Finalizing my mod list as I prepare to take delivery of my '16 this week, and one of the items is a 10" sub. Plan to upgrade the stock door speakers, but not right away. Are the stock speakers adequate enough to wait a bit? Will the highs and mids be overpowered by a decent sub? I like a nice sub to complement, not overpower the music stage....
How do the stock speakers sound?
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They're decent enough to get by IMO. I have no desire to upgrade the factory audio system in my car for now, and I usually have pretty high end stuff in all my cars. But a lot of that probably has to do with the fact that I never listen to music, because the sounds my engine makes are far better than any of the sounds that could come from the stereo.
I don't have a sub, but I agree the tonal range of the speakers is limited and somewhat uneven. I feel like no matter how much I adjust the (very basic) EQ, I can't find settings I consistently like. I feel like there are peaks and valleys in the frequency response that are more or less apparent depending on the type of music or individual song. Conclusion, they are serviceable, but if you are an audiophile and spend a lot of time listening to music in the car, they would be worth an upgrade.
Factory front speakers sound decent at low volumes. The tweeter placement mid-door is not good for higher volumes (sound gets very harsh). I think moving the tweeter location forward would help a lot. You might not get significant sound improvement with just new front speakers using the stock system though. There will be a lot of signal processing from the stock unit that you won't want with new speakers. A digital signal processor and a separate amp is the way to go......its on my future mod list.
I think the stock speakers sound fine but lack the little bit of bass that I like. If my car came with a small subwoofer I think I would be plenty happy with the sound of everything. I like music, but I'm not an audiophile. On my old car I had a Pioneer HU, Polk Audio 6.5" components in the front amped, stock speakers in the rear, and an 8" Kicker sub in a custom box. That was plenty for me.
Coming from a self-proclaimed audiophile, the stock system is decent IMO. I rarely wish for more overall volume/more bass (you know, "those certain" tracks) and I think the system would be much improved with simply adding more clean wattage. But the system is good enough for my current needs (100% USB @ 256k) that I don't want to go through the trial-and-error costs and time "I" would need to improve upon it.
I used to love the trial and error, making incremental improvements, but now I'm old and lazy and car audio is no longer a hobby.
YMMV
I used to love the trial and error, making incremental improvements, but now I'm old and lazy and car audio is no longer a hobby.
YMMV
Agreed. The frequency response is not good, and there's plenty of distortion. There's a big dB shelf from 600 to 10k, but it's a big drop down for the mid-bass and even less bottom few octaves. Also the tweeters suffer from tremendous intermodulation distortion that's very obvious when playing sine wave test tones.
There's plenty of room for improvement, that's for sure.
There's plenty of room for improvement, that's for sure.
I dialed the highs and lows almost all the way up just to try to get a little bit of depth and detail. I was spoiled with my Element because it had that "sub"woofer in the center console, which added a lot to the overall sound experience. You may want to try switching back and forth between the "all speakers" and "driver only" option in the audio adjustments. Overall the highs aren't very crisp but at least they're not harsh. The mids aren't too muddy and the lows are warm but not real very punchy. I'm planning on adding something like a Soundstream USB-8A next to the spare to try to fill out the low end a bit.
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Audible rattles aren't the whole story. Even if that panel is moving and you can't hear it it is still hurting sound quality. Not to mention that sound deadening will cut road noise that will make your sound better.
Even a cheap kit just to do around the speaker holes and behind the speaker is always worth it imo. You are already taking the door apart why go half way.
Even a cheap kit just to do around the speaker holes and behind the speaker is always worth it imo. You are already taking the door apart why go half way.
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