Upgrade the speakers

[Danmason]

How can I upgrade the speakers in my tesla v3.    The stock speakers are absolutely terrible.

[Tawpie]

I believe the most sure-fire upgrade route is to get a bluetooth speaker you can clip to your pack... JBLs are popular but there are a bazillion options. The problem with wheel speakers is that they usually fire to the side or front or back... not up. So you can't hear them. And when you add wind noise, no chance. They're also tiny and as cheap as can be found, so their audio performance is "transistor radio on full blast 5 feet away"...

I'd bet money the audio amp can't do much even if you did have a higher quality speaker.

Edited December 21, 2021 by Tawpie

[Guest]

On a wheel a loudspeaker placed on it would face the sky to be heard, but it would receive rain, mud and shocks.
I have a JBL strapped under my backpack, it's an outdoor disco club, only in the countryside. It's dangerous in town, the reason for assault under a building I risk taking a slipper over my head, I would wake up too many people.

[Paul A]

Could use velcro tape to attach/remove upward facing JBL as required.

JBL's are highly water resistant.

 

[Breadsticks]

Goto parts express and find a driver of the same size with a very high sensitivity. I plan to do this, just haven’t had time yet. I think they’re 2”. They’re trying to play the bass in rap, and that needs to be cut so the power goes into the mids and highs. Even the best 3” full ranges don’t go under 125 hz, these things need to be set at least that high with a steep drop off.
 

I’m going to multi meter the “amp” the next time I take the wheel apart to find out what it’s actually putting out. An inline “bass blocker” can keep the low frequencies away from the speaker and let it focus on the higher stuff that it can actually play- I’m guessing this would help on the stock speakers as well. They’re cheap and an easy install.

 

 

I’ll update if I find the right driver. 
 

are you looking for volume or sound quality? 

[nosamplesplease]

On 12/26/2021 at 8:27 AM, Breadsticks said:

Goto parts express and find a driver of the same size with a very high sensitivity. I plan to do this, just haven’t had time yet. I think they’re 2”. They’re trying to play the bass in rap, and that needs to be cut so the power goes into the mids and highs. Even the best 3” full ranges don’t go under 125 hz, these things need to be set at least that high with a steep drop off.
 

I’m going to multi meter the “amp” the next time I take the wheel apart to find out what it’s actually putting out. An inline “bass blocker” can keep the low frequencies away from the speaker and let it focus on the higher stuff that it can actually play- I’m guessing this would help on the stock speakers as well. They’re cheap and an easy install.

 

 

I’ll update if I find the right driver. 
 

are you looking for volume or sound quality? 

Speaker sensitivity has nothing to do with audio quality. 

Having a more sensitive speaker will allow you to reach similar volume level at lower effort to the audio amplifier. This may POSSIBLY prevent quality loss from amplifier clipping. Speaker sensitivity is a measurement wholely exclusive to audio quality. Meaning the frequency range with which a particular speaker is the most energetic might be very small, making said speaker only suitable in a multi speaker arrangement.

A flatter or more pleasing frequency response is probably the better route to audio quality but then volume level will likely go down.

 

This is before you even consider the recent the enclosure has on a speaker. Which specifically has EVERYTHING to do with low frequency reinforcement. The outer diameter of a speaker is only going to tell you the outer diameter and what size hole it needs to face out of.

Some will need sealed enclosures, some need ported enclosures, and choosing the wrong one can destroy the speaker. Then there's considerations such as impedance that if chosen wrong or wired wrong can destroy an amplifier. In some cases fiery destruction. Right next to your lithium batteries.

 

Changing audio components in an integrated system is throwing spaghetti against the wall. You are just guessing and finding ways to dispose of your income. Which is perfectly fine to do but generally has worse outcome.

 

There ARE safe and effective ways to do this but just buying a half decent waterproof Bluetooth speaker will guaranteed work better, have much better water resistance and if you don't put it inside your wheel ZERO chance of a cascade failure resulting in battery fire.

 

If you don't like that approach there are software audio filters you can preprocess your music with to remove the sub-bass components and make it less taxing for poorly designed audio systems. Of course these filters requires the use of a DAW which not everyone has readily installed at a moments notice. All of your music would have to be downloaded and processed for these to work.

The easiest filter to use for this purpose is Waves Renaissance Bass.

Link to Renaissance Bass description

Or something like Waves Maxxbass which is more complex but finer control.

Link to Maxxbass info

 

I've used Maxxbass myself and it works very well for making cheaper speakers carry low frequencies better. 

 

It's really just easier to get an additional speaker. You could try it with a return policy so you can just take the speaker back if you don't like them outcome.

Edited December 30, 2021 by nosamplesplease
Damn autocorrect. Sigh....

[Breadsticks]

On 12/30/2021 at 7:31 AM, nosamplesplease said:

Speaker sensitivity has nothing to do with audio quality. 

Having a more sensitive speaker will allow you to reach similar volume level at lower effort to the audio amplifier. This may POSSIBLY prevent quality loss from amplifier clipping. Speaker sensitivity is a measurement wholely exclusive to audio quality. Meaning the frequency range with which a particular speaker is the most energetic might be very small, making said speaker only suitable in a multi speaker arrangement.

A flatter or more pleasing frequency response is probably the better route to audio quality but then volume level will likely go down.

 

This is before you even consider the recent the enclosure has on a speaker. Which specifically has EVERYTHING to do with low frequency reinforcement. The outer diameter of a speaker is only going to tell you the outer diameter and what size hole it needs to face out of.

Some will need sealed enclosures, some need ported enclosures, and choosing the wrong one can destroy the speaker. Then there's considerations such as impedance that if chosen wrong or wired wrong can destroy an amplifier. In some cases fiery destruction. Right next to your lithium batteries.

 

Changing audio components in an integrated system is throwing spaghetti against the wall. You are just guessing and finding ways to dispose of your income. Which is perfectly fine to do but generally has worse outcome.

 

There ARE safe and effective ways to do this but just buying a half decent waterproof Bluetooth speaker will guaranteed work better, have much better water resistance and if you don't put it inside your wheel ZERO chance of a cascade failure resulting in battery fire.

 

If you don't like that approach there are software audio filters you can preprocess your music with to remove the sub-bass components and make it less taxing for poorly designed audio systems. Of course these filters requires the use of a DAW which not everyone has readily installed at a moments notice. All of your music would have to be downloaded and processed for these to work.

The easiest filter to use for this purpose is Waves Renaissance Bass.

Link to Renaissance Bass description

Or something like Waves Maxxbass which is more complex but finer control.

Link to Maxxbass info

 

I've used Maxxbass myself and it works very well for making cheaper speakers carry low frequencies better. 

 

It's really just easier to get an additional speaker. You could try it with a return policy so you can just take the speaker back if you don't like them outcome.

I wasn’t looking to build a sq system, I was looking to buy some speakers that can actually be heard considering placement/wind/helmet. 
 

btw - the wrong enclosure won’t hurt a speaker unless you’re talking about over excursion of a sub in a box way too big, or in IB. 
 

the “enclosures” here are only acceptable for an aperiodic port, but like I said. I just want to hear it. The stereo integrity setup in my car satisfies all sq needs