[evy0311]

I know this has been discussed before and there hasn’t ever been a definitive answer: can I swap the speakers from the premium sound system with something newer?

Back story: my s40 with premium sound has two blown speakers in the rear. I disconnected them so currently just have what’s up front including the center dash speaker.

I’d love to do a nice upgrade all the way around and replace what’s in the doors. I know our cars have a weird ohm rating (I think it’s like 2 ohms) so not sure how that would play out considering most of what’s on the market is 4 or so.

Has anyone done this? I know it won’t be plug and play and I know I could just find a used speaker to replace the rears, but I’m looking to upgrade! I want to keep the factory amp if possible so I can keep the center dash speaker.

Hit me with it! I’m on a bit of a budget but don’t have to go for what’s cheapest either. Again, mainly just looking to replace what’s in the doors. Thanks!


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[evy0311]

I’m considering these for both the front and rear doors: JBL 601CF

Impedance is 3ohm, not far off from the factory spec. Would there be any issue in that?


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[AutoGeek]

Yes you can swap them for after market speakers. The hard part is finding tweeters to fit the front doors in the original locations.

For the 6.5" woofer brackets are attached to the inner door panel with aluminum rivets. You can drill out the rivets easily and reattach with nuts and bolts. The actual speaker can be removed from the woofer bracket. They are either attached by small screws or they are a bayonet mount and glued. The rubbery glue is a little tough to remove. Once the glue is removed, twist the speaker to release from the bracket. You will need to remount the bracket to the inner door panel with nuts and bolts before attaching the new speaker. Or I guess you could use pop rivets. Then attach the wires and mount the speakers to the brackets.

 

[evy0311]

Yes you can swap them for after market speakers. The hard part is finding tweeters to fit the front doors in the original locations.

For the 6.5" woofer brackets are attached to the inner door panel with aluminum rivets. You can drill out the rivets easily and reattach with nuts and bolts. The actual speaker can be removed from the woofer bracket. They are either attached by small screws or they are a bayonet mount and glued. The rubbery glue is a little tough to remove. Once the glue is removed, twist the speaker to release from the bracket. You will need to remount the bracket to the inner door panel with nuts and bolts before attaching the new speaker. Or I guess you could use pop rivets. Then attach the wires and mount the speakers to the brackets.

Perfect!

I actually replaced the drivers side speaker with one from a junk yard a while ago, but am looking to just replace all of them now. I do appreciate the help!


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[bbrages]

Those JBLs should fit fine. I have the GX JBL components in the front of my car. I have the basic sound system, not premium.

Mounting the tweeter will be a bit tricky -- I broke the old tweeter out and hot glued my tweeter in its spot.

The JBL crossovers are just passing through everything to the woofer - no low-pass filter - so I only installed them on the tweeter circuit. Your crossover may be different, but I doubt it.

For my rear speakers, I just put in some cheap coax that came in a head unit bundle.

I used pop rivets to hold my speaker frames in...

 

[bbrages]

Here is the thread with my pictures: Tell me about your speaker upgrade

 

[evy0311]

Awesome! Great thread and very helpful.

Do you see any possible issues with me using the speakers with the stock amp? Atleast for now I don’t want to replace the factory premium amp and run new speaker wire, so just curious if I could get by with it for now.


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[R7urnm]

I also think jbl is a good choice.

 

[bbrages]

Awesome! Great thread and very helpful.

Do you see any possible issues with me using the speakers with the stock amp? Atleast for now I don’t want to replace the factory premium amp and run new speaker wire, so just curious if I could get by with it for now.


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I just use mine with the stock amp. I have the most base of the sound systems, no external amp even. I believe the JBLs are a bit lower than stock impedance, so they draw more power. But in my experience, it's not enough to fry the amp or anything. Now I don't blast it into distortion, either.

One of the problems - I think - is that I believe there is some kind of EQ built into the stock system. The stock system didn't have much highs, but when I put in the JBLs, I ended up with a lot more treble than I care for. I have the tweeter crossover set to -3dB, and I still turn down the treble control a bit.

The JBL set I put in - along with the JusTech bluetooth dongle - took my base model system from horrendous to not bad. I'm satisfied.

Another story - I had a Ford Fusion (2013) and the foam had rotted out of the front speakers and was making them buzz. I found some cheap open box JBL GX (same as in my Volvo) and put them in place of the Fusion woofers. I kept the stock tweeters because they were decent (silk domes kind of like the premium tweets for Volvos). The JBLs, being low impedance, were a lot more efficient than the tweeters and so I had to turn the bass down in that car. It was my kid's car though, and I think he liked the bass, lol.

 

[AutoGeek]

I am not sure which Premium amp you have but they aren't too bad for factory. My car came with the crap-o-la Performance sound and I have used a pre-face lift Premium amp and the post-face lift DynAudio. They are plug-and-play. I also installed the DynAudio speakers (not the center though). The Performance amp is rated 25W/ch. The High Performance is rated 40W / ch. The Premium amp is rated 70W / ch + 25W center. The DynAudio (and believe the post-face lift Premium) is a Class-D amp and rated 130W / ch into all 5 channels.

Based on personal experience, the 70W / ch Premium amp is a huge improvement over the Performance amp in both loudness and sound quality. The DynAudo amp is quite a bit louder than the 70W Premium amp but I find the sound quality not as good. I think this comes down to the implementation of the Class-D amp. It sounds more harsh (grainy) to my ears. I ended up switching back to the Premium amp even though the loudness of the DynAudio amp was a lot of fun.

Something to note is that it isn't so much high power that blows speakers. More often it is too little power which makes the listener want to crank the volume up and push the amp into clipping. It is the clipping that kills speakers. These amps, even the crappy Performance amp, have protection built in to prevent clipping.

 

[evy0311]

I just use mine with the stock amp. I have the most base of the sound systems, no external amp even. I believe the JBLs are a bit lower than stock impedance, so they draw more power. But in my experience, it's not enough to fry the amp or anything. Now I don't blast it into distortion, either.

One of the problems - I think - is that I believe there is some kind of EQ built into the stock system. The stock system didn't have much highs, but when I put in the JBLs, I ended up with a lot more treble than I care for. I have the tweeter crossover set to -3dB, and I still turn down the treble control a bit.

The JBL set I put in - along with the JusTech bluetooth dongle - took my base model system from horrendous to not bad. I'm satisfied.

Another story - I had a Ford Fusion (2013) and the foam had rotted out of the front speakers and was making them buzz. I found some cheap open box JBL GX (same as in my Volvo) and put them in place of the Fusion woofers. I kept the stock tweeters because they were decent (silk domes kind of like the premium tweets for Volvos). The JBLs, being low impedance, were a lot more efficient than the tweeters and so I had to turn the bass down in that car. It was my kid's car though, and I think he liked the bass, lol.

Thankfully the premium system has the hidden EQ which would allow me to tune these to my liking.

I might order the ones I sent this weekend from crutchfield and then will post my thoughts!


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[evy0311]

I am not sure which Premium amp you have but they aren't too bad for factory. My car came with the crap-o-la Performance sound and I have used a pre-face lift Premium amp and the post-face lift DynAudio. They are plug-and-play. I also installed the DynAudio speakers (not the center though). The Performance amp is rated 25W/ch. The High Performance is rated 40W / ch. The Premium amp is rated 70W / ch + 25W center. The DynAudio (and believe the post-face lift Premium) is a Class-D amp and rated 130W / ch into all 5 channels.

Based on personal experience, the 70W / ch Premium amp is a huge improvement over the Performance amp in both loudness and sound quality. The DynAudo amp is quite a bit louder than the 70W Premium amp but I find the sound quality not as good. I think this comes down to the implementation of the Class-D amp. It sounds more harsh (grainy) to my ears. I ended up switching back to the Premium amp even though the loudness of the DynAudio amp was a lot of fun.

Something to note is that it isn't so much high power that blows speakers. More often it is too little power which makes the listener want to crank the volume up and push the amp into clipping. It is the clipping that kills speakers. These amps, even the crappy Performance amp, have protection built in to prevent clipping.

I have the factory premium system with center speaker and amp in the trunk. It sounds amazing, but two of the rear speakers are totally blown, so I’ve disconnected them.

My goal here is to replace all of the door speakers with something newer. Not necessarily to improve sound, but to just replace what’s there. I could find used speakers, but could run into the same issue with them blowing again.

Interesting about the clipping protection, I’m glad to hear that. Makes me feel a lot better about dumping money into these!


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[evy0311]

Actually, after looking, the JBLs I sent are 50w RMS and the amp I have is 70 watts per channel. I imagine I would want something closer to 70 watts RMS to help with loudness, no? Or should the ones I sent work fine?


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[bbrages]

You could get the gx608 (70W) or gto609 (90W).

I'm not sure about how real speaker power ratings are, though. It probably depends on how loud you play em and how much bass you're blasting.

 

[evy0311]

You could get the gx608 (70W) or gto609 (90W).

I'm not sure about how real speaker power ratings are, though. It probably depends on how loud you play em and how much bass you're blasting.

I have a subwoofer so thankfully can turn the bass on these down a bit to push highs and what not more. I’ll checkout the ones you sent! Thank you


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[AutoGeek]

Actually, after looking, the JBLs I sent are 50w RMS and the amp I have is 70 watts per channel. I imagine I would want something closer to 70 watts RMS to help with loudness, no? Or should the ones I sent work fine?


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The speaker power rating has nothing to do with how loud they will play. That would be the SPL rating. The speaker wattage rating is how much amplifier power they can handle. In the amplifier can supply 70W RMS power then your speakers should be rated 70W or higher. However, as I said earlier, it is most often driving an amplifier into clipping that damages speakers. The 50W speakers would probably work ok if not driving them hard very often but it is not ideal. You would be better off with a higher power rated speaker.