I have a Dynaudio 360 set (8" midwoofer, 3" midrange, 1" tweeter) that I've been holding onto and now it's time to try and fit the midwoofers in the front doors. My question pertains to anyone out there who has actually done this. Can it be done? Please...only those who have actually done this particular install.

I plan on making an MDF baffle and cutting the stock 6.5" holes slightly larger. I believe speaker depth will be okay. I'm mostly concerned about being able to properly fit the door panel back onto the door once they're in there. I've "eyed" the fit and it will be REALLY close. I don't care what the baffle will look like since it will be behind the door panel. I'm fairly skilled and if there's any way it WILL fit, I'll be able to do it. I was just hoping for some qualified testimonials!!


FYI...the midranges and tweets will go in kick panels.

Tony

 

I know someone put 8s in the rear doors before, but I can't recall anyone trying this on a 5th. gen front door. I think your biggest problem will be mounting depth. I know that I had to build some spacer rings to fit some 6.5s in my front doors so they didn't hit the window.

That said, I'm jealous. Those are some great speakers. And I too would do anything possible to get them in the fromt doors.

 

question, for 8's, dont' you have to have a sealed enclosure for them to work. would it sound like a$$ if ti wasn't enclosed
i was thinking of using CM-3 8's in my kickpanel. just a thought.

 

Put the 8's and tweets in the kicks, and the mid in the door. Don't be so hard on yourself...K.I.S.S.

 

Well, to have the best sound possible in any door, yes, you should strive to have a sealed enclosure. A fiberlgass enclosure would be ideal. You can use sound deadening materials and do a pretty good job, though. These 8s used to be mounted in my Explorer and the sound was phenomenal. No rattles, resonations, and tons of midbass. I did the doors in my Max in the same fashion as my Explorer. Check out my homepage for pics.

You would have to make a custom, sealed kickpanel for two reasons: The first is due to the woofer's size. No pre-made kick panels I know of accomodate an 8-inch speaker. Secondly, you would need more internal space for the "enclosure" than a regular kick panel would provide...plus, you would have to seal it.

Tony

 

See my reply to Polo. Dynaudio actually recommends this woofer for a door panel. The door just needs to be properly damped and "sealed".

Thanks for the input, though.

Tony

 

I'm hoping the baffle will take care of the mounting depth. I'm just worried about cramming everything underneath the door panel and having it all fit together later.

I'm going to give it my best try!

Tony

 

let's work on that thought....i move my 6.5" to the kickpanel.
i've strengthened my doors as well, but there's always space for more. would it be sufficient enough if i mount these 8's in my doors. my worry would be sound, because space, i can make. and mounting the door panel is very doable. i just recall speaking to a diamond audio rep when i had this thought in my mind and he said i'd have to somehow make a .5 cubic enclosure. would a "strong" door provide the same quality.

my weakness in my system is mids. i get peircing highs and not enough mids to go with it. i've been pondering this idea for a good 4 months now.

 

I'm not familiar with the specs on your particular Diamond mid, but I would make an educated guess that you could definitely get away with putting it in a "sealed" door. Did you look at my pics? To most people, what I did is way overkill. But if you heard my Explorer with the Dynaudios in there you would have drooled. The midbass generated by a properly installed, powered, and tweaked 8-inch mid in the doors is awesome. I got this idea from Peter Lufrano at the Autophile when I purchased the speakers from him. If you have the patience to properly seal the doors like I did (or more for that matter) you will be greatly rewarded! The tweeters and midranges are both acoustically sealed so any good kickpanel will do...they don't need to be sealed.

Tony

 

this is my sealing method so far on my doors...cascade quietkote. i was hoping to add some sheets in the future....unless you feel this is enough to setup my 8's in there. believe me, i dropped this whole idea until you JUST brought it up and i've got ideas going through my head like crazy. my D5 amp runs 300x2@2ohm stereo. if i ran the 8's parallel with my components, i get 4 ohm at each setup, and 2 ohm into that amp. this will bring enough wattage to 8's to sound pretty nice.

man oh man oh man look what you did.

 

Polo, that looks great! We definitely need to keep eachother posted. I'm not sure how long before I get started....but definitely before winter gets here.

I plan on running the 8 actively using two channels off my Phoenix Gold ZX475ti amp, and then using the Dynaudio passive xover for the midranges and tweets with the remaining two channels.

I used a combination of mastic damping sheets (Dynamat knockoff) and Cascade B-Quiet (I think that's what it's called). I would recommend you completely seal everything off like I did. You definitely have the vibration and resonance problem adequately solved, but you still want as much of an "enclosure" as you can get. You'll never get it totally sealed, but aim for 95%.

Here's my doors:

 

just looked up the info on the 8" i'd get.....it's 4.13" mounting depth
i wonder if that's too deep.

next step, deciding my crossover settings.

 

The dynaudio if I remember correctly is a fairly small 8 inch speaker. Shouldn't be tough to get it in the door. Although I admit not haveing first hand knowledge of the 5th gen doors. Free air in the doors allows better low frequency extension and efficiency. The downside is power handling. But I wouldn't worry about that. Gains are easy to turn down. I had DA 8.6 HEX mids in my rear doors. Worked well. But I plan to have 8's in my front doors soon. I may use the same HEX 8.6's if the speakers I want can't be found. If the speakers you get are too deep to fit the door panel over a small spacer can easilly be placed alone the bottem edge of the door panel to hold it out from the door. That along with some weather stripping on the edge of the door panel should work pretty well and not be easilly visible.

Reference the crossover settings play around with the setting making adjustments by ear. Get or make a test tone CD to dial in the frequncy to get the best balance with the mid and midbass. WinISD has a test tone generator and a tone can easilly be copied to CD. Or just plug a laptop into your signal before the amps.

 

not sure if this is good for comparison but the picture below is the bracket i am using to mount my rear M3 coaxial. it's the same thickness for my front - 1" MDF

IIRC, my front mid was hitting the window when mounted W/OUT the bracket, and with the bracket it cleared it easily. now, my mid mounting depth is 2-1/8"...so 4.13" on the 8D2 is going to be rather HARD to mount. i'd have to use a 2" ring, and then at that point, i need to consider that the door panel will not mount. you suggest spacers. i'm thinking cutting out, and then mounting the speaker grill on top. if it's not that bad, it should mount nicely, IF IT works. i'd prolly use an OEM looking grill cover.

this is all just ideas thrown in my head.

second thing i'm thinking about is my amp. currently, i'm running hex 6.5's up front off a D5-600.2 - 150x2@4ohm. it has the capability of running in stereo mode at 300x2@2ohm. the 8D2 can be wired up to 4ohm, then wired at the amp, next to the hex's, bringing the setup down to 2ohm. on top of that, my hex crossover has an RAF input, which i am using, which is where my m3 coaxial is connected. so we're talking 4 speakers would eventually be wired into 1 channel. is it me or does that just sound bizarre. i guess ideally, i shoudl have gotten the 600.4 which is 150x4 - 2 channels for the components and 2 channels for the 8", but alas it's too late. i'm not buying another amp. unless i got another 600.2.hmmmmmmmmmmm.

for those that know the DA hex series w/raf and this whole crazy idea, what are your thoughts?

pic of my rear coaxial placement with 1" MDF and cascade quietkote with layer of dynamat extreme for speaker only.

 

The RAF / amp combo should work fine. But the midbass would receive a full range signal. There would be a lot of overlap in the 40 - 4000 Hz range where our ears are most sensitive. Drivers side won't be as noticable in the range above about 400 Hz because of directionality of those frequencies. But it may make your stage really lopsided to the right in that critical range. As well as the numerous interactions of two different speakers playing the same frequencies at different angles and different distances from you ears.

Who makes the 8D2?

 

since i have a full diamond audio setup, i'd like to stay DA. they make an 8" speaker, dual 2 and dual 4ohm coil. i was looking at that speaker.

8D4 = 8" Dual 4
8D2 = 8" Dual 2

 

Yes, it only has a 3-1/16 inch mounting depth. And the spider is not very large either.

Tony

 

this is a nice idea which i actually thought of earlier thats y i had don order the diamond audio mx3 crossovers for me for my car, but the issue that i had is that diamond doesnt make an 8 in the hex line. Im wondering how good the cm3 really sound since its their low budget speaker. Is there a reason that they dont make an 8 in hex? i wonder.

 

I've got 7s in my doors. 8s wouldn't be much harder to put in. I just used the factory "enclosure" that the 6.5 came in and screwed a template to it. It took about 20 minutes total.
Kevin

 

Thanks. I hope you're right. I'll be making a baffle out of MDF and it will prolly be around 9" or more in diameter by the time it's finished.

Tony

 

They had an 8 inch HEX when they were still using the Eton drivers made in Germany. I think Diamond overpriced them and they didn't sell in the volume they wanted. They are nice 8's but not $300 each nice. There are a lot of other nicer 8's for less money.