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Upgrading VE Stock Speakers - How To

gomax

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Xplaya

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Fitted Sony piggyback amp with kit from Universalfuze

https://www.universalfuze.com.au/sony-4x100-watt-plug-play-amplifier-fits-holden-ve

Used Focal speakers in all 4 doors and replaced stock tweeters with Focals.

Coupled with Kicker underseat sub

https://forums.justcommodores.com.a...k-speakers-how-to.159709/page-12#post-2875035

Results are a fat sound with great staging, music sounds at head height with excellent clarity.

Curious did you do a before and after test? With the speakers and stock system, and then adding the Sony system?
Am thinking about that Sony amp you quote, as I like the sound of plug n play. But I do have a amp I can use, do you know if the harness itself is for sale? Where I could just plug it up to my aftermarket amp?
 

It's Me

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New to this forum so any advice would be appreciated, I'm currently fitting alpine s-s65 (rears) and s-s65c (fronts) speakers in my doors and the grills I got are to big for the Holden grill spots, is there a way in which I can make these fit without damaging the leather on the doors? I put the rears in today but noticed the grills that came with them don't fit where the stock grill is, so I didn't attempt to fit them.

Also, are the front door speakers just plug ins to the stock wires? Or do I have to make new clips like I had to with the rears?

Cheers.
 

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New to this forum so any advice would be appreciated, I'm currently fitting alpine s-s65 (rears) and s-s65c (fronts) speakers in my doors and the grills I got are to big for the Holden grill spots, is there a way in which I can make these fit without damaging the leather on the doors? I put the rears in today but noticed the grills that came with them don't fit where the stock grill is, so I didn't attempt to fit them.

Also, are the front door speakers just plug ins to the stock wires? Or do I have to make new clips like I had to with the rears?

Cheers.
Most people just use the factory grilles . The wires on the front are the same as the rears . If the fronts are component speakers you will have to unclip the covers on the dash to install the small component speakers . Best advise is read this thread from start to finish to give you a better understanding . Also removing the centre speaker in the middle of the dash will make a big improvement sound wise .
 

It's Me

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Most people just use the factory grilles . The wires on the front are the same as the rears . If the fronts are component speakers you will have to unclip the covers on the dash to install the small component speakers . Best advise is read this thread from start to finish to give you a better understanding . Also removing the centre speaker in the middle of the dash will make a big improvement sound wise .
Cheers, I noticed when I took the fronts out of the box before that the speaker wire has plugs on both ends whereas the rears only had a plugs on one end and loose wire on the other. I removed the centre dash speaker the other day, also have tweeters to go in.
 

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I was interested in upgrading to the stock door and front speakers only and doing a couple of simple tweaks to the system and subs to improve the sound quality
I did NOT want to spend a fortune or go as far as adding amps, sub enclosures, changing head units and rewiring etc like the purist audiophiles.
I don't need to win competitions or blow out the windows and I am more concerned with what I can hear in the car than with what the neighbours hear outside.
This is a simple stock speaker replacement, nothing too fancy. I can always add amps etc later if wanted.

This write up is a summary of what I found pulling the system apart myself and from researching hundreds of posts over 3 forums.
I could not find all the info I needed in one place so hopefully this little writeup will fix that for others.

Putting it in writing it sounds complicated but it is not, you just need a little time and to be methodical.

I did the door speakers and front splits on my 2007 SSV with the premium system but most of it will apply to the basic stereo system as well and the series II
I did not replace the subs but removed the parcel shelf and lined the rear deck as well as sorting out all the rattles that suddenly appear when a bass heavy Linkin Park track plays.

===============================================

= The System:

First you need to know what you have so you can get the right bits.

In the SSV its the 230w 11 x speaker Blaupunkt premium (with screen and climate control)

The stock speakers are mostly low quality paper cones that don't make the best of the Blaupunkt head unit.

Speaker Locations:
1 Centre in the top of the dash in the middle.
2 Tweeters in both corners of the dash.
2 Splits/mid woofer in the front doors.
2 2 way in the back doors.
2 Subs in the parcel shelf (with amp next to battery).

But thats only 9 speakers, thats because Holden count each of the two ways in the rear doors as two speakers!!!?

The basic sytem in the Omegas and SV6's etc don't have the subs and amp and have a slightly different centre speaker setup

= Speaker Sizes and Wiring/Polarity:

- Centre Dash Speaker... (3.5" 30w 4ohm)
On the premium system it is a single coil two wire speaker taken from the head unit
Polarity = +Orange -L/Blue
I believe on the basic system it is a two coil 4 wire speaker taken from the feeds to each front door speaker circuit, not directly from the head unit.
Polarity = RF+L/Green RF-D/Green LF+Brown LF-Grey
The centre speaker has a habit of distorting at higher volumes so most people just disconnect it.
To get at it lift the front speaker cover which pops off starting at from the front (windshield) edge and working to the. Collect any white clips that fall of before they drop into the dash and get lost.
Some people replace it with an 8ohm or 16ohm unit to tone it down a bit or even wire in resistors. I have just disconnected it at present.
There is a huge amount of discussion on how badly this centre speaker affects sound quality and dozens of solutions but its really down to personal taste.

- Front Door Speakers... (160mm 2ohm 30w Component Mid woofer flush depth = 70mm)
Polarity = RF+L/Green RF-D/Green LF+Brown LF-Grey
Replace these with splits, they can be either 6" or 6.5"

- In dash tweeters... (2ohm 30w Approx 35mm wide)
Replace these with the tweeters that come with the front splits.
Dont just connect the stock wires, they must be wired to the new crossovers that come with the splits. The stock wiring does not include a crossover, just filter built into each tweeter.
Polarity = RF+L/Green RF-D/Green LF+Brown LF-Grey

- Rear Door Speakers... (160mm 2ohm 30w 2 way depth = 70mm)
Polarity = RR+D/Blue RR-L/Blue LR+Brown LR-Yellow/Red Trace
Replace these with 2 way. Stock size is 6" or 6.5"

- Subs... (2ohm 50w 8")
Polarity = Left+D/Blue-white Left-L/Green-Black Right+D/Green Right-L/Blue-Black
These are "Free-Air" subs so if you just swap them out make sure the new ones are free-air compatible.
Free-air or "infinite baffle" subs use the boot space as the enclosure and rely on the parcel shelf providing an airtight seal between the back of the speaker and the front of the speaker inside the cabin.

speakerset.jpg

(original base image found on the net, not sure of the source)

I stayed with 2ohm speakers for the replacements as I am just doing a straight swap and the stocks are 2ohm.
I replaced the front splits with Infinity Kappa 65.7CS 6 1/2" and the rear 2 ways with Infinity Kappa 62.9i 6 1/2" Its hard to find good 2ohm speakers in NZ
The audiophiles will tell you to go for JBL, Polk or Kicker and 4ohm with amps etc but I am not an audiophile, I just like clean crisp sound.

==========================================

===== INSTALATION ====

= Rear door 2 ways =

- Remove the rear door trim
There are phillips head screws along the bottom and front/hinge side plus two hidden under the middle and end of the arm rest.
There is a torx head screw under a small square plastic pop off cover under the door handle.
Run your hands around the door trim and pull it away from the door to pop the clips all around.
The bottom green clip closest to the hinge will often stay in the door. Pull it out and put it back in the door trim before refitting.
- Disconnect the window switch plug. The lock clip is under the plug so put your fingers under it to release the clip.
- Disconect the door latch cables by pulling the wire around to the grove and sliding the end caps up out of the clips.
- Remove the speaker and/or pod.
The stock speaker is easily removed from its plastic pod in the door and the pod itself is easily removed if you need to modify or replace it.
Depending on the new speakers you may need to trim a little off the pod and drill holes for screws etc or if the new speaker basket is very large, replace it with an MDF ring. I just had to trim 5mm around the edges to make the hole bigger.
- Cut the T shaped plug off and attach the wires to the speaker crossover module that came with the speakers taking note of the polarity.
Polarity = Right Rear Door +D/Blue -L/Blue
Polarity = Left Rear Door +Brown -Yellow/Red Trace
Many 2 ways have the crossovers pre wired as a dongle so just attach to the +&- terminals
If the crossover is not pre wired connect the existing speaker wires to the IN terminals and follow the instructions included with the speakers when connecting the tweeter (TW) and the mid woofer (WF)
Some speakers have an adjustable gain and/or focus on the tweeter or on the crossover so read the instructions to see if you need to do anything with those.
I angled the tweeters up and set the gain to 0db.
Wrap the crossover in plastic and foam etc. and fit inside the door trim with cable ties, velcro or double sided tape to stop it rattling around.
Put the trim back on and its finished.


= Front door Splits =
We need to put the tweeter in the dash, the crossover in the door or kick panel and the the mid/woofer in the door.
It is easiest to do it in that order (Tweeter - Crossover - Door speaker)

- Remove the side kick panel
Lift the door sill trim which clips in
Remove the 1/4 panel on the end of the dash with the airbag warning sticker on it, It just pops off after you open the glove box on the passenger side and lift
the end of the V trim bar on the drivers side.
Remove the lower air vent cover next to the 1/4 panel. Pull it out towards you as it also just clips off.
Remove the two torx head retaining screws at the top and bottom of the front edge of the kick panel
Slide the panel towards the back of the car to release it.

The wire harness that goes to the door should now be visible along the top edge.

01.jpg


- Remove the front dash tweeter cover.
If you lever up the section closest to the centre section (where the light sensor is) with a wide blade like a putty knife you can start to see the white clips. Get under the plastic section under where the clips are and gently but with a little bit of force start working it up towards the dash.
They should unclip all along the section until you get to the side near the door where the air vent is.
Go both ways so you can lift it up and back towards you when its all unclipped.
It is in three parts, the centre section with the sensor and the two end panels but they are clipped together so lift it out as one piece and take them apart once out. If you have small hands you can just lift it high enough to get your hand and a short phillips screwdriver into the corner.

Now you can see the tweeters and the path for the new tweeter wires back down to the kick panel

- Install new tweeters.
Unscrew the tweeters disconnect the plug on the back and remove them.
The original tweeters have a mounting tab built in on the side so now you now need to get creative to figure out how to fix the new tweeters in place.
Most tweeters will come with a range of fittings including a little surface mount cup so you can fix one of these in place to hold the new tweeter.
When you lift the dash cover over the tweeter you will see the edge has left a scratch mark where it fits against the pillar plastic.
This mark is your guide line for the maximum height of the tweeter. It must not be higher than this line for the cover to fit back on properly.
Some options are:
- Make a little custom metal bracket in a similar shape to the original mount.
- Surface mount the tweeters in the grills over the old tweeter positions as you would if mounting in a door. They then point straight up which is not the best unless they have a swivel/tilt mount system as the infinity Kappas I used do.
- Screw it directly to the old mounting point using the original screw.
- Glue/screw it on top of the old tweeter and put that back in.
This is what I did as it also points the tweeter in exactly the right direction.
In the last two options it means the new tweeter stands higher than the original tweeter which is recessed into the dash, but there is JUST enough clearance above the old tweeter so unless the new speaker is very large it should fit fine.

02.jpg


04.jpg


05.jpg


06.jpg


07.jpg



Connect some speaker wire to the new tweeters and run this down past the side of the front of the vent to the kick panel area, this will connect to the "TW"
terminal on the crossover later.

08.jpg


Refit the front dash tweeter cover and you are done with the tweeters.

- Where to put the crossover
In the doors, under the dash in the foot wells, behind the kick panels, under the seats or in the boot. All work but don't forget the further away from the speakers the more wiring you have to do.
Also you don't want them getting kicked or wet. If you put them inside the door frame you risk water damage.
I found that there is a large void in the door lining just behind the map pocket which allowed me to mount them on the inside/dry surface of the door frame
- It is on the cab side of the door moisture barrier so can't get wet
- If you put in dynamat the crossover is still easily accessed without having to go behind the dynamat at all
- There is plenty of space for any sized crossover and good air circulation
- It is easy to fit with cable ties or screws
- It is away from other moving parts inside the door so won't rattle.

09.jpg


10.jpg


- Front Door speaker wiring.
We are cutting the door speaker wires to pick up the line to attach to the IN terminals on the crossover.
There are several options:
- If fitting the crossover inside the door lining
Connect the old speaker wires in the door directly to the IN terminal on the crossover. Run a wire from the WF terminals on the crossover to the new door speaker
Run the tweeter wire from the kick panel through the rubber grommet into the door and connect to the TW terminals on the crossover.
I put the crossovers in the doors so took this option.

- If fitting the crossover in the kick panel or under the dash etc
Pick up the feed from the head unit either by cutting into the wiring harness in the kick panel or run an extra wire into the door and connect to the old door speaker connection.

- Getting wires from the kick panel into the doors.
Disconnect both ends of the rubber tube between the body and the door.
At the door squeeze it to release the rubber tabs, at the body peel it away from its plastic mounting bracket.
Once peeled off the body bracket you can then get a small screw driver under the bracket to push in the top, bottom and side tabs so you can pull out the bracket as well
It is much easier to refit the rubber tube to the body bracket if it is not attached to the car.

11.jpg


Feed a stiff guide wire through into the body at the top edge of the kick panel until it comes out the hole in the door jamb. On the fuse box side it is a pain but it can be done.
Tape the speaker cables to the end of the guide wire and pull it all back through.

12.jpg


13.jpg



Now feed the wire through just the rubber tube and pull the cable through that.

14.jpg


Take off the guide wire and just push all the spare cable through the hole into the door. It will just sit in the bottom of the door and when we take the speaker out later we can reach in and get it without having to remove any of the water barrier or dynamat.
Refit the rubber grommets, close up the sill and kick panel and you are done

- Remove the front door trim
There are phillips head screws along the bottom and front/hinge side plus one hidden under the middle of the arm rest.
There is a torx head screw under a small square plastic pop off cover under the door handle.
Run your hands around the door trim and pull it away from the door to pop the clips all around.
- Disconnect the door latch cables by pulling the wire around to the groove and sliding the end caps up out of the clips. Mark one cable with tape so you know which is the top one.
- Remove the speaker complete with the pod it is attached to and disconnect the speaker wire plug
The stock speaker is easily removed from its plastic pod in the door and the pod itself is easily removed to make fitting the new speakers easier.
Depending on the new speakers you may need to trim a little off the pod and drill holes for screws etc or if the new speaker basket is very large, replace it with an MDF ring. I just had to trim 5mm around the edges to make the hole bigger.
- Fit the crossover to the door. I screwed it on with foam under it to pad it a bit.
- Rather than cut the T shaped plug off the existing speaker connection I just put spade connectors on the end of the new wires and plugged then into the old T plug then run these wires to the IN terminals on the crossover taking note of the polarity.
Polarity = Right Front +L/Green -D/Green
Polarity = Left Front +Brown -Grey
Reach through the speaker hole and pull out the tweeter wires you put into the door earlier attaching them to the TW terminals on the crossover taking note of the polarity
- Run a new wire from the crossover WF terminals back to the new speaker.
- Fit the speaker and pod then test
- Tape up any loose wires, close up the door.

15.jpg



------------------------------------------------------------

Subs:

If you want to swap the stock subs out or fix rattles etc. you need to remove the parcel shelf top lining

There are two clips under the rear bench seat. They are near front/footwell edge and are roughly in the centers of the two outer seats.
Work your hands under the seat until you feel them and just Pull the seat straight up quite hard, they will just pop out.
Lift the front edge of the seat up to release the two small tabs that go in behind the bottom of the seat backs

You will now see two bolts at the bottom of each section so undo these for the two end sections only, you don't need to take out the centre folding section.
Lift the seat backs straight up to unhook at the top edge and remove.

Fold the centre section down, it makes a good seat while working and provides a couple of cup holders in which to place screws and clips.
You will now see a plastic cover with two clips in the middle, get you finger or a wide putty knife under the panel and pop the clips out.
Lift the panel off from the bottom edge which hooks around the metal body panel and remove.

Along the front edges of the parcel shelf you will see four black clips through the fabric so pop these out.
Unbolt the centre child restraint fixing post in the middle of the parcel shelf. The little cover folds back to give access to the bolt.
Behind each speaker cover is a large screw in clip so use a flat bladed screwdriver to get these started and the lift them out.
At this point you can take out the parcel shelf by pulling the centre section towards you to unclip what they call a "datum Post" then up and out
The clip (datum post) is roughly halfway between the centre line and the edge of the right hand speaker cover (left as you look at it while working)
As you take out the parcel shelf slide the seatbelt down the groove to the wider opening. If you have disconnected the bottom of the seatbelt it will now fit through this hole
If you have not disconnected the seatbelt the groove in the panel continues down to the bottom so just cut the fabric over this groove

16.jpg
17.jpg


While you don't "have" to remove the quarter panel (rear window post) cover where the air bag is before pulling out the parcel shelf I found it worth doing.
Apart from giving you a little more room to move the bottom edge is a source of some rattling so its worth taking out to pad the bottom edge.
To remove it remove the torx screw which is under the little panel with "airbag" on it. It has clips on one side and hinge/tabs on the other so put a small screw driver under the side next to the "A" in the word airbag.
Working from the top edge feel it out from under the rubber door trim and work down the rear window side to pop the clip about 2/3rds the way down.
Slide the panel up to release a small tab at the top edge by the door and lift out.

18.jpg



Once you have the parcel shelf out you can then replace speakers or just dynamat and fix the many potential rattles from wires and fittings by taping foam to everything that moves.

One thing I did find interesting.
These are free-air or infinite baffle subs which rely on using the boot space as their inclosure and most importantly having total separation between the airspaces behind and in front of the speakers.
This means the parcel tray should be totally airtight to separate the boot space from the cabin to make the free-air subs work the best.
When you look at the parcel shelf with the cover removed you will see it has more holes than Swiss cheese so no attempt has been made to actually do it properly, premium sound system, hardly!!.

At this stage I just lined the shelf and sorted out all the rattles and tried to close a few holes.
This did make a big difference to the sound.

Having read hundreds of posts on several forums, while some say its worth just replacing the stock subs in the parcel shelf with better ones, most that do appear to be disappointed in the end result.
Free-air are not the best if not done properly so start with the gain control tweak on the subs amp, make sure the boot is sealed as tight from the cab as possible and sort out any rattles in the parcel shelf with dynamat etc.
I am not sure you will get any really dramatic gains just swapping the subs. It looks like for really dramatic improvements in the bass you may need to look at an enclosed sub (and all the space loss issues that at come with that) and possibly sub amp upgrade which I am not yet ready to tackle yet.


UPDATE:

Note that different models have different speaker ohm ratings so open up a door and see what your car has before pulling the lot out.

Re the subs:
Never been happy with stock subs which sound a bit muddy and distort easily so have been looking at options.

Still not ready to do a full replacement with new amp yet but there are a couple of other small fixes that will help one of which is the subs amp gain control spoken of in some other posts.

I have been hearing that swapping the wiring (swapping +/- wires at the speaker) on the subs makes a huge difference but could not see how that could possibly work as it would put them out of phase with all the other speakers. Some suggested that they were wired incorrectly at the factory but having checked that I knew they were not incorrectly wired.
On other forums they talked about re soldering the connections in the boot or even re-pinning the main plug at the amp which seemed a lot of work for something that probably wouldn't work.

I then found some posts that talked about the plug on the sides of the speakers and realized that swapping the pins in that plug would be a quick and easily fixable way of testing it so I gave it a go.

The results were in a word "unbelievable" not only did it work but they hit harder, distort a lot less, rattle less and the whole system sounds clearer and sharper.
I had previously had my bass set at +3 on the head unit but with this change that was too much and I dialled it back to flat and still have more good bass than I had before the change.

Don't ask me about the science of this, all I know is that it should not work so perhaps its something to do with the acoustics relating to their position in the shelf or under the big window or perhaps the fact that the boot space is not properly sealed as a free air space should be caused problems. All I know is that it worked for me (and I was a huge sceptic) so it could be worth a try.

How to do it:
Its a very easy 5 minute job.
Remove the seat base and backs. Just lift the seat base straight up at the front edge about the middle of each foot well and remove.
That will then show two bolts under each of the two seat backs so remove the two nuts then just slide the backs up to unhook. No need to take out the central folding tray/seat back.

You will now see a gap under the parcel tray liner with two large holes where the seat backs hook in. Look through the left of the two holes and you will see the plug so stick your fingers in to press the little lever on the plug and disconnect.

The plug wires are long enough to pull out through the gaps to work on.

Under the plug you will see a small E shaped inset in the plug body, this is the first locking tab for the pins so lift that up with a small flat screwdriver. It will rise up just a couple of mm, it doesn't come out.
Looking at the front of the plug you will see a small gap above the metal pin. In there is a small plastic spring tab holding the pin in place so use that small screwdriver again to slide in along the top of the pin and lever the tab up a fraction while pulling on the wire to pull the pin out. repeat for the other pin.
Re insert the pins in the opposite sides, they will click in place then push the E shaped tab down and you are done.
Clip the plug back in place, close it up and have a play. Don't forget to change your head unit setting down for bass then work up again to see what results you get.

May or may not work for you but for five minutes its worth a try.


Hope This helps

Don Campbell [email protected]

H
 

UNLEASHED

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Great write up! I wonder if the Calais V MY12 has and subs hiding in the rear side panels maybe??
 

Anthony121

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Great write up! I wonder if the Calais V MY12 has and subs hiding in the rear side panels maybe??
Only in the sedan parcel shelf.
 
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