Installation
Once you have determined the mounting locations for the Imagine separates, and have
evaluated the circumstances by which the Imagine speakers will need to be installed, it is time
to dismantle the vehicle to access the old speakers. Most dashboard-mounted speakers are
easily accessed by removing their grilles, which are usually attached to the dashboard with
screws or retaining clips. A-pillars are usually accessed by pulling firmly at a right angle to the
panel. Door speakers are usually easy to access as well, either from the front by prying off
the OEM grille, or by physically removing the entire door panel. In all cases, it may be
prudent to reference your vehicle’s factory service manual. If you don’t have a factory service
manual, you can go to the
Installation Excellence
website for downloadable resources with
respect to not only wiring but disassembly of your vehicle, and the procedures to access your
OEM speakers.
With the OEM speakers removed, we
HIGHLY
recommend the use of a self-adhesive damping
product, such as brand names Dynamat
®
, B-Quiet
®
, and others. The reason for the use of
damping material is to quiet buzzes and rattles that will be exposed by the high-performance
Imagine midbass speakers, but more importantly to seal up door accesses and cavities,
thereby creating a pseudo “enclosure” for the Imagine midbass. If the midbass are installed
immediately adjacent to a large access hole or opening in the door panel, there will be an
acoustic “short circuit” (as described on page 6: “Frequency Response”) where the front and
back waves of the speaker meet, and cancellation will occur, seriously effecting midbass
output. The use of a good damping product is the single-biggest installation-related
improvement you can do to enhance the performance of your Imagine audio system. And
since the Imagine midbass require an “infinite baffle”, it is intuitive to seal up the mounting
area as best as possible, such as in the door, allowing the speaker to “see” a large enclosure
in the door cavity, kick panel, dashboard, or wherever you decide to mount the Imagine
midbass.
If you plan to use the OEM speaker wiring, you will likely need to cut off the OEM speaker
plug, and strip back approximately 3/8” (10mm) of insulation to expose the bare wire. It is
recommended that you then install slide-style terminals on the wire, for easy connection to the
Imagine midbass.
In a basic installation, the Imagine midbass were designed to install directly into the factory-
supplied speaker baffles or speaker openings. The speaker should fit snug to the baffle
without air gaps; do not force the speaker into a baffle that is too small, as this will damage
the speakers. If the factory-supplied mounting baffle is too small, refer to Section II for
advice on how to build custom baffles. When tightening your speakers to the baffle, alternate
the tightening of the screws, just as if you were changing a tire on your vehicle, by alternating
in a pattern around the speaker until all screws are hand-tight. DO NOT INSTALL THE
SPEAKERS WITH A DRILL OR DRILL-DRIVER, as the drill-drive will put considerably more
torque on the speaker basket than what is required, and can easily damage the frame of the
speaker.
© Hybrid Audio Technologies, 2010
Page 11 of 23
