Well it's time for my '03 to get some love in the audio dept. Wanted to see what people have replaced the OEM door speakers and/or tweeters with? I am not opposed to also upgrading the headunit as well, would want something pretty simple with BT and does well with glare (since I am always top down). Kinda looking to buy a budget OEM+ sound upgrade, what brands/models have you guys had success with?

 

Ive always been a Focal guy myself, but some people find them too bright. It's kinda a personal preference. They offer more budget solutions too like $200 for a pair of components with tweeters. Morel, Polk, JL Audio. All good companies. You'll find plenty of options in that price range from a lot of brands.
For the head unit I would go Alpine, something like the CDE-172BT for $129. Solid sound quality. Bluetooth, USB, inexpensive.... but you'll hear good things about Sony, Pioneer as well. Maybe even Kenwood and JVC too, but the shitty products of JVC and Kenwood's past would have me leery. Just find one that has the features and aesthetic you're looking for at a decent price point.

For the first intial upgrade, which is what you're talking about, I would do: component speakers, amplifier, head unit
That's exactly what I did. You can find amplifiers that will fit under or behind the seats. Or just drop it into the spare donut tire in the back. Out of sight. I wouldn't skimp on an amplifier. All amplifiers are not at all created equal.

Then for round 2 I added a subwoofer and another amp in the trunk, as well as dynamatted the doors and trunk. A 10 inch JL W3v3 with a 500watt zapco amp.

Then for round 3 I added rear speakers near the vents behind the seats to even out the soundstage. The stock door speaker angles are pretty terrible and would only be ideal if your face was pressed against the bottom of the steering wheel. Rear speakers help with this.

Very happy with where it's at right now, but the first step where I just upgraded the speakers/amp/headunit was the biggest difference from the stock setup. The stock system can barely be heard at 70mph with the top down.

 

This depends on budget and goals. My budget, and goals, were modest. Its a noisy convertible. Never going to have concert hall audio quality. The point of diminishing returns happens way sooner than in, say, a quiet Lexus.

I followed the same path as silenc3x, and did component speakers, amp, head unit in first go round.

Went with Pioneer A series component speakers. <$70

Pioneer Digital Media Receiver (short body, no CD player). <$100

Pioneer Class D mini amp. <$100

The amp fits in the dash behind the hu. Hidden and takes up zero space. Wired in bridged mode, its a genuine CEA 2006 certified 90w rms per channel.

This meet all my initial goals, for less than $300. Also added some foam speaker isolators. Around $25.

It had plenty of power for top down hwy cruising. But like engine hp mods, you soon crave more.

What I realized was as I cranked the volume, the sound quality suffered. I figured the mid speakers were doing too much work trying to do sub and mid ranges. Maybe a sub would help.

But I was adamant I didn't want to lose any truck or cabin space. Also didn't want to hack anything up. So I mounted an underseat sub in passenger footwell.

I used a Pioneer underseat powered sub. Around $150. So all in well under $500.

Under passenger carpet footwell area is a large white Styrofoam block. About 2 inches thick at its fatest. It tapers off as it rises. Under this is about .75" of soft, black foam rubber. I cut a slot in both of these to fit the powered underseat sub.

The sub sits flush to where the carpet was before, except at the top. As the white styrofoam tapers off near the top of footwell area, the sub is thicker than the foam it replaces. So it bulges carpet slightly. Not really noticeable. But Pioneer has us covered, as just yesterday they released a new, smaller powered footwell sub. Similar specs as what I used, just smaller. It'll fit in this spot with zero intrusion.

This thing is also class D, so no heat issues running in this spot.

No, of course it doesn't hit like a 12" sub in the trunk. If you need that, there is no SUBstitute (see what I did there?)

But if you just want to round out your system and take the load off your door speakers, its ideal.

I solidly mounted it to the floor woth self tapping screws (passenger footwell area is sealed off from the road, so you're not putting a hole that will let in water or lead to rust). So you feel some vibes in the seat and door armrest. Nothing like the hit from a big boy sub, but again, this isn't trying to be that.

This setup has allowed me to crank the volume higher and maintain sound quality. Plus it all sounds fuller with more bass produced.

I have the sub powered off the under dash fuse panel. Modest power requirements, doesn't need a tap directly off battery.

 

If you go the sub route like me or Car Analogy did, make sure you set a high pass filter on the speakers so the lower notes dont come through... and a low pass on the sub. You dont want singing coming out of your sub.
You can do this with the amplifier and then you'll be able to increase your volume a lot more as the lower notes wont be distorting your component speakers, like Car Analogy mentioned he came across.

> What I realized was as I cranked the volume, the sound quality suffered. I figured the mid speakers were doing too much work trying to do sub and mid ranges. Maybe a sub would help.

Dont power both your sub and front speakers with the same amp... otherwise you wont be able to do this.

 

And I'll add, my Pioneer hu has an app, with a screen dedicated to setting up these filters for the signals coming out of the hu.

A traditional high pass filter and low pass filter (hpf & lpf) is an electronic component external to the hu. Or an amp can have these filters built in, with knobs to control threshold. Some modern hu have this capability built in, and fully adjustable from a screen.

A hpf filter passes frequencies above a threshold. Meaning it blocks frequencies below that threshold. A low pass filter does the opposite, blocking high frequencies (since it passes frequencies below threshold, block those above).

So you use a lpf for signals sent to a sub. A hpf is for the tweeters or for mids. For tweeter the threshold would be set very high. Mids the hpf would be set just above sub frequencies. Sub threshold would be set to sub frequencies.

None of this is definitive. We can't give a set frequency you should tune to. Depends on car, speaker locations, music you listen to, your tastes, etc. But the above gives the concept.

Most modern hu will have preamp outputs for front and rear speakers, plus separate sub preamp output. These are the red and white rca jacks on back of hu. You connect these rca to amp.

The Pioneer app allows you to set and tune these filters from your phone. So no need to adjust knobs on an amp that might be hard to get to.

 

I added an Alpine UTE-62 BT head unit and an Alpine KTP-445U under dash mini amp. I have not upgraded the OEM speakers. I may do that - but I'm honestly not so sure it will make much of a difference. The system has enough power and decent fidelity at the necessary volume when driving top down. I am not a rap guy. I like a balanced sound. I am a absolute music lover. I play some music myself, and I think I have a decent ear.

But, in this car, my feeling is that true high end sound is impossible. Decent yes. High end? No. I'm not going to dump much more money into the sound. Not in this car. I might do better door speakers. But, maybe not. Unsure.

 

I'm not a rap guy eirher. Old school rock and blues. Never thought I'd need or want a sub. Only reason I went there was I wanted to really crank it up sometimes, and it would get muddy and lose clarity.

What I did first to see if a sub would help was setup my hu to think it had a sub, then also setup the hpf to filter out the sub frequencies from the door speakers. Aftermarket component door tweeters already have a physical electronic hpf a one of the components.

Then I compared how high I could crank up volume before distortion after vs before, playing the same songs. Significant improvement. Decided right there to add a sub. Meanwhile I left it setup like that, no sub frequencies being produced at all. I liked the sound better that way at high volumes.

I added the sub to fill those missing frequencies back in. Of course, now they they really thump, which rounds out the sound nicely.

 

It's amazing how a good sub, integrated well into the rest of the system --- really helps the entire audio range. At home, I have a pair of DIY subs which I can switch off-&-on. Even at low volumes, the music loses fullness and depth, when the subs are switched off.

I have a FOCAL sub plate behind each seat. Worth their weight in gold, in terms of better overall music quality.

 

Totally agree. And once you get a sub you can remove the lower range notes from the component speakers, making them able to be played much louder without distortion.

Although my rear tray rattles sometimes when I have the top up, so I bought a weighted blanket and put it back there covering the tray. 15 lbs. Did the trick!
In the summer the top down acts in the same way, so its not necessary.

 

I don't disagree at all. A sub that is well integrated is a good thing. Even if you are a jazz guy. I use a sub in other settings. Totally agree.

I do listen to music in this car from time to time. Sometimes I will crank up a tune. But, more often than not I am taking it out to drive pretty hard on winding back country roads and I am listening to the motor, rev matching, etc. So, I'm satisfied with this set up I have now. The Alpine HU and the Alpine indash amp make a significant difference.