I just grabbed a set of component speakers. 5.25 with a 2" tweater. Do these have to be mounted together in the kick panel? I'd like to have the 5.25 in the kick panel and the tweater up in the factory dash location. Any ill effects from doing this?

 

Two inches is a pretty big tweeter but to answer your question, No the speakers do not have to be by e/o. It is actually recommended that they are separated to help the listener differentiate between the mids and the highs. As far as putting the tweeter in the factory location I would advise against it because the higher pitched a sound is the more directional it is. While the windshield is a a good surface to bounce off of, going through the dashpad would probably muffle the sound (I know the factory speaker doesn't sound muffled but if you look at new cars they NEVER put speakers behind things similar to our dashpads any more.) I would try it out though. first set the tweeter in the corner of the windshield and the A-pillar pointed at you and see how it sounds, then try the factory location. Or if you have the premade kick panels they usually have a place for the tweeter there but they are typically not going to allow for something like a two inch tweeter. See what you like.