Im going to be installing some 5 1/4" component speakers in the door of pickup and im just wondering if anyone has tried the kick panel speaker pods. I would like to install the speakers just in the door but I dont know if there is enough room for a speaker a tweeter and a crossover and I dont want a bunch of speaker sticking out of the door so I had thought about kick panel speaker pods? Any thoughts? Thx

 

Kick panels are meant to be stepped on/ kicked when turning around to reverse ect... if you dont mind them on the way then it wouldnt be so bad but as far as sound quality, you would be blocking much of the sound from your when you are sitting IMO. I have speakers and tweets on the door and it doesnt stick out. Depends what vehicle and what speaker you plan on running... speakers with huge magnets are the ones that usually stick out. Good luck

 

You can easily put them in the door. All you need is some spacers to make them clear the windows.

I did a post on this already. Search "Clarion anyone" in the search bar

 

kick panel speakers are actually an ideal placement.

blocking the sound with your leg is less detrimental to sound quality than stereo latency.

basically the acoustics in a car suck and the best place to put speakers is as far away from your head as possible... the reason is the further away you place them the distance the sound has to travel is more equal left to right.

think about in terms of visuals what if one eye saw things a split second after the other eye... everything would look blurry and it'd be hard to pick out details of moving objects... same with audio except the sound gets "muddy" and loses fidelity.

This is more important for higher pitch sounds (tweeters) and less important for lower pitched sounds (subs).

OEMs avoid the kick panel because of the potential for damage but most audio installers will recommend it for the best quality (there's more than one lengthy write up on the subject). But this is also why most OEM setups place the tweeter at the base of the a-pillar, which is probably the next best spot after the kick panel, particularly if the car has a deep dash/long windshield.

high end audio receivers will let you adjust the left/right latency to balance it out regardless of placement.

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I had heard about kick panel placement from a number of pro-audio guys but didn't really believe them because they were never able to tell me "why" just that they were taught it was the best. It wasn't until I read a lengthy article on the subject buy an acoustic engineer (I think it was on Polk Audio's website but the link escapes me a the moment) that I understood the why... and it makes perfect sense.

 

I read a bunch on the Qlogic website as they are the ones that have the speaker pods and they same the same thing that you do. Im just wondering if its worth the 200 to buy the speaker pods or just install them in the door and call it done. Im just looking for something that isnt very noticeable and that was my concern for installing the component speakers in the door.

 

$200 is way more than it's worth...

get some PVC pipe and fiberglass and mold your own...

if you're worried about messing up your kick panels buy another set from someone parting out or stripping their truck, then you'll have an extra set to play with and not worry about it.

 

Personally I don't like the kick panel pods because you loose leg/foot room and there is a greater chance for damage. I put my 6" comps in the door and so far so good.

 

yeah personally I'm just getting a pair of 4" composites to put in the stock dash location (Boston Acoustics S45s) and a self powered 6" bazooka tube for behind the seats (BTA6100). There aren't any wires running to my doors, nor would I gain much by putting a 2nd pair of speakers behind the seat...

I mean unless you're building a show-truck or plan on dropping a few hundred to outfit your entire cab with dynomat to kill the tire, engine, and transmission noise, there really isn't much point to go crazy, especially in a regular cab.

if you have a 4Runner it might be worth trying to fit some 5.25 or 6.5" somewhere with some bigger subs just for some added umph do to the added air volume in the truck, but even still fidelity will be low when competing with the acute lack of sound deadening in a vehicle of this age.

If you want to hold block parties with your truck you could always get a roll bar and strap some huge outdoor speakers to it.

There's a guy near me with a T-Rex that has two enormous DJ-Level speakers bolted to the cage it looks ridiculous

 

you can get offbrand Qlogic pods for a lot cheaper according to some audio techs i spoke too. I think the price difference they said was $60 vs. name brand for $200.

Has anyone ever rocked these pods by any chance? I am considering getting some but am skeptical due to mud and rain. The pods face up at you so I would think that your feet kick and scrape the tops, and mud and water has no where to go but down-right down into your speakers.

 

I ran the Qlogic pods in my '95 and loved them.
The sound was amazing and you get used to the reduced leg room after a little while.

The most annoying part for me was having to trim the Husky liners to fit around them.

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