comps front & rear or comps front & coaxs rear????
LOL 
Kickpanels are used because they have the most equal path lengths. They IMAGE better, but they occasionally have staging issues (i'll get into that in a sec).
Let's say in your car you have speakers installed in the doors, very close to the seats. The driver's side speaker is very close to you. The passenger side speaker on the other hand is very far away. This means there is an acoustical delay between left and right channels... with the right lagging behind when the left sound hits your ear. These timing differences make your system sound biased towards the drivers side, and makes it very difficult for a sound "image" to happen. The ideal "imaging" setup is when your speakers sound like headphones... left and right channels enter your ears at the same time.
Kickpanels are great, because they move the speakers as far forward as physically possible. Because they are further away, their path lengths are more equal, so you automatically get less acoustical delay between your speakers. They are also aimed in such a way that they can image very nicely.
Kickpanels also have a few problems... car audio speakers are designed to be heard off axis, as in installed in a door, pointed 45 degrees away from you, rather than straight at you like they would be in a home. Off-axis, your treble will roll off... so car audio companies will add more treble to the top end of a speaker to offset the off-axis volume loss, so that hopefully it will have a flat response when installed conventionally in a door. With the kickpanel pointed straight at you however, this can give you peaky treble, which MAY require taming with an EQ. In most cases I haven't had to do this however... certain speakers require it more than others.
The other problem with kickpanels is staging. In some cars, especially wider ones, kickpanels are difficult to stage properly. You end up getting a soundstage that is below your dash level, and in extreme cases sounds like it is coming from near the floor (though this is rarely the case if they are aimed properly). There's also something called the "rainbow effect"... the height of your soundstage increases as you move your head towards the middle of the car, and then drops down again towards the passenger seat. Again, proper installation will usually take care of this.
In europe, instead of kickpanels they like to install smaller midranges and tweeters in the A-pillars instead. These don't image quite as well as kickpanels, since they are closer to you (so it usually requires a bit of time delay). You can also get problems with peaky response due to reflections off the glass and dash. However, they do typically stage much better than kickpanels. With this setup though, you absolutely MUST install a midbass, unless you don't mind installing 6.5's in front of your windshield
Obviously there's no perfect setup for inside of a car. There are advantages and disadvantages to all of them. I do highly recommend either of these two setups over a stock door install, if you're up for making an SQ-mobile.
Let's say in your car you have speakers installed in the doors, very close to the seats. The driver's side speaker is very close to you. The passenger side speaker on the other hand is very far away. This means there is an acoustical delay between left and right channels... with the right lagging behind when the left sound hits your ear. These timing differences make your system sound biased towards the drivers side, and makes it very difficult for a sound "image" to happen. The ideal "imaging" setup is when your speakers sound like headphones... left and right channels enter your ears at the same time.
Kickpanels are great, because they move the speakers as far forward as physically possible. Because they are further away, their path lengths are more equal, so you automatically get less acoustical delay between your speakers. They are also aimed in such a way that they can image very nicely.
Kickpanels also have a few problems... car audio speakers are designed to be heard off axis, as in installed in a door, pointed 45 degrees away from you, rather than straight at you like they would be in a home. Off-axis, your treble will roll off... so car audio companies will add more treble to the top end of a speaker to offset the off-axis volume loss, so that hopefully it will have a flat response when installed conventionally in a door. With the kickpanel pointed straight at you however, this can give you peaky treble, which MAY require taming with an EQ. In most cases I haven't had to do this however... certain speakers require it more than others.
The other problem with kickpanels is staging. In some cars, especially wider ones, kickpanels are difficult to stage properly. You end up getting a soundstage that is below your dash level, and in extreme cases sounds like it is coming from near the floor (though this is rarely the case if they are aimed properly). There's also something called the "rainbow effect"... the height of your soundstage increases as you move your head towards the middle of the car, and then drops down again towards the passenger seat. Again, proper installation will usually take care of this.
In europe, instead of kickpanels they like to install smaller midranges and tweeters in the A-pillars instead. These don't image quite as well as kickpanels, since they are closer to you (so it usually requires a bit of time delay). You can also get problems with peaky response due to reflections off the glass and dash. However, they do typically stage much better than kickpanels. With this setup though, you absolutely MUST install a midbass, unless you don't mind installing 6.5's in front of your windshield
Obviously there's no perfect setup for inside of a car. There are advantages and disadvantages to all of them. I do highly recommend either of these two setups over a stock door install, if you're up for making an SQ-mobile.
to answer your Q head.. i dont remember, hafta check when get to house.
im not dead set on any one way. which is why im here
i do have the big pods by the pillar (mach460) that houses i think a 2 or 2.5inch. i was half tempted to monkey around with it to see if my old set of boston pro 4inch comps could fit in there.. but i highly doubt it.. and then at a midbass in door/kick. EQ is not problem.. rollin' a 232. it will have a linedriver up front (66) and the cube in the back. the other problem with kicks.. is when driving say.. sports cars.. the lack of footroom.. and when ur 6'2 and over 200lbs.. well there isnt a lot of footroom lol
im not dead set on any one way. which is why im here
i do have the big pods by the pillar (mach460) that houses i think a 2 or 2.5inch. i was half tempted to monkey around with it to see if my old set of boston pro 4inch comps could fit in there.. but i highly doubt it.. and then at a midbass in door/kick. EQ is not problem.. rollin' a 232. it will have a linedriver up front (66) and the cube in the back. the other problem with kicks.. is when driving say.. sports cars.. the lack of footroom.. and when ur 6'2 and over 200lbs.. well there isnt a lot of footroom lolHave no fear, only uncertainty!
