We're all familiar with the factory tweeter's shortcomings and how it seems to be drowned-out by the midrange speakers all the time and I agree something had to be done about it.
This is my version of taking the factory audio system to the next level.
When this mod is completed, there are five things that I expect to be improved upon.
First, the clarity and detail with upper notes will now be improved upon. ex: highhats, bells, cymbals, guitar strings, and even sibilance from spoken words or as sung by the singer(s).
Second, the overall tonal balance from the mid-bass to the upper octave range would be level and smoother. No more holes in the music.
Third, the stage height will be more defined. Singers and musicians now appear to be in front of you at ear level as experienced at a live concert.
Fourth, a center image will now be present. Easier to pinpoint a singers location across the stage, usually in the middle.
And fifth, with my ambience speaker module, stage depth and stage width will be more defined and expanded. The music experience will not sound as confined or boxed-in.
I began by taking out the A-pillar panels for marking where the tweeter could possibly be mounted high enough without interfering with the pillar's mounting tabs. After finalizing the tweeter location, a portion of the panel's inner cross-rib was trimmed away.
On to the drill press. The panel is centered, securely clamped and ready for drilling a 1" hole.
Tape over the work surface always ensures a clean edge.
After the holes were drilled, the A-pillar trim panels were wrapped with black Alcantara suede, imported from Germany and it was glued in place using 3M Super Hi-Strength 90 spray-on adhesive. Once the adhesive has dried, the tweeters were then epoxy glued in place in favor of using its mounting hardware for clearance purposes.
I chose the JL Audio ZR100CT Evolution, 1-inch 8 ohm, aluminum dome tweeters for its clear, detailed, wide dispersion sound and for its high impedance which, in all, has the perfect attribute for this particular mod. The domed tweeter grills were wrapped with black acoustic fabric for a factory look and to keep unwanted attention from peering eyes.
The tweeters use a set of high quality, Jantzen Audio, european, foil capacitors wired in-line for high-pass, first order, 6dB configuration. Bullet connectors were used on 16ga wires for ease of maintenance. I initially used 12 microfarad caps to roll-off at 3100Hz, as pictured here but changed them to 10 microfarad, later on, to have a higher roll-off at around 4000Hz. Sound quality is improved and made the tweeters sound smoother, not as harsh sounding.
Pre-wire day! Speaker wires were ran along the leading edge of the roof and along the A-pillars. Dashcam and radar detector wires were also ran today. And sure, why not? Dynamat Extreme sound deadening and foil/jute thermal insulation was installed as well while the headliner was out!
Wiring finalized with zip ties to keep everything secured. Ambience array speaker wires are ran along the passenger side roof and leads to the hatch floor where the pneumatic pump is located.
Speaker wires are labeled and home-runned to the factory amplifier location where it will be spliced to the front speaker output.
Only the jacket from the factory speaker wires were removed to expose the bare wire. No factory wiring were cut on this modification. As you can see, all splices made were soldered for reliability and was later wrapped with 3M electrical tape for protection. Factory wire color code and relevant identification is referenced to amp schematics linked here on Crossfire Forum.
Thanks for looking, everyone!
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