JL Audio owner manual says no gap?

[1stcarinmylife]

Hi everyone,
I just installed a pair of JL Audio 5x7 speakers in the front door of my explorer. On the owner manual it says air gap around the speakers will "severely" degrade audio quality. However when I put in the new speakers there is a gap between the speakers and a black plastic frame that the old speakers left. If I mount the new speakers without the black plastic frame then the speakers will be touching the black column in the car door. What do I do?!! I hate taking apart the door panel again : (

 

[Anime]

There shouldn't be any gap between the outer edge of the speakers and the angled mounting bracket, unless the JL 5x7's are just that much smaller than the 6x8 opening. Sound quality isn't likely to be affected since they are free-air speakers, and the door isn't an air-tight speaker box anyway, but you could use some black craft foam (get it at walmart for a few cents a sheet) to fill in the gap, or even permatex black silicone since the speaker frame and factory mount are both metal.

 

[1stcarinmylife]

I don't think it is as much about the size than the angle of the thing.... It is weird. It is angled so it caused the gap.
The speakers came with an oval black plastic frame but it is put in the front of the speakers instead of the back (like the stock black frame is at the back of the stock speakers). I installed the new speakers on top of the stock plastic frame, with the new plastic frame on top still on top of the speaker. Should i have discarded the stock frame and put the new frame behind the new speakers and installed them?

 

[oplitic]

They say that because you don't want the back and front waves of the speaker canceling each other out. That's why you need to make a baffle when fitting in a 6.5" speaker into a 5x7 or 6x9" speaker hole. It's also good to close up holes in the door's frame, the sheet of metal that the speaker is on. Usually use some type of sound deadening material like eDead.

 

[symon_say]

Just make a wood adapter tha should seal the gap, and as oplitic sais seal and deadning the door, is one of the cheapest more benefits improvement you can make in car audio, more if you already have good speakers, it can make a night and day difference in midbass.

 

[1stcarinmylife]

I am sorry but I am still a little bit confused about which bracket to use. When you guys install your new speakers do you also take away the stock bracket behind the speakers and use the new one? or does it really matter? Opening the door panel for the first time was so tiring I am scared of doing any "upgrades" for now.

 

[oplitic]

I am sorry but I am still a little bit confused about which bracket to use. When you guys install your new speakers do you also take away the stock bracket behind the speakers and use the new one? or does it really matter? Opening the door panel for the first time was so tiring I am scared of doing any "upgrades" for now.

It's been a while since I replaced mine, but I would take out all stock baffles, plastic pieces, etc. that attached to the speaker and make one out of 1/4" mdf. You can buy plastic ones, I believe from crutchfield. But they are easy to make, just take the plastic piece that was there before and trace it on to the mdf, cut it out, and cut a hole the right size inside the piece.

These are along the same lines, they are jsut for a diffferent size opening...

 

[Wagonized]

use play-doh to fill the gap

 

[oplitic]

use play-doh to fill the gap

play-doh dries up and cracks. if anything to fill it for now use monkey gunk(window sealant) lol.

 

[1stcarinmylife]

I am a little confused. Anime4x4 said the air gap doesn't really matter. But Symon_say said to seal the gap. And I looked up the baffle at Crutchfield which Oplitic mentioned, and the reviewers there said it "totally killed the bass." My fingers are still hurting from prying open the door panel... or I will open it again and take a more detailed look : (

 

[symon_say]

When you seal your door it works like a box for the mids, that give the better response, so midbass sounds a lot louder and clear, but most of the people wont notice a big difference, cause they just want sound from their system, but if you want to be that step ahead sealing and deadning the door is a great thing.

If you dont want to spend the extra money, you can just put some closed cell foam behind the speakers and seal just around the speaker, that will do a little improvement with just a little work.

 

[Wagonized]

make a mold of the gap with play-doh then cover it in resin..done and done

 

[oplitic]

make a mold of the gap with play-doh then cover it in resin..done and done

oh, now that makes sense. That's a good idea.