Rockford Fosgate FNX2405 - Manual (Page 6)

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M
OUNTING
L
OCATION
A solid front stage with a good image is one of the most difficult tasks to
achieve in a vehicle. No car has the optimum listening environment. This
makes proper sound staging very difficult to accomplish. Most speakers
tend to be placed where they will fit easily, as opposed to where they can
perform the best. The mounting location of your speakers will have a great
effect on the sound quality of your stereo system. The special care taken to
place the speakers will yield many hours of listening enjoyment in return.
Several important recommendations should be followed.
• Place the speakers where they have a direct path to the listening area.
• For the best integration between the midrange and tweeter, the tweeter
should be placed less than 2" from the midrange. (Figure 1)
• If you cannot place the tweeter less than 2"
from the midrange, then place the tweeter
more than 7" from the midrange. Placing the
tweeter 2"–7" from the midrange can cause
destructive interference (frequency response
problems) which will affect the speaker's
ability to reproduce the frequency range
around the crossover frequency of the sys-
tem.
• Whenever possible, place the tweeter direct-
ly above or below the midrange as this max-
imizes the imaging (point source) capability of the speakers (Figure 2).
Figure 1
2" or less
Figure 2-A Figure 2-B
• Sound radiated from a “point source” provides the best stereo imaging because
the separation of the acoustical centers between the midrange and tweeter for
each channel is at the optimum distance. In a closed environment such as an
automobile, horizontal speaker alignment (Figure 2-A) can cause severe ampli-
tude and phase differences which will degrade not only the imaging, but also
the frequency response. This is due to the path length differences between the
midrange and tweeter. With a vertical alignment (Figure 2-B), the path length
difference between the midrange and tweeter are reduced to a minimum. The