polk db1000. It comes with surface mount or flush mount kits. And yes, I simply used a hole saw Also, the wiring was allready in the door for the tweeters (2005 Vibe). I just soldered a short extension to finish the job.

[sstress]

Just an update on the tweeters... no problems, and they continue to sound amazing. I have now burned all of my CDs (320kb MP3s) onto a 160 gig WD Passport (on sale at Best Buy for $99). I had to buy the optional WD power cable ($16 with shipping) and use a 12 volt USB power adpater to get the drive to spin ($14) because there was not enough power from the Kenwood USB. Tweeters seem to be handling everything I can throw at 'em, and the staging is truly impressive.Have an amazing Christmas!

[Sublimewind]

I love nothing more than to read the post above..!!

[sstress]

Wow, that's really kind of you...

[Sublimewind]

Well, when things work, they work...!!!!I like to think of myself as "somewhat" of an audio expert, but only on certain aspects of audio, this being one of those points... When I get proven wrong, I never look at it as a slight to my knowledge, but better yet another form of learning.... I don't EVER claim to "know it all" so that is why there are subjects that come up in the audio section, that I simply stay out of... I know where my strengths lie and ALSO my weakness... I tend to leave the alarm questions and the various audio integration questions alone.... I'm not a working installer anymore and haven't been for some time, SO, much of my knowledge in those areas is VERY dated.... If I can't be useful, I just stay out of it.... So, when something work and works well, i am very happy for it.... Nothing better than nice tunes in the car...