B&O stereo "upgrade" (save some money...)

[broncorik]

Crutchfield offers good information on the sensitivity of speakers and how they can affect how loud they are (posted below) I'm not certain of what the sensitivity of the factory speakers are, but I'm guessing they are very high (100 or so). If they factory units are 100 and the Kicker's you put in are 90, you are essentially losing 10dbs at the same volume on the radio knob. Aftermarket amps or speakers with higher sensitivity (if staying with the stock amp) will be the way to address these issues.


Sensitivity
A sensitivity rating tells you how effectively a speaker converts power (watts) into volume (decibels). The higher the rating, the louder your speakers will play with a given amount of amplifier power. Sensitivity is often measured by driving a speaker with one watt and measuring the loudness in decibels at one meter. Alternatively, you may see sensitivity measured by driving a speaker with 2.83 volts at one meter.

The chart below illustrates that a few dB in sensitivity can make a big difference (this example uses the one watt at one meter measurement):

Speaker	Sensitivity rating	Power needed to produce a given volume
Speaker A	85 dB​	100 watts​
Speaker B	88 dB​	50 watts​
Speaker C	91 dB​	25 watts​

A speaker with a sensitivity rating that's 3 dB higher than another speaker's only needs half as much power to deliver the same amount of sound.

The trick is trying to figure out what the specs are for our OEM speakers...that remains a mystery (unless someone happens to have that info)? I can confirm that my upgraded speakers ended up nice and clear but very quiet...so my 500 dollars ended up getting me to turn my volume up to 25 to get the same level of sound I used to get at 15 (I switched speakers back to OEM and kicked myself for not only spending the money but also for having thrown away the boxes...good thing I kept my OEM speakers, however...). Now I have a full set of speakers, which could technically be used with an amp down the road, but realistically in order to use a decent amp I would need to spend 800 bucks for the processor and then ideally purchase a really good amp and a decent DSP...but for now I'm just going to enjoy my OEM speakers and my improved subwoofer. YMMV.

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[Rwhite692]

Just ordered the B&O to Key 500.1 harness (spoke to Don at Sounds Good). I knew that if I used the sub high level inputs straight off the B&O amp that I would see roll-off of the sub signal at higher volumes and I was wondering how I was going to grab the front kick panel speaker signals as inputs without doing a ton of work....Thank you for sharing this information, it is greatly appreciated!

 

[broncorik]

Just ordered the B&O to Key 500.1 harness (spoke to Don at Sounds Good). I knew that if I used the sub high level inputs straight off the B&O amp that I would see roll-off of the sub signal at higher volumes and I was wondering how I was going to grab the front kick panel speaker signals as inputs without doing a ton of work....Thank you for sharing this information, it is greatly appreciated!

He has a lot of knowledge! Did you order the harness? Note that if you did you will have to grind down a bit of the OEM plug so that the new plug fits...Ford recently changed the plug housing design but the solution is a minor tweak. I believe Sounds Good is working on obtaining the new style but I'm the meantime the current one works. Last night when I installed mine I initially thought it was the wrong plug but then spoke with Sounds Good and they informed me about the plug modification. A bit of grinding with the Dremel and they slid right together. Much better than hacking into my harness.

 

[Rwhite692]

He has a lot of knowledge! Did you order the harness? Note that if you did you will have to grind down a bit of the OEM plug so that the new plug fits...Ford recently changed the plug housing design but the solution is a minor tweak. I believe Sounds Good is working on obtaining the new style but I'm the meantime the current one works. Last night when I installed mine I initially thought it was the wrong plug but then spoke with Sounds Good and they informed me about the plug modification. A bit of grinding with the Dremel and they slid right together. Much better than hacking into my harness.

Yes, ordered it. Thanks for the tip about the OEM plug!

 

[mdube72]

I've read most if not all of the threads on the forum about upgrading the B&O dash speakers and the pod speakers. From what I can interpret - it appears the way to go is with the Hertz DCX 100.3 speakers for all 4 of these locations. The Kicker and Focal counterparts are lower than 90 dB on the sensitivity rating which probably explains many people's comments about needing to turn the volume up over stock. Has anyone just updated the 4 corners (with and without the center speaker swap) that can comment on if this update alone is worth the money ? I am not asking anything on the Subwoofer discussion as this has been adequately covered. On Crutchfield, the Hertz is the only coaxial speaker that has at or above 92 db sensitivity that I can see. I have not searched other sites.

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