Where to position component speakers in back passenger area

Okay, I know the title of this post is long but here is something to think about. Most of the members here are putting components in the front cabin area and coaxials in the rear cabin area. I am planning on putting components on both front and rear cabins. I have the positions pretty much figured out for the front highs but I have no clue on where to position the highs for the rears. Has anyone tried installing components in the rear? Where do you suggest is a good location to mount the highs? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.:)

Are you doing this for the benefit of back seat passengers? Or is it for "fill" and ambience for you as the driver?

If it is for the passengers I'd probably try to mount the tweeters in the doors as high up as you can do it.

If it is for ambience or fill I'd be tempted to put them in the upper rear corners near the roof.

I know some car audio don't like separation between the tweeter and the mid-woofers - hence kick panel speakers. But have a tweeter in the driver side kick panel makes no sense to me. My point is that I think separation is OK (my opinion) as the lesser of two evils.

Are you doing this for the benefit of back seat passengers? Or is it for "fill" and ambience for you as the driver?

If it is for the passengers I'd probably try to mount the tweeters in the doors as high up as you can do it.

If it is for ambience or fill I'd be tempted to put them in the upper rear corners near the roof.

I know some car audio don't like separation between the tweeter and the mid-woofers - hence kick panel speakers. But have a tweeter in the driver side kick panel makes no sense to me. My point is that I think separation is OK (my opinion) as the lesser of two evils.

Hello Hofffam, thanks for chimin' in. I'm looking for ambience. An installer advised against mounting it in the C-Pillar area (he said too close to the passenger's ears). He suggested an area on the B-Pillar. I initally was thinking an area behind the rear passengers. What negatives, besides what I already mentioned, are there for mounting the highs behind the rear passengers? Let's keeep this thread going.

a lot of car audio enthusiats will opt not to have rear fill, but if you must have them, they would recomment just a pair of coaxials

BTW - I didn't comment on the use of components in the rear, but I tend to agree with vpkb that they might be unnecessary.

As for the C pillar - how often do you have passengers in the rear? And when you do - do you listen to music seriously? If not - just use the fader and turn them off when you have a carful.

Maybe you guys can help me? I just came in from the garage, I am installing in the rear a polk audio with amp boozka style tube on the pass side rear, on the floor. I ran the main power cable thru the firewall, using the shift cable linkcage boot/gromet.:) That went fine, looked up on this thread all day at work when I had time to get all the radio wire harness colors correct before I started the project. After everything installed I have no amp, no power, nothing to the amp at all.:mad: I just moved so I do not have 75% of my tools in my garage, so I do not have a test light.:confused: I have narrowed it down to a switched power on the radio harness or my ground. I am not sure I have the right colors. I printed off all the radio wire colors posted in this thread, thinking I have the right colors, but not sure. I read in one thread, that some color coding was in question?:
I would just like to double check the switched power colored wire on the radio harness. I have 6 disc with no nav and I have xm. If someone can reconfirm that color for me I would feel better. I know I can't get back at this thing until wed evening, so I am frustrated,:rolleyes: I thought 2 hrs tops this thing would be done. So it goes, any one please help?

When you say switched power wire - do you mean a wire that turns hot when the radio is turned on? Or do you mean a power wire that turns on with the ignition?

For a wire that turns on when the radio turns on - you can use the wire used to power the antenna booster. It is one of the two wires on the antenna connector. I don't remember the color but I think it is NOT the center connector.

For power that goes on with the ignition - the wire color is YEL/RED (#2) on the 20 pin harness.

If you are a purist, rear speakers are not needed, but does help with creating ambience if it is not there naturally. If you have surround sound like I do in my RL, the rear speakers are essential. Speakers in the rear doors is not ideal in both cases. The low position of the rear speakers and the closeness to the front seats cause all kinds of problems. You may be better off with a mono signal in the back of a Ridgeline.

As for the tweeters in the kick panels, in certain vehicles, it is awesome. Single point speakers work best if your ears can see them. There are so many variables involved in car audio that you cannot predict what will and will not work. Speaker design -- on and off axis performance, level matching, phase characteristics, cone material, etc. Interior make up of vehicle -- shape of glass, cloth, leather, carpet, plastic, etc. Add to this temperature and humidity differences and the noise of the vehicle and how all this affects the sound. I recall listening to a vehicle where the speakers were firing foward from under the seats!! You would think this would result in a scattered sound with no imaging or soundstage whatsoever, but to my surprise, it was actually very pleasant. Silky smooth sound. I cannot remember exactly what vehicle it was installed in, but it was a 4 door sedan. Another weird example from my memory bank was when I had the rear speakers connected backwards on purpose. Left where right is supposed to be. Rear hatch cover mounted speakers. Playing very low, volume wise, compared to the main speakers up front.

Others have had success cutting off some of the highs because of the loacation of the tweeters and the angle of the rear glass.

Lucky for me I have a deck that has presets for everything. One for surround sound, one for crankin her up after one of those crazy days at work, one for laid back I don't care if I'm three hours late for work kind of mornings, etc.

I have friend who is so anal he has been working on installing a system in the same car for 15 plus years. Always changing something - moving a tweeter over 1/8 of an inch to get the desired effect - this after spending weeks fabricating a seamless mount. Changing the speaker cloth and surrounding panels, etc. People think he's nuts, but man, you sit in that car of his and the whole world goes away. It's just you and the music. You can hear every instrument where it is supposed to be. No kidding, he researches material (recordings) and makes sure things are where they are. He's one of the very few people I know who can pass A/B comparison tests 10 times out of 10. When tuning a system, he can tell you what frequency is peaking and by how much. Serious competitors pay to get him to set up their systems.

I don't know why I am spewing this stuff........ just letting you know it takes all kinds of people to make this world go round. Me, I'm just happy I can hear the harpsichord in the background............

When you say switched power wire - do you mean a wire that turns hot when the radio is turned on? Or do you mean a power wire that turns on with the ignition?

For a wire that turns on when the radio turns on - you can use the wire used to power the antenna booster. It is one of the two wires on the antenna connector. I don't remember the color but I think it is NOT the center connector.

For power that goes on with the ignition - the wire color is YEL/RED (#2) on the 20 pin harness.
Well if I have it right I need a switched remote power source for the amp. I am trying to get that off the harness on the back o the stereo. BTW thanks for the help so quick, I was ready to turn out the lights and try again tomorrow.

I wonder what the antenna power wire is rated at. Not that a remote signal would draw that much power. I think you would be better off getting the power from the switched source to the deck just to be safe. Or better yet, because you don't want to cut into the factory harness, get power from the fuse block. If you're like me and have the radio on all the time, getting power from fuse block would make sense. You can always use a relay...... OK, I'll just go away.:)

...After everything installed I have no amp, no power, nothing to the amp at all.:mad: ... I have narrowed it down to a switched power on the radio harness or my ground. I am not sure I have the right colors...

Hello Ridgelinernr, It appears your amp is not turning on. Am I correct? Would the radio remote switch work? On 20-pin A connector, it is the Green/Red wire in the #3 position. The radio remote switch ground is the Brown wire in the #11 position. I'm not sure if this will turn on your amp but I'm sure someone will chime in if this is right or wrong. Good luck.

Ridgelinernr, are you sure the bazooka tube is working?
.........just a thought. You did mention you didn't have a test light.

Thanks BONGUS & HOFFFAM for the help. I think I have 2 issues. I will try the green/red wire and also check my ground over my lunch hour today. I have most of my tools stored at my brothers place and have not had the time to get them. I just moved. I can get a test light from one of my techs at work. I really thought I could get this in with no issues, but that's the way it works sometimes. I am install the tube/amp(all in one assembly) under the pass side rear seat. The way I m setting it up is, to be able to remove it whenever I have a carload of people and need the space. It is very easy to throw it in the trunk when not in use.
Also, had a strange idea, can a person just tap into the factory sub speaker wires? I currently have a line output converter hooked up to the right and left rear speaker wires at the HU. This is a very simple install. 1 ground, 1 remote wire, 1 main power wire, and the line output converter into rca's, to go to the amp. It has been about 2yrs since I have done any stereo install, and kinda rusty I guess. Any help is always appreciatedfrom you guys. It was real nice knowing that if I had a problem, I could come here and get some good answers from ROC heads::cool: Thanks again.

The remote turn on wire is needed just to switch a relay inside the power amps. They do it that way specifically to avoid having a switched high current power source. I mentioned the antenna booster lead because it is the only wire available from the factory HU that turns on when the radio turns on. The antenna booster probably uses a tiny amount of electricity but I think it should be enough to turn on an amp. The wire gauge looked like about 20 gauge but my memory is fading....

bongus - does that #3 wire turn on when the radio turns on? If so that should a better wire than the antenna booster wire.

But to be completely safe I agree with mugen1 that you could just use the ignition based wire. The disadvantage of that is that the amp will be ON any time the car is running or on ACC.

Mugen1 - I understand the potential to tweak the hell out of everything. Do the Richard Clarke thing..... but I think it is relatively easy to get to very good sound, if not nirvana. But it takes a huge amount of time (and money) to get to nirvana - which I simply don't have. Maybe when I retire....after my kids get through college.

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...bongus - does that #3 wire turn on when the radio turns on? If so that should a better wire than the antenna booster wire...

I can't confirm what that wire does, I just pulled that information from the Service Manual and the description appeared to be the wire he was looking for. I guess my best suggestion is to test it and see what happens. Sorry for the vague response...good luck. Please reply to this thread and tell us what worked.

Have test light in hand and will get this setup to work tonight and post which switched wire I will be using for the remote power to the amp::o

Ok, was able to find switched power source, it is the yellow/red wire. It works for the remote on for the amp. The black power boost wire had power but, would barely light up the test light. Also found that main ground wire for the amp was not good. I originally used a black self tapping screw. Switched that out to a stainless screw and all is well. I can't believe how much of a difference it made with the sound. I am still useing the factory sub also. I dial that back with the HU and balance it out with the new amp & sub.
I used a line output converter off of the rear speaker wires and I am able to fade on the amp & bass as much as desired. What an add for less than $200. I also made it so I can take it out when ever the need comes about, for pass comfort. The tube is too big to have the rear seat(lt or rt sides) lock down, but it does fit on the rt side with the seat up and the lt seat locked down.
Thanks for all the help from the people on this thread. It is always easier to do something to the Ridgr when I know I can get on here and ask questions and get answers real quick, Thanks again.;)

Hey Ridgelinernr, I'm glad it worked out for you. I agree with you about this forum...it's been an invaluable resource for me and my RL. Great forum.

I can't believe how much of a difference it made with the sound.

Ground is THE most important part of any car audio install. I go out of my way to ground everything to one point. Bare metal and with oversized cables.

It affects the way all components operates -- good current flow.

Also, ground loops introduce all kinds of noise to the system -- some directly audible, others indirectly audible.

Ground is even important for the rest of the car. There are grounding kits out on the market that claim improvement in performance by properly grounding the motor, tranny, what have you. I doubt some of their claims, but on older cars it makes quite a difference. Newer cars, maybe not. Healthy ground makes everything run as it should. It's all about cost. Most manufacturers will save hundreds of thousnads by reducing the cost of a few items.

Anyway, I'm getting way off topic. Got too much time on my hands........