Suggestions For Front Speakers

[ayrshiredude]

Still trying to work out what Speakers to get to replace the standard Sony ones in the front of my ST3. Looking for a full rich, but not overly bright sound, with good detail and decent bass,

Any ideas?

[dmizz93]

I'm in the same boat dude, that literally the only thing that I feel let down about with the ST, the Speakers in the old mk6 was spot on for everything with standard Speakers!

Fli are fairly decent for 6x9s so might be worth a go if you're on a budget, I'll have a scout now :)

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[ayrshiredude]

I've spent the last week or so looking into this and am no further forward. There are so many makes I have never heard of. I always liked Pioneer previously but not sure if makes like FLI, Focal, Vibe, Kicker, Hertz, are like as I have never heard of them. There also seems to be very little in the way of reviews of them either.

[MarksST]

What sort of budget have you got?

You really need to go and listen to some at a good audio dealer, preferably with their own demo cars.

I listened to a JL audio set up in a Citroen C3 that I want for mine, very clear and detailed sound. That set up was only a 6.5" components ran from an 500w 3 channel amp with underseat sub though so a bit more than you are looking for.

6x9 won't fit in the standard positions,

What are you playing music from? If it's iPod flash drive etc it could be down to the way the files are stored that is causing the lack of bass. The bass on mine isn't bad IMO unless you want it to shake the whole car.

[dmizz93]

6x9 won't fit in the standard positions,

What are you playing music from? If it's iPod flash drive etc it could be down to the way the files are stored that is causing the lack of bass. The bass on mine isn't bad IMO unless you want it to shake the whole car.

I know the 6x9's won't fit door card area's etc but my friend had a Fli system in his car and was a pretty good all rounder. More Bass than standard Speakers but solid mids and the highs were pretty good too! Though as I said it was 6x9 so not sure that will translate if you go for the same brand on smaller Speakers.

You can go into Halfords, they have loads of Speakers set up, but as Marks has said its better done in a car so you can get a feel for actual performance :)

Marks - I thought all people wanted the Bass in their music to shake the car? ^_^ or is that just me!? Doesn't help my cause that whenever my mum gets in the car she requests a vast array of low-freq/house/garage, sucker for a good bassline!

[MarksST]

Depends on what you like listening to, some people like loads of bass others like sound quality over quantity.

[dmizz93]

Depends on what you like listening to, some people like loads of bass others like sound quality over quantity.

I'm a big bass head, but to be fair I do listen to an extremely diverse range of music so I go all the way through the freq range! I mean the other day I was listening to Luther Vandross And Jamiroquai! *Nobody judge please*

[ayrshiredude]

I listen to DAB, and also music stored as 192 kbps VBR Mp3 files which are on a Sony memory stick. It all sounded great on the ZS but now sounds horribly muddy thin and lacking in bass. I'm not looking for thumping bass just a decent lever with detail and overall quality.

I'm planning on going to Halfords tomorrow to have a look but not sure where I could go that would have a demo in an actual car.

[dmizz93]

I listen to DAB, and also music stored as 192 kbps VBR Mp3 files which are on a Sony memory stick. It all sounded great on the ZS but now sounds horribly muddy thin and lacking in bass. I'm not looking for thumping bass just a decent lever with detail and overall quality.

I'm planning on going to Halfords tomorrow to have a look but not sure where I could go that would have a demo in an actual car.

My advice would be try downloading the same music again, or a couple of sample tracks to try out the range of sound from lo's mid and highs at 320kbps..

Higher the bit rate, generally the better quality! I usually don't go for VBR either because i've found it can change the volume ever so slightly and sometimes it seems like the eq changes mid tune..

[ayrshiredude]

My advice would be try downloading the same music again, or a couple of sample tracks to try out the range of sound from lo's mid and highs at 320kbps..

Higher the bit rate, generally the better quality! I usually don't go for VBR either because i've found it can change the volume ever so slightly and sometimes it seems like the eq changes mid tune.

It all sounded great before. 192 Kbps VBR tends to be as good as you get from an Mp3, 320 doesn't really improve on the sound quality. Does it play FLAC files?

Looking to spend up to £100 I think

[dmizz93]

It all sounded great before. 192 Kbps VBR tends to be as good as you get from an Mp3, 320 doesn't really improve on the sound quality. Does it play FLAC files?

Looking to spend up to £100 I think

This is why you usually can't beat CD quality *properly produced CD mind you* as the audio is generally uncompressed, but then you don't have much of a chance of having all your favourite tunes on it!

I always thought 256 was the standard bit rate? I always used to compress my music right down back in the days of 512mb ipod shuffles, 50kbps at a high volume does nothing for your ear drums, believe me!

[ayrshiredude]

This is why you usually can't beat CD quality *properly produced CD mind you* as the audio is generally uncompressed, but then you don't have much of a chance of having all your favourite tunes on it!

I always thought 256 was the standard bit rate? I always used to compress my music right down back in the days of 512mb ipod shuffles, 50kbps at a high volume does nothing for your ear drums, believe me!

I might actually try a few CD's just to see it at "its best". VBR basically uses lower bitrate where its not needed and higher bitrate when it is. So potentially a 192Kbps file can sound just as good as a 320. Flac is the best, as its lossless, but has large file sizes. 50Kbps is probably mono and would be horrible lol

[dmizz93]

I'm gonna pop on Itunes and convert a few songs in to FLAC just so i can play one after the other and see if theres any noticable difference..

After my laptop got replaced i've gone from having around 3500 songs to 300 so space isn't and issue for me <_<

[dmizz93]

Well ITunes is pretty quick to convert Mp3 @320kbps to Lossless file, file size went from 15MB (Song is like 7mins) to a whopping 49MB

Will be P*ssed if the difference isn't noticable!

[ayrshiredude]

You need to rip from the original CD to Flac. Converting from an already compressed file is not going to improve anything, you can't put back whats already been taken out lol.

A Song in Flac format should be exactly the same quality as the original CD as its Lossless.

[dmizz93]

I was mainly doing it for size comparison but thanks I'll grab a cd in a bit and do it!

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[ffocii]

A few things worth considering/checking whilst evaluating the sound quality.

Make sure the Bass/Mid/Treble settings are not back at default level as you change source Radio (FM, DAB, AM?), Aux and CD etc. because each has its own EQ settings with the defaults set to 0

I found Bass +3, Mid+1 and Treble +2 the best combination to start with, but play with them and listen to each source.

Play with the DSP equalizer setting. I found Pop was a more rounded sound with more bass than any of the others. I expected Rock to best suit my more rock oriented listening, but it wasn’t as nice as the Pop setting.

It may also be worth playing with the front to rear bias. I found shifting it 1 or 2 back, allowed me to up the volume and give a more all-round sound without overload.

Finally, dig out a CD for best material to test (check your above EQ settings for CD first though). If you have the same CD and mp3 file, switch between Aux and CD to see if there is a difference.

As others have already said, don’t ever try upping the bit rate of lower bit rate material. You can’t put back what has already been removed and it is the high and low frequencies which often get sacrificed, especially if the track is tailored to earphone listening. Buy a bigger memory stick and Re rip at 320kbs for best mp3 sound quality if you can.

I have had several Fiestas since 2011 and each time I have been quite impressed with the sound output, especially the Sony setup, but only once I have changed the above EQ settings and made sure the source material was the best I could use.

Anyway just some things worth considering before you go spending too much on uprating the Speakers.

[ayrshiredude]

Thanks for that advice, planning on doing all that to make sure its the best it can be.

[dmizz93]

I was gonna say I was driving around today and played with the DSP amongst other things.. I had that set to vocal with Bass +3 Mid +1 and Treb +2... Really worked well for the EDM type music.. Just play around til you're happy..!

One other thing to mention is if you're connecting an MP3 player/iPod be sure to check the EQ settings on this as well, I have mine set to bass reducer as I always play through stereo and turn the bass up on there - alternatively you can set it to off and go all by car, but IMO using a secondary EQ can fine tune sounds

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[GlynnZS]

im picking up an ST3 next week and this is the only thing im worried im going to be disappointed with over my ZS. As already said, the ZS system sounds pretty good, ive upgraded stereo and Speakers in all my previous cars, the last one being fully amped components with JL subs, and i havent felt the need in the ZS. Ok it doesn't shake the car or play the deepest notes, but its more than reasonably clear and has a decent frequency range.

If its that bad and i plan on keeping the ST for a while, i may have to pay someone to put a system in, as i cba doing it myself anymore.

[ayrshiredude]

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday just sitting playing with the settings etc and playing different files and cds. I discovered that the system does not play FLAC files but will play WMA loss-less files :). I think that with it set to pop eq and the bass up pretty high it does sound better but I still find it "cold" sounding. I tend to prefer a warmer sound. I bought a sony in car system years ago and seem to remember it was the same, very cold sounding. I'm not sure if a different set of Speakers would fix that. I am assuming its partly the source that is the issue but I'm hoping better Speakers will help to improve the overall sound.

[dmizz93]

If you do end up getting some more Speakers please let us know how you get on! Went in to Halfords today and they told me if aftermarket Speakers are fitted you'll need the wiring adapter (or DIY) and then the speaker housing as well (so they fit in original space.. + £20-40 depending on whether wiring is done yourself! Not sure if both are essential but they seemed to think they were!

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[Jake90087]

Just to add to this I run Pioneers all around in my fiesta, I have 10 Speakers currently and they sound great. But play a CD and try that, that seems to be where the best sound quality is. Also bluetooth streaming will make a difference as it compresses the stream a lot also.

[Sheriff]

Focal, Hertz, infinity or Alpine components. You can't go wrong with any of those but I'd personally go Focal.

[MattDRX]

I'd go Rockford or Rainbow if they still exist.