I really wish I had a better immagination.... I can't picture this being elegant.... But I really want it...

So, i think I'm going to try a few things. I want to try using a cardboard speaker box cutout to see if I can come up with something.

I also think I may make another box like :"on the dash" in this picture, but the speaker will point upwards instead of forewards.




I hate the drawing board.....

 

tell me again why you cant put it in the vent and very easily angle it so that you do have proper imaging? the speaker in the vent hole with a recess on one side of the hole to straighten it up would look 238 times better than on top of the crash pad or dash.

 

^^ Because it would be entirely too close. It would be a left channel for the passenger and a right channel for the driver. I agree it would look TONS better, but I don't think it would image right.

 

well the imaging in a car blows when taking two people into account, because they are all too close to the speakers. you have to up the volume going to the pass side, which screws it up for the pass, to make it good for you.

i've always hated car dashes with readouts in the center. this would totally break up the awesome flow of the tiburon dashboard, even if you do mold it perfectly. you would have to paint like the entire dash too, which would suck.

i would at least throw the speaker in the vent and see how it looks/sounds. really quick and simple, and is much less of a commitment than glassing to the crashpad.

 

^^^+1 you can at least try it, i bet once its in there and you hear it. you would like it alot more.

 

I sized it up. It would not flow very well in the heater, and that would decrease functionality. Although I like the idea, here's why I decided not to do it. 1. no passenger heater from that port. 2. too close to the driver and pointing at chest instead of face. 3. Pointing at driver instead of center of car. 4. It looks wierd there, its slightly too big. 5. irreversable to test as i'd have to cut a huge hole in my vent to see if i liked how it sounds.

#3 could be fixed with some fiberglass and a mount, but then it would be sticking out of the pretty much flat dashboard about 2 inches on one side and flat on the other.


For the box I already made, it's obvious why I (and everyone else) do not like the foreward facing speaker idea. i think i'm going to try an upward facing speaker next. I can lower the overall size of the box and get a better sound image from there.

For an upward facing speaker, the box size could be dropped towards the dash by 1 inch reducing the total size to about 3" tall by 5-6 inches wide.

I think upward facing speaker is the way to go. I will start planing this out now. Since it will be pointing upwards and dust can land on the speaker and just stay there, a grill might be in order. I need to decide if I'm going to use a speaker grill or not. I cannot find any 3-1/2 inch speaker grills locally which I can test for looks. The smallest one I've found is 5" at a local stereo shop. It looked too big.

Also, this is an oversized speaker, so a grill might increase the size back to 4 inches tall. So basically this would look like a 4 inch tall volcano of sound in the center of the dashboard.

sigh... I'm loosing interest in this project because it dosn't seem to be possible without cutting into my crashpad. I don't want to be a pioneer of crashpad cutting. It seems like every option has too many downfalls for me to accept. The car comes with a badass sound system for a stock car. If only hyundai had put the 5th speaker in the car origonally...

 

man i hear what your saying but your over dramatizing the situation. just make a 3.5" hole in the crashpad and sink the speaker in so its flush mount, thats how i would do it if i really wanted it there.

honestly though i would go ahead and just put it where the ashtray is and have it facing up or possibly where the domelight/sunglasses deal goes and have it face down. did you ever try making a mount that goes above the rearview and have it attach to the ceiling? just throwing some ideas out there

 

^^ I was looking at actually putting it on the rear view, but it would look funny as hell. It can't go in front of the rear view because it would block my view. I don't want to loose my sunroof/ glasses holder so it can't go there.

Has anyone seen a picture of a dashboard speaker cut into our cars? I'd like to see one before I make a perminant modification. I guess I t would be possible to cut into the vents, then use some duct tape on both sides to seal it up, then slap a speaker grill on top of it all.

 

if you put it in the vent you could make it flush with the dash on one side and recessed on the other to get it pointing the correct direction without sticking up from the dash at all. wink1.gif

and it definitely looks a billion times weirder sticking up from the crash pad. you also dont have to cut the vent, just the dash. the vent things pop out of it. think about how close your center speaker for your computer is, and how good it still sounds. it doesnt have to be THAT far away.

 

The center speaker for my computer is really close when I use my computer, but for watching movies or TV, i usually sit across the room where I've set up my system to sound good. The center speaker for my computer is also dead center below the monitor I use for my TV which I sit directly in front of. In a car, distance is required to make up for the off-centered-ness of the seats.

I think it would be best just to remove the dash and dremmel through the crashpad and vents, then stick the speaker through and slap a grill cover on top of it.... Now to find an appropriate grill cover.