[88Stanger]

Originally Posted by par4tom

After that detour, let's get back to front sound stage issues. As I said earlier, our objective is to create an illusion of sound coming from over the top of the dash. And since 6 1/2 inch mids, or 5 1/4 inch mids won't fit on the dash, we are now stuck with a second dilemma what size speakers to buy and where to place them.

There have been many arguments over the years about what speakers are best, or which size speakers are best, and I won't get into that too much right here. Although I will say, buy good mids and tweets and buy as large of a driver as you can fit into the kickpod and still get acceptable performance.

Here is a very important point of speaker size:

1. If you are able to use the cowl vents as a type of infinite baffle (meaning the back of the speaker is vented out to the cowl vent), then going with solid pair of 6 1/2" midranges will work best. If you do not plan to use the cowl vents, DO NOT USE 6 1/2" drivers in a sealed kick pod. You simply will not get stellar performance out of this large of a driver.

Many people try to get around this by cutting the back of the kick pods out and venting the 6 1/2" drivers out into the cab. This is a huge mistake! There will be phasing issues and sound wave cancellation issues using this methodology.

Again, if you are stuck using the kick pod as an enclosure, you will actually get better performance and have fewer phasing problems and cancellations with a 5 1/4" driver or even a 4" drive. A good 5 1/4" driver or good 4" drive in a sealed enclosure, will outperform a 6 1/2" drive in a sealed kickpod.

In my application, I used the cowl vents with a good water shield in the vent to keep our rain and moisture and used a 6 1/2" drive. My crossover point is at 80 hz and is at a 12 db slope.

In the picture below you can see the first version of kickpod I made (I since redid them) showing a 6 1/2" midbass driver and a 2" mid/tweet driver down below it. I milled a Lexan beauty ring to hid the screws on the midbass driver.

"Water Shield"? What exactly is this?