Vibe Powerpack + Phoenix Gold SX65CS

[onobeka]

Hey Guys, look what I just received for my birthday!
I have no idea how these speakers sound and they are not too popular either. The shop recommended them as very good quality and excellent performer. Normally I do not bite a bullet that easy, but I took my chances. They've also recommended this micro-amp, which I've already installed to test on the stock speakers. Even in the lowest gain, the improvement is dramatic. I definitely installing a micro-amp before upgrading speakers. I always took the other way around path, first speakers then amp. This time, the opposite, and what a difference.
Even at max volume, the stock speakers are not distorting too much, which means that the little amp produces very clean signals (which I was aware of before purchasing), opposite to the little amp the car has, which already at 3/4 max volume made the speakers distort heavily.

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[TremorOwner]

I've installed amps on factory speakers for customers on a budget and 100% of the time the customer was happy. Base factory radios put out like... 10 watts at best. Uncontrolled mush.

Phoenix Gold was the brand back in the day. It's since fallen from favor but they're still good.

These days I tend to prefer AudioFrog stuff, despite the stupid name.

Back in the Phoenix Gold days I was an Image Dynamics fan, instead. ID is overshadowed now, too.

 

[onobeka]

Thank you TremorOwner, your words bring me confidence.
I wanted to go for Focal, but the shop guy said these are way better in every aspect. I mostly listen to good metal bands but about all genres of music of the non top commercial stuff.
I hope I can do without a sub with this setup.

 

[TremorOwner]

I rarely like Focal speakers (particularly the metal tweeters) except for their much higher end stuff... and at that point, I find I can spend much less money on other brands or even raw speakers.

Just install them properly. Speakers need to be mounted to a high-mass baffle to sound the best. You get your midbass from the speaker being mounted to something closer to granite than the chinsy plastic that you get with speaker mounting adapters. To mitigate, you need Dynamat or similar. And the speaker needs to be as close to the door panel grill as possible, the rest of the space bridged by foam to ensure as much sound as you can get comes straight out and doesn't end up reverberating inside of the door panel first. That's where you get your vocal clarity.

The tweeter... well that'll go in the oddly huge tweeter pods these trucks have. I'd prefer to open up the grill of the tweeter, though. Same for the speakers on the door. Those grills are restrictive.

 

[onobeka]

Thank you for the very good advices! I appreciate them a lot!


I will fire up my CNC to make MDF baffles. The doors have already been mass loaded 1y ago. They are rock solid. I did not use dynamat, yet three layers of roofing material. Yes, it’s tar based, there is absolutely no smell and they are perfectly glued. I know about the butyl stuff, yet I found nothing wrong with the tar foil. Currently I have no sound absorbing material though.

I am going for a premium install, but with a stock look. Cutting the grilles is something I am declining for now …

The loom is already prepared with Tesa 150C resistant felt tape.

 

[TremorOwner]

I never install sound absorbing material unless someone is competing. It's a car...

 

[onobeka]

The factory tweeters seem to be very well made, yet the mids are definitely on the cheap side.

The crossovers seem on the cheap side, i would have expected some toroidal air coils at this price range, but at least it’s more than a capacitor like in case of many similar price ranged speakers like Rockford Fosgate or Focal ISUs.

 

[onobeka]

These doors have about one spot to host a medium sized crossover. A big one would have to be placed either inside the door or somewhere in the cabin.

I’ve compared the sound of one finished door with the stock components. The clarity, separation and dynamics are amazing!!! The stock speakers seem to produce more bass, or it could be due to the muddy sound they produce. I will measure a sweep soon, before I install the other side.

 

[onobeka]

Smoke test …

 

[onobeka]

Today I finished my front speakers installation. I've promised to measure a sweep, which I did and compare the factory speakers with the Phoenix gold ones, both powered by the Vibe amp and the factory HU (nothing from the factory dsp was disabled).

The stock speakers seem to pick up (slightly) from 55Hz but the sound is muddy until 60Hz, while the Phoenix Gold, surprisingly start to be clean from 37Hz (low output, but decently audible) and up to volume from about 42Hz. A 20Hz improvement may not seem much it's actually HUGE in the low end. Speaker builders hunt for an extra 3Hz at huge expenses, by using ports, band passes or placing absorbing material in horns or voigt enclosures with full range speakers.

The tweeters are bright yet not too bright, although I've let them at the +2dB crossover setting.

There seems to be decent bass output from the rear stock speakers.
To the front, I've let the Vibe amp output 90% of full amplification, while 100% could be done (65W) without any distortion at max Sync3 output. To the rear I could not go over 60%.
Anyway, I am keeping my sound stage at 70% front.

As a future upgrade, I think to only add mid basses cut at 3kHz in the rear doors, if I decide that I need extra bass, no tweeters and NO sub.

The door design is a big issue on the Ranger. The holes are huge and they cannot be covered without modifying the door panel easily. I kind of miss the doors of the Skoda Fabia 1, which had a metal sheet completely covering the door and window mechanism. You get huge door pockets though, which is a plus.

This is how a Skoda Fabia door looks like on the inside ... for reference, almost a sealed box.

 

[onobeka]

If anyone is interested I can share the gcode for the CNC cutout of the baffles. They are not perfect, but perfectly working .

 

[onobeka]

I’ve flattened the EQ settings with Forscan … hello bass!!! My factory setting was 7, not sure what it means but setting it to 0 made a huge improvement.

 

[onobeka]

I’ve said no sub … here I am preparing for a sub. Thanks to @Dr. Zaius and an old post of his quoting another member (I forgot the name, but I will mention it later hopefully…) … pictures of behind the B pillar driver’s side. Speaker wires are: white/green + brown/yellow. The thick gray/blue is a switched 12v.

 

[onobeka]

I realize I did not post pictures of the sub install in my thread. For completeness I add them here as well (even if I did already on other threads).

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