A sound stage is an imaginary stage – like at a concert – in front of you in the car. If there is
a violin on the left of the stage how well is that replicated to listen to? Is the violin “there”
or is it on the passenger’s left foot? If the singer is centre stage is she coherent, together
and placeable? Or is she singing at you from everywhere like in a disco? Placing the higher
frequency speakers physically higher helps lift the “level” of the sound stage but can harm
the coherence of the sound – known as “imaging and staging”.
I hope the paragraphs above help to create some interest in working to optimise the setup
and design of your installations. It can be really helpful to have the tweeters (if applicable)
on a pair of fly lead extension cables and then you can blu-tak them to the car in various
positions pending test to help selection of the best location.
