ICE Upgrade????

[travelvolts]

Have a chat with Jason @Absolut5 , he will give you great advice, and supply or supply & fit many different upgrade routes if you wish. Given his professional raison d'etreis are Transporters & Audio he kind of ticks both boxes. There are quite a few speaker only upgrades, I went the component speaker upgrade and front amp with sub route, and it sounds unbelievably good; even after having it fitted for a few months now, I am still really impressed when I jump in the van. Not only mp3/iphone/sdcard/cd/spotify music, but even the plain old fm/dab radio experience is improved beyond all expectations.

Seconded.

 

[Absolut5]

I'm considering front speaker upgrades for our T6. The most obvious way would be to simply replace the existing speaker in the door and tweeter in the pillar with better ones. However, the main issue I have with the sound is that the upper and lower frequencies are totally disconnected - it's very obvious all the treble is coming from the pillar and the mid/bass is coming from around your feet somewhere. I'm sure I can get much better speakers but this fundamental issue of the disconnected high/low frequencies from the placement is going to remain isn't it? Do some component sets have a bit of overlap to help integrate the sound?

I guess I could always use a coax speaker in the door which would be more of an ideal point source for the sound, but it's still going to be coming from around my feet somewhere which wouldn't be ideal for the more directional higher frequencies.

Any thoughts?

Do not use a coax in the doors, your ears are not on your knees..

These T6s with factory units work wonders with a amp upgrade and decent speakers

 

[DaveyB]

I got Hertz components from Absolut5, they are great, incredible sound definition, due to having a passive crossover to balance those frequencies.

 

[RattyMcClelland]

Do not use a coax in the doors, your ears are not on your knees..

Oddly I disagree to some extent if time alignment is removed.
It's all about path length differences between the left and the right and getting the speakers as far away as possible and get the left and right speaker speakers distance from you're ears as equal add possible. That's why point source drivers are usually suited to the kicks or the bottom of the doors. Yours ears cannot locate sounds below 300hz, the 500-3000z need to be as far away as possible to determine the stereo image. 5000hz up determine stage height.
I run full point source in my kicks in the prelude to get the centre image and stage height is way above the dash.

 

[Absolut5]

Oddly I disagree to some extent if time alignment is removed.
It's all about path length differences between the left and the right and getting the speakers as far away as possible and get the left and right speaker speakers distance from you're ears as equal add possible. That's why point source drivers are usually suited to the kicks or the bottom of the doors. Yours ears cannot locate sounds below 300hz, the 500-3000z need to be as far away as possible to determine the stereo image. 5000hz up determine stage height.
I run full point source in my kicks in the prelude to get the centre image and stage height is way above the dash.

And I agree on your point I've done many kick builds over the years and have it centre image and stage high, but the standard doors of T5/6 do not lend them selves to coax speakers

 

[t0mb0]

Useful input everyone, thanks.

I'm still a little unclear how better component speakers will solve the fundamental problem of the high/low frequencies sounding like they come from different place, unless one of the following is true:

1) The high/low frequency of the standard ones effectively has a gap in the middle which is why the separation is so jarring.
2) The crossover point of new speakers is much lower such that the door speaker is handling lower (and therefore less directional) frequencies.
3) The crossover of the new speakers is very shallow and so the frequency content is overlapped between the door/pillar speakers (although usually this would cause other issues with phase interaction etc).

I notice some coax speakers have tweeters which can be angled - would using these angled upwards work in the door?

 

[RattyMcClelland]

It's just poor vw speakers and the crossover point at around 2k right where it shouldnt. Even a lot of aftermarket speakers do this. Mine are crossed at 5000hz. No separation at all. Sounds take is wide and at dash height. Speakers just dissappear.

 

[t0mb0]

It's just poor vw speakers and the crossover point at around 2k right where it shouldnt. Even a lot of aftermarket speakers do this. Mine are crossed at 5000hz. No separation at all. Sounds take is wide and at dash height. Speakers just dissappear.

Is this in a T5/T6? If so, what speakers are you actually running?

 

[Markey]

Just clarify something on this for me chaps as I'm gearing up to do it the weekend....

When you run the wire up to the tweeter from the crossover, Do you just discard the original wire that plugs into the tweeter ?

 

[GordyT6]

Depends on your kit pal. My kit uses the original wire, but if you haven't bought a plug n play kit is say it's up to you. My thoughts are A it will be a right pain to run a new cable and B it's only a tweeter with not much power going to it. I'm sure a ICE professional may disagree and advise something else

 

[steveph]

Just clarify something on this for me chaps as I'm gearing up to do it the weekend....

When you run the wire up to the tweeter from the crossover, Do you just discard the original wire that plugs into the tweeter ?

That's what I did. But I ran new wires to the crossover from the back of the head unit. If you are using the original wires that went to the speakers to go into the crossover then I'm not sure how the tweeter wires split off from this.

 

[RattyMcClelland]

Mines a t6. I'm running Hybrid Audio l1pro se tweeters and l6se midbass however they are pretty expensive. If I was on a budget I would aim for Hybrid audio imagine range.

 

[Vinci]

Blimey

 

[Markey]

Any more input on this from the "ICE" freaks

Also which colour wires are the + & - from the speakers please ? Haven't got the plug'n'play kit so will be chopping the wires

Things like this you can suss along the way but a little heads up in the right direction always helps

 

[warren]

This diagram helps a bit. The pin configuration is correct but the wire colours weren't the same for me. It helps to remember the positive wires are on on the outside edge of the connector and pin 1 is the corner pin because it's really easy to get confused with left and right and upside down

 

[Markey]

Appreciate your time in posting that image Warren, i have seen that before but i believe the T6 colours are different from what i have seen

I am using the stock harness and not going behind the radio so its the colour + & - i needed at the doors really, I haven't got in there yet so hoping it will be more straight forward than I'm thinking it

Also hoping the stock speakers will have + & - markings on to simplify things but knowing VW maybe not

 

[mike]

+ve red/blue or red/white
-ve brown/blue or brown/white

 

[Dino]

Order a few of these too. Half a dozen behind each door trim and one or two will break - guaranteed!

View attachment 3526[/QUOTE
@HHO Top tip thank you. Broke 2

 

[Markey]

Yeah got some of them incase

 

[Captain Mainwaring]

Is there a general consensus on whether it is worth just replacing the original speakers with something better that will just slot in or would any gain in quality not be worth the cost?

I had an underseat subwoofer installed which made a big difference, but as I am about to get the door panels off to do some sound deadening it would be easy to do speakers as well. I am not confident enough to start putting new amps and stuff in so they would have to rely on the power from the Discover head unit. The people who did my subwoofer said that new speakers would not make any difference without installing a new power amp as well