Suspendmix

Hi all,

Like many folks on this forum, I love my NX but hate the audio coming from the speakers which to me sounds pretty muddy and lacks low end. I've replaced headunits, speakers and added amps and subwoofers in many of my previous cars but I was much more hesitant with the NX. I've already located an fixed one rattle and didn't want to risk further rattles but the sound just kept bugging me so I settled on adding an underseat subwoofer and replacing the front dash speakers. After consulting the many threads on this forum, I decided I was comfortable with replacing the front 3 dash speakers and adding an underseat subwoofer. I researched Infinity and Polks for the front speakers and looked at Rockford Fosgate, Infinity, Pioneer, Kicker, Kenwood and Cerwin Vega for the underseat subwoofers. I've always liked the brightness of the Infinity's so I went for the 4" Infinity REF-4022cfx and as for the subwoofer that was bit tougher. There weren't too many local places that carried compact powered subs so all I could listen to were Kicker and Kenwood. While I knew I was sacrificing deep low bass due to the size, those speakers really underwhelmed me. I ended up choosing the Cerwin Vegas VPAS10 because it was the only powered compact subwoofer that was 10" and could fit under the seat.

Installation for the front dash was fairly easy except I couldn't find speaker wire harness adapters so I had to cut the harness and solder new speaker wire. I also had to break off two of the speaker tabs to install and fits rather snug. I replaced all 3 front dash speakers and took about 2 hours. I'm not the best at soldering =)

I didn't feel comfortable with running power from the battery so I ended up getting the Cerwin Vega sub installed at Best Buy. Took them about 2 hours and they were able to route everything to under my seat. It does stick out just a smidgen but it's not particularly noticeable.

How's it sound? Pretty good! The mids are very clear and the highs are bright - its certainly not muddy any more, particularly at high volume. The subwoofer doesn't give the deep lows that I really like. Its more of a mid-bass hit and because its under the seat, is rather concussive. You feel it. I'm still tuning it but it does blend in fairly well with the other speakers and really adds to the fullness of the sound.

Was it worth it? Certainly replacing the front speakers was, its really night and day and is the one recommendation I can make to all NX owners. I'm not totally sold on the subwoofer. It is loud and hits fairly hard but I miss the deep lows. However, I'm not willing to give up what little precious cargo room I have to house 12" sub boxes so this will probably be an acceptable trade off.

I spent a shade under $400 for everything. Here's the breakdown and links to the products I used (all purchased on Amazon):
$157 $32 $47 x2 = $94 $105 Best Buy Subwoofer Installation

I know there's still 7 other stock speakers in the car but I'm pretty sure I'm done. I don't sit in the back so I'm not too worry about the sound back there and the door speakers supply bass and the subwoofer is taking car of that. Looking back, not sure if I really needed to replace the center dash speaker. Doesn't seem like a lot of sound is coming from there and maybe is used for navigation voices? Hope this writeup will be helpful for other folks intending to replace their speakers. I've attached some pics below of the gear. Feel free to PM me if you have q's. Enjoy!

4" Infinity's waiting to go into dash. You can see the new connections and electrical tape covering the soldering job.


4" Infinity's sitting in the dash


Here's what the Infinity speakers look like with the baffle back in place.


The 10" Cerwin Vega VPAS10 subwoofer


Here is the sub sitting right outside of the driver's seat.


And same sub tucked in with the seat in driving position.


Sub is tucked in with the seat in parked position. Its hard to tell there's a speaker there.


Here's the power cable ran from the battery with a fuse

gompka

iTrader: (6)

Nice write up, that cv fits just by a hair! If i were to redo mine I think i would try to utilize the stock hatch subwoofer and just beef up and seal the enclosure. Obviously that is a lot more work than your solution. Does the flat subwoofer of the cv have decent base?

Suspendmix

IMO its decent and actually pretty good for the size and for not having to give up any cargo space. The difference with the sub on and off is pretty apparent and it has the kind of bass that hits you in the chest when you crank it up. Its more of the mid-bass kind of hit so my biggest complaint is that it doesn't really have that deep bass that you might get from a ported 12". I wasn't expecting that kind of bass because of the size of the slim sub but am missing it that I don't have much of it, if that makes any sense. I have an awesome home theater set up and used to mobile DJ so I'm comparing to that, which I know isn't realistic. I'll ride with it for another week to see if its worth it. What's your set up like and how do you like yours? I know there's several write ups on here but I wish more folks would post their sound setups so I could have had more ideas, which is the reason I wrote up mine.

ramses974

Not a good idea, i did that with a shallowsubwoofer , finally, there was so much vibration that the investment in anti vibration product was worth it ...
And dont neglec that you will add weight on your hatch and pressure on the actuators

winglesss

Looks nice.

If I were to add a subwoofer, then I would use the gobs of volume available under the rear seats.

Suspendmix

Wow! Was all that trim difficult to pull out? I have enough slack for the cabling to run the subwoofer back there if I needed to but I'd imagine it would be hard to get to if needing to make adjustments since gain and crossover points are all located on the subwoofer.

winglesss

The side panel was a butt pain to remove, not too bad to replace.

The cargo trim was not bad to remove or replace.

The flap between the seat and cargo is the quick push / pull tree fasteners. It is possible that the amp controls could be accessed by removal of those fasteners if properly located.

winglesss

This image shows the fabric seat-back flap attached to the cargo storage plastic w/ the tree fasteners.

If a subwoofer amplifier was properly located under the rear seat, then removal of those fasteners (or just not installing them altogether) could permit access to the amplifier controls.

winglesss

These images show both sides of the cargo side interior panel, including the retaining clips.

Suspendmix

THanks for the pics! Not sure I'm ready to rip that all out though!

Suspendmix

After a few days with the sub and with what limited tuning I could do, I think its about 80% of what I'd hope it would be. It almost fills out the missing low end for me, I do wish it hit a little lower but again realize its a limitation of the shallowness of the sub. I'm also realizing that I kind of like the boominess of a ported sub and this isn't ported. I'll keep it but looking back at it now, I wish I ran it to the cargo area and mounted it behind the rear passenger seat - at least that would have given me options if I did want to go bigger and give up a bit of my cargo space. This thing does hit and hits hard so if you like to feel your music, this certainly can work for you.

We used to have a few 18" Cerwin Vega Quakes when I had a mobile DJ crew and the bass is reminiscent of that - not the greatest sounding but it certainly filled the room with bass you could feel. Overall the unit cost a shade under $300 including cables and installation so I feel it was worth it.

winglesss

The NX cargo space is already insufficient, so decreasing that by placing a box in that volume is not a choice I would make.

If more bass is required than may be realized by an under-the-seat subwoofer, then removing the spare tire to replace that with a subwoofer box will provide the kick without decreasing the cargo volume.

. It is also possible to fabricate a custom box.

Suspendmix

Thinking I may need to also replace the speakers in the rear passenger door too - rather than components, can i just swap out the mid/woofer in the rear with a coaxial? Does that have a full range signal going into it or is it crossover'ed at the amp and splits between the mid/woofer and tweeter?

Also, anyone here know if the door panel removal for the rear is similar to that of the front door? Thanks a bunch!

Suspendmix

Finally found the time to replace all the door speakers with Infinity Reference coaxials - 6.5" Surprisingly, it made a huge difference in the sound as its much brighter, significantly less muddy, and I'm not entirely sure how, allows the subwoofer to shine. Bass in the car overall is cleaner and less distorted after changing out the door speakers. Even my oldest kid was impressed. It wasn't hard pulling off the panels in all four doors maybe total time spent was about 2 hours. I didn't spend too much, probably around $400 for the 7 Infinity's, 4 speaker brackets, 4 wiring harnesses, 1 Cerwin Vega subwoofer and labor to install the subwoofer. It certainly was worth it. Only stock speakers left were the tweeters and cargo subwoofer. Btw., if anyone wants the Crutchfield NX200t installation guide, I'd be more than happy to share the PDF. Just PM me. It's got step by step instructions on pretty much any audio related installation.

duger00

To the original poster, For the dash speakers, there are 4 wires, did you just tap into the pink and red wires and left the other alone? Thanks