Improving the W205 Audio 20 Sound Quality

[RussellS]

Hi, as some of you may have seen in my 'new member saying hi' thread here I thought the audio quality in my 2018 W205 with the Audio 20 system left a little to be desired or, put another way, was dire.

So what I am trying to achieve is to improve the sound quality sufficiently without going down the path of full speaker replacement and DSP amplifier etc.
The biggest problem I think is that they are relying on a 4" single cone speaker in each door for everything apart from the 6" subwoofer which apparently is there but I haven't found it yet and personally I don't think a 6" speaker can be classed as a subwoofer. So the sound is dull at the top end and at best muddy at the bottom end.
My first step is to address the top end. I have done that by mounting some Alpine tweeters in the empty tweeter apertures in the front doors.

These are the tweeters I fitted:


They are only 30mm in diameter and the recess for them is 40mm so I 3d printed some adapters (a hobby of mine):


...which then fitted into the door tweeter panel:


... and I used one of these speaker adapter 'Y' slitter cables so that I didn't have to cut any wires.

I have to say the results seem to be great. The high end is brighter but not shrill and I have to say I am pleased with the results so far. The problem now is that the rear doors don't have any facility for fitting tweeters so I may look at replacing the 4" single cone speakers in the rear doors with 4" two way coaxial speakers.

Then I will look at fitting a proper subwoofer in the boot. I'm not talking about one of those huge great thumping boxes kids have in their cars. I mean a more discreet one, maybe even one of those underseat subwoofers but mounted in the boot.

For the moment though I am just going to test the current system with the tweeters and make sure I'm happy with the top end before tackling the bass.


I'll keep you updated.

 

[Vulture]

Thanks for sharing this! If it's not too difficult I think I will give this a try.
Do you have any pictures of where you connected the wires by any chance?

 

[RussellS]

No, not a useful picture I'm afraid. However it's not difficult if you use one of these adapters that I linked to in my original post.

Just unplug the plug on the existing door speaker (yellow plug) and plug it into the black connector on the adapter. Then plug one of the brown connectors on the adapter back into the speaker and the remaining adapter wire you need to connect to the new tweeters. You could either connect directly onto the plug or cut the plug off and just connect the wires directly to the tweeter wires.

 

[Larkone]

How are you creating a hi-pass for the tweeters so they do not receive full frequency signal?

 

[RussellS]

The tweeters have a capacitor already inline and are designed for connecting across the existing speakers.
Obviously this is not a full crossover but that is always something I can fit later on if neccesary.
The tweeters have a frequency response of 4Khz - 20Khz

 

[markjay]

My W204 came with Audio20 and standard speakers.

I had the Audio20 system replaced with COMAND NTG4.7 (no additional amp or pre-amp), the standard speakers with Morel (Maximo range), added Alpine flat subwoofer in the boot and Dynamat insulation in the doors. Very pleased with the result.

The installation was done by Comand UK in Lightwater, but the parts are also available to order online if you are doing it DYI.

 

[RussellS]

I didn't want to go down the road of completely changing the system, I just wanted to improve the sound quality of the existing one which I think should be achievable.
In fact, just adding the front door tweeters has made a massive difference already.

 

[Larkone]

If your uses the centre dash speaker for music - it would be mostly the vocal component - then changing that makes a huge difference to audio quality with the added benefit of better telephone calls

I swapped mine out for a 4" 4Ohm Faital unit and used the existing capacitor. Need a bit of work with a Dremel but more than worth it.

 

[AltonAnt]

I didn't want to go down the road of completely changing the system, I just wanted to improve the sound quality of the existing one which I think should be achievable.
In fact, just adding the front door tweeters has made a massive difference already.

I found that replacing the tweeters was one of the biggest improvements too.
So much so that I wonder if the original ones were actually working or just rubbish.
I used a Focal component system and fitted the supplied crossover.

I don't have access to any 3D printing unfortunately so went with low tech Sugru as the replacements were only fractionally differrent in size.

 

[Alfie]

The sub is in the footwell up behind the pedals.

 

[RussellS]

The sub is in the footwell up behind the pedals.

I did see that but I couldn't believe such a small speaker was the subwoofer so I assumed it was for something else.

 

[Alfie]

I did see that but I couldn't believe such a small speaker was the subwoofer so I assumed it was for something else.

From memory its about 8”

There are some stunning 8” subs available but very few fit in the footwell.

 

[John]

From memory its about 8”

There are some stunning 8” subs available but very few fit in the footwell.

It is 6" in the C.

It's 8" in the E and S.

 

[Alfie]

It is 6" in the C.

It's 8" in the E and S.

Depends on the options

 

[John]

Depends on the options

I'm just referring to Burmester btw!