Clarion – Audio Upgrade

Words and Pictures by Member Prem Reynolds – December 2020

Having upgraded the door speakers to Hertz and the head unit to 3+ I still wasn’t happy with the sound in the car. Much better than the original speakers without a doubt but I wanted to really cut down the cabin vibration as much as increasing the power driving the speakers.

Our head unit was already upgraded but after discussing this with David Beer at Clarion he agreed to rework the internals for RCAs – 2 sets (sub + amp). Being a little Audiophile we opted for an Audison amp and matching component speakers in the front doors and used the Hertz for the rear positions that required some panel cutting. It looked like rear speakers was the factory intention as there are cavities on both sides – albeit cutting required. I used a metal blade Fein saw for this part having drawn the speaker template onto the metal – the yellow factory door speaker holders were cut/trimmed to hold the new Audison woofers.

We removed the centre console, panels, carpets, and strip cleaned everything. I decided to fully sound dampen the car to remove unwanted road noise and dampen everything down. This was a 2 layer process using the foiled Peacemat XR then closed cell foam. The door cards were also dampened with Peacemat XR and finished with a layer of Hydroweld – quilted hydrophobic acoustic layer to insulate the car as well as remove unwanted noise. The rear panels had a double layer to prevent vibrations.

I then rewired the car using a quality QED cable back to the Audison amp located under the passenger seat. The subwoofer sits below the driver seat with the control routed to the glove box along with the various Clarion connections. I ran a longer 3.5m jack back to the centre console compartment for phone charging. I also had to access the battery through the firewall but there is plenty of room for an amp cable / fuse folder etc and upgraded the battery connection to a multi-block type for the larger amp cable. The amp and sub remote wires were tapped from the existing circuit in the car.

Then I faced a challenge! As a designer I really didn’t like the look of the speaker grilles mounted to the rear panels. I found some examples online but they all looked clunky and not true to the car’s aesthetics. After some deliberation I decided to create a grille pattern I could cut into the interior panels. Several options, size and shape trials on plastics etc I designed a drilling template using vinyl. It is a complex curve so it required something I could adhere to the surface long enough to drill. It requires a lot of patience and sharp drill bits but the results look OEM in my opinion. These new panels have been branded FIGAREARS™ and available for sale in future if there is anyone interested in following the design/process – all refinished these using the interior colour.

After everything was back in the car the system was fine-tuned using the very detailed Clarion menus, Hi/Lo Pass filters etc and further tweaked at the amp for a stunning sound stage. We use Tidal for streaming which sounds excellent via bluetooth but better hard-wired and we plan to work our way through the old CD collection!

The difference? Night and Day. Worth the effort and investment as the cabin is so much better when dampened down and we can hear the music with the roof down – and so can everyone else!!

Need more help?
Prem can supply pre-drilled panels if you are interested, email: prem.reynolds@btinternet.com