9 replies to this topic

[Rusty789]

I know some people have put front speakers in two of the air vents on the dash but I'm a little concerned about doing this as the car will be used throughout winter, and I'd imagine I'd want every bit of available heat going!

What I was thinking, was buying another set of turbo sill pocket bits and playing around with some fibreglass and attempting to fit some speakers in there.. The pockets are pretty useless any way as any spirited driving the stuff in them just falls out unless its nicely wedged!



(Don't have an interior picture of my car so stole someone else's off here courtesy of Google!)

But what's behind there, if anything? How do I remove them?

Ideas? Anyone done it before, I'm sure someone must of?

(And I have searched before anyone knows of anything but the search brings up a lot of useless nonsense!)

[TIP]

I fitted speakers into the two outboard vents 3 winters ago.

I took the ducting off the bottom of the dash and blocked off the outer parts, therefore all the air goes to the two centre vents, same amount of air, half the exits = double the pressure. The air flow is almost up to normal cars standards through those vents now.

the windscreen now clears much faster than before (the vanes need to be pointing in the right direction for the whole screen to clear though)

The cabin of the vx is so small that mine actually gets too hot after 15 mins and I end up with the window open on most drives, even at silly O'Clock in the morning.

conclusion
Better sound
no impact on overall cabin temperature
Quicker clearing screen

win win win

[cs_]

Don't have to mess with the air vents. Just take a sharp knife, carefully cut out the cover foil and a screw drivers blade to model the foam beneath to fit the tweeters. The woofers can be fit in the rear wall behind the seats replacing the OEM 5-inch-speakers. The crossover networks can be mounted right under the dashboard at a position over the radio, there is a large headroom where you may stick it to the foam of the dash. The old OEM speaker cables will then be used for the woofers only, the radio outputs directly to the crossovers and the tweeters are fed from the crossovers with a pair of new cables beneath the dash foam. Sounds really cool because the high audio frequencies are reflected by the windscreen's glass. Works perfect and no impact on the air supply.  speedster1183.jpg   147.54KB   21 downloads

[-Dab-of-Oppo-]

What I was thinking, was buying another set of turbo sill pocket bits and playing around with some fibreglass and attempting to fit some speakers in there.

If you are talking about components and are wanting just the small tweeters there then they should fit into the flat section of the pocket like hhe optional oem ones do. That is where I put mine and am happy enough, wires are easilly lead under the black sill covers and cross overs mounted behind the rear panel.

The void behind the pocket section extends for miles, if you knocked the bottom through you could probably slot an umbrella in there!

[Rusty789]

What I was thinking, was buying another set of turbo sill pocket bits and playing around with some fibreglass and attempting to fit some speakers in there.

If you are talking about components and are wanting just the small tweeters there then they should fit into the flat section of the pocket like hhe optional oem ones do. That is where I put mine and am happy enough, wires are easilly lead under the black sill covers and cross overs mounted behind the rear panel.

The void behind the pocket section extends for miles, if you knocked the bottom through you could probably slot an umbrella in there!

Nope, I've got like the smallest speakers (co-axial) known to man I used them from in my old car and was thoroughly impressed by the sound level for such a small speaker, admittedly they weren't cheap but well worth it..

So if I could get a pair of sill end pocket bits that I could hack about there's plenty of room behind them?

[techieboy]

So if I could get a pair of sill end pocket bits that I could hack about there's plenty of room behind them?

About 12" of space behind the pocket section. But not behind the inboard section where the standard tweeters go. You'll need something with a pretty shallow mounting depth if you want them flush.

[-Dab-of-Oppo-]

So if I could get a pair of sill end pocket bits that I could hack about there's plenty of room behind them?

On the right hand side yes, but from memory I think you will only have about 1.5'' of space to play with behind where I have mine fitted as the ally tub is there. What's the depth of the ones you have?

[-Dab-of-Oppo-]

Here you go this is a picture of what is behind -

[wantsum]

I fitted speakers into the two outboard vents 3 winters ago.

I took the ducting off the bottom of the dash and blocked off the outer parts, therefore all the air goes to the two centre vents, same amount of air, half the exits = double the pressure. The air flow is almost up to normal cars standards through those vents now.

the windscreen now clears much faster than before (the vanes need to be pointing in the right direction for the whole screen to clear though)

The cabin of the vx is so small that mine actually gets too hot after 15 mins and I end up with the window open on most drives, even at silly O'Clock in the morning.

conclusion
Better sound
no impact on overall cabin temperature
Quicker clearing screen

win win win

Yep I did this, installed two 4 inch speakers in front, it improved the sound
and sound balance in the car no end, no effect on heating in fact by removing
the dash its gives you the opertunity to seal the dash up properly giving more air
flow, my cabin gets toasty now
now.

[phy6]

 

What I was thinking, was buying another set of turbo sill pocket bits and playing around with some fibreglass and attempting to fit some speakers in there.

If you are talking about components and are wanting just the small tweeters there then they should fit into the flat section of the pocket like hhe optional oem ones do. That is where I put mine and am happy enough, wires are easilly lead under the black sill covers and cross overs mounted behind the rear panel.

The void behind the pocket section extends for miles, if you knocked the bottom through you could probably slot an umbrella in there!

 

I really like how that location looks!  With the Lotus Elise/Exige we have a very similar space.  I guess the sound stage would be lower, but it's much less intrusive than some huge A pillar pods.  If one is willing to do a bit of fabrication and maybe move some buttons, a 5.25"/125mm speaker could be made to fit!  I'd really like your input on my thread, over at http://www.vx220.org...d-advice-lotus/