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Old 07-05-2017, 09:33 PM   #1
reynierpm
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Want to upgrade the sound system by myself, any guide?

I've already replace the OEM head unit for the Sony XAV-AX100 which is pretty good (sometimes I get some issues with Bluetooth) and now I am planning to change the rest of the OEM audio. This is what I have choose:

Before proceed I would to know your opinion on how good those are.

Also is there any post here with a guide in how to change all of this? I got something from Crutchfield (I can share if you want to) but I am not seeing in how to wire with the new amplifier.
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Old 07-06-2017, 09:44 AM   #2
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I did the coax and tweeter route first time thru. strong recommend going for a comp set. for the 130 you have on those 2 you could get this:
Pioneer TS-A1606C
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_130TA1...l?tp=106&avf=N


which will be easier to install and sound better. it will pair well with the amp you have selected
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Old 07-06-2017, 09:50 AM   #3
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So ... I should get the one you recommend me plus the amplifier which seems to be good and get rid of the one I've previously but I am missing the middle range and the rear, is that right?If so which ones do you recommend me?
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Old 07-06-2017, 10:43 AM   #4
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the front mid is largely un-necessary. it adds complication and options, but for a basic build, a 2 way component is good. there are 3 way comp sets that could use the space, but they are much much pricier. things like JL c5 653.


for the rear, pretty much any 3.5 coax will fit. the rear doesn't do much in this car, many people don't even bother with them. I have a set of infinity cfx 3002 in there
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Old 07-06-2017, 03:08 PM   #5
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How was the audio quality of AX100? Been debating between that and 4200NEX..
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Old 07-06-2017, 10:23 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fabb View Post
How was the audio quality of AX100? Been debating between that and 4200NEX..
I haven't any experience with the 4200NEX but so far I couldn't enjoy the power of this head unit (AX100) because of the s...t OEM speakers. I can't even turn the volume up to 20 because the speakers sound really bad and turn sound into noise so I'll be able to give a better answer as soon as I change the complete OEM system.

That's why I am looking for ideas I am a newbie on this topics
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Old 07-08-2017, 11:53 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by reynierpm View Post
I haven't any experience with the 4200NEX but so far I couldn't enjoy the power of this head unit (AX100) because of the s...t OEM speakers. I can't even turn the volume up to 20 because the speakers sound really bad and turn sound into noise so I'll be able to give a better answer as soon as I change the complete OEM system.

That's why I am looking for ideas I am a newbie on this topics
I have to agree with you about OE speakers. The sound was acceptable when I first got the car, but I grew to be disgusted with it. Not wanting to spend a fortune on gutting the whole system, I focussed on what I hated most, and it turned out to be the tweeters in the corners of the dash. I decided to replace those first and judge whether I heard a worthwhile difference. I ordered a pair of Alpine SPS-110TW for $56 and switched out the old and in with the new.

Surprisingly, the top end of the sound was transformed to solid, clear and smooth, completely listenable music. I believe one of the main reasons is that the silk dome construction of the Alpines I chose moves the air more smoothly. You could choose another brand with titanium domes to get sharp and crisp transient sounds, depending on your taste in music, but I like classical and hearing those shimmering violins with no buzzing, grating or breakup is a joy.

Cheap fix for now, and good bang for the buck. The wiring of the two speakers in each dash corner was tricky and I had to Google a search for a how-to, and found very little help, but I worked out a way to achieve success. The main head-scratcher was the wire harness with FOUR wires going into the tweeter. Sheesh!

If you'd like to read a walk-through of what I did (sorry, no pics), I'd be glad to give you bullets of the step-by-step. Truly, it's not very difficult.

Good luck to you.
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Last edited by pfaffendorn; 07-09-2017 at 12:07 AM.
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Old 07-09-2017, 10:12 AM   #8
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I have to agree with you about OE speakers. The sound was acceptable when I first got the car, but I grew to be disgusted with it. Not wanting to spend a fortune on gutting the whole system, I focussed on what I hated most, and it turned out to be the tweeters in the corners of the dash. I decided to replace those first and judge whether I heard a worthwhile difference. I ordered a pair of Alpine SPS-110TW for $56 and switched out the old and in with the new.

Surprisingly, the top end of the sound was transformed to solid, clear and smooth, completely listenable music. I believe one of the main reasons is that the silk dome construction of the Alpines I chose moves the air more smoothly. You could choose another brand with titanium domes to get sharp and crisp transient sounds, depending on your taste in music, but I like classical and hearing those shimmering violins with no buzzing, grating or breakup is a joy.

Cheap fix for now, and good bang for the buck. The wiring of the two speakers in each dash corner was tricky and I had to Google a search for a how-to, and found very little help, but I worked out a way to achieve success. The main head-scratcher was the wire harness with FOUR wires going into the tweeter. Sheesh!

If you'd like to read a walk-through of what I did (sorry, no pics), I'd be glad to give you bullets of the step-by-step. Truly, it's not very difficult.

Good luck to you.
First of all thank you. Now it's a good idea to start changing, maybe, part by part and with this I mean follow what you did before by starting first with the tweeters, then if I don't like continue with the middle range and so on.

I am not a guy of a unique kind of music and because I am latin I like any kind of music. I was looking at the ones that @Chimera mention over here:
But I think this one that I choose before:
are better? Because are bigger and 3-way?

Anyway found the perfect match could be hard. I just want to make sure to be doing the right thing by changing the whole system once and for all.

@pfaffendorn if you can provide me with some bullet points I'll be more than thankful
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Old 07-09-2017, 01:54 PM   #9
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So I have decide to move forward with this two:

I now people said do not care about mid range and rear speakers but even though would you recommend me any?

Also are this Crutchfield CK10 wires properly for this setup? If not could you point me in the right direction?

I want to make this work just one time (I'll hire someone to do it for me since I am kind of a mess)
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Old 07-09-2017, 04:55 PM   #10
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Should work fine. However on a quick glance I don't see rcas, you may need them

Quote:
Originally Posted by reynierpm View Post
So I have decide to move forward with this two:

I now people said do not care about mid range and rear speakers but even though would you recommend me any?

Also are this Crutchfield CK10 wires properly for this setup? If not could you point me in the right direction?

I want to make this work just one time (I'll hire someone to do it for me since I am kind of a mess)
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Old 07-09-2017, 06:01 PM   #11
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I am confused about the amplifier, for get the 8 speakers working: 2 tweeters, 2 mid range, 2 front door and 2 rear do I need a 2-channel amplifier or a 4-channel amplifier?

The person I am hiring for this job is telling me better a 4 channel than 2 channel, why?
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Old 07-09-2017, 07:41 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reynierpm View Post
I am confused about the amplifier, for get the 8 speakers working: 2 tweeters, 2 mid range, 2 front door and 2 rear do I need a 2-channel amplifier or a 4-channel amplifier?

The person I am hiring for this job is telling me better a 4 channel than 2 channel, why?

Flexibly, a 4 ch could be used to power front and back, or front with 2ch and a small sub with 2 bridged.
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Old 07-09-2017, 07:44 PM   #13
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Check out this article, it may help
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-pHG3qW...io-set-up.html
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Old 07-10-2017, 10:13 PM   #14
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First of all thank you. Now it's a good idea to start changing, maybe, part by part and with this I mean follow what you did before by starting first with the tweeters, then if I don't like continue with the middle range and so on.

I am not a guy of a unique kind of music and because I am latin I like any kind of music. I was looking at the ones that @Chimera mention over here:
But I think this one that I choose before:
are better? Because are bigger and 3-way?

Anyway found the perfect match could be hard. I just want to make sure to be doing the right thing by changing the whole system once and for all.

@pfaffendorn if you can provide me with some bullet points I'll be more than thankful

If you're going to rewire the whole thing for a new head unit, putting a 3-way speaker in the doors might be a good idea, but if you're going to keep the stock head unit for now, you need to be aware that the stock speaker system is wired for a single one-way speaker in each location. The speakers are equipped with frequency crossovers which deliver only the low frequencies to the 6 1/2 inch bass speaker in the door and pass the rest through to the next in line, the 4 inch midrange in the dash corner. The next crossover gives the middle of the sound spectrum to the 4 inch and passes the rest (the high end) to the one inch tweeter next to it. So you see that using a three-way speaker in the door would be a waste, because in the stock setup, the 2nd and 3rd sections of the 3 way speaker would not get any signal at all. The stock speaker setup IS a three way, but the three speakers are each one-way and are all in different places. I think this might be a good lesson to study on, but if it's something you already understand, please forgive my talk-talk-talk.

The bass speaker is in the door because it's hard to hear the actual point source of the lower notes as you listen to your wide sound stage. You can hear them just fine without knowing where they come from. So the woofer is out of the way in the door, just like your subwoofer could be in the trunk and be heard just fine. But the midrange and high notes are where all the musical detail is, so you want those speakers to aim straight toward you so you can hear where each instrument is located. That's why those speakers are on the dash, so their sound is bounced off the windshield right at you, and the whole windshield becomes your soundstage for listening.

Now, you can go to a lot of trouble and expense to completely redo the whole system, but the designers have gone to a lot of effort to give us a decent audio environment in our cars, even if the cost counters have given us cheap speakers which spoil the whole effect. (Many owners hate the head unit, too, but that's another story, and I haven't gone out on that limb yet.) But if you want to improve your sound a lot, a good place to start would be installing new good quality speakers. I'm cautious, so I just replaced the tweeters for now, but if you wanted to limit your expense to $50-$75 per pair, you could do all of the front speakers for no more than $200, and have a much better sounding system.

What you would need to purchase to do this is:

1 pair hard-dome (aluminum, titanium, bullet, etc.) 1" tweeters. (I chose softer silk-domes, as I said, because I like those high violins to sound smooth and silky, but I believe you would appreciate the sharp, crisp rhythm sounds in latin music to sound their best, so hard-domes will be better.)

1 pair 4" midrange speakers. I had a hard time finding these, as most of them were 2 way, which we know isn't useful for us, so you could choose 4" full-range speakers and just let the crossovers do their work. Some people believe if you use just the midrange of a good extended range speaker, what you use from the middle will be that much more accurate. If you want to do the back seat speakers also, get another pair of these. I use the fader in the head unit to achieve a sort of imitation surround sound from the back which isn't too bad.

1 pair 6 1/2 " woofers. The closer to 40 h at the bottom, the better, but they don't have to reach higher than 1000 h at the top.

Remember, ALL of these speakers should be only one-way if you're planning to use the existing wiring and existing crossovers to divide the sound among them.

Why don't you study on all this until you understand the concepts, and if you decide to start your makeover in this way, start shopping for one-way speakers in the correct sizes. Always feel free to ask me questions, or ask somebody else in the forum who may know more than I do, if you get stuck on something. I am a rube compared to some of these guys.

We'll get to the step-by-step install when you've got the pieces in your hands. Have fun!

P.S.: You mentioned you were hiring someone to install? All my ideas for you are for DIY. If the guy is a professional, some of our knowledge in this post maybe useful to ask him questions to make sure you're getting what you want. It's all up to you.

P.P.S.: And if you want to, you may know that we can make our conversations private instead out in front of the whole forum. I think talking out loud is what makes the forum fun, but it's up to you. We all get some snark from the other guys once in a while. But I've never minded making a fool of myself!
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Last edited by pfaffendorn; 07-10-2017 at 10:39 PM.
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