youtube.com/auto_knight/speaker_upgrade_smart_fortwo_451_pure_pulse_passion_2007_2014_pioneer_ts_g1720f¶
3 excerpts.
Excerpt¶
youtube.com/auto_knight/speaker_upgrade_smart_fortwo_451_pure_pulse_passion_2007_2014_pioneer_ts_g1720f · p. 1 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike
In today's video, I'm going to be replacing the appalling speakers on my Smart for 251. Right off the bat, these speakers were always pretty lame. But add to that 17 years of use and they really are terrible. It's kind of hard to show just how terrible. And it may not show up on video. And this is exacerbated by the fact that I can't just play the radio because I can't risk a copyright strike. So, as you heard, these speaker cones really have blown and they sound awful. I'll repeat the same song when they've been replaced. The speakers are mounted from behind. Well, that sounds a bit wrong, doesn't it? They are attached from behind. So, the correct way to remove them is to take this door panel off. And I'll leave the video in the description below if you want to go that route. Because I'm going to be surface mounting these speakers from this side, I don't really need to do that. And these are going to be sacrificial anyway because the new speakers come with their own grills. So, in a bit of a departure from my usual style, I'm going to mutilate these and break them to get them off. Got to be a bit careful not to cut myself on this plastic cuz it can be quite sharp and I'm very accidentrone. So, it's important to wear safety goggles as well. I don't want to damage this surface at all. But it's clear to see now how this is attached. These little bits here are melted over from the other side, which keeps it in place. The resultant bits end up in here. Now, it's at this point you can see just how bad this speaker is. There's meant to be a foam ring around here and it's gone. So, this cone is no longer attached around the outside. You can see just how weak that foam has become. And that would have been all around the outside. This speaker is completely shot. Now I can destroy this speaker very easily. Like that. And now I can just break this up and pull it out through the front again. and taking care of sharp edges. You don't often see me being this destructive. Now, I'm going to disconnect the speaker here. And now we can just get the remains of this out. I just want to clean up on the inside there. Make sure I haven't left anything behind. There are four T20 screws that would have held the speaker to the panel from the inside. I'm going to remove these cuz I just don't want them left in there. And you can see the broken piece of speaker there as well. These are very easy to remove. They're only handtight from the start. I'll now move round to the other side and do the same round there. That was a bit easier. And again, pieces of foam from the outer perimeter of the speaker cone. This one is absolutely shot, too. And the other speaker is gracefully and delicately removed from the car. With the old speakers in their rightful place, the bin is just time to clean up. The broken bits of speaker really do get everywhere and as I said, wear eye protection. These connectors will be surplus to requirements. Now, the new speakers come with this little stretch of wire here with the terminals prefitted. So, I'm going to do my usual and make some nice neat soldered connections. I won't need all of this. I'll probably cut it off about here. I've stripped back those two. And I do the same here. Now, speakers do have to be uh wired the correct way around. There is a positive and the negative. And usually the positive is the solid wire. The one with a stripe is the negative. And you can follow that along here because that goes to the
Excerpt¶
youtube.com/auto_knight/speaker_upgrade_smart_fortwo_451_pure_pulse_passion_2007_2014_pioneer_ts_g1720f · p. 2 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike
small terminal which is the negative. If you look at the factory wiring, you've got the solid orange and then you've got the orange with the brown. So, that'll be the positive and that'll be the negative. Important to get them the right way. Okay. So, I have now had a change of heart. I was going to solder these and then I remembered that I have these and you crimp them and this is heat shrink. So, it then seals the cable at each end so you're not going to get corrosion in there. This is very thin wire. It's very hard to keep anything steady enough to solder in here. So that's why I've decided to go this route. This wire is very thin. So I'm going to fold this over to give double the thickness. So we've got the plain wire and the one with the stripe. There you go. Shrinks nicely around the wires. Let's do the other one. And we repeat the same on the other side. These have been crimped as well quite nicely. And we just let those cool off. And just as a final finishing touch, I use some fabric tape. And the same on the other side. It's very easy to damage this foam membrane with the jagged edges of the speaker when you're manhandling it out of there. And I've just used some insulation tape to cover up a very small split that was there. I had to do the same on the other side. So, I've gone for these Pioneer TS G1720F. They were £29 on Amazon and you can still get the 1710 which these replace for about5 less but apparently these ones have a better frequency range so I went with these and for the sake of a fiverr why would I want the old model anyway. Now in terms of what I'm trying to achieve here it's important to manage expectations because I'm not trying to recreate the acoustics of the Sydney Opera House. I just need to replace some blown speakers and you can spend way more and I've seen JBL's and various other things, Alpines for a lot more money and I'm not going that route and I know that the acoustics on these cars are awful anyway because there's a lot of road noise which tends to drown out any noise that the speakers generate. So short of soundproofing it and really going to town on this car which I'm not prepared to do, this is a fair compromise. So, inside here, you've already seen the wires that I fitted to the car, some fixings, got the grills, and then, of course, the actual speaker itself, which you'll see in a moment when I go to fit it. Now, I'm surface mounting these speakers cuz that's how I wanted to do it. It's also important from a clearance perspective. These speakers are 50 mm deep. Not quite sure what the limit is on these, but if you go too much deeper, then when this glass drops down, it'll clout the speaker magnet at the back and cause you all sorts of problems. And you certainly don't want to go to the length of fitting new speakers only to discover that that window fouls the speaker. That would be soul destroying. Let's hope this foam is a little more resilient on these. As I go to offer these up, I immediately realize that I'm going to have to cut these little bits off here. These little tabs that stick out. So, I'm going to go get a Stanley knife and do that right now. [Music] There is a bit more fettling and cutting involved just to make this hole a little larger as it needs to accommodate the distance between here and here. But once it's done, that fits neatly in there. And it's just a case of screwing it in. Very carefully press these little tabs in here, which enables us to remove this speaker grill. Certainly not something that you want to be kicking when you get in and out of the car because you could dent this quite easily. So, it's one to be mindful of. So, we line up with the holes. Make the speaker connections. Take great care not to slip with these screws because it would go straight through this speaker cone and it wouldn't get much worse than that.
Excerpt¶
youtube.com/auto_knight/speaker_upgrade_smart_fortwo_451_pure_pulse_passion_2007_2014_pioneer_ts_g1720f · p. 3 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike
These are fiddly to refit. I have to say I don't like dealing with this material because it is so easy to bend it. But that's in. So, what do you think? Nicely fitted. No gap around the top. I'm happy with that. Let's get the other one in. So, after successful trimming, this fits neatly into the recess. And using the 2M drill bit again, [Music] protecting the speaker cone as I go. So, now for the moment of truth. Remember how bad it sounded before? The volume level will be the same, the same track. Let's go. [Music] way better. I think you'll agree. And now a quick reminder of just how bad it was before. I think we could safely say that's a big improvement. All in all, I am very happy with this installation and I'm very happy with how they sound. So, that's it for this one. I look forward to seeing you again in another one very soon. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. Thank you very much for watching and goodbye.