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I usually laugh at kids when they play around with speaker systems but this is clearly not even in the same league. My hats off to a very thorough analysis and upgrade for this system!!
So far I've done the rear door speakers and the front door midrange. I'm about 30% complete on the front door woofers which are proving to be quite challenging to mount. In case anybody is wondering, the door woofer connectors are marked pin 1 and pin 2. Pin 1 is always negative and Pine 2 is always positive. I figured this out by applying a small DC voltage to the pins and then observing with way the speaker moved. That's nice since 1 kinds looks like a minus sign. Good Mnemonic.
The metra audi 6.5" brackets are not quite a perfect fit on the rear door. One of it's holes aligns with a blank hole in the door rather than a threaded hole. However I was able to reach around behind the woofer and hold a screw by putting a Philips bit in a short ratchet and then tightened down a nut on the outside (with some thread locker) to get that one secure.
Last edited by Bobby Kinstle; 05-19-2019 at 06:27 AM.
BTW I've also discovered while testing with most of the speakers out, that the center channel is used a lot, even when 3D effect is turned off. I might have to reconsider my stance of don't touch these.
I usually laugh at kids when they play around with speaker systems but this is clearly not even in the same league. My hats off to a very thorough analysis and upgrade for this system!!
Thanks. I've suffered crushing doubt through most of this project and I've been terrified to make any changes without thoroughly understanding the system. I needed that level of analysis myself before I could take action. After I made the measurements with the microphone and tape measure, I began to think this thing might actually be possible.
This is awesome and crazy!
I usually spend money on home audio equipment and leave the car stereo alone, but what you are doing is on a different level!
I'm not quite done with the fit and finish issues yet so it looks a little ugly but I had to drive it work today and all the drivers are installed and working and I must say the difference sound quality is stunning. If I were a cello teacher, I could probably tell you what brand of rosin he used on the bow. Low notes on cello, bass guitar, tuba etc that were almost non existent on the old system are clear and prominent now. Strings, horns and vocals are crazy clear. EDM thumps so hard and so fast, but you can hear compression noise more clearly so beware of low fidelity sources. Those dome midranges dramatically improve the stereo imaging. They really fill the front seat with clean clear sound. I felt like I had Van Halen on my right and Sammy Hagar on my left. The back seat experience is night and day from the old speakers. There's so much more bass that I actually turned the subwoofer down by 6 to the straight up position. I might add a low pass filter to the sub around 60Hz as it's clear now that B&O leaned on the sub way too heavily to fill in the lousy bass of the front door woofer.
All this with the tone controls set to flat and the fader to dead center. Sound focus "ALL". Custom mounting ring Front door Front door mid range. Rear door
What you have described is what I hear at home with home audio equipment, and that cost me a lot of money. Anyway, very envious of your setup, because I am big on sound as well. But I think I'll enjoy at home since I don't actually drive that much.
I play FLAC files in my S4, and it makes a difference.
05-18-2019, 09:02 AM
