Sound system and speaker upgrades

[kierend]

Has anyone improved the speakers in the doors etc? If so what ones did you use.

The sound system is ok but it's not great, I would like to improve it, but I guess the head unit has to stay

 

[AbandonedTrolley]

Interested in this as I currently have the Alpine Halo unit in my car (allows a/c controls and rear view camera) which I would shift if its all CANBUS connectors back there and I can find a single din facia.

 

[Gomev]

I'm not an audiophile and as such I cannot see the point of upgrading the sound system in a car. Surely a car is not the place for top end audio listening, road noise, wind noise, kids, wife etc. etc..
When I'm driving I'm not particularly paying attention to how good the audio is, in fact there could be almost anything on, it's just background noise.
When I'm not driving I wouldn't go and sit in my car to listen to anything.
Each to their own but the OEM kit is good enough for me.

 

[confused730]

Interested in this as I currently have the Alpine Halo unit in my car (allows a/c controls and rear view camera) which I would shift if its all CANBUS connectors back there and I can find a single din facia.

Sorry if I sound thick, but do you mean you have the alpine in your MG 5 or a different car?

 

[boomish]

I had a demo of a car fitted with Dolby Atmos a few weeks back, great sound but yes I’m not sure it was needed. Sound in my M5 is ok but some more lower mids & sub would be nice One of the first things I did was tweak the graphic EQ, what I was surprised at is the level of noise, for a car that doesn’t have an engine it’s pretty noisy at motorway speed. I dunno why but I expected it to be super quiet. I’d be Interested to hear if anyone has improved the sound isolation as well as speakers.

 

[blob84]

I am interested in this topic...not brilliant audio but it is enough for daily use.

Any upgrades?

 

[Deleted member 7316]

As someone who used to sell In Car Entertainment (the other ICE) solutions and worked in Sound Systems one thing you will NEVER get in a car is audiophile quality sound. With such a mixture of hard and soft surfaces at different angles, speakers in the wrong place for an effective sound stage and amplifiers heavily constrained by the available voltages the task is fruitless.

It may be possible to improve what you have but good audio is nigh on impossible. You would be better off with a decent pair of headphones except that you could be charged with an offence if you did.

I have done upgrades on BMWs, Jaguars and Range Rovers and although it was possible to get some improvement with different head units what was quite common at that level was the factory fit speakers were fairly optimal and didn't need upgrading. At lower levels in many cases it wasn't so much the speakers themselves but more often how they were mounted or what was behind them. Fixed to overly flexible door cards with plastic sheet water barrier touching the magnet was never going to sound nice. BMW would mount rear speakers in the back parcel shelf of their saloons, fixed to the metal which was better but they would either have the entire boot as a cabinet or a second metal skin to make the box. It then didn't help with the speaker driving up into the rear window.

Finally what you may find is a speaker change to something better actually sounds worse. With modern electronics designers can "tune" the amplifier output base response to compensate for deficiencies in the sound. They can clip the top end if it sounds too tinny and lift the bass if needed.