Speaker replacement

M88JCP · Feb 7, 2011

Hi All

After speaking about this previously, I finally took the plunge. I brought some replacement door card clips and speaker adaptors on E-bay and replaced the original Seat speakers for some aftermarket units.

The speakers I used for the front were Alpine SXE 1750s and I used 1725s in the back. Both sets are 16/17cms in size with power outputs of 280w and 220w.
The difference in quality is surprising. I've found the original speakers offer better bass and clarity high end.

I've now gone back to my original speakers, but can anybody offer any advice on whether this is expected or whether I have likely incorrectly installed them? I'm a complete novice to this, and not sure whether it could be down to the 40 and 45 RMS W ratings or wiring :shrug:

Thanks
James

Stupra · Feb 7, 2011

Hello M88JCP

We had this chat on a thread back end of last year. Below is my original answer to you. There is the possibility you had one (or more speaker) was out of phase. Did the adaptors have all the correct connectors, or did you have to cut wiring? If I was you, I would have had 4 speakers exactly the same model. Never seeing inside the door of my car, was there openings around where the new speakers fitted? If there is, then bass frequencies will not sound as full bodied, as they dont have a "baffle" around them, preventing a sealed front for the bass to sound good. .
I suspect it could be a wiring phase isssue. Difficult to pin down on a thread like this without seeing what you've done.

"Here is, for what they are worth, my views on the Exeo sound system. Before the Exeo, I had a K1 Leon Cupra & 3No Altea's.

The head units themselves appear reasonable quality. What lets SEAT sound systems down is their cheap, nasty speakers, as you say. In the Leon & Altea's, speakers were easy to change due to separate speaker grilles, giving access without ripping the whole door card off. In all cars, I used 6.5" Infinities, huge improvement (easy to return to standard at PX time too!)
The Exeo is a whole different kettle of fish. Audi did things different & because of that, the door card needs to come off. As a guy who loves his music, I too contemplated doing this, but to be honest, I couldnt be bothered seeing what was likely to be involved!!
In effect, glad I did. This is the best way to "run your system in". As an ex professional home sound system installer for a specialist firm in Leicester, all new equipment that was used as "Demo" gear was left running overnight in the dem room on repeat. All CD & amps were left running, sound at moderate levels. This allowed the speakers to "bed in". Like running-in a car, electronics & speakers need the same. My car system sounded quite flat when I got it, but I had the opportunity to let it run at near full volume a couple of weekends in the garage. It turns itself off after an hour ish so no flat battery. This made the speakers work, making their cones & dome tweeters to flex & move more freely. Since then, with a years use, I have accepted it as quite a decent set up. Bass is quite powerful, not that tuneful though, trebles are reasonable sharp and mid is quite clear. Head unit powers them to adequate levels.

Up to you if you want to be the first to do a speaker change. Believe me, if I could have done mine when I got it on delivery day, I would have, but realistically, with "mild tone control alterations" it sounds fair to me. Next motor I get will have a DAB radio & dedicated audio anyway!! Ha!

To resume. Run the head unit at 75% volume with a good CD. Do this a couple of times if you can. Dont use too much tone adjustment. Try it. It might save aggro & broken door card clips!!"

Stu

M88JCP · Feb 8, 2011

Hi Stu

Thanks for getting back to me

Can I ask what you mean by out of phase?

I do remember our earlier conversation, and its took me a few months to build the courage to have a go. The Seat speakers are by no means poor, there quite good but I had these Alpine speakers remaining from a previous vehicle, and they sounded pretty good in that.

The adaptor kit I brought was for an Audi A4. It had a plastic casing/bracket that the speaker screwed onto and then that fitted into the original space in the door using the original seat screw holes. The adptor came with two foam gaskets, one to go between the speaker and the casing and one between the door and the casing. they were off ebay, auction number 150386392884. I haven't cut or adapted the Seat wiring in any way... wouldn't dream of it. The way I did it was, I screwed the new speaker onto the casing/bracket an then attached this to the dooor using the orignal seat holes and gaskets.

With the wiring, it was mad. The orignal speaker has two sets of two male connectors. One set was to feed the loudspeaker from the door module and the second set was to piggy back a signal and feed the tweeter. I hope that makes sense, but the speaker itself had four pin connectors. To connect the speakers and the tweeters, I brought an audio connector that two that had two female connectors in the one end (to fit the aftermarket speaker) and four male connectors in the other end to fit the existing seat wiring for the loud speaker and the tweeter, I believe they were originally designed to be used on a Leon. This has feed both speakers and they are working, but don't sound particulary good.

Taking the door cards off wasn't hard, just a few screws and loads of the plastic clips. I did break some of the clips, but managed to buy a pack of 10 replacement bits off ebay for a couple of quid. I've now gone back factory with the speakers (luckily I didn't cut or change the original connectors), replaced the broken clips and so damaged nothing thankfully.

On the back of the door card, there was an opening in the card for the speaker to sit into to. On the orignal speaker there was a bung around the speaker, maybe to enable it to wedge itself into the door gap and seal the space? The aftermarket units didn't have this and so didn't touch the door cards. Could this be the reason for the lack of bass?

I appreciate your help Stu, unfortuanetly I'm not much of an expert and I'm learning new things as I go.

I'll try and take/post some pictures tonight of the bits I have used and the orignal speaker.

Thanks
James

chrispy · Feb 8, 2011

By out of phase, means the polarity of the speakers has been mixed up when connected.
Any speakers that are out of phase will be doing the opposite of the 'in phase' speakers.

You can check the phase of a speaker using a 9 volt battery (assuming the speaker teminals are not marked) When the battery is touched to the terminalswith positive to + speaker terminal and neg to neg the speaker cone will push out. wrong way round and it will pull in.

Caution you only need to touch the terminals, not permenantly connect

Chris

M88JCP · Feb 8, 2011

Thanks Chris, I double check that.

Stupra · Feb 9, 2011

I was going to say that Chris!! Well put!

Seroiusly, if you had any one of the 4 speakers "pulling in" (ie positive speaker wire connected to negative speaker terminal) the sound would have been compromised. Car wiring is marked with a black trace on the positive ( Check the terminals on the original speaker, that should identify the positive wire, going to the positive spraker terminal)

So James, how are you going to move forward? Leave original speakers in??

M88JCP · Feb 10, 2011

Thanks Stu

To be honest with you, I'm not over keen on continuely removing my doors cards. I've been lucky in not damageing anything up until now. Maybe wise to leave the orignal units in and just puchase a slim subwoofer for the boot.

Do you think that with a bit of tweeking, the replacement Alpine speakers could sound better, or alternately does anybody know whether the Bose speakers from Seat or a B6/B7 chassis A4 would be a plug and play job or will the wiring be different? I can't compare as I haven't seen the connectors on the Bose speakers.

Sorry for the continuose questions, I appreciate your help with this.

Loonyjuice · Mar 16, 2011

M88JCP said:
...does anybody know whether the Bose speakers from Seat or a B6/B7 chassis A4 would be a plug and play job or will the wiring be different? I can't compare as I haven't seen the connectors on the Bose speakers.

Yes, I can, as I've just done exactly that. The Bose speakers in the door are plug and play, they look very similar to the standard units, but they have more weight to them - bigger magnets, I presume.

The Bose amp will replace the amp in the boot, but I'll need to get a different connector and wire it up, which I've not done yet. The Bose sub is quite shallow and mine has 4 screw holes at 90 degree intervals, but the holes in the Exeo are at 120 degree intervals. I.e. there's 3 screw holes so I'm going to need to improvise on this. Not checked the centre speaker yet, in the dash, as I wasn't brave enough to get the plastic cover off without going through the windscreen!

I've also got an RNS-E headunit (the sat nav option), which has more power for the front speakers. The rears and the sub are powered by the amp - the standard amp appears to have a low-pass filter, so I'm looking forward to getting this all sorted.

I broke a couple of clips taking the doors off, but they are cheap to replace.

OrangePeel · Mar 21, 2011

Loonyjuice said:
Yes, I can, as I've just done exactly that. The Bose speakers in the door are plug and play, they look very similar to the standard units, but they have more weight to them - bigger magnets, I presume.

The Bose amp will replace the amp in the boot, but I'll need to get a different connector and wire it up, which I've not done yet. The Bose sub is quite shallow and mine has 4 screw holes at 90 degree intervals, but the holes in the Exeo are at 120 degree intervals. I.e. there's 3 screw holes so I'm going to need to improvise on this. Not checked the centre speaker yet, in the dash, as I wasn't brave enough to get the plastic cover off without going through the windscreen!

I've also got an RNS-E headunit (the sat nav option), which has more power for the front speakers. The rears and the sub are powered by the amp - the standard amp appears to have a low-pass filter, so I'm looking forward to getting this all sorted.

I broke a couple of clips taking the doors off, but they are cheap to replace.

You have PM,

Would love to know how you get on with this... I have the sat nav option, do I have an amp of some description already in place...? This would make life a lot easier with the wiring.. Is the center dash speaker accesable from the top or is it a job for major dash removal.

Loonyjuice · Mar 21, 2011

OrangePeel said:
You have PM,

Would love to know how you get on with this... I have the sat nav option, do I have an amp of some description already in place...? This would make life a lot easier with the wiring.. Is the center dash speaker accesable from the top or is it a job for major dash removal.

Check your inbox

You are one step up on me, as I got a nav unit off an A4, so it can find my way to the nearest Audi garages now!

I believe all Exeo's have the amp in the boot, powering the rear speakers, so you should be ok there, but you'll need a different connector for the Bose amp.

The centre speaker is unknown territory for me yet.

M88JCP · Mar 22, 2011

Thanks Looneyjuice, looking forward to hearing how you get on with this.

OrangePeel · Mar 27, 2011

Loonyjuice said:
Check your inbox

You are one step up on me, as I got a nav unit off an A4, so it can find my way to the nearest Audi garages now!

I believe all Exeo's have the amp in the boot, powering the rear speakers, so you should be ok there, but you'll need a different connector for the Bose amp.

The centre speaker is unknown territory for me yet.

How are you getting on with the speaker/sub/amp install... I keep scouring fleabay but except for the sub I haven't found anything at a "reasonable" price. £140 for used speakers seams steep, unless you think that they made a BIG difference. Also If the wiring to the amp is already there then I suppose I could look at any 3 or 4 channel amp that can take a sub and 2 rears and leave the front coming of the head unit... Hmmmmmmmm.

Loonyjuice · Mar 28, 2011

OrangePeel said:
How are you getting on with the speaker/sub/amp install... I keep scouring fleabay but except for the sub I haven't found anything at a "reasonable" price. £140 for used speakers seams steep, unless you think that they made a BIG difference. Also If the wiring to the amp is already there then I suppose I could look at any 3 or 4 channel amp that can take a sub and 2 rears and leave the front coming of the head unit... Hmmmmmmmm.

Hi OrangePeel,

not had chance to look at it yet. Partly because I'm being made redundant at work

and partly because I need to wait for a my Audi friend to ask the parts guy for the Bose connector, for the amp, and he's been on holiday.

It's hard to say if the speakers are going to make a big difference on their own, as I upgraded my head unit too, but there is definitely an improvement.

I would say that any amp for the rear would be an improvement over the standard amp, but then you'll probably want to upgrade the speakers to handle to the new power and anything other than Audi speakers is going to be hassle to fit.

I will let you know when progress is made.

OrangePeel · Mar 29, 2011

Loonyjuice said:
Hi OrangePeel,

not had chance to look at it yet. Partly because I'm being made redundant at work and partly because I need to wait for a my Audi friend to ask the parts guy for the Bose connector, for the amp, and he's been on holiday.

It's hard to say if the speakers are going to make a big difference on their own, as I upgraded my head unit too, but there is definitely an improvement.

I would say that any amp for the rear would be an improvement over the standard amp, but then you'll probably want to upgrade the speakers to handle to the new power and anything other than Audi speakers is going to be hassle to fit.

I will let you know when progress is made.

Sorry to here of your redundancy... I hope you get something else sorted out. I am sure speakers are the last thing on your mind.

Keep me posted on how you get on. (both on the job front and speakers...)

Cheers Mate!

OP

Loonyjuice · May 16, 2011

Quick update folks.

First, I've got a new job, although the commute is a killer as it's 9-5 in Manchester - I live in Liverpool.

Second, I needed a bose amp connector which I got, but it didn't have any pins in it, so I am currently in the process of ordering the pins too! Hopefully, I'll get this sorted soon.

OrangePeel · May 20, 2011

Loonyjuice said:
Quick update folks.

First, I've got a new job, although the commute is a killer as it's 9-5 in Manchester - I live in Liverpool.

Second, I needed a bose amp connector which I got, but it didn't have any pins in it, so I am currently in the process of ordering the pins too! Hopefully, I'll get this sorted soon.

Good news on the job! :clap:

...

Look forward to finding out your thoughts on speaker replacement. Still on my to-do list.

Search

Speaker replacement

M88JCP

Guest

Stupra

Active Member

M88JCP

Guest

chrispy

Guest

M88JCP

Guest

Stupra

Active Member

M88JCP

Guest

Loonyjuice

Newbie

OrangePeel

Active Member

Loonyjuice

Newbie

M88JCP

Guest

OrangePeel

Active Member

Loonyjuice

Newbie

OrangePeel

Active Member

Loonyjuice

Newbie

OrangePeel

Active Member

Similar threads