{"id":2011,"date":"2020-08-10T16:06:02","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T08:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectkeira.com\/home\/?p=2011"},"modified":"2024-04-21T03:59:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T19:59:29","slug":"audio-upgrade-guide-part-3-you-dont-drive-from-the-back-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/audio-upgrade-guide-part-3-you-dont-drive-from-the-back-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Audio Upgrade Guide, Part 3: You Don\u2019t Drive From the Back Seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

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PART 3: You Don’t Drive From the Back Seat<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\na.k.a. Sound stage, and what rear speakers are really for.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Examine the 3 photos below, then ask yourself this: When it comes to audio, what do a Nightwish concert, an orchestra performance at the Sydney Opera House, and a play on Broadway have in common?<\/p>\n

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Answer:<\/strong> They all have an elevated<\/em> stage (soundstage), and it\u2019s centered in front of you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To be fair, many people never put thought into this concept. Most people who just enjoy music will generally prefer the music to surround them from all directions<\/strong> \u2013 like if you were in a dance club, with speakers everywhere blasting music and engulfing your auditory senses in this \u201comnidirectional\u201d manner. Turn that volume up and let\u2019s party! If this is the type of person you are where you just want to be bombarded with sound, there’s nothing wrong with that \u2013 that’s a personal preference.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But if you are looking for improved audio performance, then you need to understand the point of creating a soundstage. Yes \u2013 we\u2019re not talking about sitting in a perfectly square room with perfect speaker placement and a central seating area – we\u2019re talking about a small enclosed cabin of a vehicle where most of the speakers are within arm\u2019s reach and your sitting offset to the front and left. But just because we have more obstacles to overcome, it doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t get a pretty good soundstage in a vehicle, it just takes more work. I\u2019ve experienced listening to music in more than a few IASCA and MECA competition-level car audio vehicles over the years where if I closed my eyes I could have sworn I was in the front row of a live concert \u2013 granted, this level of car audio is way beyond what I want to talk about here (and beyond what most people will ever even get a chance to experience themselves), but it was incredible.<\/p>\n

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So back to soundstage; in the ideal scenario, if you play quality music and close your eyes, it will sound like you’re literally in the center front row of a live concert<\/em> (just like I mentioned above). The singer\u2019s voices will seem like they are coming from in front of you, all of the instruments will sound like they are being played live (like if they were spread out on a stage), and it will have so much clarity that it will feel like each member of the band is right there on the hood of your truck! Note that I emphasized \u201cfront\u201d \u2013 that\u2019s because this level of audio clarity can be achieved without rear speakers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Focus Forward
\n<\/strong><\/span>When most people start window shopping for new speakers for their Frontier, they tend to factor in the cost of rear speakers as part of their budget \u2013 they figure if they are upgrading their audio, they have to replace all of the speakers in the vehicle. But whenever someone asks me about this, I always recommend biasing the budget towards the front speakers if they\u2019re looking specifically for sound quality. In other words, instead of buying 4-6 decent speakers for all 4 doors (and the dash location) of the Frontier, I tell people to consider allocating most (if not all) of the main speaker budget on a good set of 6.5\u201d or 6×9\u201d component speakers instead for the front:<\/p>\n

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This way you\u2019re spending more money on improving the equipment that is in front of you \u2013 which not-so-coincidentally is the same place where your soundstage is supposed to be! (Fact: many of the best competition-level SQ vehicle audio systems do NOT have any rear main speakers at all!)<\/p>\n

Some of you reading this might say \u201cThat doesn\u2019t make sense, how come good home theater audio systems have rear speakers then?\u201d and the explanation is simple: home theater audio is designed around the fact that most cinema audio these days is 5.1 \u2013 or 5-channels of audio (front left, center, front right, rear left surround, rear right surround)\u00a0 + 1 channel for bass. That\u2019s why you need 5 speakers and a subwoofer in your living room to enjoy cinema audio as it was meant to be. Contrary to that, music audio is 99% stereo \u2013 stereo as in 2-channels. Those two channels just happen to be front left + front right – not coincidentally, humans only have 2 ears, and they are\u2026 front left<\/em> + front right.<\/em><\/p>\n

Avoid Multiple Full Range Speakers Up Front<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Since we\u2019re discussing audio in the Frontier, there\u2019s one more topic I\u2019d like to touch on \u2013 many Frontier owners see the extra dash speaker location and assume that they will get improved sound quality if they installed a full-range speaker as they would have done in the doors AND install a full-range speaker in the dash (as opposed to just a tweeter form a component system). However, the problem here is that this “more is better’ line of thinking is detrimental to an improved soundstage and\/or a waste of money. Here are two bad reasons why:<\/p>\n