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Best stock speaker upgrade


iyamdman

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deneb,

 

The honest truth is that the ones that jump out and sound louder on the demo board often do so by having a more forward mid-range and treble. Our TR's for example have a more aggressive upper end response than the VR's and XR's... this makes them sound a bit louder with low power, but not really any louder in broadband terms. The TR's compared to other speakers might sound laid back and mellow... there's a lot of really aggressively voiced speakers on the market.

 

Bring a recording you're familiar with and listen for spectral balance, not loudness. You don't want something screechy... you want something smooth that won't fatigue you at higher volumes.

 

Hope that helps,

 

Manville Smith

JL Audio, Inc.

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Manville - if I could add something to your recommendation.... Most sound rooms are not enclosed in glass like your car is. Something that sounds 'neutral' on the board might be just right in the car, whereas a bright speaker on the board would be too much in the car.

 

Choose a shop that has a fair return policy....most shops will allow you to pick another set within 30 days if you don't like the sound once installed (and some even will charge 50% of the install charge the second time around). Note that the cheapest guy in town probably won't offer this service. My old shop had a one year speaker upgrade policy in addition to a 30 day return policy, but we didn't discount off of MSRP.

 

-Dan

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Geez...alot of experts on hearing on the board huh? :p;)

 

 

I've read alot of people referencing "Localization" and just wanted to point out that it is very dependent on environment and frequency. Intensity and phase (timing) are the two key contributors. The single greatest contributors to our ability to localize where sound is comming from are interaural phase differences in the low frequencies (below 1500Hz) and intensity dfferences in the higher frequencies.

 

Likewise reverberant environments with hard surfaces will also hinder your ability to localize sound (for reasons pretty self explanitory).

 

It is true that humans have the hardest time localizing sound when it is DIRECTLY above them. Now, I am not going to bore you with how the ears work in conjunction with the brain. :D

OBAMA......One Big Ass Mistake America!
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Well said, Boxer and Patagonian...

 

Patagonian's advice is very sound (pun intended). Demo boards can be misleading, especially if the speakers you are comparing are placed differently. If you can get a demo in a car, that's the best way. If not, having a trade-out option is a must if you are not happy with the sound.

 

Boxer makes excellent points... high mounted tweeters result in increased pathlength differences between left and right and place the tweeters closer to highly reflective boundaries. In the LGT, the tweeters are positioned directly below the upper portion of the windshield which leads to smearing due to early reflections off the glass. Low-mounted tweeter reduce the pathlength difference AND early reflection problems, leading to more stable imaging and better spectral balance.

 

Add this to the fact that the tweeter location and door woofer location result in substantially different pathlengths to the near side listener's ears, which creates big-time phase issues at and around the crossover frequency.

 

I'll put together a coherent post about this issue when I get some time.

 

Best regards,

 

Manville Smith

JL Audio, Inc.

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Yet another question: if the rears are intended as 'fill', would it be advisable to swap those as well? It seems like it might be better from an imaging standpoint to leave the rears alone and just upgrade the fronts?
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The rears would certainly not be high on my list of upgrades. I'd buy an amp / sub before messing with the rears. You can always use the fader to dial them back and they're perfectly fine for fill.
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The rears would certainly not be high on my list of upgrades. I'd buy an amp / sub before messing with the rears. You can always use the fader to dial them back and they're perfectly fine for fill.

 

Thats what i'm doing :)

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  • 1 month later...

Ok guys, so what conclusion did you all come to?

I'd like to upgrade just the front speakers with something pretty cheap, as long as its better than stock.

 

Its nothing more than taking off the door panel and replacing the speaker right? I dont really want to run speaker wire. I installed an oem sub and an fm modulator with the metra adapters but thats pretty much the extent of my experience taking the interior apart.

 

I'm thinking about just getting some polk db650's off ebay really cheap, but will i want to disconnect the oem tweeter or the polks tweeter, or can they both be connected at the same time?

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Ok guys, so what conclusion did you all come to?

I'd like to upgrade just the front speakers with something pretty cheap, as long as its better than stock.

 

Its nothing more than taking off the door panel and replacing the speaker right? I dont really want to run speaker wire. I installed an oem sub and an fm modulator with the metra adapters but thats pretty much the extent of my experience taking the interior apart.

 

I'm thinking about just getting some polk db650's off ebay really cheap, but will i want to disconnect the oem tweeter or the polks tweeter, or can they both be connected at the same time?

 

I listended to the polk db650s in person and wasnt really impressed with them they were kind of hollow sounding. I have boston acoustics in my car now but with an aftermarket amp. I would highly reccomend the Boston Acoustics S65RC speakers. The S65RC's can run on as little as 2 watts RMS which means the stock HU should push them fine and the RC line is specifically designed for shallow mounts and should fit the doors without a spacer ring.

 

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-mxNwFGsx56x/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=52000&I=065S65RC

 

75 bucks buy it now on ebay with 20 shipping still $25 cheaper then crutchfield

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=18799&item=5778269825&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V

 

 

If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough. - Mario Andretti
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Ok guys, so what conclusion did you all come to?

I'd like to upgrade just the front speakers with something pretty cheap, as long as its better than stock.

 

Its nothing more than taking off the door panel and replacing the speaker right? I dont really want to run speaker wire. I installed an oem sub and an fm modulator with the metra adapters but thats pretty much the extent of my experience taking the interior apart.

 

I'm thinking about just getting some polk db650's off ebay really cheap, but will i want to disconnect the oem tweeter or the polks tweeter, or can they both be connected at the same time?

 

You will need to fabricate spacer rings to allow for the new speaker's depth and to mate its front flange to the flange on the door panel's grille opening. The stock speakers use a non-conventional raised flange that achieves this purpose.

 

Best regards,

 

Manville Smith

JL Audio, Inc.

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Does it matter what the rings are made of?

 

Will these plastic universal rings work ok?

 

http://www.thezeb.com/p-Metra-Installerworks-82-4300-106842.htm

 

I am pretty concerned with how difficult it will be to mount these aftermarket speakers I bought in the door panels. I purchased Polk all the way around; db6500 components in front and db650 coaxials in the rear.

 

I want to do it myself, but I have never drilled into sheet metal in a car, and I don't want to screw it up.

 

Please help!

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Those don't have the little "ears" that match up to the factory holes in the Legacy.

 

Look at this page and you will see what I am talking about:

http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10187

 

If you're not comfortable with the install, I strongly recommend that you have a car audio specialist shop do the work for you.

 

Best regards,

 

Manville Smith

JL Audio, Inc.

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I thought I was going to have to redrill, anyway. Wouldn't that be easier than making my own rings? I think so...I don't have the tools or the know-how to make custom rings for this.

 

As for the professional installation - that's the way I really want to go, but I am having a hard time finding a place that is reputable and won't charge an arm and a leg to do the work.

 

I had a terrible install done by Best Buy a couple years ago in my previous car, so I won't go there. I don't imagine Circuit City would be much better.

 

A local Sound Advice wanted over $400 to do my install, which consists of those speakers, a single sub and a 5 channel amp and capacitor, along with A dynamat application. I have all the parts, including the dynamat; they are charing over $400 just for the labor. That seems steep. I thought I could do the speakers and save $150.

 

I have heard horror stories of people taking their cars to have gear installed, only to have it stolen a few days or weeks later. Sounds fishy. I don't know how to identify a quality place that won't charge too much or do a crappy job...

 

Anyway, back to the rings - should I try to get them done custom (or where can I get the rings you installed?), or should I just redrill four holes in the door panel?

 

Thanks again for all your help!

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Erickson...

Pay these guys a visit and tell them Manville from JL Audio referred you. They do great work. You can always have them tackle the difficult stuff and you can DIY the simpler stuff.

 

AudioProz

9030 Atlantic Blvd

Jacksonville, FL

32211

904-722-0000

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Thanks a lot - I will check them out!

 

About the rings - should I just ask the guys at AudioProz to take care of the spacers, or do you think it's be worth my time to buy or create them on my own, and give them to whomever installs my system?

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I would let AudioProz take care of the speaker rings... they have the tools to fabricate them to fit. Show them the pic from the thread I pointed you to so they can quote it for you.
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I have alpine type s components in my Legacy GT sedan and they sound great matched with a 500 watt 4channel amp... just dont count on turning the bass eq up because they will slap against the door and sound bad... so having all the bass come from a subwoofer solves the problem
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I don't suppose you would consider selling me duplicate spacer rings...? If I had the ones in your photo, I wouldn't even have to do any special drilling....name your price!

 

I went to AudioProz and was told by Sean that they could fabricate the rings, but it would be for a $75/hour labor rate, and he guessed two hours. I can't afford that for some rings...

 

If I had the rings you have, I could install all my cabin speakers and save a ton of money all the way around.

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  • 1 year later...
I just found this old but excellent thread. A quote from a message above is: "I would highly reccomend the Boston Acoustics S65RC speakers. The S65RC's can run on as little as 2 watts RMS which means the stock HU should push them fine and the RC line is specifically designed for shallow mounts and should fit the doors without a spacer ring." Can anyone else verify that? Would two of them in the front doors be an inexpensive and easy-to-install great improvement in sound quality over the stock LGT Ltd sound system? What's involved in connnecting them since the stock front door speakers supposedly have two speakers (including a tweeter) in each door?
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i dont really think it will make too much of a difference.

 

plug and play, i dont think it will make a big improvement. typically factory headunits are tuned to go along with the speakers. You could probably hear the weakness of the head unit if you get better speakers without an amp. Factory systems usually have a lower frequency range since they know they're not running super nice speakers!

 

I would just wait, you can get a cheap amp (100) and midrange speakers (150) and you could be BLOWN away. you probably only need about 60 RMS power. (stock is probably about 15 RMS if even that)

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  • 4 weeks later...
I don't suppose you would consider selling me duplicate spacer rings...? If I had the ones in your photo, I wouldn't even have to do any special drilling....name your price!

 

I went to AudioProz and was told by Sean that they could fabricate the rings, but it would be for a $75/hour labor rate, and he guessed two hours. I can't afford that for some rings...

 

If I had the rings you have, I could install all my cabin speakers and save a ton of money all the way around.

Got dimensions? We might be able to make them on one of our 3D printers - material would be ABS plastic. If it's just a ring with some holes in it that's about as easy as it gets.

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