Door speakers

Strangely enough, I actually improved on the sound quality by changing the Philips radiohead for something a bit better (in my case, a unit from Alpine).

PDH

Already done that - bought an Aiwa CD player in a sale at Argos last January for less than £60. Have to admit though that Alpine units are very nice (had an Alpine changer system years ago in my first 414, but it developed a fault with the fascia panel which a replacement didn't fix and that put me off as it wasn't a cheap setup either.

I wouldn't normally bother changing speakers but as I intend to keep this car for a while I thought I may as well and with all four costing a little over £20 total at the moment I can't complain. Another deciding factor is that my model 600 doesn't have the dashboard tweeters (it's got the grills but no speakers or wiring!) - the new speakers all contain tweeter units even if the positioning isn't ideal.

I've fitted the 4 way 6"x9" units tonight (£12.50 pair) and they sound much better than the original 1 way Goodmans units fitted. Unfortunately I underestimated the size of the front speakers so the tiddly little ones I've bought will be going back tomorrow to get swapped for some 3 way 6" rounds (£8.99 pair) - again, the original equipment are 1 way Goodmans so I was right about anything else being an improvement!

If you feel like swapping the speakers on yours then remember that you'll need to cut off the existing speaker connectors (peculiar to Honda) and crimp on large and small spade connectors in their place...

Darren

I also discovered today that the new front speakers are much deeper than the original ones and you'll need a hole-saw to cut a hole in the plastic mounting wide enough for the magnet of the new speaker to fit through. Also you can't go too deep with the speaker otherwise the window glass won't be able to go right down (there's practically no clearance between the magnet of the new speaker and glass now, though it isn't rubbing it).

Darren

Does anybody want the original Honda/Rover speakers I've removed? They're all working and in good condition and you can have them for free if you're willing to collect from Nottingham area (soon, otherwise they'll go to the car boot sale!).

Darren

9 times out of 10 the reason you get distortion and poor quality sound is the amplifier headroom or rather lack of it. when driven properly the speakers are not so bad. Its no good buying a 100watt rms speaker to put in your car if yor amp in your unit is still only giving out 20watts... it will make very little difference.

Its the same with your hifi. normally your amp will run out of legs before your speakers runout of excursion. a 50watt rms car speakr willbe more than happy with 100watts rms from an amp..

Maybe look at a small amplfier thats capapble of putting out somethign worth while into your speakers.

According to the Haynes ICE manual, the speakers need to be rated about 40% more than the maximum amplifier output. Now whereas the speakers are rated at 250W and 180W respectively, I think this is likely to be PMPO - the RMS rating will be considerably lower and closer to the 45W RMS output per channel of the head-unit.

In any case, it's not volume I want - the existing head-unit has more than enough for me - my car has old paper cone speakers which are fine for mid-range and some of the lower frequencies, but not the high end. Fitting new speakers has added tweeters where there previously weren't any, so that alone will improve the sound quality by extending the range.

Anyway, the new speakers are fitted, they sound much 'cleaner' and better defined and I'm happy. I'd rather spend the money on an MP3 player than an amp...

Darren

Unless stated RMS the rating of your ampliier in your head unit will be peak. This is the same as your speakers. If you are given a typical PEAK value (not the same as PMPO) then the rms is typically around half of it for most car speakers. PMPO is a very poor rating as it is usually picked out of the blue at teh manufacturers and refers to the max excursion of the loudspeaker driver before it is physically damaged instantly. However, as you say you are like me. and after a decent sound rather than volume. If what you have done works. you get a nicer sound, then thats all that matters.

holder in teh car and plug it in through the AUX in sockets. Works great. charges up too of course.

As you've mentioned i dont like it loud just soemthing to pass the time on (1700 miles a week at busy times)

Rob

1) You got 3 way speakers for £8.50 and they sound better?? What/where did you get them? 2) It is better to take 40% of the PMPO value as a rule of thumb for guestimate RMS values. Eg 100W Max Power = about 40W RMS.

it varies a bit because some manufacturers do dodgy things like measuring performance in sub zero temps, but overall 40% is what i go by and its rarely far off.

Ad

Its impossible to tell the rms rating from a pmpo rating. Pmpo relates to the maximum excursion or the driver. if it lasts more than a couple of milliseconds at this power input i'd be suprised.

There is no % of pmpo is rms. however your estimate of about 40% is a good figure to use. and a safe figure to use.

Sub zero temperatures will not make much differnce. A speakers powerhandling differs wth frequency. its frequency response is not linear (particularly cheap speakers) and its power handling at a given frequency can vary.

typically a pmpo rating which is far higher than anything you could input useably will be measured at 1kHz. Needless to say. at the extremes (particularly the lower extreme under

100Hz) the power hadnling will be significantly less. ontop of this fact it will use ALOT more power from your amp, this relates to the frequency response not being linear and the outer limits say 30Hz to 18kHz beign at the -10db point. a -10db point is not really what i would call a useable frequency particularly when used in low volume enviroments such as the car.

Manufacturers will give a useable frequency response of 20Hz-20kHz on alot of car audio products. this is a -10db point in a suitable enclosure. A car door or parcel shelf is NOT a suitable enclosure. Its unlikely any spekaer will provide a useable output below about 50Hz in a door. not much lower anywhere in the car. Manufacturers will then sometimes give an rms rating of 100watts. Great one might think. but as previosuly mentioned its at 1kHz at 100Hz it'll be closer to 50watts.

Rob