Siftah
Member Since: 11 Jun 2018
Location: Barcelona
Posts: 326
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2010MY Aftermarket Speaker Upgrade Focal ES165K2 | |
The Problem
Having had a crackling/popping mid-bass speaker problem on the passenger side, I wanted to replace it. I'm due to do a long trip and I don't think I'd be able to get a replacement Land Rover part in time, so I was in a bit of a pickle - long story short, I decided to fit a rather more expensive part that should work a little better than the original, albeit at an additional cost.
This replaces both the tweeter (in the top of the door near the wing-mirror) and the mid-bass speaker (lowest in the door) with aftermarket items, but retains the original amp and crossovers.
The Solution
The original speakers are 2ohms, which is a little unusual, most aftermarket speakers are 4ohms and will therefore sound less loud than the OEM speakers, causing them to need the amp to work harder. As this is part of a 14 speaker Logic7 on a 2011 4.4 TDV8 Vogue, this would have left me with unbalanced audio which would have been hard to work around with the OEM amp/dsp, so I needed to keep to 2ohms.
I found that a company called Focal do a component set with two mid-bass speakers and two tweeters, including passive crossovers for around 450 Euros, or 400 gbp. As I could get them quickly, I went with those. The passive crossovers are not used as the Logic7 system has crossovers in place for the mid-bass and tweeters already (according to my googling...).
Focal ES 165 K2
Is it just me or do they remind you of Madonna?
Disclaimer
I'm not an audio wizard, nor could I play one on TV. I've fitted them and they work great and sound a little better than the originals, but they've only been in a few hours at the time of writing - they may explode
Fitting
Fitting took me a few hours, probably 2 hours for the first door and then another 1 hour for the second. You'll need to do some soldering or crimping, depending on what you prefer.
Both door-cards need to be removed, but this is pretty simple; 4 bolts and some clips to unclip, about 5 plugs to unplug. The door cards aren't too bad on these vehicles, they go back on without looking like they've ever been removed so don't panic too much about that.
I didn't take a picture but the vehicle remains looking absolutely stock, you will never be able to tell this has been done.
Method
1. Remove the door card, unclip all the wiring harnesses, there's a YouTube video from PowerFullUKLtd which covers this, the MY2010 is a little different, but not enough to cause you any problems.
2. At this point you'll be able to remove the 4 screws holding the mid-bass speaker, remove them and hold the speaker whilst you do, so the speaker doesn't fall out.
3. The top part of the door, where it meets the A-Pillar has a separate plastic cover which houses the tweeter, there's a clip on the bottom which can be pulled apart and then the rest is held on by the door seal, wiggle it free. With the door open, you can leave it on the outside of the door (see last picture) whilst you remove the wiring for the tweeter.
4. Unclip the tweeter and remove it's cable from cable retainer, you'll need a small screwdrive to pop the clip, it's a bit fiddly but push down and it'll release - at this point you should be able to just unbolt the tweeter and remove it.
5. On to the workbench, fire up the soldering iron.
6. The mid-bass speakers sit in a plastic housing which we're going to need to retain. The foam ring will pull off (it's on with sticky tape). Now you can remove the screws holding the driver (speaker). The speaker will not be free at this point.
7. Flip over the speaker - top tip, use the foam lid from the Focal speaker as a base to rest the speaker on, the cutout is the right size and it'll protect the new speaker when you're re-installing it later.
8. You now need to unsolder the two wires from the driver that are soldered to the housing, you'll need a solder sucker for this probably, or just get it nice and hot and bend the prongs back, get them both free.
9. Now you can finally remove the driver from the housing, it'll be stuck in with some sillicon rubber sealant, gently prise until it comes loose.
10. Now you can seat the shiny new speaker into the housing - the easiest way is to place it upside down, you're not going to see it anyway and sound doesn't care which way up it is
11. The +/- terminals are switched versus the Harmon Kardon speaker, so we're going to need to solder our cables in a crossover fashion (not that kind of crossover, just crossed-over!). I dropped a little cardboard underneath where I was soldering just in case I had any drops, you don't want to ruin those shiny new drivers! The picture should explain...
12. At this point, your mid-bass speakers are done, refit them to the car, plug back in the original loom.
13. The tweeters, we need to chop most of the supplied cables off the new Focal tweeters, I left about 2 inches of cable and cut and fitted heatshrink to keep the job tidy.
14. Remove the original cables from the OEM tweeters, de-solder them from the tweeter itself. You *are* going to want to retain the entire section from the original tweeter as they contain capacitors to help protect the tweeter which we're going to re-use with the new ones.
15. The wire with the trace is the positive on the OEM tweeter, join them up to the "more red" of the two wires on the Focal tweeters and tidy it up - I used wire protector and a bit of heatshrink for the section without foam. This is now complete and ready to refit.
16. With the door open and stood in-front of it, I was able to pull the foam out from the plastic trim and feed the wire through - the tweeters sit perfectly in the foam housing with the original dustguards over them, it's a little tight, but I had no problems with rattling or anything.
| Click image to enlarge |
17. Assembly is the reverse of removal pretty much. Be careful when pushing the housing for the tweeters back into place - don't push on the grill as it will bend, make sure you push around the edges!
Result
I'm not an audiophile, but it sounds great. You can push the highs and bass much higher in the equaliser without it starting to sound harsh. There's more detail; cymbals, high-hats etc are easier on the ears. The bass feels more punchy, you find yourself turning the volume up an extra notch. I was a bit meh about spending so much on audio equipment when the original isn't too bad, but I've no regrets with this, it's a decent upgrade!
Hope this helps someone
Last edited by Siftah on 18th Dec 2020 1:42pm. Edited 2 times in total
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