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.

Yeah I never really use the Bluetooth as you say it compresses it too much. I usually use high bitrate VBR MP3 files, though now I have discovered it plays loss-less WMA files might start using that.

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

Other than Alpine I had never heard of the others but everywhere I look these names come up. Its a bit of a minefield. As I say I want something with a warm sound to help balance out the coldness of the Sony head unit.

You will get loads of suggestions for makes but everyone preference will be different, someone could recommend the speakers they have and you won't get the sound you are looking for.

Are they no car audio dealers near you, I don't mean halfords either. Travel a bit if needed, hear a few and buy best you can afford that meet your needs.

If you do find a particular speaker then have a look on here as they are good price wise and will usually have in stock as they are also a distributer for most makes.

http://caraudiosecurity.com

I found a way to get more bass from the standard speakers which I tried today. I had the bass set to full and everything else default before, and the bass wasn't really good enough over loud road noise, so my idea was to lower the treble and mid and increase the volume, which seems to have the desired effect of just giving more bass.

I'm by no means an audio expert and those who are will probably say this is a silly thing to do, maybe it will cause distortion or other sound problems but I couldn't detect any while driving. I only needed to put the volume as high as 10 (with adaptive volume), and with the treble and mid about 2 up from the minimum, and bass on max, the bass sounded much more powerful than before. Anyone thinking of buying new speakers to get more bass, try this first and see if it satisfies you ;)

From what people are saying it sounds to me like the head unit is the reason for the poor sound, due to people saying they get it to sound better by playing with the settings without producing distortion.

I guess I will find out next week when I pick mine up!

From what people are saying it sounds to me like the head unit is the reason for the poor sound, due to people saying they get it to sound better by playing with the settings without producing distortion.

I guess I will find out next week when I pick mine up!

That could be true, and I'd imagine the amp would have more of an affect on the sound than different speakers, unless the Sony speakers are really bad, of course I probably don't know what I'm talking about.

There seems to be a possibility that a few things might be the problem. Might be the head unit or it might be the speakers. I guess the only way to know is to try either putting an amp in or changing the speakers and seeing the result. I want something that is easy to change back when I get a new car in 3 years time hence the speaker route for me.

I'm guessing when Sony designed the software they set the maximum bass to be actually not that high, and I've just tricked the equaliser by lowering the treble and mid and upping the volume to compensate. I'll have to try it some time when I'm not driving and see if I can hear any distortion. I was quite happy with it though, the amount of bass reminded my of my mate's old Fiesta he had at college that had a massive sub in the boot lol.

I'm sure one of you guys had the door cards off and the speakers looked pretty decent, good material and not some flimsy paper effort. It could also be that the front and rear speakers are cancelling each other out, could be worth turning the rears right down and see if the perceived bass from the fronts improves.

Can't understand how a Sony branded system can sound worse than a standard Ford system and whoever makes it!

I'm sure one of you guys had the door cards off and the speakers looked pretty decent, good material and not some flimsy paper effort. It could also be that the front and rear speakers are cancelling each other out, could be worth turning the rears right down and see if the perceived bass from the fronts improves.

Can't understand how a Sony branded system can sound worse than a standard Ford system and whoever makes it!

Unfortunately not the best pic bit it did look reasonable. had a decent size magnet at the rear and the cone was plastic rather than the cheaper paper.

Can't understand how a Sony branded system can sound worse than a standard Ford system and whoever makes it!

In the old days it was all Visteon I believe. Not sure if it's different now...

Sent from my iPhone 6 using Ford OC mobile app

vibe is a good make... changed mine to them. If you keep standard tweeters then you just want a bass speaker

Anyone has experience with the Focal ISU165 on the stock radio in an mk7,5? (I got a newer DAB unit from a 2016 Fiesta, but there's no sony/no-sony anymore, they're all the same).

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-ZO9M5wkZbLZ/p_091ISU165/Focal-ISU-165.html (much cheaper on amazon)

They have the crossovers built into the wires and priced attractively. Most say you can't go wrong with Focals, but some people report a bit too loud / harsch tweeters with focals.

With the "warm" sound of the factory radio/amp I would think the risk for this is low?

Will be playing mainly trance music, but like clear sounds and don't need crazy bass levels. I usually turn down the bass on most systems I listen to.

I went ahead and installed that focal isu165 set. The tweeters are crazy bright, don't know who designed this but with the treble all the way down they are still way too noticable. It's as if they go way to high in the frequencies.

I spent a while messing around with the speakers in my mk7.5. It had the sony premium set up which wasnt too shabby but i wanted a bit more. After trolling through many sites and posts/reviews on literally hundreds of setups i went for Hertz components. I reckon they are spot on, well made and deliver a nice sound. The problem with this is that you can read as much as you like but there is no substitute for hearing a setup yourself, what works for me might not for  you. Has anyone ever been to a Bose shop? the system in their purpose built rooms sound the nutz, most people when they get their £3000 system home are dissapointed. Back to the car, great sounding speakers will not always sound good in a car, simple things like acoustic lining in the doors can help, it comes down to how far you want to push it with the pound notes. Some sytems i've seen at shows are absolutely brilliant but cost more than the car.