Icehawk's "OEM+" speaker upgrade

[Yorkman1]

Wanted to give a little update and feedback. So I have put some time in the seat and have had music playing for about 6-7 hours. Sub is starting to loosen up. It’s really more fluid sounding. It’s not a 10 or 12 with an amp but it wasn’t supposed to be. I’m sure happy I wrapped the box. That took away to plastic airy sound, just made it all more solid. Worth the few pounds. I’m glad I picked up a cheap sub, I don’t feel the $169 for a P3 is worth it. Hope this helps everyone.

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[Fl5ap]

Wanted to give a little update and feedback. So I have put some time in the seat and have had music playing for about 6-7 hours. Sub is starting to loosen up. It’s really more fluid sounding. It’s not a 10 or 12 with an amp but it wasn’t supposed to be. I’m sure happy I wrapped the box. That took away to plastic airy sound, just made it all more solid. Worth the few pounds. I’m glad I picked up a cheap sub, I don’t feel the $169 for a P3 is worth it. Hope this helps everyone.

Phase 1 upgrade: Swap OEM Bose sub to aftermarket kicker 8 in shallow mount 2ohm DVC that I already had from a previous car.

Results: not enough juice to power 2 ohm DVC 8 in Kicker wired to 1 ohm. Waiting on amp and loc to arrive to complete my goal.

Phase 2 will be complete in the next week or so.

Also, anyone have experience with running the power wire through firewall in FK8 or fl5? The one I'm going to use is below.

 

[Icehawk]

Yeah, as I said the stock amp doesn't provide enough power to really exploit a driver upgrade. Even with more power I wouldn't expect to get too much - we're only using an 8" driver in a very small enclosure so it's not going to go deep.

 

[Yorkman1]

My speaker project today. I’ll give the full details later but this in the OEM housing with OEM plugs

 

[Icehawk]

What are you using there? Remember the front doors/sub are 2ohm and everything else is 4ohm. Looks like it's downsized too?

 

[Yorkman1]

That is in the rear door and it’s a 4 OHM NVX

 

[Yorkman1]

I wanna make a suggestion to everyone and tell them do not mess with the speakers in your c pillars a.k.a. your hatch. The speakers are less than an inch thick and anything thicker will not fit because it will hit the roof support frame rails. Here’s some photos so you have some evidence.

 

[Yorkman1]

The wonder Amazon sent me the wrong fronts. I ordered the 2 ohm fronts and they sent me the 4 ohm ones so now I’m waiting again.

 

[Yorkman1]

I put the rear door speakers in today. I took a different approach as I wanted to door woofers only. I think the tweeters in the car are fine just want a little more punch from the mids. So I removed the OEM Bose speaker. Cut it out of the housing. Saved the adaptor. Wired the new speakers to the adaptor. Used some killmat to seal it all up and put a little in the doors and on the door panel. Came out great. I can always answer questions just LMK.

 

[Icehawk]

I wanna make a suggestion to everyone and tell them do not mess with the speakers in your c pillars a.k.a. your hatch. The speakers are less than an inch thick and anything thicker will not fit because it will hit the roof support frame rails. Here’s some photos so you have some evidence.

These contribute basically zero so I don't recommend replacing them either. I did not realize the space was so tight but I only took a quick look when I was doing some other work (sub) back there.

I put the rear door speakers in today. I took a different approach as I wanted to door woofers only. I think the tweeters in the car are fine just want a little more punch from the mids. So I removed the OEM Bose speaker. Cut it out of the housing. Saved the adaptor. Wired the new speakers to the adaptor. Used some killmat to seal it all up and put a little in the doors and on the door panel. Came out great. I can always answer questions just LMK.

I would do the front tweeters, the rear ones I can understand saving some money since they aren't likely too audible from the front seat. IMO, the most critical speakers are the front doors followed by front tweeters, then either the center speaker if you use it or the rear doors. Center, rear tweeters, and sub are much less important IMO and as mentioned the hatch ones... just ignore.

I like that you repurposed the rear door speaker mounts, I hadn't considered that. I did post part #s for the door driver plugs so you can save the effort of removing the stock ones and reusing. I never found plugs to use for the tweeters, center, or sub though.

I do suggest some baffles or rain guards for at least the front door speakers - I had to fiddle with mine and saw there were water spots on the magnets. I imagine that if the front has water intrusion the rears do too. Didn't see this on the OEM ones though...

Hoping to finish my setup next month.

 

[Yorkman1]

These contribute basically zero so I don't recommend replacing them either. I did not realize the space was so tight but I only took a quick look when I was doing some other work (sub) back there.



I would do the front tweeters, the rear ones I can understand saving some money since they aren't likely too audible from the front seat. IMO, the most critical speakers are the front doors followed by front tweeters, then either the center speaker if you use it or the rear doors. Center, rear tweeters, and sub are much less important IMO and as mentioned the hatch ones... just ignore.

I like that you repurposed the rear door speaker mounts, I hadn't considered that. I did post part #s for the door driver plugs so you can save the effort of removing the stock ones and reusing. I never found plugs to use for the tweeters, center, or sub though.

I do suggest some baffles or rain guards for at least the front door speakers - I had to fiddle with mine and saw there were water spots on the magnets. I imagine that if the front has water intrusion the rears do too. Didn't see this on the OEM ones though...

Hoping to finish my setup next month.

Cant Wait. I like that this tread is a rolling information thread for everyone. The struggles we face while ripping into this just help everyone.

As for the plugs for the tweeters and sub and center I'm still looking as well. i have ordered 2 different plugs that said they are the ones but have not been correct. I have more coming in the mail currently. Hopefully we can figure this out.

Ill look into front door baffles that way the speaker has some protection. My car wont be out in the weather or driven when its wet from now on unless i get caught in it.

biggest issue with the front tweeters is you have to tap them from the OEM amp, the factory tweeters has a filter on them so that means they are not amp filtered. and the A piler wiring cant be linked to a component crossover berceuse the OEM is 2 sources and the crossover would only supply for 1 source thus cutting power in effective half. I have to dig into tweeter filters, But I do have the tweeters.

 

[Yorkman1]

Also, the A piller has a "1 time use clip" this is the part

91561-T20-A01

Clip, pillar garnish

so anyone who pulls can get another.

 

[Yorkman1]

Phase 1 upgrade: Swap OEM Bose sub to aftermarket kicker 8 in shallow mount 2ohm DVC that I already had from a previous car.

Results: not enough juice to power 2 ohm DVC 8 in Kicker wired to 1 ohm. Waiting on amp and loc to arrive to complete my goal.

Phase 2 will be complete in the next week or so.

Also, anyone have experience with running the power wire through firewall in FK8 or fl5? The one I'm going to use is below.

FL5ap how broken in is the sub? how big is the driver? the lower the power rating and the smaller the VC and smaller the magnet the easier time a lower power source will have moving it, I get enough bass to slightly sake my rearview mirror, that's all. Sorry you did not like it.

 

[Fl5ap]

FL5ap how broken in is the sub? how big is the driver? the lower the power rating and the smaller the VC and smaller the magnet the easier time a lower power source will have moving it, I get enough bass to slightly sake my rearview mirror, that's all. Sorry you did not like it.

I wouldn't say it's broken in. I think my biggest issue with the swap was it wasn't an improvement over the OEM sub and overall car audio was worse.

 

[Icehawk]

biggest issue with the front tweeters is you have to tap them from the OEM amp, the factory tweeters has a filter on them so that means they are not amp filtered. and the A piler wiring cant be linked to a component crossover berceuse the OEM is 2 sources and the crossover would only supply for 1 source thus cutting power in effective half. I have to dig into tweeter filters, But I do have the tweeters.

CDT recommended this freq cut for their tweeters:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BHSF5L2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also, the A piller has a "1 time use clip" this is the part

91561-T20-A01

Clip, pillar garnish

so anyone who pulls can get another.

That might be the one that I had to fiddle with quite a bit each time - but they are reusable. I've had the garnish off twice now and no issues with putting it back on beyond that PITA clip.

FL5ap how broken in is the sub? how big is the driver? the lower the power rating and the smaller the VC and smaller the magnet the easier time a lower power source will have moving it, I get enough bass to slightly sake my rearview mirror, that's all. Sorry you did not like it.

I think you are onto something - the driver I used is "heavy duty" and while it's better than OEM I barely notice its output. Maybe a more reasonable driver would actually sound better in this application but there is also a low pass cutoff it feels like.

Would you mind playing something like this freq test and see what you can go down to?



Regardless I think using a cheap driver here makes the most sense unless you are going full hog w/amp. Spend the money on the front door drivers and tweeters - it's where most of what you can hear is going to come from.

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