Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio speaker wires

how much of a difference does good speaker wire make compared with the stock wires
i bought new speakers and they don't sound close to as good as they did on the display board at the store. i listened to them in the store running off the same deck i have in the car and they sounded good so i bought them once i got them in the car they sounded like @$$, only a slight improvement over the stock speakers.
i took the car back today so he could have a listen and he told me it wasn't the speakers or the deck so it was most likley in between, some new speaker wires should let more power to the speaker.
I asked for the wire they used on the display board.
How much of a difference will new speaker wires make??

another question, would cutting holes in the rear lugage tray affect the safty of the rear centre seatbelt??

a higher gauge wire will clear up your tunes. the thicker gauge allows the current to flow better, i.e. less restriction. You also have to remember that the speakers at the store may have had more air space than your door allows.as for the seat belt thing, you got me??

Most likely no noticeable improvement. Sounds like the shop is trying to rip ya off.

The reduced sound quality is likely due to the differences in listening position and the enclosure the speakers were in.

Keep in in mind most good boards also use amplifiers, usually they are shown but some third rate places " I have seen this" will put them behind the board and claim that the speakers are running off the deck when in fact they are running off an amp with much more power. Did the place you went to have visible amplifiers on the board? If so chances are they were running the speakers, not the head unit.

Speakers will nearly always sound better in the display. I have been behind the scenes and seen things like Vinny mentioned as well as eqs boosting bass and treble slightly. They are also mounted in perfectly sealed enclosures. You are listening directly on axis, etc. etc.

About the best you can do is try to listen for the best option and assume that it will also sound the best in your car. There are a few things you can do to help yourself out. Get an amp, prep the doors (dynamat it and try to seal it as much as possible), or mount speakers in the rear deck. THe rear deck is not ideal by any means, but that location would be the closest thing to what you heard at the store.

As far as speaker wire, if you are using the aftermarket deck, the stock wiring should be fine. In a high power system, it is worth it to change it, but it is important to mention that the right gauge wire is infinitely more important than getting expensive wire.

I imagine that the hole in the rear deck would affect the structural integrity, but I doubt that it would be substantial enough to matter.

Something else that's kinda simple could be that you have a factory amp still hooked up. If your car came with a CD player system, then it also had a sad little factory amp installed. I installed the bypass harness from crutchfield and that made a huge difference when I hooked up my new system.
Hope you get it to sound good for ya. Good Luck.

i read a bit on the fac amp
we only had the tape player so by the sounds of what u were saying i don't have it
i had it appart and took off the thin connecting wires that came with the speakers
that helped a little but it looks like the stock wires are the same as the aftermarket stuff he showed me, 16 gadge stock? thats what he showed me.

You might still have a factory amp. You only need to remove the glovebox to check. It just pops out. If you've got a silver metal electrical component back there that's about 8" x 10" then you've got the "premium" system with the factory amp. You'll definately want to bypass that POS if you've got one.

Ok, first of all, if you are running the speakers off the head unit alone, don't bother with changing the speaker wire, it won't make a difference. I would only recommend that if you were running some serious amps to some serious speakers.

Secondly, the best thing to do to improve your sound is get rid of that gray foam water shield in the doors and reseal the door with Dynamat or some other type of sound deadening product. In doing so, you create an enclosure out of your doors which can improve frequency response, and help eliminate rattles as well.

I have done quite alot of work in sound systems, my car in particular, and resealing the doors was the most important thing I did for my speakers.

there is a gray box behind the glove box
its tucked way up behind a bunch of **** and i can only see a little bit of the box.
i was told this box was part of the cars computer by the dealer. it doesn't really look like and amp and when i asked about some sort of factory amp in contours/mystiques none of the stereo shops had heard of it.

how accessable is it after taking out the glovebox? the box i'm seeing isn't easy to get at. anyone got a pic that may help.
how much power does the fac amp rob??