As the title states, would having both b-pillar speakers and the headrest speakers be kinda pointless? I was designing my "final" plan for my Fiero and did plan on headrest speakers and got to thinking that maybe the b-pillars would be pointless? I'm pretty sure the Fiero I was in that had headrest speakers didn't have b-pillars. So would having the b-pillar ones also improve sound still or not be that much of a gain in sound? Thank you

~josh~

I would think that the seat speakers would drown out the b-pillars, but it might help add a little fullness to the sound in the car.

I personally think I would dislike the headrest speakers. Having the B pillar speakers where they are is close enough for me.

Having had loud car stereos, lotta loud concerts, many nights at nightclubs who had the music too loud, and working construction and not always using the proper hearing proection, I have noticed I have lost the ability to hear certain tones.

I am looking at trying to find a better place for the B pillar speakers to get them a little farther away form my ears which should hopefully give a better all around even sound.

I think B-Pillar speakers would be great with the headrest speakers, that's what I'm planning. Since my car originally came with B-pillar speakers but it also has headrest speakers. I would want the B-pillars to produce more bass to make the sound more "full" from the rear of the car. The headrest speakers can handle high-pitched sounds just fine, but they can't give bass worth a crap. Eventually I'd want to make it so I have 8 speakers, 2 in the dash, 4 in the headrests, 2 in the B pillar, and I also want a couple of small bass speakers out of a Camaro to put in the doors.

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http://members.cardomain.com/tinton

Yeah I was thinking the b-pillar ones would be more "bass" producing ones, but as jscott1 said I am afraid of drowning out. I love the sound of headrest speakers. More responses appreciated and thank you guys to the above people.

~josh~

You're not going to get all that much more bass out of the b-pillar speakers vs. headreast speakers, at least, not without plenty of work. I was planning on putting headrest speakers in my car at some point as well, though, if only for the simple fact that the little holes punched through the leather make the seats look that much better. If you do enough work, and install block-offs for various frequencies to the different speakers, and fix the headrest speakers so that the volume on them doesn't get too loud, I think they could add to the sound, especially in a car where you want to do dts/5.1 sound, like I'm planning to do.

-- Rodney

Anything close to your ears will drown out whatever is farther away from your ears. You may be able to put them on there own channel depending on your steroe, and fade them out, but what you really want to do is get all the speakers farther away from you.

Ideally having them equal distance would work best. Bass can come from almost anywhere and sound OK, the mid and treble sounds need to be more strategically placed to sound good. Look at how home stereo systems are built. They try to space all speakers equally around where the person will be sitting, and at equal distances away. None are real close to the person.

quote Originally posted by slickrick2000: Anything close to your ears will drown out whatever is farther away from your ears. You may be able to put them on there own channel depending on your steroe, and fade them out, but what you really want to do is get all the speakers farther away from you. Ideally having them equal distance would work best. Bass can come from almost anywhere and sound OK, the mid and treble sounds need to be more strategically placed to sound good. Look at how home stereo systems are built. They try to space all speakers equally around where the person will be sitting, and at equal distances away. None are real close to the person.

Actually, the rear surround speakers tend to be closer to the person than the rest. However, on a home theater system, you can also adjust each speaker individually usually, to account for different height/distance. And most of the actual audio in 5.1 movies tends to end up coming out of the center channel directly in front, anyway, because it's meant to sound like the actors are directly in front of you, and all the ambient sound tends to come from the surrounds, with the bass of course going to the sub.

The distance from your ears the speakers are, isn't the problem. It's the amount of audio coming out of them. Most people want to shove the most amps/speakers they can in their car, because they think it's cool, and it'll sound better. A sure way to kill your hearing is to stick a 1000w audio system in the cabin of a Fiero, and use it to its potential. Having a high wattage stereo doesn't make it a quality system. Moving the speakers away from your ear might help initially to not drown out other things, but the audio is probably more drowning out everything else because the volume is too high. If you just move the speakers somewhere else, why wouldn't you just turn them up louder, since something else is likely to drown out the speakers at that point? Another problem is that dash-mount speakers suck. If you send too much to the 4x10s in the dash, you end up getting vibrations from the grilles, windshield, and the dash itself, which distorts the audio, so you end up fading more audio to the rear. What you really need to do is replace the in-dash speakers with 5.25" components in the doors, or in the footrest area, with the tweeter in the a-piller, and put a nice set of 4x6" in the b-pillar with some bass-blockers in them. And put a 6.5" subwoofer under the dash. Then you should get really nice sound, without drowning everything out, as you can put more forward bias in the audio, than rear bias.

-- Rodney

So.....what route should I go?? Maybe I should give a little info on my final plan.

I plan on doing a 4th gen firebird dash.....so as you know they don't have speakers in the dash. I plan on using the firebird door panels, so some kinda door speaker on each door. I'm not looking to go competing in sound competitions, but I want something that sounds nice? Would really nice door speakers, and headrest speakers be enough? Or should I include b-pillar speakers in my plan? Thanks

P.S. Not looking to do a center console sub, or under the passenger well sub so thats out of the question.

~Josh~

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1986 Fiero Diablo - Project in the making, currently just a regular Fiero.

If you have an 84 or 85 count the B pillar speakers out if you want to put them in the stock location as 86-88 has them. There are no provisions for them in the sheetmetal. Hence if you wanted them, you'd have to do some cutting. The best sounds will be from a plate 4x6 instead of the oval.

I would go with the door speakers, a small sub, and 4x6 plates, or even a good set of 4x6 regulars. The plates can be a little annoying, because the deepest point isn't in the center. The Polk 4x6 regulars I have sound plenty good, with all the noise coming from the engine bay. Another option is while doing the f-body interior, you can upgrade the stereo to a monsoon system out of a firebird too. It has a pretty good separate amp, and can put out some good sound. Good luck on the project.

-- Rodney

quote Originally posted by Fiero Finale: So.....what route should I go?? Maybe I should give a little info on my final plan. I plan on doing a 4th gen firebird dash.....so as you know they don't have speakers in the dash. I plan on using the firebird door panels, so some kinda door speaker on each door. I'm not looking to go competing in sound competitions, but I want something that sounds nice? Would really nice door speakers, and headrest speakers be enough? Or should I include b-pillar speakers in my plan? Thanks P.S. Not looking to do a center console sub, or under the passenger well sub so thats out of the question. ~Josh~

Fieroeddie, the Fiero in question is my 1986 Fiero which currently has the b-pillar speakers.

Dobey, excuse my ignorance but the b-pillars are 4x6 right? That is what your talking about in your post is refering to b-pillar(4x6 speakers) correct? I plan on upgrading everything in the long run(dont' we all lol) so new speakers would be in line at some point. Just trying to decide & design everything for my Fiero. Like I said, not wanting to put a sub into to the works.

So

door speakers
headrest speakers
b-pillar speakers

good? I'm just worried that having both b-pillar and headrest is going to be "bells and whistles" concept as in not much of a gain? I'm not a audio person so I have no clue. Cause I doubt JUST door speakers and headrest speakers will be fine but if b-pillar ones are not going to be that much of a gain in sound then it would be kinda pointless if that is correct. Thanks for all the responses so far and appreciate more!

~josh~

Headrest speakers work for me .But then again I got a 84 it come that way

quote Originally posted by Fiero Finale: good? I'm just worried that having both b-pillar and headrest is going to be "bells and whistles" concept as in not much of a gain? I'm not a audio person so I have no clue. Cause I doubt JUST door speakers and headrest speakers will be fine but if b-pillar ones are not going to be that much of a gain in sound then it would be kinda pointless if that is correct. Thanks for all the responses so far and appreciate more!

Yeah, the b-pillar are 4x6. You don't need a big sub to get nice bass. You should probably skip hooking up the headrest speakers, if you're not going for a high-end audio setup. It's not worth the amount of work it takes, for the little difference you'll get out of it, with your system. Or, if someone already did all the work to use them instead of the b-pillars, it's probably not worth the work to rewire the setup to use the b-pillars instead. Unless you're going to be watching a lot of DTS/5.1 DVDs in your car, the headrest speakers probably aren't worth it.

As for the subwoofer, you don't need a big sub to get good bass. Get a factory performance sound setup, and install it in your car. It may be enough, or it might not be, or it might sound like crap because the speaker mounts to a metal frame mounted to a plastic box. If either of the last two are the case, it's easy to replace the factory enclosure/speaker, with a 6.5" sealed box in the same location under the dash. I just installed the performance sound setup in my GT last week, and hated the sound of the speaker in the plastic enclosure. I ended up buying 2 6.5" JL subs yesterday, in a box, and will be transplanting one of them, under the dash into a custom built box, soon, since the box as-is, is not easily hideable anywhere. But just plugging that box in, makes an astounding difference in the level and quality of audio in the car.

Hope that answers your questions. Good luck.

-- Rodney

i don't like the b-pillar speakers myself. i either turn them down or disconnect them, and keep an eye out for a set of speaker seats.

consider that with b pillar speakers one is a few inches away and the other is a few feet away. it's almost the same situation as the fronts, but more exaggerated.

you can work to physically center the front stage some (i pretty much always do speaker pods in the floor), but you can't back up the b pillars. likewise you could work on it electronicly with some kind if signal processor, but again, adjusting it for the rears will be harder than ajusting it for the fronts, unless you spend some cash for a pretty good processor. either way, if you're into a good front stage it'll just be a hinderance to centering it.

with seat speakers both are close, but the left-right distances are even so you can just turn them down, work out a simple delay that will work for both rear channels, or maybe even just wire them out of phase from the fronts. i did experiment with one rear speaker in a pod that's part of my third brake light (the idea is that it faces the rear window and reflects/disperses the sound off of it), but i'm not sure if it was worth the effort.

but i wouldn't do both, that's too much rear fill. if i had to do b pillars i'd probaly run them in mono.