Q & A

Can you give me any clues on where to install my speakers for best sound quality?

All speakers have a spill area just outside the basket. Sound originates at the cone and most of it is projected forward. However a small portion of the sound travels out and around the edge of the basket and folds back behind the speaker. It is reflected forward by whatever surface the speaker is mounted on. If the speaker is in a flat panel, the sound will be reflected forward and will be 'in time' or 'in phase' with the original sound waves. If it travels backward a few centimetres, then is reflected forward, it will arrive at the listeners ears a fraction of a second later than the original sound wave and the combination of the two sound is a little distorted. This gives the speaker a bright or harsh sound.

How can you apply this knowledge to car speaker installation?

Try to mount your midrange speakers on a wooden panel if possible, or at least on a solid surface. A lot of good installers cut out MDF panels for every speaker. This ensures a few things: a good air seal for the speaker, it avoids buckled frames, and it addresses the issue of spill. Don't raise the speaker above the surrounding panel with those little speaker spacer rings if you have the option to make a small MDF mounting panel. This need only be a couple of inches bigger than the speaker.

Don't use tweeter 'surface mount pods' if you can devise a way to recess mount the tweeters into the doors or into a fibreglass or body putty custom mount. I have heard some good results from mounting tweeters at the base of the A pillars. This will involve making up a fibreglass or body-putty moulding on the A pillar. The mirror pods are probably second-best position. The mirror pod is the easier position to mount tweeters on, the A pillar gives better sound quality but will cost more labour.

If you are shaping up a tweeter mount using fibreglass or bog, try to create a flat area extending a centimetre or two around the tweeter. This reflects the 'spill' from the tweeter out toward the listener.

The aiming of the tweeters is also important. They should aim across the car at the opposite front seat headrest. In other words the passengers side tweeter should be aimed at the drivers head and vice versa. If you pay attention to these details you will get 100% better sound quality.

When people complain that their tweeters sound bright and intrusive, you can bet they have broken one or all of these installation rules.

Adjust the crossovers at installation, then again two months later. If you have installed tweeters at or above dash level, turn the level down a little with the adjustment switch inside the crossover. The KP and K2P range have eight tweeter level settings inside their crossovers, the other Focal ranges have three, so you should be able to find a setting that suits you.

There is a principle that tweeters and mids should be in the kick panels to get them equidistant from the listener. It sounds great in principle, I can never deny the theory is absolutely correct. The problem in practice is that your legs obstruct the sound. Kick panel mounts sound best if you sit with your feet tucked under you. Another important principle is that woofer and tweeter should be within fifteen inches of each other. Technically correct again, but it's not always possible without rebuilding the whole door panel, an expensive operation.

Don't expect to get a carefully planned tweeter and speaker installation for $100, it will take someone half a day to build-out A-pillars or mirror mounts, fit the tweeters and then re-skin the panels in new vinyl. Unless you are a whiz at motor trimming, be prepared to pay for an expert to do this.

Most car radio shops won't volunteer to do A-pillar installation of tweeters when they sell you the speaker kit because the cost would scare most customers away. If you're after hi-fi sound, you'll have to ask for specialist installation, be prepared to pay the money.

Factory tweeter mounting position in many new cars direct the tweeter against the windscreen glass. It's an absolute no-no in home hi-fi to point your tweeters anywhere near glass and the same applies in your car. Reflected sound off a windscreen is not going to be good.

Focal put a lot of research into designing tweeters with a linear sound output. If you install them right, you'll reap the benefits.

This AU Falcon has a 165K2P kit with tweeters set into the A pillar and it sounds superb

Can you tell me in which country 165A1 are made?

165A1 is made in China as are all speakers in the Access range. Focal have a small manufacturing plant in China which also makes their in-wall home speakers and the entry-level Sib and Co range of home speakers.

The products we get from that plant are extremely reliable and are head and shoulders above the competition in sound quality, at that price level. I fitted a set of 165A1 to a new Mazda 3 recently, just running off the factory head unit, and the change was startling, everything in the music came to life.

We used to be derogatory about things made in China but with proper supervision of the manufacturing process and design by professional engineers in France, Focal have managed to produce excellent products to compete in a part of the market which was previously out of their reach. 165A1 have been in production for two years, we have sold many thousands of sets and I could count on one hand the number of warranty claims I have seen in that time.

I have 130V Slim speakers because that's all that would fit in my car. I notice the frequency response is 80 Hz to 20 kHz. I was expecting more bass

All slimline speakers lose out on the bottom end. It's a function of the cone shape, a wide angle cone doesn't play bass as well as a conventional shaped cone. That's why flat panel speakers never caught on, they play beautiful midrange but little bass.

Limited bass is the price you pay for having to use slimline speakers and it applies to all brands, it's not peculiar to Focal.

Don't despair. 5" speakers play beautiful midrange such as guitars, vocals, saxophone etc. Few people realise that 5's are vastly superior when reproducing that part of the sound spectrum, compared to the more popular 6" and 6.5" speakers.. Everyone is looking for the speaker that does everything, and they overlook the 5's. In simple terms, the cone of a 5" is much lighter than that of a 6", therefore it can change direction easier and it can follow the music more accurately.

There are some cars which just don't have space in the doors for anything other than a slimline speaker. You might be able to get a good car radio shop to build you custom door pods to hold the full-size speakers 130V2. Many things are possible when the customer is prepared to pay for the time and materials to modify door panels to accommodate better speakers. However some cars are just impossible to fit anything other than a slimline speaker.

Some car manufacturers have strange ideas about speaker locations. Some speakers face forward and down, toward the drivers and passengers ankles. Others face into the laps of the driver and front seat passenger. Other cars have only a fifty millimetre speaker mounting depth. Until car manufacturers wake up and start to think about speaker placement, there will be plenty of work for good car radio shops.

If you have to use slimline speakers it's a good idea to use a subwoofer.

You might consider an 8" subwoofer such as 21V2, which will take up minimal boot space and needs only a small amplifier. This will give you excellent sound quality and good bass extension.

Another possibility is 11" version, the 27V2. This compact sub sounds tight and fast. It's not a subwoofer to show off with, it's a subwoofer that you don't know you have until the music hits a low note and it just takes over the show for a second or two, and people say 'what the hell was that? I never heard that part of this track before.'

A simple system with 5" front speakers and a good little subwoofer can be a lot of fun, and it's a perfect for a small car.

Would a ...... (brand) 5-channel digital amplifier be a good choice and have enough power for my 165KR2s and 27KX?

Yes the ..... amplifier has plenty of power for the job. Focal speakers have very high sensitivity ratings, in other words they don't need a lot of power to work; they are very efficient.

I have reservations about the sound quality of all automotive digital amplifiers. They are fine for subwoofers because they produce vast amounts of power, but to my ears they create a harshness in the music in the mid and upper frequencies. Many installers and professionals in this industry have mentioned the same thing to me, so I'm not the only one to notice this.

The choice is yours, speak to your local expert dealers and canvass their opinion. ...... amplifiers are well-made, reliable, compact and great value for money. I have a lot of respect for ...... as a company, they are one of the few real innovators in this industry. I'm reluctant to criticise their products but I really think they jumped ahead of technology with digital amps for midrange and upper frequencies. My ears tell me that traditional analogue amplifiers sound much smoother. With lesser speakers, you'll never notice anything amiss when you use digital amplifiers. When you move into real hi-fi speakers, you start to hear imperfections in other components.

There are many good analogue amplifiers out there. Pick one and be happy that you are buying the best in terms of sound quality that current technology can deliver.

Please also select your RCA cables carefully. The RCAs packaged with power cable kits are notorious for making speakers sound harsh. Don't spare the cash when buying RCA cables, maybe a pair of Stinger Expert series would be a good investment. You will have them for years, so don't cut corners there.