[Michtomoulot]

Hello everyone !

I have a vw E-up. It's got ok speakers but I would like to know if anyone has upgraded them for some better ones. I don't want to change the radio neither do I want to add an extra amplifier. I just want to change the speakers.

I have read that the focal is 165 vw and ic 165 vw do a decent job. Does anyone have an opinion?

 

[freemansteve]

Nobody can really say - trying out some speakers is pretty much totally subjective! I would think however, almost anything is better than stock which probably cost VW about €2 each.

The Focals are however a German brand, I think (albeit probably made in China), so my instinct would be to try those first.... Your problems with any speakers that fit an Up! are a) they are small and inherently have little bass; b) doors are a terrible place for speakers to work in, having poor baffles/damping; c) cars are not a great listening environment....

No need to change the amp for any audio reasons - they all use various Class-D power amp chips these days, which are all good enough....

 

[Michtomoulot]

A pair of Focals are tempting. I have spotted 2 IS 165 on the net for 80€.
Should I pull the trigger?

 

[911ts3]

Only you can decide.........

 

[freemansteve]

Why not? €80 is worth it for a bit of fun - less than a tank of fuel!

 

[tsi17]

Focal is French and has an excellent reputation. The focal speakers quoted are rated at 2 ohm and seem to have a high sensitivity, so they should be easy to drive and go louder than the factory speakers even using the weak factory head unit amplifier.

I used Eton speakers which I'm very happy with, but I would expect the focal ones to sound good also.

 

[TomRZZ]

Hello everyone !

I have a vw E-up. It's got ok speakers but I would like to know if anyone has upgraded them for some better ones. I don't want to change the radio neither do I want to add an extra amplifier. I just want to change the speakers.

I have read that the focal is 165 vw and ic 165 vw do a decent job. Does anyone have an opinion?

🤚 I've got the Focal setup (both kits) and it's sounds great. I was planning to add a sub but the highs and lows are so good I'm not sure I need to. However, they're connected to a Sony Headunit so my experience will likely differ from yours.

What I would say is Focal designed them as a plug and play upgrade to the standard system. So logically they wouldn't go to the trouble unless it was a genuine upgrade right?

T

 

[Michtomoulot]

I'm more and more tempted! errr ...... 😏

What I would say is Focal designed them as a plug and play upgrade to the standard syste

Did you install them yourself? Was it that easy? Did you install the tweeters too?

 

[freemansteve]

Focal is French and has an excellent reputation

Ah yes, I was thinking of "Eton" speakers which are a German brand. Focal of course, also make "proper hifi speakers" for home use, so they should know a thing or two.

 

[tsi17]

Yeah, have never used their components but am running a focal subwoofer in one of the ups, and it's a thing of beauty.

 

[tsi17]

I'm more and more tempted! errr ...... 😏



Did you install them yourself? Was it that easy? Did you install the tweeters too?

This question also to Tom: what kind of crossover do they have ? If it's just a high pass filter inline with the tweeter, that makes installation much easier than if you had one crossover outputting to both woofer and tweeter.

 

[TomRZZ]

I'm more and more tempted! errr ...... 😏
Did you install them yourself? Was it that easy? Did you install the tweeters too?

Yep installed them myself and it's reasonably straight forward.
You need a 5mm drill because the oem speakers are riveted in place and then a rivet gun to do the same with the new speakers.
I'd also recommend getting some dyna mat or similar and sound proofing the doors whilst the door cards are off.
They come with the correct surrounds and just plug into the oem plug that's there. You're literally just swapping out speakers.
The oem tweeters are sonic welded (glued) in so need to be cut out with a stanley knife, then the new ones are glue gunned in place, really simple.

Before starting, go on ebay and buy a pack of vw door card clips. As gentle as you want to be getting the door cards off, you'll likely snap a couple and having them handy just removes some of the stress.

This question also to Tom: what kind of crossover do they have ? If it's just a high pass filter inline with the tweeter, that makes installation much easier than if you had one crossover outputting to both woofer and tweeter.

To be honest I'm not entirely sure what a crossover is but a quick Google says the front components have "inline 2 way" and the rear coaxial are also inline? If that helps...

Again, you're not doing anything major with this kit. It just swaps out the OEM speakers for better, more capable ones. I assume it might not even sound any different if you're using the oem headunit/amplification?

 

[TomRZZ]

If you search the forum for upgrading audio or speaker install there's a good walk through on drilling out the oem and cutting the tweeters out. It's not as drastic as it sounds.

 

[kristianvanek]

I've just put focal ps165sf in the front doors and rcx165 in the rear of mine with a psb200 in the back. All running off a jl rd 900/5 5 channel amp.

All sounds great cause I've sound deaden most of the car.

If you looking for a great sound system you will need to run some sort of signal processor if you want to keep the original head unit. Otherwise you can get a single din or double din conversion to run an aftermarket unit. I've just don't think double set up with a pioneer unit with Android auto.

 

[Michtomoulot]

Thank you Kristianvanek

However my plan was to keep the original radio.

 

[freemansteve]

Thank you Kristianvanek

However my plan was keep the original radio.

Unless you want "louder" or new features, the stock head and amp is fine. It's the stock speakers that are a bit cheap...

 

[kristianvanek]

The issue is they match speaker power with stock head unit output power.

The stock unit may only be 15watt and the speaker will only be 15watt. So if you buy new 50watt speakers you will be massively under powering them and may find that you regrets spending the money and time on them.

I've known heap of people to do this and they don't gain any benefits over stock.

 

[freemansteve]

Not quite true.
In fact, it all comes down to speaker sensitivity (basically dBs per watt). Two speakers with similar sensitivity and impedance will sound similarly loud on the same amp, irrespective of whether one of them can handle a lot more power than the other. It comes down to the efficiency of magnets and coils, heat dissipation and the quality of cone and cone surround materials. Having said that, you will find some speakers claiming to be able to use very high power inputs, but which make no claims about distortion levels at high power - the high power claim can just be about them not blowing out rather than sound quality.

I'd go for well-known brands and speakers with similar impedance and sensitivity (assuming we know what the stock ones have!) I'd be surprised if any offered as upgrades were not better than stock!

 

[tsi17]

Pretty much what Steve said. And the Focal ones mentioned by the OP are, as I said, stated to be 2 ohm and that alone makes me think they're specifically designed to sound good and go loud on factory power. Same as the Eton ones I've installed, which sound better on factory power than some much more expensive speakers I've had lying around.

 

[freemansteve]

I don't know what the output impedance of the head unit is, but for maximum power transfer, output impedance should be the same as speaker impedance*.

A speaker with too low impedance may cause the amp to distort more easily, but I would assume if a manufacturer like Focal claims that certain speakers are actually upgrades for stock speakers, they will have taken the amp impedance into account.

* if you want to get nerdy, the term impedance is a vector quantity (magnitude and phase), but what people really mean and care about is speaker and amp output resistance (a scalar quantity). When you get into looking at true amp and speaker impedances, the phase issues, and therefore audio quality results, are formidable to work out! Often a good reason for having modern Class-D amps.