Upgrading VE Stock Speakers - How To

[Rhys Kirkham]

Hey mate, I tried your theory of Swapping the Polarity of the subs in my 08 VE SSV, And wow you were correct, such a huge difference!
Ill still be upgrading to a full sound system and 2 12"'s in my own box, but in the meantime while im saving, that's still a great sound it now produces!
Cheers for posting this up here.
Ill be making a Youtube vid of a how to. Ill link it to this post once its done.
Instead of your idea of going behind the seats and all of that on the parcel shelf, I went to the amp, unplugged the plug/harness, cut the speaker wires and then rewired it, that was such a much easier way to do it i found rather then removing part of the seat and everything. There was plenty of length on the cable aswell to work on.

Also keep in mind I have also previously turned the amp gain from 50% to 75% as a Youtube user "Harpal Gill" recommended via the dial underneath the amp.
link to that video is:
Holden VE SS V HIDDEN AMP .mov - YouTube

Cheers

 

[metester]

Great stuff. Although I probably wasn't clear in saying that I meant behind the seats from inside the boot. No need to remove seats etc! Nevertheless, a great result.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk 4

 

[SS-Mark]

I removed the centre speaker from my VE2 today. Has improved the sound quality by heaps and now I can fade to the rear speakers without the centre speaker staying at full noise and sounding like crap.
Getting at the speaker wasn't much of a hassle but removing the actual speaker proved to be unbelievably difficult. The 2 small screws holding it in were tighter than hell and due to the awkward location I just couldn't get enough weight on them to get them out. I ended up tearing the speaker up and cutting the metal with snips to get at the magnet and plug. Rough as guts for sure but once I was there I wasn't putting it back together with that speaker still in place.

 

[SammyD]

I've just switched the phasing on the subs in my SSV and as everybody else has said...WOW. I could actually get to the speaker terminals from the boot so I just climbed in, de-soldered, swapped and re-soldered. I wasn't expecting a big difference as I'm always skeptical about the quality of "Premium" sound in locally built cars. Next steps are to disconnect the centre front speaker and possibly get some Dynamat to stop the spare wheel well acting like a nice big bass drum for the exhaust.

 

[Daany]

Great write up!

I've gotta ask, I'm getting a Caprice later this year, want to redo the sound system, does anyone know how the speakers are setup in the Caprice? (2010 WM Series II Caprice V) As in size, how many, etc.

 

[bryanmmch]

Hi all,
New to the forum and Holden, but have just purchased a black SSV wagon. Big upgrade over the 1996 Subaru Legacy GTB I'll tell you

I pulled out the multimeter to measure the speakers resistance, and sure enough both speaker and the tweeter measured 2ohms, the same as everyone else has found.

Interestingly enough, measuring the resistance between the positive cable on the speaker and the positive cable going to the tweeter resulted in (very near to) zero ohms.

It looks like the 2ohm speaker and tweeter are wired in parallel resulting in a 1 ohm load to the IQ unit. This leads me to believe that the Holden IQ systems built in amplifier is stable down to 1 ohm.

Or have I screwed this up royally?

The reason I'm asking is that I'm looking at transferring the audio installation from my old Legacy to the SSV and have been furiously reading the forum leaning about trim removal and other peoples experiences with getting better audio into their cars etc.

My installation will be keeping the stock Holden IQ head unit, but I'll be installing a line output converter (LOC) to go from the speaker output to rca connections.

At this stage it'll likely be the AudioControl LC6i (It reviews really well on Amazon, but if anyone has direct experience, I'd be keen to hear it!).

I'm aware that some people have fitted rca connections to the IQ, but I'm not sure about sending my IQ from New Zealand for this. If someone would supply me a howto I'd be very grateful!

From the rca connections, I have a pair of MTX amps. (Yes they are old, but they are also built like the proverbial…).
There's a 2x40 watt for the front house and a 2x160 bridging to a little over 320 watts for the sub. (All ratings rms).
I realise that the 2x40 might seem a little… 'light' but it'll be more than the existing IQ system is putting out eh!

I'll be installing Alpine DD Linear 6.5 components in the front, leaving the rear door speakers stock.

This is the Sportwagon, so there is no hidden amp (well, that I've been able to find on this forum or in the car) or 8" sub(s) in the rear window like the sedans.

My sub is a 12" MTX Thunder 7000 series sub (rated at 400 watts rms) in a MTX factory standard sealed enclosure.

I know my gear, I've installed it all before (other than the LOC) so I'm experienced, but this isn't my day job.

If anyone has suggestions or recommendations for these installations I'm keen to hear them too.

 

[SammyD]

Don't get impedance an resistance mixed up. They're not the same thing. You're also testing with DC.

 

[Yergin]

Hey mate, I tried your theory of Swapping the Polarity of the subs in my 08 VE SSV, And wow you were correct, such a huge difference!
Ill still be upgrading to a full sound system and 2 12"'s in my own box, but in the meantime while im saving, that's still a great sound it now produces!
Cheers for posting this up here.
Ill be making a Youtube vid of a how to. Ill link it to this post once its done.
Instead of your idea of going behind the seats and all of that on the parcel shelf, I went to the amp, unplugged the plug/harness, cut the speaker wires and then rewired it, that was such a much easier way to do it i found rather then removing part of the seat and everything. There was plenty of length on the cable aswell to work on.

Also keep in mind I have also previously turned the amp gain from 50% to 75% as a Youtube user "Harpal Gill" recommended via the dial underneath the amp.
link to that video is:
Holden VE SS V HIDDEN AMP .mov - YouTube

Cheers

Thanks for sharing the video, will be doing that myself now. I actually like the sound of my system, i specifically wanted a car that i didn't have to waste 4k on for a new system like my old car (especially since it got me a whole 1k when written off!!).
Look forward to seeing a vid on the reversing the wires, i have read that part many times but since i don't know much about it i haven't wanted to do it myself and don't want to pay some bloke to do it for me either!.
So if you do a vid please keep the weekend warriors in mind.

cheers again!

 

[rjhoomuck]

Hello
Does 2009 SERIES 1 VE SS support mp3? If i change the headunit which does not support mp3 to 2009 SERIES 1 VE SS headunit, will i be able to start the car before reprograming?
Thx
Ross

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

[Muke]

According to my car's manual (from MY08), the SS has the 6 stacker that does play MP3. That's the sort that looks the same as the Omega/SV6 units. Until you have it programmed, it wont work but it will not do anything else to the car. You'll just be driving in silence and have an error message displayed about a "security mismatch" (or something along those lines).