The first time I saw tweeters mounted in a car's A pillars was at a "sound-off" competition back in the early '90s. As with auto racing, a lot of car audio innovations came out of the sound-off scene (tweeters mounted in the A pillars or "sail" panels of the doors, center-channel speakers, subwoofers in the front of the car) since competitors would try anything to give them an edge.
Over the years, automakers have adopted several applications that were first used in the aftermarket, and that can be directly traced to sound-off competitions. Our 2010 GMC Terrain has a tweeter in each A pillar, for example, as does our 2010 Chevrolet Traverse, although the system in the Terrain is from Pioneer and the one in the Traverse is from Bose.
Not that positioning the tweeters as far forward as possible does much to improve the Terrain system's sound quality or enhance imaging and staging, as evidence by an audio review of the system. But it's usually better than burying them in the doors.
Doug Newcomb, Senior Editor, Technology
bodyblue says:
12:07 PM, 12/24/10
Doug, do you get a better soundstage when the tweeters are in the pillars or in the dash reflecting off of the the windshield?
dougnewcomb says:
12:26 PM, 12/24/10
It depends, but typically the wider and more forward the tweeters and front mids are mounted in front of the driver, the better the soundstage. But I've heard systems with dash-mounted speakers that produce a decent soundstage, like in our long-term Audi A4 Avant: http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/12/2009-audi-a4-avant-audio-review.html
firstwagon says:
04:10 PM, 12/24/10
Doug
You seem to know more about audio then anyone I know.
Most of your reviews seem to show todays systems to be decent but not outstanding (lots of "C" grades.)
What's the best factory system you've tested so far? Has anything got an "A" for sound yet?
mkvgti says:
06:30 AM, 12/25/10
this reminds me how i miss the old layout of inside line when they did a review on a car and had a seperate audio system review for almost all cars tested. I used to read all the audio reviews and actually based my first car purchase on a review.
ed124c says:
08:58 AM, 12/25/10
@mkvgti: Well, if you do own a MkV GTI, then it was really a no-brainer, don't you think? It is hard to ignore the GTI's pluses. And a good stereo also? Great.
bodyblue says:
09:32 AM, 12/26/10
I have tweeter speakers on the top of the dash reflecting into the windshield and I think it sounds pretty good. The doors have 6 in Infinity drivers and the back has the same series Infinity 6x9s with a cheap 180W JVC deck. The Infinitys really made a huge difference in clean power but even the factory set up sounded pretty good because of the tweeters in the dash (IMO). My thing is clear high end....I hate booming bass so the set up is perfect for me. And I listen to a lot of AM radio anyway so anything better would be wasted on me I guess.
kevm14 says:
10:50 AM, 12/26/10
One of my favorite stock audio systems was the Bose in my parents' 96 Maxima SE. It was well rounded, clear, and had decent power. The only thing lacking was a sub for truly pounding out low bass.
The Bose in my 05 CTS-V seems pretty decent and has a sub in the rear deck, 6-1/2s (I think) in all the doors, A-pillar tweeters and a ~3.5" center speaker. It also has DSP presets for normal sound, driver-centric, rear seat-centric and the not-as-useful "spacious" and "talk." I leave it on normal even though the "driver" effect makes it sound like the speakers are equal distances from my ears. The rear-seat setting shifts the sound-stage rearward. It also does something with the EQ (and probably frequency-based phase modification)...
I like a good factory audio system because I've yet to be happy with the way an aftermarket system looks or acts in the dash.