Initial Results after adding Tweeters

[crestima]

Hi folks,
@Chriscpm and I met this morning in Miami to share our Emira mod experiences and amongst others, we did a side-by-side comparison of our audio system's sound by playing the same two songs, "Another Brick in The Wall" (Part 1) and "Hotel California" in each of our cars. I have the OEM KEF system with no upgrades while his has the same OEM KEF, but with the added A-pilar Alpine tweeters he posted above. To ensure that we were comparing like-to-like, we set both audio systems to the same three equalizer settings and to the same volume level, We concluded that @Chriscpm's system does sound significantly better. I agree with his previously posted description that the Alpine tweeters provide a "surround sound" type of effect. This makes sense as the location of the tweeters in the A-pilar location seem to make the sound bounce around from the top of the dash and off the windshield towards the occupants. Coincidentally, the Alpine Tweeters did not eliminate the door mounted ones, rather just added to them, so it makes sense that he tapped in to the midrange wires. I'm no audiophile for sure, and @Chriscpm is far more technically knowledgeable about sound systems than I am, but this live comparison sufficed to convinced me to go ahead with the Alpine Tweeter mod as well. No question the KEF sound system could also benefit from a stronger Bass with addition of a quality sub-woofer, but, for me, adding the A-pillar tweeters will be enough. A special thanks to @Chriscpm for this experiment. Below are some pictures of our Emiras.

 

[Nova]

Can you ELI5? I’d like to consider doing this mod but don’t have a clue about what to do

Speaker drivers are designed to play specific frequency ranges. A 1" tweeter like the Alpine is *TYPICALLY* designed for playing frequencies above 2000-2500Hz. Say "tss" to yourself, that's the frequency it's designed to play.

The front speaker of the KEF contains both a midrange and a tweeter. So there are two sets of amplifier wires feeding it. If you tap the tweeter amplifier wires for the additional Alpine tweeter, you are probably good to go, since those amplifier wires is already sending tweeter-only signals. If you tap the midrange wires, then this would send midrange signals to the Alpine tweeter. This would be bad for the tweeter. Imagine driving the Emira with the stock suspension off road. I normally would say that this would sound terrible, as an Emira would also make a terrible off-road vehicle, but I don't want to get into back and forth about what sounds good or bad since everyone's preferences are different.

I wouldn't recommend it, but it's not my car, or my ears. So.

 

[crestima]

Speaker drivers are designed to play specific frequency ranges. A 1" tweeter like the Alpine is *TYPICALLY* designed for playing frequencies above 2000-2500Hz. Say "tss" to yourself, that's the frequency it's designed to play.

The front speaker of the KEF contains both a midrange and a tweeter. So there are two sets of amplifier wires feeding it. If you tap the tweeter amplifier wires for the additional Alpine tweeter, you are probably good to go, since those amplifier wires is already sending tweeter-only signals. If you tap the midrange wires, then this would send midrange signals to the Alpine tweeter. This would be bad for the tweeter. Imagine driving the Emira with the stock suspension off road. I normally would say that this would sound terrible, as an Emira would also make a terrible off-road vehicle, but I don't want to get into back and forth about what sounds good or bad since everyone's preferences are different.

I wouldn't recommend it, but it's not my car, or my ears. So.

Thanks for that feedback @Nova. When I receive my Alpine tweeters and have the required panels removed, it should be fairly easy for me to compare the output sound quality by tapping in to the wires feeding the OEM tweeters first, as you recommend, and then tapping in to the midrange wires, as @Chriscpm did, to determine which actually sounds best, at least to my ears. Again, I'm not an audio expert, by any stretch, but the one aspect that I'd like to preserve, which I already know works with @Chriscpm's method is for the OEM tweeters to continue to work in tandem with the Alpines (4 altogether). Do you believe this to be the case as well when I tap in to the Tweeter wires, or will one set disable the other somehow?
@Chriscpm was kind enough to provide me with the speaker wire color codes, which is very helpful and he'll likely be sharing that info here shortly if it was not already posted somewhere in the forum.

 

[Nova]

Thanks for that feedback @Nova. When I receive my Alpine tweeters and have the required panels removed, it should be fairly easy for me to compare the output sound quality by tapping in to the wires feeding the OEM tweeters first, as you recommend, and then tapping in to the midrange wires, as @Chriscpm did, to determine which actually sounds best, at least to my ears. Again, I'm not an audio expert, by any stretch, but the one aspect that I'd like to preserve, which I already know works with @Chriscpm's method is for the OEM tweeters to continue to work in tandem with the Alpines (4 altogether). Do you believe this to be the case as well when I tap in to the Tweeter wires, or will one set disable the other somehow?
@Chriscpm was kind enough to provide me with the speaker wire color codes, which is very helpful and he'll likely be sharing that info here shortly if it was not already posted somewhere in the forum.

Tapping the wires keeps the existing drivers working. No worries there.

 

[Six Speed Stephen]

Speaker drivers are designed to play specific frequency ranges. A 1" tweeter like the Alpine is *TYPICALLY* designed for playing frequencies above 2000-2500Hz. Say "tss" to yourself, that's the frequency it's designed to play.

The front speaker of the KEF contains both a midrange and a tweeter. So there are two sets of amplifier wires feeding it. If you tap the tweeter amplifier wires for the additional Alpine tweeter, you are probably good to go, since those amplifier wires is already sending tweeter-only signals. If you tap the midrange wires, then this would send midrange signals to the Alpine tweeter. This would be bad for the tweeter. Imagine driving the Emira with the stock suspension off road. I normally would say that this would sound terrible, as an Emira would also make a terrible off-road vehicle, but I don't want to get into back and forth about what sounds good or bad since everyone's preferences are different.

I wouldn't recommend it, but it's not my car, or my ears. So.

Thanks for the explanation. Just so I understand, the single speaker in the door has two separate wires attached to it from the AMP?

 

[Nova]

Thanks for the explanation. Just so I understand, the single speaker in the door has two separate wires attached to it from the AMP?

Four separate wires, one pair for the tweeter and one pair for the midrange. You need to find out the color code of the wires that belong together. If you take one wire from the tweeter and one from the midrange, the amplifier is going to have a bad time.