(T) Not Satisfied with the Sound

Hi guys,

Anyone upgraded the speakers in their Stilo?

I have an Abarth with the Connect NAV+ and I can't, no matter how much I experiment with the EQ, get a decent sound.

Either the speakers are crap or they were thrashed by their previous owner - either way they sound really flat and can't handle even moderate volume without distortion.

Anyone got any recommendations?

My sound is perfectly clear in my Abarth. It get's a bit crap with heavy bass above 14 but i discovered it's parts of the door panels that actually vibrate and not the speakers so im going to get Fiat to look at it. Anyone else have that problem ?

On the EQ i have it on manual and set each one just over the centre mark..
the 1st one is 2 over then it's something like 3,4,4,3,4,2 ...something like that, can't be too sure without going out to check. But most music has a nice clear tone to it on those settings for me.

Actually it's funny you mentioned the flat sound, because just today when i first got in the car the CD i was playing sounded flat, so i stopped the car and restarted the system and the sound went clear again... Maybe you do have something wrong with yours.

the standards arent to bad on a aftermarket headunit; but i never had the Nav+ in the first place so i dont know about that?! Sounds like your speakers have been trashed by the previous owner; ive have a 6.5" infinity component set put in the front and 6.5" coaxial alpine's speaker put in the rear and sounds awesome now! NB: they are an arse to change, just need some patient or pay your local ICE dealer to fit em for ya! Although my rear speaker grilles rattle now; any1 else rattle?! But i just turn up me subs and the whole car rattles at the mo, as i havent had chance to sound lay my sound deadening!

I don't have any problems with the Nav+ sound either.

Mmmm, 14 seems to be the threshold for me too. Any louder and distortion/vibration kicks in. I'll look more closely into the panels - I suppose it could be these vibrating and not the speakers.

It is rather odd. I thought it may have been a duff recording but playing the same CD at home (CD or MP3) seems fine. There better not be something wrong because I've had it replaced once already!

This is what I'm hoping. I guess I'll just go down to my local auido dealer and see what they reckon. I haven't bought after market speakers before so I don't really know how much better they could be compared to what's already fitted.

...I suppose there's no way of telling until they've been fitted (and then if they just sound the same, it's all been a waste of time!)

Well it depends on how much money you want to throw at it. The door cards are an easy fix all you have to do is take them off & stick some sound proofing material, which you can get from any ICE retailer, to the back of them. The only other suggestion is to change the speakers. I'm putting in a 600w 4 channel amp in mine which is going to run a single 10" sub & some compnents in the front, the rears I'll run off the head unit.

Probably not as much as what your setup will cost - although I would love to hear what it would sound like!

What could I expect to pay for a 'decent' set of 4 speakers (front and rear)?

Componenets or coaxials?

Eh? Sorry, not that au fait!

Components are better quality & have built in crossovers & tweeters where as coaxials you have to buy passive crossovers as well. Coaxials are cheaper but you get a better sound from components.

Right-o, understood. Thanks for that. Components it is then!