I've done a few upgrades to my TL's tunez, and had very good results....

The stock sub was replaced with an old skool Cerwin Vega 12" in a ported enclosure, powered by a bridged MTX amp running about 300w RMS. All this made possible by navone LOC. This certainly improved the bottom end.

I also replaced the stock tweeters with Infinity 1011t. This improved the highs and imaging quite a bit. I was worth every bit of the 50 bones I spent on them.

Now the quandry.....I want to replace the center channel with something that has more volume/presense. I know that by design, the center channel doesn't have much content (which is truely surprising...because in home theater, center has TONS of volume/content)...I was thinking of going with the Infinity 3012cf, to keep the timbre matched accross the front. But while I was looking at Infinity 3 1/2" speakers, I ran accross the Infinity 32.7cf, which has an impedance of 2 ohms! So effectively, if the stock amp can handle the 2 ohm load (and I would think that it can, seeing that the door/rear decks are 2 ohms), I can get a 3 db gain in volume!

So my question is (and yes, I've used the "search" button), has anyone used the 32.7cf in the center? If so, how did it do? If not, would the stock amp handle the load? I can always use the 3012cf, but the 3db gain has my interest peaked!


Enter comments below, and TIA.



JAP

 

Hi MadJap, welcome to the forums and thanks for searching.

I have edited your original post and erased your sentence about your interest in a sale. If you are serious about selling anything on the forums, please create a post here: Private Sales & Trades. Thanks!

BTW, sorry I couldn't answer your questions.

 

So those Infinity tweeters made a big difference huh? What made you decide to install the 1011t's?

Your interest in the center channel made me go out and test the sound quality of the stock center. My conclusion is that it is pretty poor sounding compared to aftermarket coaxials. It sounds just as flat as the stock tweeters did before I changed mine out. You don't really notice this until you can do an A/B comparison.

I just went out to the garage and found an old tweeter that I wired up to the center channel speaker wires in parallel which should give a 2ohm load even though the tweeter isn't using much of the amp's power. I faded the radio to the rear speakers one notch before the center channel would automatically turn off. I turned off the sub and turned up the center channel volume. I cranked out a few songs on DVD-A and tested the added center tweeter which faced upward towards the windshield to reflect the sound at the passengers. I compared the sound with and without the tweeter by covering and uncovering the tweeter only with my hand. The stock center speaker is funtioning the whole time. The sound clarity and timbre covered and uncovered is like night and day just as it was when I compared the stock tweeters with my Infinity tweeters. I noticed that you can really hear a difference in vocals at lower volume levels. (50% volume and below) The singers voice is clear as if they were live in front of you and not like they are singing under the bed sheets.

I also ran through a few songs with the center volume at max and the main volume at around maximum. The amp didn't quit and I didn't smell any burning. My guess is that the 2ohm Infinity will probably work but make the amp run a little hotter especially if you keep the center channel volume up near max.

Changing out the center with any speaker having a tweeter will probably give you the added volume and presence you're looking for even if it's 4ohms.

Now you've got me shopping for a new center speaker too. Thank a lot! Hmm, I wonder if I should go with the 2ohm speaker too.

Here are some shots during the very scientific testing stages.

 

Believe it or not, I managed to fit one of these:



into the center channel location. It was not easy, but it means that the center channel has a 5.25" speaker which is almost perfectly balanced with the 6.5" speakers in the door.

Problem is, I haven't fully tested it yet because I was waiting on a defective crossover for one of my front-channel speakers. I got it yesterday, so I'll be putting my system through the paces this weekend.

 

Crook, good stuff. I guess you couldn't sleep?
I chose the 1011t to replace the factory tweets after reading your post about them. You were dead on. They work great.

Zax, how in the heck did you get those things to mount? I'm sure 5 1/4" would kick the $hit out of any 3 1/2" speaker, but I didn't want to have to do any heavy fabricating to make that happen....I'd consider maybe a 4".

 

Well, it was tricky, I'll admit, but what I did was...

First I cut up the spacers that came in the XR525 box so that I had small pieces of plastic with the hole in them. I super-glued those in the four corners of the XR525. This made a spacer so the speaker didn't touch the dash when mounted it in there.

I got it into the dash by removing the HVAC display and vents. I used a screw in two of the corners of the speaker where the dash was thick enough to screw into and for the other two corners I used... wait for it... wire ties! The speaker is very firmly anchored in there and can't budge.

I then surrounded the space created between the speaker and the dash with the "acoustic" foam the speakers came packaged in. The grill I haven't modified yet, but I will basically cut the whole thing open and put my own grill material over it since the factory grill only has a cutout for a 3" speaker.

That's about it, I'm sure it's going to sound amazing. Only thing is, I got the speakers SUPER cheap because there were no crossovers in the box so I ended up finding some JBL crossovers cheap, but I have a feeling they won't do as good a job as the JL crossovers. So if anyone has a 2-way JL crossover to sell, lemme know.

 

I just bit the bullet and ordered a pair of 32.7cf. I will report back once they are installed, and present my impressions.

 

Got the Infinity 32.7cf speaker installed in the center today. What a big difference.

Aside from getting more volume (95 db/w/m, and 2 ohm impedance), the soundstage across the front is now much more balanced, since the center now matches the dash tweeters (Infinity 1011t). I found that the center now only needed the "+1" setting to balance out the fronts, whereas before the Infinity upgrade, I usually had it +5 or +6 and still couldn't hear it very well.

The stock amp seems to handle the low impedance fine. It didn't even break a sweat.

I sat in my driveway for about 30 minutes listening to Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily DVD-A....sounded like she was sitting right in front of me.

I strongly recommend this upgrade.

I will be listing the "spare" 32.7cf in the FS section, if someone wants it.


JAP

 

hey guys do those grills just pry out? Any tips on how to pry them out without any scratch or damaging/breaking the clips? Would love to get the kappas...had kappas all around in my previous car and they sound so precise...

 

The tweeters in the dash pop right out with a little screwdriver.

The center channel is clipped into the dash. The two strongest clips are on the sides...get one loose and then pull straight up to pop the other one.

 

Hey, just wondering, for the tweeters (1011t), are they a direct replacement? Did you have to wire them a certain way, or buy a seperate crossover? Or does the factory amp already have a built in x-over?

As well as the center channel speaker. Did you need to wire it a certain way or modify anything?

Just to make sure, this is all with the stock stereo system correct?

Thanks!

 

I'm upgrading my center channel this week. Going a little extreme. Adding a Zapco DC200.1 amp to power the front channel that will have a Zapco CM 8.100 4'' midrange and a Zapco KM 8.50 2'' Tweeter. The additional tweeter is going to fit (somehow) behind the air vents above the Navi. It is going in Weds. or Thurs....I'll post pics and a review when done.

 

I'll probably going with CDT 1" silk dome speakers for the dash, and a CDT 4" coax unit for the center. I'll post some pics and reviews once I get them in.

 

Did you ever sell the other center channel speaker? If you still have it, then I am def. interested. Please le t me know.

 

Damn... talk about thread resurrection ....

I seriously doubt that speaker is still available...

 

That thing is long gone. It is living a happy life somewhere in North Central Florida.



JAP

 

Yeah that thing is still sounding great too, Thanks MadJap.