The best system I've heard personally was a mid 90s cavalier with F#1 tweeters firing slightly towards the windshield. The imaging was something I've been striving for ever since.

 

I offered for you to hear mine... I think if you hear it, there will be no other choice for you. It might just give you some ideas as well. If you want small enclosures to try out, I actually have a set that I am not using anymore that I could be easily cohersed into selling. They are the Focal midboxes that come with the Focal Utopia and KRX3 sets. They house a 3 inch midrange and a 1.25 inch tweeter. I was using them with my Morel tweets and Hertz ML700 drivers. I really think we should get a listening session going as you have something I have been wanting to heaar as well - 8 inch midbasses. We might learn a few things from one another.

 

I should add to this. In my car with a two way set up (mids in the doors) depending where my left leg was it played a HUGE roll on how everything imaged as well as the frequency response. This is no longer an issue with the mids in the doors only playing 200 hz and below.

 

All in good time. There is no way anyone is hearing my system in its current state (I just re-wrapped my kicks so the front stage is out and I blew a transistor in my 3539, so it's all stock tweeter and sub! LOL)
Lemme get my Bostons back in with the tweets in the factory a-pillar location and the 3539 pushing the 8's properly and we'll get together.

 

I must say, knock on wood, I have never had an amp go bad on me yet. I am actually out in the garage working on the system tonight too. This rain has got to stop at some point, right? Tell me there will be a summer this year! Anyways, I am modifying my new pods for the Scanspeak 10f that arrived today. I really hope they are a step up from the Hertz drivers they are replacing... I can't go back now as I had to hollow them out beyond the screw holes for the Hertz drivers. I was really hoping to avoid that but oh well. I, do think I will like these drivers more. The fr curve is flat as a board from 200 Hz all the way up to almost 10 kHz! Should give me alot of choices for crossover points. I should be able to get alot more out of them too I think with 10x the xmax of the Hertz. I will let you know how it goes.

 

I just stumbled across your DIYMA thread about the mids. IT seems strange that you were getting distortion at the volumes you were listening at. I've got each one receiving 150 watts, crossed at 200 12db and 2.5k 12db (I think its 2.5). I can safely say there is a nasty peak around 2K, however they take the low end like champs! You should make a trip out to Saskatoon for some play time

 

150 watts crossed at 200 Hz? I would have to hear that to believe it honestly. Are you actually using all of that 150 watts or you have it turned down substantially? I had to turn mine down -9 db if I recall to get them to sound any decent at higher volumes. They really started to sound better once I moved the crossover up to around 600 Hz. Then I had some major midrange material diving into the doors which was the entire reason I wanted to go 3 way in the first place. I also lost a pile of impact as I had to drop the midbass and sub down a fair margin for things to not sound bottom bloated.

I just finished putting in the Scanspeak 10f. Took me almost 30 mins to clean up most of the damned sawdust from the dash and nooks and crannies inside the dash. I really should have taken the pods out to do this I think. Oh well, it is done now. I had to hollow the baffles out past the mount points for the Hertz ML700 so no way to put them back in if I choose. After a quick tune and setup I can honestly say, I don't see me ever wanting to do so. These things seem to have done exactly what I wanted. I was able to cross down around 350 Hz (I might try lower once break-in is done) and bump up the volume about 3 db. That is in essence doubling the power to them from what the Hertz were getting. I haven't listen too long yet so I will hold off on a complete review of these until later. I can say, so far I like them.

I would love a listen in sometime. I don't think I have ever been to Saskatoon actually. I am from BC and when I travel I always seem to head that direction or south to the US - unless I'm heading abroad of course. If you ever get out to Calgary tho, look me up.

 

Agrees with Stochastic,
Mounting these above dash area will definetely create frequency peaks, where as mounting
down into kick panel has the best and most equal distance path to the listeners ear.
Still this takes quite a bit of testing to achieve proper sound stage and image.

 

on axis with as little polar tilt as possible and zero glass reflections is desirable. glass and reflections are your worst imaging enemy.. on axis if possible..