What rating are the stock speakers in Calais VE?

[cds]

As the heading states, anyone knows what they are... I'm not insane to extreme loudness but have the need fro a sub.

I would assume in a Calias holden would of put decent speakers in... Would I be good as in to just get a 12" Sub installed into the VE without modifying any exisiting stuff by just tapping into a rear speaker wire to an amp and then sub?

[Luke0011]

They are a paper cone 4ohm 25watt with a tweeter and capacitor on the dash with a dual voice coil 3 inch in the centre. The rear door speakers are the same 6 inch in the front doors but are a coaxial.

[caraudiorookie]

I've got a Calais V and the factory door speakers were 2ohm rather than 4. The factory speakers are pretty average. I replaced the factory speakers with some better coaxials and added a sub. I also removed the center speaker (this alone makes a big improvement). For the moment I have left the factory tweeters in place. When I replaced the 2ohm speakers with 4ohms I was worried I would lose volume but I haven't noticed any decrease.

[Luke0011]

sorry for correcting me yes they are 2 ohm

[VZ-Rob]

....For the moment I have left the factory tweeters in place.......

I'd replace the tweeters as well pretty quick.
My factory 1's were a crappy paper diaphragm tweets & was torn
Swapped em out & all sweet top end now
Try out these
Car Ribbon Tweeter with Crossover - Volt Electronics
These Infinity Tweets are Sweet ! http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...ppa+10.9T.html

[HCVP]

Your obviously after some more bass response out of your system. So to begin with, i would look at installing a sub, and leaving the rest of the system as is. You don't need to tap into your wires for signal, you can have your current factory unit, modified to accept RCA's, which would also improve the quality of the signal being sent to the amp for the sub. If you choose to go that way, then there are a few options that we can suggest to you.

But yeah just get yourself a sub first, and see how you go. You may be happy with that, and decide to leave the rest as it is. If your not happy with the performace of your current speakers, then i'd begin with buying an amp, rather than upgrading the speakers straight away. A decent amp will give you more tuning capabilities over the current one, and should atleast give your stock speakers a slight performance increase. Also it will be ready for your speaker upgrades in the future, should you decide you want to go down that path aswell.

Anyways, that's the way i'd be going about it, but i'm sure others will have their own opinions, and would choose to go about it differently.

[cds]

Your obviously after some more bass response out of your system. So to begin with, i would look at installing a sub, and leaving the rest of the system as is. You don't need to tap into your wires for signal, you can have your current factory unit, modified to accept RCA's, which would also improve the quality of the signal being sent to the amp for the sub. If you choose to go that way, then there are a few options that we can suggest to you.

But yeah just get yourself a sub first, and see how you go. You may be happy with that, and decide to leave the rest as it is. If your not happy with the performace of your current speakers, then i'd begin with buying an amp, rather than upgrading the speakers straight away. A decent amp will give you more tuning capabilities over the current one, and should atleast give your stock speakers a slight performance increase. Also it will be ready for your speaker upgrades in the future, should you decide you want to go down that path aswell.

Anyways, that's the way i'd be going about it, but i'm sure others will have their own opinions, and would choose to go about it differently.

Actually what you just said is exactly what I had in mind... I'm not a big one over Audio in my car but you gotta have some sort of decent bass. My volume level wouldn't go any higher than 20 in the car and thats on a good day =/ But yeah.. so what would you suggest in terms of a small amp to power the sub? I've got this Pioneer 12" Sub laying around i could box it and use it? - I'm a little concerned about boot looks (i know im crazy) but i want to keep it neat somewhat with the sub and amp in their any suggestion at low cost?

[Luke0011]

Your obviously after some more bass response out of your system. So to begin with, i would look at installing a sub, and leaving the rest of the system as is. You don't need to tap into your wires for signal, you can have your current factory unit, modified to accept RCA's, which would also improve the quality of the signal being sent to the amp for the sub.

Modifying the unit so it produces a low level output ( RCA ) is expensive to tapping from the speaker wires into the high level speaker input at the amplifier or into a high ( speaker ) level to low ( Line/RCA ) level signal converter.
Just adding the sub is going to improve frequency response at the lower frequencies but its debatable that modifiying the factory stereo in a VE to produce line outputs is better than using a good line converter especially if your just using it for a subwoofer.

[Luke0011]

You only need an amplifier rated at around 200 to 300 watts rms to run your sub. pricing at around 180 to 250 if you look for a bargain.

[VZ-Rob]

You only need an amplifier rated at around 200 to 300 watts rms to run your sub. pricing at around 180 to 250 if you look for a bargain.

Then just use the dash centre speaker cable to the Amp + sub

[cds]

Your obviously after some more bass response out of your system. So to begin with, i would look at installing a sub, and leaving the rest of the system as is. You don't need to tap into your wires for signal, you can have your current factory unit, modified to accept RCA's, which would also improve the quality of the signal being sent to the amp for the sub. If you choose to go that way, then there are a few options that we can suggest to you.

But yeah just get yourself a sub first, and see how you go. You may be happy with that, and decide to leave the rest as it is. If your not happy with the performace of your current speakers, then i'd begin with buying an amp, rather than upgrading the speakers straight away. A decent amp will give you more tuning capabilities over the current one, and should atleast give your stock speakers a slight performance increase. Also it will be ready for your speaker upgrades in the future, should you decide you want to go down that path aswell.

Anyways, that's the way i'd be going about it, but i'm sure others will have their own opinions, and would choose to go about it differently.

I ended up just tapping into them as they come out of the headunit, and running wires down the the back using the same channels as the factory wires run. Use those white plastic connector things to make life easier as you can see in the picture.

[Luke0011]

Then just use the dash centre speaker cable to the Amp + sub

There from the front outputs so if you have an amp without a separate sub control the ability to fade the sub out is gone, using the rear outputs is recommended and as cds has done tapped of the easiest point directly out of the unit.