Premium Audio

[Mondie]

Im thinking of a couple of things

1. Just replace the 4 7x5 speakers with better ones

2. Mount an Amp to drive the 4 7x5 aftermarket speakers (perhaps - dont want to loose too much boot space)

3. Replace sub woofer with better 10" speaker using existing factory Amp

- problem being it wont fit in existing parcel shelf cut out.

If you did this Cam l think the improvement would be huge.

Changing the 4 7x5" speakers would probably give you 75% of the improvement of doing the whole lot.

What brands of speaker are you considering?

[Cam]

I spoke to Northfield last week and they only carry one brand that has 7x5" speakers - dont remember the name though (Eclipse perhaps?)

If anyone has some suggestion of nice sounding 7x5s I'd be interested in hearing about them.

Also Mondie I tend to agree with the 75% by just replacing the speakers and I think that is where I will start, see how that goes and hold off on the other stuff for a while.

[Cam]

Does anybody know how to remove the rear parcel shelf speaker grills - I tried for a minute or two last noght and couldnt get them off ?

[Falchoon]

I think they are incorporated into the rear parcel shelf cover. You need to remove all the clip things to remove.

Eclipse are one type of 7 x 5 speaker I was looking at, I priced them a while back and they were $250. Some others have said Rockford Fosgate but I thing they were around $100pr dearer. Pioneer make a 7 x 5 for about $150 as I think do Fusion for around the same price.

My local car sound shop reckons it's a waste of money to spend too much money on rear speakers as most of the sound comes from the front. I'm not sure I agree though. I used to have Pioneer 6 x 9 2way in the rear of my car and then upgraded to 4way and the sound quality difference was amazing.

With the sub, you might be able to get away with a bigger one by mounting it from underneath with a custom MDF spacer ring.

Here's a pic that shows someone who had mounted 6.5" round speakers in the front using MDF spacers.

[XR6TK1W1]

Looking at the pics I notice the cabling is a little light. Would replacing them with thicker better quaility ones help much ontop of what Cam is planning or is it alot of work for SFA? Excuse my iggnorance ive never been much of a sound system freak.

[Cam]

Looking at the pics I notice the cabling is a little light. Would replacing them with thicker better quaility ones help much ontop of what Cam is planning or is it alot of work for SFA? Excuse my iggnorance ive never been much of a sound system freak.

Replacing the wiring would be very easy to do for the sub woofer. (At least from the amp to the speaker)

For the front and rear speakers it would be much more difficult.

If I was planing to install an amp for the 5x7s then I would use a higher grade of cable, both from the head unit to the amp and from the amp to the speakers.

The general concensus is that it is a good idea to use a higher grade of cable - but ive never seen any quantitative proof that the really fancy cables are that much better then a standard good quality cable.

Personally I'm really sceptical about the high end cables that use a variety of configuration to improve sound quality (such as directional cables, cables made up of strands of varying thicknes - supposedly the different frequesncies travel down the different diameter cables, Cu cabels with a manufacturing process that results in a unidirectional crystalline pattern.....)

I rather suspect you have opend a real can of worms here as EVERYBODY will have a different opinion on this.....

[Mondie]

Yep, cables are a can of worms. l have been an home audiophile nut for years and can vouch that the right cables can make a huge difference. You can pay $5k/m for a cable; these exist because in the right system spending 20 grand on some of this stuff to wire your speakers may be more beneficial than spending 20 grand more on your speakers. There are also a lot of expensive cables that do nothing, just marketing hype. Its very easy to demonstrate in a good system the difference a cable can (or cant) make.

But in a car, l probably wouldnt bother. The background noise threshold in a car is so high that l believe there is a limit to just how much of an improvement is possible, unless you go around listening really loud to overcome the road noise that masks all the subtle naunces that make the difference between stereo and true hi fi. Like you say Cam, going for the 5x7's, listening and then deciding whether to go further seems like a sound plan (pardon the pun)

Would be interesting to hear from anyone who has experimented with cables however in their car system.

[Guest Xr6Tas]

Nothing opens up a can of worms quite like the old cable debate! Just see the HTC forums for evidence

Personally I believe that cables can make a massive difference, providing the rest of your system is at a sufficient quality level to take advantage of superior wiring. Being a Home Theatre/Hi-Fi junkie I have done many a blind speaker cable test (getting a friend to switch between different cables without knowing what is what) and have been able to pick the superior cable very easily with some systems and some cables. On the other hand some so called "high end" cables can often sound worse than the generic Dick Smith variety. Once you get to about 16gauge speaker wire quality improvements do become less noticeable, but they are certainly still there with the right gear.

Cables that use varying strands of thickness (like Kimber cables which are just awesome) can definitely help maintain signal integrity/neutrality, and shielding is also very important if the wiring will be running past potential interference sources (which can degrade signal quality and introduce unwanted noise).

Whether you would hear any difference upgrading the standard wiring that Ford have used is debatable, but judging by the pictures in this thread it certainly looks pretty cheap and nasty, so I'd say its worth doing if you are going to upgrade other areas of the system.

[XRsixtee]

mjh; I took the rear speaker cover off "just to have a look" and it is just a matter of 'carefully' prizing it off with a flat screw driver, try in a couple of spots and it will come off. Just got plastic clips holding it in. You will find that you will need a very small socket to remove the screws as they have a hexaganal head, just to make it that little bit harder.

Good luck!

[XRsixtee]

mjh;

The reference to the screws is only if you want to remove the speakers, nothing to do with the covers. When I re-read my submission thought it could be confusing.