Speakers

[TizzyD]

I've been looking at improving the speakers in my car this weekend as the passenger door speaker is shot to bits and neither of the tweeters in the dash work

I'm going to be putting in some 13cm replacements, haven't decided what brand but most people on here have said good things about Alpines so will be keeping an eye out for some on ebay.

What I want to know is, is it worth getting the tweeters to work (I haven't looked at why they don't work yet) and going for a component speaker/tweeter set up or do I go for ease and cut the wires to the dead tweeters and stick two coaxial speakers in the doors ?

Will I gain much from the tweeters in dash ? and if I do get the tweeters going, is it worth wiring in a passive or active crossover ?

[mat_fenwick]

Are these the Alpines you were thinking of? If so they come with a capacitor to filter out the bass frequencies, although I have a set of passive crossovers installed behind the glovebox (where both sets of wires pass anyway). I doubt you'd be able to tell a difference between active and passive in a car TBH.

The high frequencies are a lot more directional than bass frequencies, so you will notice a difference between coaxial ones in the doors and putting tweeters in the dash. I've had a BX with (reasonable quality) coaxials and the sound seemed 'muddier' in comparison and more difficult to pick out the left and right stereo differences. If that makes sense!

[TizzyD]

Yes those are the Alpines I'd seen, if they already have a capacitor fitted to filter out some of the bass, is it necessary to fit crossovers as well ?

I take it there is nothing already in the original wiring that does any sort of filtering and that it goes straight from the back of the radio/headunit out to the speakers ?

[mat_fenwick]

The original front speaker wiring goes from the head unit to behind the glovebox, where it splits to go to each door and the tweeters. The original tweeters had a capacitor too, to do the filtering.

Apologies if you know this, but a crossover also contains an inductor(s) to filter out the treble from the lower range speakers. This won't damage them like bass can damage tweeters (there will be some overlap in the frequencies each speaker can play), but it basically sends the speakers the range of frequencies that they are best able to deal with. As I had the crossovers already, I experimented with both arrangements and found it very hard to make my mind up! I'd leave the crossovers for now, and if you are happy with the sound just using the supplied capacitor, there's no need to spend any more money

[TizzyD]

No need to apologise, me and electricals is very reminiscent of the Not the nine o'clock news HiFi sketch

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Hmm will look to see if I can find a set up that also includes the crossovers as well and have play with them.

[MULLEY]

I've fitted Pioneers all round in my TXD, they sound great & i haven't got the extra tweeters either, the more speakers the better imho

[Way2go]

the more speakers the better imho

How about a sound bar on the dashboard then, Mulley?

[MULLEY]

I was thinking roof ceiling speakers for that surround sound effect

[Mike E (uk)]

It is hard getting hi-fi sound in a BX because it is such a lightweight and noisy car.

IMO the standard dash tweeters are perfectly adequate (there are several versions though, so some may be better than others.) I would keep them or get some from another BX if you haven't any.

The standard door speakers are rubbish, unless you have the upgraded door speakers fitted with the 'high end' stereos which are OK ish.

So a good place to start the upgrade is in the doors.
I agree with Mat, don't bother with coaxials here, let the dash tweeters provide the high notes.

The door speakers will give you mid and bass.

The rear quarter speakers found in the hatch are rubbish, and probably faulty by now and should be binned.

I'm don't know what is fitted in the rear of the estate, but I expect they are cheap and nasty too.

Fit two larger speakers in the ( surprisingly substantial ) parcel shelf. These will mostly give mid frequencies.

If you want more bass, (which will be lacking as the BX speeds up and gets more noisy) you will need an amplifier and a sub bass woofer.

A neat solution is a speaker with the amp built in. You will need to add the wiring though.

[TizzyD]

So am I right in thinking I can just take the wiring from the back of the head unit where it splits for the speakers and wire in the crossovers for the correct channels at that point ?
So it'll go:

Head unit -> crossovers -> speakers

The tweeters in mine have an odd sort of fabric over them and are both are dead, but I havent taken the glovebox out yet to take a look at the wiring, could just be a bad connection or something.

The rear quarter speakers still work I think, might wire them into the tweeters so they only get mid to high and see if that makes any difference.

I'm not looking to do anything too fancy, just enough so i can listen to radio 2 and sing along to my awful taste in music

[citsncycles]

In the 14 TGE I had I ended up with JVC speakers simply because the local motor factors had them. I had a pair in the doors and another pair in the rear shelf and they worked fine.

Currently in Timex I'm using the original front speakers. I plan to replace the dash top speakers, fit some in the original rear positions and add a base tube I have kicking round in the boot. It's probably not the easiest way of setting things up, but In this case I don't want to cut anything.

[TizzyD]

Had the glovebox out and got the tweeters working, just a bad connection between them and the loom, there was a random connector hanging down behind the glovebox and nowhere obvious for it to go so I left it alone as I can't be missing whatever it's meant to do

[Mike E (uk)]

The standard fit tweeters are wired in parallel with the front door

speakers.

[TizzyD]

Do you have the dimensions of the rear quarter speakers ? I know that they are of a size which is no longer made but is there anything which is a close fit ?

[Mike E (uk)]

Sorry to repeat myself, but the rear quarter speakers are pants and you will get
better sound with parcel shelf mounting.