Evening All,
I have been driving some newer cars recently and now I am back in the trusty Magna wagan. One big difference seems to be the audio sound.
I want to keep the original head unit and replace the front speakers with something that will just fit in and sound significantly better. The speakers in Repco all seem to be quoting much higher outputs that the original speakers. Would also consider replacing the rear door speakers too.
So if any people are keen to give advice on size and type of speaker happy to hear about it.
Thanks :happy:

I have a TL ES wagon. Sound improved dramatically when I replaced the head unit with a Pioneer. Possibly because the original unit is quite limited in the bass and treble boost capabilities, whereas most modern HUs have graphic equalizers built in to better tailor the sound to the car's acoustics and your listening preferences, as well as any frequency shortcomings in the speakers.
Found the same in my TJ sedan when I replaced the original head unit.
Both cars are fine with the new head units and the original speakers.

In short, I'd replace the head unit with something current, rather than blaming the speakers for dead sounding music.
Something with a 5 band equalizer that can do 12 dB boost and cut should do.

Max, it doesn't really even have anything to do with having a graphic or a parametric eq, sure if you know how to use them they are great, but in aftermarket units, the technology is just so much better, the dacs, mofsets etc just superior any why wouldn't they be they are 2012/2013 units not 2000. Firstly if you have an issue with the quality you can replace the speakers which would yeild better results over what you have now but at the end of the day in any car with a factory headunit, the headunit will be the bottle neck.

So if you really dont want to replace the headunit you can replace the front speakers with a quality set of 6.5" splits and give the door deadening treatment, adding a sub will give you more dynamics in the car but as for quality you will be limited.

Will you be running them off the headunit as opposed to an amp? If so Id recommend something with a sensitivity rating higher than the rest (92db does well) but something that you still like the sound of. Also if running them off the headunit sound deadening and service hole sealing will allow you to get more out of your splits with less power, quality and dynamics will also be noticeably better.

Id recommend like I said some splits I current preferences would be Morel Maximo 6, Crescendo Opus 1 or Herts ESK165 but they may or may not be with in your budget.

Thank you both for the response
I want to run them strait off the original head unit.
Morel 6.5″ Maximo Series Coaxial Speakers - $134 @ http://www.westsidecaraudio.com.au/ (They are in Perth though, I imagine I would be able to get some in Brisbane if I looked for more than 10 minutes on the net) I like the though of these as it is very quick. Could I build on these lator if I was to add an amp and tweeters? Unlikely I would ever do it though.
Morel 6.5″ Maximo Series 2-Way Component Speakers $190. Do the tweeters go easily enough in the dash? It the wiring there in the TL ES? And when you talk about door deadening treatment what do you mean. Should I spray the door with rust proofing? I have a tin of it in the shed. Do you mean replacing the plastic with heavier plastic and the black sticky stuff that holds it on?
Thanks again.

Two posts suggesting you start with a better headunit, and you still want to start with speakers?
Why are you ignoring good advice?

Anyhow . . . door deadening = dynamat. Google it.
No tweeter wiring in the doors or dash. You have to organise your own crossovers and wiring.

Ok firstly you would do much better using the components the downside the tweeter location and mounting the xovers, but xovers are easy if you are deadening the door, plus you will have less fun running the wiring for the components as opposed to the coaxils.

Im not sure about a TL ES, I dont really deal model specifically except for 3rd Gens, but can either hole saw your door trim and mount the tweeters in there, depending on what TL's are like you could use the dash or the sail panels. If you bought the coaxils no you will be best of not trying to add to them later.

And as for deadening im talking about adding mass to the skin behind and around the speaker, this removes resonances, helps tone done road noise, improves midrange, midbass and overall dynamics. For some people its not cheap or easy, but it yields great results.

Heres a little handy tutorial for deadening.
http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/article/tutorials/sound_deadening_your_vehicle/

Also have a look in this thread, there is info on make new speaker mounts, great DIY solution aswell, most people would do it after deadening as deadening yields the better results.
http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100269

If you dont mind dealing interstate still, Marty @ FHRX Studios, has a website and a shop, he is clearing some Morel Stuff out, if you tell him Luke/Pea and Ham from MEA referred you he might look after you, better yet if your a member of www.mobileelectronics.com.au he will defiantly help you out.

Two posts suggesting you start with a better headunit, and you still want to start with speakers?
Why are you ignoring good advice?
.

Original post by OP


I want to keep the original head unit and replace the front speakers with something that will just fit in and sound significantly better. We have explained that he wont great a vast improvement running the factory unit, but it seems like he might be hard to talk into replacing it, so ill do the best I can with the circumstances. I dont want to force someone into something they dont want to do, because thats well....rape.

The speakers in Repco all seem to be quoting much higher outputs that the original speakers.

Speakers don't quote outputs, they quote power handling - ie: how much power you can jam into them.

Typically saying, a 20W speaker will be louder on your headunit than a 200W speaker - because that 200W speaker needs a strong amplifier to make it produce maximum output, whereas the 20W speaker will be driven off the factory head unit reasonably well.

As peeandham said, look at speaker sensitivity - 92dB means that for 1W of input power, the speaker can supposedly produce a volume of 92dB measured 1m away, so you may see it described as 92dB/W/m or something.

Factory headunits might only produce about 10W of power, so a more sensitive speaker will produce more sound, hopefully clearly.

So if you are not going to replace the headunit and redo wiring, then don't buy speakers with big power ratings.

Morel appear to be a good brand for sound quality and you may get some improvement from them with the factory headunit, but like others have suggested, I wouldn't count on a big improvement.

Personally, I replaced the headunit and added a small subwoofer - huge improvement and now I enjoy music in my car much more.

Have fun!

Those Maximo Components look like they would fit in pretty well in the TW.
They would run off a head unit, and after market head unit. or an amp, so the are win column.

These would be fairly simple to install too.
Use the Factory wiring to the crossover, new wire the to the mid, and mount the tweeter up front on the door, on that little triangle...
Job Done...

That will sound heaps better than the factory speakers.
Considering the Premium Sound system in the magna family, got upgraded to the splits, its trying to tell you something.

I'd head and listen to the Pioneer sets now they have new models, I nearly got them, for the price of around 150.00, they sounded quite good. But I think the Morels a cut above..

I you want to get just a little fancier, see if the tweeter sits in Verada sail Pod. Its the speaker holder that is the mount for the Tweeter in the premium sound systems. They integrate beautifully.

The difference between the Coaxials and the splits, the splits will sound like the music comes from in front of you, instead down at your ankles. If you want to save dough, or reckon that's good, Stop there.
If you want to the absolute best out of them, Headunit Upgrade, Sound deadening, Baffles, every extra step you take, makes an improvement, so its just up to you where you think good enough is. I reckon the more you do, the harder it is make a noticeable improvement. Then you into the finest detail to make a tiny improvement in sound.

I love a good EQ, I run out of options Tuning with my old deck, So I went for one better, A better EQ. And Peaandhams has one of the best EQ decks in the business. Besides that, if you're into it, they are just plain fun, fitting in your set of splits, is a great way to see if you are actually into it. Or just want better speakers.

Thanks again for all the advice.

As peeandham said, look at speaker sensitivity - 92dB means that for 1W of input power, the speaker can supposedly produce a volume of 92dB measured 1m away, so you may see it described as 92dB/W/m or something.
The quote above is really helpful and gives me hope that at 10 watts I would get some reasonable sound.
I have never really spent money on this sort of stuff and fell I should before I get old and never do. I am keen to buy the Morel Maximo 6. I think I read they have a ratting of 91dB. So will start the looking for a place to buy in Brisbane or a trusted looking web site. A few (or was it just one) person suggested that I fit the Tweet er in the sail. I was wanting to fit the tweeters in the dash holes, as there are covers that just pop off.
I am taking on board all the suggestions of upgrading the head unit, but will put that off and see how much better we can make it while keeping the genuine look and feel. New head units seem all to complicated and take to long to get back to AM :happy:

You can make the tweeters fit in the holes in the dash no worries, just depending on what mounting gear they provide you, you may need to get a little creative, but its nothing hot glue, or epoxy putty cannot fix. Also if you can get a listen to some Hertz ESK165's, the Morels have better low end by their midrange might get a little "blurry" nothing too serious to really worry about, the Hertz have better midrange but not as good low end extension, but they also have a sensitivity rating of 93db.

Like I said you can email FHRX Studios, or even Carbon car systems, these guys are both in NSW and will be able to help you out.

I just wanted to report back on the speaker installation.
The end result is fantastic. The getting there was the fun / learnt lots bit.
My wife found out that I was going to spend some 'real' money on new speaker and it caused quite a bit of tension. I agreed to sell some stuff we were not using any more and all was well (I was even able to raise more money than expected, but it did take two weeks.
Complete Car Sound (Brisbane) had a great range of speakers all ready to listen too. The prices seemed very good too. The Pioneers did sound very good ($140ish) and I could not really pick the difference between them and speakers costing $100 more. There were no Morel's ready to listen to, but as they were recommended so highly here and other places on the net I paid the extra $20 ($160). With some of the extra money I also bought a pair of 6 X 9's for the rear door $100 for Clarion's.
In the front doors I did some door deading, cutting our templates to fill the bigger holes and covering other hold with a few layers of duct tape.
Fitting a splitter for the first time was a bit of a trick. I wanted to keep a really clean fitment, no wires hanging anywhere. I ended up putting the splitters in the vehicle and using the original speaker wiring that goes from inside the vehicle to the inside of the door. As this all seemed to take a LOT longer that I had planned, I fitted the left from speaker one weekend and the right front and rear speakers the weekend after. After fitting the right front I had a wirrrrrring noise that changed with engine revs from the tweeter. Inspecting my less than perfect job the next day, the tweeter wire was looped around the splitter and I also moved the splitter away from all the computer and fuse box area near the Right front kick panel.
The sort of music I prefer is Eric Clapton, Weddings Partys Anything and a band called the Waffs. I did a little test before and after. Hopefully one day soon I will upload to u-tube.
The volume I get from the standard head set is really good. Before at level 20 there was noticeable distortion. Now I can go to 30 and feel it, and see it shake the back window. No distortion.
So thank for all the good advice peaandham and everybody else. Really happy.

Excellent good to hear you are happy :)