baffled. The “infinitely large” enclosure, such as one might find in a door panel, improves
spectral response and power response variation between high and low frequencies.
In a basic system, like the Clarus midbass, the Clarus tweeters were designed to be installed in
the original factory tweeter locations, such as those typically found in many newer-generation
vehicles, most often at the top of the door, or in the “a-pillar.” If your vehicle is older, or did
not come with factory tweeter locations, you may need to install the tweeters in a bit of a
custom fashion. Not to fear though – we have included several different options for easily
mounting the tweeters, so you can decide which will work the best for your application. Since
the tweeters are a sealed-back design, they can be placed anywhere without having to provide
airspace or any type of enclosure. Hybrid Audio Technologies highly recommends that the
tweeter placement be the subject of your own experimentation. This can be accomplished by
leaving some excess wire length for the tweeter, and experimenting with different potential
mounting locations by temporarily attaching the tweeter using double stick tape, Velcro®, etc.
Once you have determined the mounting locations for the Clarus separates, and have
evaluated the circumstances by which the Clarus 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
Clarus midbass speakers, but more importantly to seal up door accesses and cavities, thereby
creating a pseudo “enclosure” for the Clarus 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 Clarus audio system. And since the Clarus 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 Clarus midbass.
Once the sound damping has been installed, you should now evaluate where the component
passive crossovers will need to be mounted. There is enough wire included in the Clarus kit to
extend the midbass wire from a door location to the vehicle interior, so that the passive
crossovers don’t need to be mounted on the door. In many cases, it is advisable to install the
© Hybrid Audio Technologies, 2008
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