After market speakers in Astra J

[Rouxenator]

Those of you new here might not know that I have been along time Opel fan, more so the Astra than the Corsa.

More than a decade I ago I upgraded the head unit on my Astra G (my first Opel) and recent I boughtly my 5th Opel (3rd Astra) after a lovely and rather costly 3 years with my luxurious Peugeot 407. I managed to tick most of the feature tick boxes with the Astra J Cosmo that I bought. Heated leather seats, more power, lots of boot space. For the most part it was a good upgrade - except for the sound. Few cars can match the JBL premium 8.1 sound you get in a 407 - so I need to make amends.

I already bought adapter rings to go from stock 5.25" speakers to 6.5" units in the front and rear doors. My plan is to follow the door section of this guide and restore at least some of the JBL goodness I am used to.

For the fun of it I'll keep ya'll posted as this progresses.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Don't forget vibration and sound dampening. Now is the perfect time for it while you're in there.

 

[Rouxenator]

It needs that desperately, the road noise in this car - despite it being top spec for the range - is pale in comparison to the 407. However I am not sure if I'll be up for that job, hoping the speakers will drown out the road noise.

The past 3 years really has spoiled me in terms of sound fidelity. Not that I'm an audio snob, I use Skull Candy headphones, but the muddy midrange at volume in the new car is awful.

 

[Gtx Gaming]

5000watt monoblock? will make your car sound straight out of parow!

 

[WesleyDB]

Don't forget vibration and sound dampening. Now is the perfect time for it while you're in there.

Couldn't agree more, it's a fairly simple thing that can take your sound installation to another level. Definitely worth the extra time to do it.

 

[airborne]

6x9's on the parcel shelf and done

 

[hj2k_x]

How's this project coming along, OP?

8.1 sound in the Peugeot? Impressive! You're surely going to find that hard to replicate...

 

[Rouxenator]

With our dreadful postal service I am still waiting for the adaptor rings...

 

[6spdmanual]

With our dreadful postal service I am still waiting for the adaptor rings...

Any updates?

 

[Gtx Gaming]

With our dreadful postal service I am still waiting for the adaptor rings...

Post office, so he should have early 2022

 

[Rouxenator]

My bad, came in just before my Post Office in Die Boord closed for good. Each bag has 2 adapter rings. I plan to keep/sell the extra 2.



My next buy is this, want to get 4 in total : Kicker 6.5" Coaxial Speakers with 1.5" 13mm Tweeters 4-Ohm | Buy Online in South Africa | takealot.com

I am not going to do it myself though, I plan to have it done when I service the car in April seeing as they do auto electrical as well and I don't want to damage door cards or clips.

Any suggestions for better 6.5" speakers will be appreciated.

 

[PhireSide]

Subbed. It isn't an Astra unless it goes doef doef down the road

 

[Rouxenator]

Subbed. It isn't an Astra unless it goes doef doef down the road

Fully agree! Hope it can go some way to get to the JBL sound I had in my 407.

 

[Rouxenator]

Those Kicker's sound a way better than these plastic fantastic Chinese GM parts. The car went in for a service and I asked them to fit the speakers.

I have much clearer mid-range sound now, closed the gap to what I was used to with my 8.1 JBL setup in the old 407. I also changed the equaliser from Rock to Off - so all frequencies have the same emphasis.

Strange enough on the volume dial these are way louder than the old ones, but distort at the same point. So that must be the head unit's built in amplifier then., but I am not pouring more money into this, these speakers did the trick.

 

[nazmo]

I miss nice ICE. i went to get a quote on a rockford build and put it on ice lol.

 

[Rouxenator]

I miss nice ICE. i went to get a quote on a rockford build and put it on ice lol.

I had pretty good ICE in my 407 coupe as it packed a factory amp and sub.

Considering I am keeping the stock head unit and merely upgrading the speakers the outcome is better than expected.

The extra loudness is a bonus, what I do enjoy most is the clearer sound and far less muddy midrange.

 

[nazmo]

I had pretty good ICE in my 407 coupe as it packed a factory amp and sub.

Considering I am keeping the stock head unit and merely upgrading the speakers the outcome is better than expected.

The extra loudness is a bonus, what I do enjoy most is the clearer sound and far less muddy midrange.

The issue is modern cars. I was fairly happy with my polo gti's sound. but my Renault RS has horrible speakers. Now the Infotainment cant be changed, so i would need to probably source audio from the speaker out, get the relevant connections, amp for speakers and a small sub. then the rattles, will have to double up on speaker surround damping

 

[Rouxenator]

I was pretty lucky as GM uses the same MO on all their cars. Actually going back to my Corsa Lite not much changed. They fit factory made plastic 5.25" speakers to their cars and their is a booming after market for adaptor rings allowing you to fit far superior speakers to the cars. That is pretty much exactly the route I followed here.

Perhaps both your VW and Renault have sufficient output on the built in amp and all you need is decent speakers? Then again both those are pretty high end cars and I would expect some level of premium OEM sound. Going beyond that will be a real challenge.