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Speaker Upgrade

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Has anyone swapped their speakers out yet? I, like everyone else loves the sound of this car, but on a long ride down the highway I enjoy listening to my tune. These speakers really do suck so I'm going to swap them out with the Pioneer TS-D6802R. They arrive by Weds. and they will go in that night. If anyone has done this how did it sound, did you change the rear deck speakers too, thoughts on a custom sub for the back. I'm not looking for something that could be used to call Elephants 100 mile away but something to bring up the low end in my music. Any help is much appreciated.
 
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The Pioneers and also Alpine were the two that came out on top when I looked into this a couple of months ago. And, the Pioneers were a bit less expensive. I'm planning on replacing all the stock speakers and adding a 250 - 500 watt power amp to drive them, but no sub-woofers at this point.

I'm also planning on keeping the factory head unit and dash face to cover up the fact that I've added higher end components to the car. The stock speakers really do suck. But, to be honest, I've only played tunes a few times in the car so far. The car itself makes pretty good music on its own, so I'm thinking maybe I'll upgrade the stock mufflers first.

Please let us know how your new speakers sound and difference it makes.
 
Those are the same Pioneer speakers I'm looking at. I won't go further than replacing the four speakers but they should improve the sound quality by a large margin. Please post any insight you gain from your install.
 
Hopefully by tomorrow evening I can post my findings. I know it's going to sound better with the new speakers, I've seen higher quality materials go in to paper plate's from Dollar store. I'll keep everyone posted.
 
Well I got the speakers installed which is a breeze. It only took a half hour to install the door speakers, I'm sure the rear speakers will take twice that. I'll tackle that when I figure out my next approach. The verdict of how they sound, better then the factory ones but by a small margin, not disappointing but it's not a wow ether .The factory head unit's EQ is screwing with the sound so the freq responds is not flat at all.It needs a sound processor installed on the output of the head unit to smooth things out and I'm sure it will sound 10X's better. The new speakers do have a much better dynamic range then the factory ones but, garbage in garbage out. It hard to say how the speakers really sound but the highs are brighter, the bass and the mid range, well this is where the factory radio starts messing things up. Bass sounds tighter then before, not boomy but missing something, mids are not as muddy but lacking something also, some how it never seems to come together while playing a cd. I hope this helps a little bit. I'll update this page as I progress.
 
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Thanks for the update. Interesting points about the factory head unit. Not to make you spend your money for my benefit, but have you thought about adding a power amp? I've been guessing that the factory output is pretty low and the speakers you just installed need some decent power. Especially if/when you install the rear deck speakers. I'm not an expert in sound electronics by any stretch...but since most signals are digital these days I'd expect the factory radio/cd player to send as good a raw signal as aftermarkets would, but that the signal would need to be properly amplified (and perhaps equalized) to get those speakers to sound as they should.
 
I will eventually put an amp in to help out bring up my signal level but I want to make sure I have a flat signal going to it first. Not sure if I would end up amplifying something that might be undesirable, so not only does it sound bad but its loud too. I was thinking about ordering an 8 channel signal processor JBL MS-8, but $600 makes me a little hesitant, but they claim that it will make a factory stereo and speakers sound great by analyzing the sound from the speakers and make all the necessary adjustments.At least I could keep the head unit and get the sound of something much better. BTW the new pioneer speakers are a bit louder then the factory.
 
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Then maybe the stock head unit isn't the way to go. If you have to spend a bunch more dollars to make it sound good with upgraded speakers, then maybe just upgrading the head unit is the better way to go. Now I'm not sure which way to go at all, but I do appreciate this feedback.
 
Well I spent my day getting an amp and rear speakers installed and it sounds 100% better then it did. I had someone from a car stereo shop check it out and he thought deck speakers and an amp should clean things up a bit and it did. You were right jimprw, I think I may have dug deeper in to this then I needed to but that's just me. I work with alot of different technologies and make them work for a living and it' keeps food on the table, but this time I reached out for a quicker solution, summers almost over and I'm lazy in my spare time, I'll blame it on age.
Supposedly the amp can be adjusted for bass and treble front and back independently but I haven't tried it yet ( crossover cutoff freq's ) . Tomorrow when everyone's awake I'll tune it to my liking. I'm pretty happy with the way it' sounds now but I think tweaking, a small sub and the ms-8 from JBL will finish the job. It's pretty punchy now but only at a higher volume and I don't like to crank it up to much anyway so a sub would help there. It's still factory to anyone that see's it, and everything is reversible, no holes drilled, the amps in the spare tire well. I'll post again when I add to the system and anyone looking at the weight factor, 8 additional pounds at this point, when I'm done maybe 40#'s with the sub. Might be a little more balanced weight towards the rear and sounding good up front.
 
It's a DB okur a5-125.4. The guy said it was bullet proof and has never heard of one going bad. The speakers they installed are not the same as the front. They didn't have the ts-d6802 they only had a ts-g6843, which sound good but they started popping when I turned them up this morning. There rated at 30 watts rms which is to low. I had to choose those or set of kenwoods. I picked the lower wattage 6843 because they go down too 30hz and the kenwood only 80hz but 80watts. I thought 30watts was enough because there just for ambient sounds but was wrong. It helped tuning the bass boost down all the way but their going to put a set of higher rated speakers in there. I'm going to order another set of the 6802's for the back.Even with the lower rated speakers in there it is night and day comparison. The nice thing about this DB amp is it has a RCA output which makes any future addition of a sub or signal processor a 15min job. They ran 4 gauge power wire to the amp and I can tap it off of there so I'm good up to 60amps.I tried to post a pic of the amp but this site won't let me. Updates to follow
 

atrain1975

Any engine noise with your new setup? I had an Alpine PDX amp, JL Flatwedge sub, and four Polk speakers installed. The system sounds good now, but I have a perpetual high-pitch squeal that I can hear but hardly anyone else can detect. There is also very minor winding noise that changes pitch when revs increase, but this is also very low volume. I think that my hearing is more sensitive than most other people's, but I am wondering if the installer perhaps did a bad job or if I should upgrade the wires /cables or something. The installer is a pro and has been good about tuning the system. He said that with some installations, a bit of noise can sometimes be unavoidable; I don't know enough about car audio to determine whether this is an accurate statement or not, though.
 
I don't get any noise coming over my speakers. Quality audio cables front to back and good grounding are key to reducing the emi coming from the ignition .If that doesn't work google DC noise filters. I still haven't had my deck speakers swapped out yet. I had to work 12+hr days since last Weds. because of the storm, now were in the restoration phase but at least I'll get to work the Baltimore Gran Prix from Thurs. till Sun. I can watch the races and get OT pulling 12hr shifts from 7am - 7pm. javascript:void(0)
 

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