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Changing Speakers On St


ayrshiredude
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So I've had my ST-3 for a week now and absolutely loving it. However I am really dissapointed in the sound quality of the Entertainment System. Its very hollow and dull sounding with very poor bass. I had a ZS with the standard Ford system and, to me, this sounded far superior, [particularly tonally.

So I think I might change the Speakers but have a few questions.

Firstly am I going to benefit by just changing the front Speakers (on the idea that the rears are firing behind the seats so not heard like the fronts).

How easy are they to change? I know the fronts require the door cards to come off but what about the rears. Someone said that the grills just pop out but I can see no way for this to happen as they appear to be part of the whole rear door card and not removable on there own.

What kind of speaker to go for. I have always used Pioneers when I changed them in previous cars. I always liked their "warm" bassy sound, any other suggestions though. I think they are 6.5" so that will be co-axial for the rear and component for the front.

Any suggestions or tips would be really appreciated.

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I changed all mine in my ZS for the Pioneer set-up that Ford sell in the accessories book, with subs. Honestly it was a pain getting hold of some of the Speakers, but the fitting wasn't bad at all. Definitely worth it if you have the money, although in fairness for what you get, the cost isn't huge.

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I changed all mine in my ZS for the Pioneer set-up that Ford sell in the accessories book, with subs. Honestly it was a pain getting hold of some of the speakers, but the fitting wasn't bad at all. Definitely worth it if you have the money, although in fairness for what you get, the cost isn't huge.

How much of a difference did it make? Did you fit them yourself or get them fitted?

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Ok so I took the front door panel off yesterday to have a look at the Speakers. Unfortunately it was different to the way shown on the guide video. The speaker actually looks pretty decent with a plastic rather than paper cone.

The speaker is connected with a 4 pin plug. Now I am unsure how to go about connecting this to the normal spade type terminals on normal car Speakers as, per usual, the colors are different to anything else. Any Ideas?

I'm still unsure how to remove the rear panels to get into the rear Speakers. It was suggested that the grill just pops off but it appears to be part of the whole side wall. Again any suggestions?

Thanks guys.

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If you sort these out can you update on any improvement please?

I'm not too impressed about the sound quality on the sony,i think the bass was loads better in the zs i had beforehand.

Cheers

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You can get a wiring adapter so you don't have to cut plugs off, I think this is the correct one

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/ct55-fd02-speaker-loom-adaptor-for-ford-fiesta

You would plug that into the car looon then the 2 wires connect to your new speaker or crossover if using components.

The pioneers in the ford accessory catalogue should come with adapters and be plug and play, other Speakers may need adapter plates.

With a good front speaker setup you may not need to upgrade the rear Speakers, an underseat sub might be abetted way to go for more bass though

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If you sort these out can you update on any improvement please?

I'm not too impressed about the sound quality on the sony,i think the bass was loads better in the zs i had beforehand.

Cheers

Will do.

I would think 2 of those wires go up to the tweeter,

Well I thought that until it dawned on me that usually there is 2 wires (positive and negative) for both right and left Speakers so I'm assuming its that.

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You can get a wiring adapter so you don't have to cut plugs off, I think this is the correct one

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/ct55-fd02-speaker-loom-adaptor-for-ford-fiesta

You would plug that into the car looon then the 2 wires connect to your new speaker or crossover if using components.

The pioneers in the ford accessory catalogue should come with adapters and be plug and play, other speakers may need adapter plates.

With a good front speaker setup you may not need to upgrade the rear speakers, an underseat sub might be abetted way to go for more bass though

Thanks for that link. The only thing is there are only 2 wires not 4 attached to this?? The fronts are components so how would you attach the tweeters?

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Will do.

Well I thought that until it dawned on me that usually there is 2 wires (positive and negative) for both right and left speakers so I'm assuming its that.

Not sure I follow that, left and right speaker will both have this plug with 4 wires running from the head unit, inside the plug 2 wires will be connected to the other 2 possible with a resistor then go to the tweeter.

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Thanks for that link. The only thing is there are only 2 wires not 4 attached to this?? The fronts are components so how would you attach the tweeters?

With a component set you would get a crossover, the 2 wires would connect to the input of the crossover and then the woofer and tweeter connect to their own output on the crossover.

I fitted this set to my daughters mk5 fiesta, you can see the wires going from the crossover to the Speakers, the OE setup is similarly wired to the ST

64dd93abf996d74e96aca493fc9f3a54.jpg

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Ok so you reckon the other 2 wires are going to the tweeter then? So how do the crossovers work? Do they require a power source? Is there not already a crossover for the existing tweeters?

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They don't need a power source, crossovers cut the frequency to each speaker so tweeters only have high frequency and subs have the lows for example.

The standard tweeter is very basic and will just be a resistor across the 2 supplying wires. Crossovers like in the picture use more components and are more accurate at letting the correct frequencies go to each speaker. Hope this makes sense I'm poor ably making it sound more complicated than it needs to be.

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Have you still got the door cards off or did you find them easy to remove?

If so It may help with the sound to add some sound deadening material eg dyno mat to the inside of the door panel.

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Thanks thats great help. I kept seeing photos of these crossovers and took it they needed wiring. Did you have any trouble fitting the replacement tweeters into the existing holders?

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The OE tweeters should just in clip, fitting the new ones can be tricky, some plastic may need trimming, best way to hold them in is by using a hot glue gun, it only takes 3-4 dabs of glue. You can mount them anywhere with the supplied brackets but tis require cutting or !Removed! them to parts of the dash, the OE position is the best on place anyway.

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The swear filter has got me again, replace !removed! With s c r e w i n g. Lol

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When my ST3 arrived i took out the rear seats, rear quarter panels, no the mesh grills do not come off separately, and took the front door cards off. What i did was buy the large roll of Dyno matt...

Where the rear Speakers sit i covered the outer car body behind the speaker in dyno matt and all over... Stuck the fibre padding (supplied) to the lower body, then i sealed the rear part of the car with hollow fibre wadding, so the large space where the speaker is was sealed off to the rest of the space towards the back of the car to act as an enclosure. I put a foam strip round the rear Speakers and refitted it all. I then fitted dyno matt to the flimsy metal panel that the rear speaker bolts to, and in the surrounding areas, leaving enough for the front Speakers.

Then i removed the front door cards, sealed any holes from the inner black cover, and again fitted dyno matt behind the speaker position and over most of the door body. Since the speaker sits on the black plastic cover this is adequate for insulation to the speaker.

Put it all back on and.... woooo! Increased bass, no tin sound where the bass hz is lost through the metal!! Since bass frequency is between 80-120hz it rattles the panels which absorb the sound which is what distortion is when it upsets the speaker. I can now hear the rear speakers far better, high range is crisp, but its the mid range and lower range that is vastly improved i think.

My car now sounds A LOT better, ST 2 & 3 and Titanium's are fitted with the premium speakers with the Sony stereo pack, but the body is the same as any other fiesta. When i met up with a fellow ST owner, i tapped on the rear quarter panels of my car to their car. Theirs was hollow, tinny sounding, mine was dense, thick. So not allowing the sound to escape.

Yes, get better speakers! And do not use the OEM Wires but then that means after market head unit, and then you start losing integrated features from the car and slipping down that route of complete ICE, so i left mine alone! Improve the insulation, its far cheaper for the benefits you get.

Hope that helps.. :D

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Gees that sounds complicated lol. Looked at the price of the Dyno matt its expensive, very expensive. Will just try the Speakers first I think. Have always had good results before doing that. My ZS sounded much better so I think its partly to do with the Speakers.

Thanks for your advice though much appreciated :)

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When my ST3 arrived i took out the rear seats, rear quarter panels, no the mesh grills do not come off separately, and took the front door cards off. What i did was buy the large roll of Dyno matt...

Where the rear speakers sit i covered the outer car body behind the speaker in dyno matt and all over... Stuck the fibre padding (supplied) to the lower body, then i sealed the rear part of the car with hollow fibre wadding, so the large space where the speaker is was sealed off to the rest of the space towards the back of the car to act as an enclosure. I put a foam strip round the rear speakers and refitted it all. I then fitted dyno matt to the flimsy metal panel that the rear speaker bolts to, and in the surrounding areas, leaving enough for the front speakers.

Then i removed the front door cards, sealed any holes from the inner black cover, and again fitted dyno matt behind the speaker position and over most of the door body. Since the speaker sits on the black plastic cover this is adequate for insulation to the speaker.

Put it all back on and.... woooo! Increased bass, no tin sound where the bass hz is lost through the metal!! Since bass frequency is between 80-120hz it rattles the panels which absorb the sound which is what distortion is when it upsets the speaker. I can now hear the rear speakers far better, high range is crisp, but its the mid range and lower range that is vastly improved i think.

My car now sounds A LOT better, ST 2 & 3 and Titanium's are fitted with the premium speakers with the Sony stereo pack, but the body is the same as any other fiesta. When i met up with a fellow ST owner, i tapped on the rear quarter panels of my car to their car. Theirs was hollow, tinny sounding, mine was dense, thick. So not allowing the sound to escape.

Yes, get better speakers! And do not use the OEM Wires but then that means after market head unit, and then you start losing integrated features from the car and slipping down that route of complete ICE, so i left mine alone! Improve the insulation, its far cheaper for the benefits you get.

Hope that helps.. :D

Do feel free to come down oxford way and kit my car out in the same way, will pay you in beer and crisps lol

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

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  • 5 months later...

Ha ha ha... Just saw this.. Perhaps dmizz93 when the weather changes for the better we could do a mini ST meet!!?

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I'm all over that!!

I've put a sub in mine since you kit yours out so I've got all the Bass I need ;) I'm at uni most days in Wheatley so not far from you at all!

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

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Gees that sounds complicated lol. Looked at the price of the Dyno matt its expensive, very expensive. Will just try the speakers first I think. Have always had good results before doing that. My ZS sounded much better so I think its partly to do with the speakers.

Thanks for your advice though much appreciated :)

The alternative to Dynamat is Silent Coat. Cheapest price including shipping is on amazon UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Coat-Volume-Deadening-Proofing/dp/B00B24JM34/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1424820495&sr=8-2&keywords=silent+coat

It will make a big difference in the sound once installed. It's an easy product to work with even without any prior experience. Dismantling parts of the trim in the car is the hardest bit but there is plenty of info online on how to do it effectively.

If you are thinking of upgrading Speakers and have a decent budget, consider Focal as a brand. French company with a very good reputation for making quality Speakers. I have them in my car, Focal 165KR components and can vouch for them. To the point that I will be having a pair of Focal tower Speakers for my home theatre soon. They are just that good and addictive!

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