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ATS speaker replacement

24K views 20 replies 12 participants last post by  BobHunter846 
#1 ·
Hi All. My first time posting.

I'm interested in improving the audio quality in my stereo system.

I went to a custom audio shop and they are suggesting replacing the speakers. They said the rest of the system is phenomenal and speakers would really make it pop.

They demoed some speakers from infinity that sounded awesome in the store. They said the stock speakers are paper and not nearly as responsive as a good set of aftermarkets.

The speaker set is $450 including labor. While I don't mind spending the money if they will really make a huge difference, I am hesitant to commit that kind of money without knowing for sure that I'll hear a distinct difference in audio quality.

So, I thought before spending the money, I'd ask the community if someone here has replaced theirs and whether the investment was worth it???

If someone here has replaced theirs with $400-500 speakers, was it worth it? Would you do it again?
 
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#2 ·
It would be hard to know if anyone else's sound better based on price alone as you can get some really good speakers crazy cheap or you can be paying full retail. How many speakers are they replacing? Do you have the 10 speaker setup or the 7? If anything, before you buy, perhaps they could pop out a couple of your speakers and hook them up in the same room you heard their speakers and you can switch back and forth to hear the difference. Not sure if they will do that and it won't be the same acoustics as in your car, but if they sound better in the shop I can't imagine they wouldn't sound that much better in the car as well.
 
#3 ·
Hi carpenter, thanks for the reply. I have the standard 7 speaker system.

They are only suggesting replacing the two front door speakers and the two tweeters in the windshield pillars.

They said this would be the most bang for the buck so to speak since they are the ones closest to the driver...me.

I have partial hearing loss from the marine corps and am looking to brighten up the mid and high end range. The factory sub is perfect...just looking for more detail in my music.

I'll ask to see if they'll do what you suggest by popping out a couple and playing them next to the ones they are trying to sell me.

In the show room, I can certainly hear the difference between cheap speakers and these expensive infinity set.

I just don't want to be in a position of regretting the expense by only hearing a subtle difference when all is said and done.
 
#4 ·
As Carpenter stated it would be useful to have an A/B demo using YOUR car system (source material, amp, etc.) since listening to a different set of speakers driven by a different source also in a different environment doesn't really tell you anything.

If you haven't already done so turn the DSP setting to normal and audio pilot off and see if you like that better. Adjust the tone/equalizer setting to see if you can improve things.

You can definitely improve the sound system in ANY production vehicle if you are willing to pay the price but if you start piecing in replacement parts you can spend a lot of money for no significant improvement or even a loss of quality. Anytime you modify something you have to keep in mind that changing one part has impacts on the entire system and although your car was originally engineered from a systems viewpoint that doesn't mean that all aftermarket shops go in with the same viewpoint regardless of whether the topic is engine, exhaust, aero, or audio. There are some great shops and people out there, some not-so-great, and a few hacks. I would spend a little research time trying to find someone who has done a few ATS audio upgrades and take advantage of the learning curve.
 
#5 ·
turning off audio pilot wont affect the sound quality while you are tweaking the sound of your system.....audio pilot maintains the sound quality you desire when the sound environment changes due to Road/Engine/Wind noise that it hears from its microphone...this is a good thing

the sound system is a complete system meaning the head unit, amps, and speakers were designed in unison specific to the car, because of this you will be breaking the system with just a front speaker upgrade, because the fronts will no longer be timbre matched to the rest and could introduce bigger problems....in this scenario you will NEED to disable audio pilot because Audio Pilot was programmed for and is therefore only truly capable of making correct adjustments to the speakers it was designed for.....you might get around this by replacing ALL the speakers for a set by the same manufacturer they will be matched at that point and any adjustment made by Audio Pilot could work fine....people who want more bass however need to disable Audio Pilots noise cancelling feature by disconnecting the mic because their upgrades are too powerful so a minor adjustment made by Audio Pilot becomes a huge adjustment in the cabin.

the speaker matching goes for you as well, because should you just change the front speakers the fronts and the remaining speakers will react differently to your manual tonal changes.

lastly being a system BOSE employs some unique non standard solutions in their systems like strange Ohm levels for their speakers, so you could end up with an unbalanced system that could be difficult to overcome.

at the end of the day its your car and it has to sound good to you and if your shop can achieve that then fantastic your on your way...just a couple more things to consider .... because of your injury what sounds good to you may not to someone without the hearing loss, so go with your gut (and your ears) and do what sounds best to you not necessarily what sounds best to the installer....also because of the quirks in BOSE soundsystems i would visit a bunch of shops and demo their work and ask about BOSE alot.....many people like to rip on bose and thats unfortunate a good installer will tell you whats nice and whats not and will give you a nuanced answer not a hot cold this is awesome/this sucks answer and a good installer can work some magic for you.
 
#6 ·
I just I installed a sub woofer and amp in my 2014 ATS.If anybody has done this,you'll notice a problem with the sound immediately.The sub would give some type of feed back.After hours of troubleshooting,we found the problem to be the Audio Pilot noise canceling system.You need to disable this by disconnecting the microphone in the rear of the cab.This does not effect the Bluetooth feature.Thank me later.
 
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#7 ·
for my ats 2014 3.6 Premium, there is no feed back noise caused by the ANC as long as I unhook the stock sub (i.e only running the aftermarket sub+amp). it starts ouputing insane feedback as soon as I run dual sub (stock+aftermarket). this is somewhat contradictory to what others have experienced. maybe different trims have somewhat different settings for the ANC?

Tikibarchris said:
I just I installed a sub woofer and amp in my 2014 ATS.If anybody has done this,you'll notice a problem with the sound immediately.The sub would give some type of feed back.After hours of troubleshooting,we found the problem to be the Audio Pilot noise canceling system.You need to disable this by disconnecting the microphone in the rear of the cab.This does not effect the Bluetooth feature.Thank me later.
----------

OP, personally, I found the Bose in my 2014 ats 3.6 premium very satisfactory with the exception of the subwoofer bass. so all I did was upgrading the subwoofer (added mono amp also). the price, of course, u have to factor in the quality of your sub+amp. but installation was fun and not hard. I would definitely recommend buying the components and installing ur self to save $$ on labor. I believe that a decent setup for sub+amp @ 500W RMS would be around $250 new. for me, I got a good deal on craigslist for an Alpine 12" type x in sealed box+Alpine PDX 1.1000 for $300 and I love the system. I found that Alpine is the best bang for the buck comparing to Rockford or JL....just my 2c
 
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#9 ·
I'm no audio guy so I don't know the physics behind how it all works. I do know what sounds good or not. First, some people like lots of Bass, others lots of Treble, etc. I personally don't need lots of bass. I want clean sound. When the bass guitarist hits a low note while just warming up, I want to hear the snare drum springs sizzle. That's clean sound. For cost reasons, I replaced the front speakers only. It took a bit of tuning. First, my bass went haywire. Only the lowest end, like the bass drum. Thump thump thump, 10 times louder than it should be. I disconnected the sub-woofer. Solved the thump thump and I do not hear any loss of bass with just the 6 speakers left. I listen to both talk, rock and classical. They all sound fine without the sub-woofer. If it's affecting my noise cancelling, I don't hear it. Next, the speakers I got (Focal) are notoriously too bright. They come with a attenuator in the crossover circuit. The sound shop lowered the treble by 6db and now I'm a happy camper. The sound difference isn't too dramatic, I used sped thousands replacing everything, but I definitely hear better sound replacing the front speakers. As far as cost goes. I paid more than $450 installed and didn't see prices lower.
 
#12 ·
This seemed as good a place to post a follow up, even if it is just for the front center speaker replacement. I replaced the center dash speaker on my 10 speaker Bose system with an Infinity Reference REF-3002cfx 3.5" speaker. I'm attaching a few pics of the install. The factory speaker has a tiny (diameter) magnet. This is probably intentional since it sits between a couple of dash air vent ducts.

So to make this work, I had to create a pocket between these air vents in which the speaker magnet fits. Creating this pocket involves little more than pushing in on the ducts a bit to create the space for the speaker magnet. The air ducts are really thin-walled so deforming the side walls a bit is really easy and doesn't constrict the airflow in any significant way. It just creates enough room for the speaker. To help, I added a foam gasket between the speaker and the mounting surface. I also added a few washers between the speaker and the mounting surface to compress the foam gasket, but not mash it completely.

I created a couple of custom harnesses that let me connect the speaker to the existing wiring. Basically, the positive wire leading to the center dash speaker is yellow (white stripe) and the negative wire is blue (yellow stripe).

It doesn't seem that the center speaker adds much in the way of volume, but it really fills the front stage in a way the factory speaker lacked. I had to order a pair or course, so I have the other one is available if anybody wants to make an offer. I paid $52 for the pair on Crutchfield. Free wire harness too!

Audio equipment Loudspeaker Technology Electronic device Subwoofer

Audio equipment Loudspeaker Auto part Subwoofer Bumper


Tire Automotive wheel system Automotive tire Wheel

Auto part Car Vehicle Electronics Engine

Electronics Technology Electronic device Car Vehicle
 
#13 ·
This seemed as good a place to post a follow up, even if it is just for the front center speaker replacement. I replaced the center dash speaker on my 10 speaker Bose system with an Infinity Reference REF-3002cfx 3.5" speaker. I'm attaching a few pics of the install. The factory speaker has a tiny (diameter) magnet. This is probably intentional since it sits between a couple of dash air vent ducts.

So to make this work, I had to create a pocket between these air vents in which the speaker magnet fits. Creating this pocket involves little more than pushing in on the ducts a bit to create the space for the speaker magnet. The air ducts are really thin-walled so deforming the side walls a bit is really easy and doesn't constrict the airflow in any significant way. It just creates enough room for the speaker. To help, I added a foam gasket between the speaker and the mounting surface. I also added a few washers between the speaker and the mounting surface to compress the foam gasket, but not mash it completely.

I created a couple of custom harnesses that let me connect the speaker to the existing wiring. Basically, the positive wire leading to the center dash speaker is yellow (white stripe) and the negative wire is blue (yellow stripe).

It doesn't seem that the center speaker adds much in the way of volume, but it really fills the front stage in a way the factory speaker lacked. I had to order a pair or course, so I have the other one is available if anybody wants to make an offer. I paid $52 for the pair on Crutchfield. Free wire harness too!

View attachment 404194
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Looks good. Put an amp to it and hear it scream.
 
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