Car Speakers - Need Advice

Evokazz

Hiya, I am driving a KIA Ceed 3, and it's my first car, I am useless at things like this, but the drivers side speaker (bottom of door) has stopped working properly, if I give the grill a slap, it sometimes comes back on then goes off again. I took the car to a local independant, and he advised I get 2 Pioneer speakers fitted at the front, as they will last longer and be much better quality. The price for this is quoted as £100 including fitting. He also suggested doing the 2 rear ones at same time, total being £200.

Is this a good price? Or would it be cheaper for me to buy my own speakers and pay someone to fit? Maybe the same guy? Or Halford if they do fitting? Also not looking to blast the windows off the car, but would like something better than the stock ones. Halfords are offering to fit 4 Vibe speakers in the car for £130 which is much cheaper, but reviews say their rubbish speakers??

tommitch

What size are the speakers?
Find out the size and just have a look online for decent aftermarket replacements.

If you feel comfortable enough, I'd even try and replace the speakers myself, as long as it looked simple enough, I'm not sure if the cables are soldered to the drivers in cars or are plugged in somehow.

Bl4ckGryph0n

I think the price is reasonable. If you do it yourself the chances are that when you pop off the door cards some of the clips snap and then you’ll have to get some of those, and then when you want to swap the speakers the connectors are slightly different and you’ll have to change those and so on.

What could be a simple job with can end up with many trips to get little parts costing time and petrol. And then I haven’t even begun around compatibility of the speakers themselves.

To me it seems a reasonable price to give it to someone else who will have all those parts and provide a guarantee for it to work.

nvingo

Should have two spade connectors on the back of the speaker unit, and vehicle cable have connectors to fit those.

AMc

Speakers are pretty simple - that sounds like a loose connection that you might be able to resolve yourself or a friend if you're not in the mood.
If it ISN'T a loose connection to the speaker or a broken wire within it then replacing them won't make any difference.

Google shows this person taking the door card off a Ceed in about 3m30s so if you're careful you'll be able to do the same thing in slightly longer.
                               
If you want better speakers then I would consider the Pioneer ones.  I'm sure there are some good people who work for Halfords but I would always put my money into an independent rather than a chain as they have a reputation to protect.
Bear in mind that you're paying for the same amount of labour to fit something cheap or something decent.  The extra £70 for the Pioneer is probably going on a better component as the effort is the same.

Monty Nine

4 speakers fitted for £130 must be rubbish frankly.

Go with the Pioneer all round for £200.

djbsom

I'm not the most proficient diy'er but I've upgraded speakers in a few different cars. You might be lucky and find that the spade connector has just worked loose. If that's the case, job done.
You might find the speaker is toast so then it's usually just 4 screws to remove and replace the new speaker. I would always replace in pairs. I've had good results with Alpine, Pioneer and JBL but can't comment on Vibe sorry. I thought Vibe was Halfords own brand of ICE. That's not necessarily a bad thing but music is hugely important to us so you may as well fit the best you can.
One thing to remember is to always ensure the speaker is not left loose in the door. Buzz is not a good sound.
Give it a go, it's not something that disables the car if you mess up. And you could save a chunk of money.

un1eash

Vibe is a british company based out of the midlands, as far as I know halfords are just a stockist. They make some decent speakers and amps, I've used them in the past.
Aftermarket speakers will normally improve sound over basic oem ones but you'll never get the most out of them without adding an amp. I'd check to see if its a lose connection first and just replace like for like or get some cheapish £20-40 aftermarket one.

Evokazz

I'm gonna get the independant to fit the 4 for £200, he's also gonna fix a dodgy headliner light for me for a couple quid extra. I've never thought about an amp. Someone suggested a sub woofer, but I'm not a bass head, I feel a lot of the musical fidelity gets lost with bass, I know in home cinema their essential, but for music not so sure? Anyways you mentioned amps? Any suggestions for a cheap amp to go with these 4 pioneer speakers? And how does the amp connect up?

Monty Nine

You don’t need an amp for a simple speaker upgrade.

Get the 4 done and enjoy!