Stereo upgrade project

[lovejoy]

Hi all,

I've never been happy with the quality of the audio system in my Yeti Greenline, so after 16 months of ownership I finally decided to do something about it, and now I seem to have been bitten by the bug.

 

My first thoughts were just to replace the speakers in the front doors, but a lack of general information available had me being extra cautious about doing it, but finally got hold of a set of Pioneer TSA-172CI component speakers as a direct replacement for the standard fit speakers. The good thing about these is that no modification of the door cards was required to fit them, so with the original speakers cut out of the doors, they went in without too much trouble. Just seeing what passed for a crossover in the old speakers - i.e. 1 electrolytic capacitor, made the move feel justified before I even got to hearing the results.

 

I'm more than happy with the upgrade. What was irritating to listen to for even short journeys has now become quite enjoyable. It's not the last word in hi-fi, but it's a massive improvement. So I got to thinking about doing the back speakers as well...

 

Only it turns out that these are just 13cm mid/bass drivers compared with the 17cm units in the front, so having discovered this I thought "Is there much point to this?". I can't imagine getting much more in the way of bottom end out of a pair of 13cm units and I'm already getting plenty of mid, so I'm thinking that it might be better to save the money on rear units and put this towards a head unit change and possibly putting a small sub in the boot. 

So I'm just wondering whether anyone has upgraded the rear drivers and if so, whether they thought it was a worthwhile improvement.

 

I think ultimately, having listened to the new Pioneers for a couple of days that the Bolero head unit is pretty underpowered. You can hear a distinct hardening of the sound once the volume gets up above 50%, so now that the bug has bitten I'm looking forward to a head unit upgrade and some further improvements. I'll probably spend some time over the weekend making extensive use of Dynamat too to see if I can get road noise down by a few dB.

 

Rich

[dbg400]

The only thread I recall on upgrading the speakers was last year from mbrock http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/230355-midrange-front-speaker-fitting/ where he added a pair of midrange units to the front doors.

 

I'm interested in how you get on as I'd like to improve the sound in mine - it's now the primary place I listen to music (our family's taste in music tends to only overlap a little).

 

Update: Found this as well - maybe more relevant http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/235905-component-speakers-for-yeti/

Edited 23 August, 2013 by dbg400

[rockhopper]

I had the sound system in my Yeti which was sooooo much better than the standard setup. Came with mid range speakers and an amp, which coupled to the Columbus was pretty good for a standard fitment option.

I have however a Harmon Kardon setup in my new car and it is way better than the setup in my Yeti.

[lovejoy]

Well, I managed to find a pair of the correct size speakers to go in the rear doors to match the fronts - Pioneer TSA-132Ci speakers for £60 delivered via an Amazon seller at the moment. I'm still enjoying the improvements from doing the fronts. I have been setting the fader on the Bolero 100% towards the front speakers as the moment you try bringing up the rear (original) speakers again, you start losing the benefits of the improvements from the fronts (which does make me slightly worry that they may be wired out of phase with each other but we'll see).So I thought for the price, getting the back speakers up to the same spec was probably not a bad move, plus I can hopefully get some more Dynamat in the rear door cards.

 

Will report back on any further improvements (or otherwise) once they've arrived. Hopefully they'll be here and can be fitted before I take the Yeti over to Southern Ireland for the week at the end of Sept. 

[biamp]

Hi Rich

 

I'm wanting to upgrade my speakers and from what you say the Pioneer TSA172CI's seem just the job. I was considering a pair of Alpine components but from a previous poster this would apparently have meant mounting on MDF to overcome the increased depth of the Alpines.It would appear the Pioneers are shallower as I take it from what you say they go straight in without any spacers which seems pretty straight forward. What about the connectors - will I need converters or do they fit the terminals on the Pioneers?

How did you manage with the tweeters - a previous poster suggested these are more or less impossible to replace using the existing grill. Did you have to cut a new hole in the door card and leave the original tweeter in situ? Also how did you terminate the tweeters ?

I also want to replace the rear door speakers  - my Yeti has the standard 8 speaker set up - are the rear ones in this set up 13cm or same as the front ?

Its a long time since I did any car door speaker fitting (usually end up busting the clips on the card) Any help would be appreciated !!

 

Chris 

[Gooders21]

Hi Rich,

 

How did you get on? I'm thinking of buying these for my Yeti as I'm getting a little fed up of the lack of middle.

 

Did you replace the tweeters or just use the new crossover with the old ones?

 

Thanks,

 

Mark