VE speakers and sound? help

[mitchelljdunne]

hey people. ok for starters i know sweet FA about sound systems in cars.

haha, im wanting to change the front door speakers, any suggestions on what brand/type, 2way or 4way, and what size will fit exaclty in so its a easy swap to do by myself?
also if i was only to do the front door speakers, will i notice much sound difference?

and will i have to replace all the wiring, or can i use the wiring out of the old speaker...

any ADVICE would be great! or if you think i should do something different that would be great aswell( e.i change rear door speakers also?)

cheers

[hskisking]

Have focal splits at the moment,the need to have custom mounts made for them to fit

As for sound qual you will notice a big diff with the speakers changed

Depending on budget get a 12" sub ,amps and a audison bit one to make a huge difference

[Crisis63]

Upgrading speakers to decent two ways is a good place to start and will reap the best results for your money. In my opinion not much is gained by 3 and 4 way speakers over simple two ways. It is easier to use the existing wire and it will sound fine. Naturally using better cable will reap marginal rewards. Beware, once you venture down this path you will enter the never ending spiral into the world of Car Audio insanity. Enjoy your trip! ;-)

[mitchelljdunne]

haha yeah cheers mates.
so the wire already there will be okay to put into a normal 2way 6" split? what brand and watts should i get? does it matter

[Crisis63]

Brands opens up a can of worms. Alpine or Pioneer would be a good place to start. Sony, Kenwood, Clarion etc are a bit cheaper pound for pound. Jaycar have good value “no name” speakers. I have always been happy with their gear. Of course you can go for the more esoteric brands but I would be looking at doing the whole system before spending $100s of dollars on speakers. Splits are fine but you will have to locate the crossovers and run the new cable from them to the location you choose for the HF drivers. Not all that hard really. Splits do sound better as they locate the HF drivers in line with your ears and your car already has a place for them anyway.
Power handling (Watts) at this point are irrelevant. Anything you choose will handle your current set up.

[mitchelljdunne]

will 6.5" be a straight swap over mate?
i found some 6.5" phillips 400w, will they be a straight swap with out going through crossovers ect?

[HCVP]

6.5'' Phillips what?

The standard speakers are a split component setup, so are the speakers your looking out a split system or a coaxial speaker?

Which ever way you go, you will need to remove the factory crossover before your new speakers. Might i add that the VE use a pretty good factory mounting point for the mid bass driver. In fact it's high enough up that a single point driver can be used with very good results. Split component setups generally offer better performance in cases where the mid bass driver is located lower down, being too far down to accurately direct HF's.

Bear in mind that all though the factory speakers aren't exactly highly regarded, just replacing them with an aftermarket speaker does not guarantee an increase in performance. If you don't allow enough of a budget your money would almost be wasted, not only on the speakers but also your time and effort.

From my experience with newer vehicles, (having dealt with the VE range also) factory sound systems all though still far from being great (or even acceptable by some peoples terms) they have still improved quite considerably. What's generally lacking the most is a little bass authority.

Being a VE, and the fact that your unlikely to change the source, i would look elsewhere to begin with rather than just changing out the speakers. I'd look at adding a signal proccesor and a small powered sub and spend your time fine tuning the system from there. With some additional sound deadning also, you would be surprised at what can be achieved while retaining the factory source and speakers. You might also want to consider disconnecting the centre speaker.

Just another option for you to consider. It comes down to which way you want to direct your money.

[mitchelljdunne]

6.5'' Phillips what?

The standard speakers are a split component setup, so are the speakers your looking out a split system or a coaxial speaker?

Which ever way you go, you will need to remove the factory crossover before your new speakers. Might i add that the VE use a pretty good factory mounting point for the mid bass driver. In fact it's high enough up that a single point driver can be used with very good results. Split component setups generally offer better performance in cases where the mid bass driver is located lower down, being too far down to accurately direct HF's.

Bear in mind that all though the factory speakers are exactly highly regarded, just replacing them with an aftermarket speaker does not guarantee an increase in performance. If you don't allow enough of a budget your money would almost be wasted, not only on the speakers but also your time and effort.

From my experience with newer vehicles, (having dealt with the VE range also) factory sound systems all though still far from being great (or even acceptable by some peoples terms) they have still improved quite considerably. What's generally lacking the most is a little bass authority.

Being a VE, and the fact that your unlikely to change the source, i would look elsewhere to begin with rather than just changing out the speakers. I'd look at adding a signal proccesor and a small powered sub and spend your time fine tuning the system from there. With some additional sound deadning also, you would be surprised at what can be achieved while retaining the factory source and speakers. You might also want to consider disconnecting the centre speaker.

Just another option for you to consider. It comes down to which way you want to direct your money.

how come i have to remove factory crossover? cant i just unplug the old one, and plug the wire straight into the back of the new one mate?
it all sounds to hard hahaha. im not after crazy sound, just tiny tiny bit better, so yeah ....

[Crisis63]

I thought in my VY the tweeters just had a resistor wired on the back of it but if the VE has a major upgrade (as previously stated by HCVP) and has a full crossover network then it will be optimised for those speakers and your new ones will have either a simple network on them if they are components or maybe a separate crossover if they are splits. It is not a complex job to run new wires but you will have to trace the existing ones back to the original crossover or the head unit. Not hard but it will take a while to do it all. I do agree though that you wont really gain a huge benefit by replacing the factory speakers with any old cheapies if that what you are doing.

[HCVP]

I used the word crossover loosly because the OP said he is new to audio, and unsure about most things. They have an inline capacitor with the tweeter as with previous models. Your going to want to remove the capacitor though, you don't want that after your wiring coming from the new crossover.

It's best if your unsure just to trace your speaker wire back far enough to know that you have avoided the capacitor. When you say things like existing wire and straight swap, without clarification there's the possibility that you might use the entire existing wire for both the mid and tweeter and just simply screw in the new drivers.

[mitchelljdunne]

okay, i just changed the speakers, and to be honest, it doesnt sound as deep/good as the old ones...
all i did was disconnect the old wires, cut and put crimps on, and then plugged into the new speaker. ?

[HCVP]

I'm hardly surprised it sounds like crap. You didn't follow any of the advice above, nor did you answer any of the questions.

It could sound worse for a few reasons-

The speakers you fitted are crap. Like i said, just replacing a speaker with another does not guarantee it will sound better. If you spent <$100 or something on a set of speakers, then they are probably on par with what was in there to begin with.

You may have wired them out of phase. Check that you haven't connected the positive and negative incorrectly.

You have fitted them poorly and they do not directly line up with the existing mounting bracket.

The speakers you have fitted may be of a lower sensitivity to that of the ones you replaced. Meaning they will be quieter for any given amount of volume, and would not be sounding their best without sufficient power to drive them. Lower sensitivity speakers are not better / bad / good or worse, they can just require extra power to perform.

There could be more reasons as well, but until you begin to give accurate information about what components you are using, your not going to get anywhere i'm afraid.

[SSV Redline]

Good advice HCVP, but I can see why he got lost. Like a lot of non audiophiles, me included, some of us really dont have any idea what a crossover, capacitor, splits, 2 way or a 3 way is (okay I know what that last one is but that has nothing to do with speakers. As you rightly stated he and I are looking for a simple solution to a complex issue. He, like a lot of us is mislead into believing that swapping over the front spreakers with a perceived better known brand would result in better sound quality. It is obvious from what you said in this forum it is a flawed theory and not always the case. I think you have given us all the best advice. Dynamat your doors and boot area then add a decent sub and a 4 way amp. Use the existing system and finally, if you dont understand that then put the screw driver down and let a professional to do it for you. Thanks for the great advice.

[HUX 90]

I installed type R 6.5" splits in my ute and im runnin them off the factory headunit. Unless you amp the new speakers it's just not worth it, you need to turn the volume up realy high to get decent sound and then you run the risk of damaging the new speakers.

I've talked to a few audio shops and got told that the factory head unit distorts the sound quality when the volume is over 20. Definately amp the speakers and if your willing to speand a bit extra get a signal processor to clean up the sound quality.

[bladerunner]

i'm looking at putting in the latest hertz 6.5 splits not sure which series as yet, dynomating the doors and plugging them into an audison amp of appropiate size, as well as all the auxillary items needed, i was gunna put this combo into my last ute but sold it instead,these speakers sounded incredible in the shop but that was a couple of years ago. it's not excactly a cheap set up i know but if someone has these speakers and are happy with them i would appreciate a comment as i'd like to know what they sound like out in the real world before i spend my hard earned.

[SSV Redline]

blade can you keep me updated as well. Am looking in the same direction and I live in Bris vegas as well