How is sound system quality in Leaf?

[phxsmiley]

The small cone at the center of the speaker is called a whizzer cone, and helps extend the high frequency response. It's not as good as a tweeter, but cheaper.

Most likely, they have the same speakers in front and back.

Just changing the speakers will probably make a big difference. However, you may have to disconnect the pillar tweeters that are built in. In my experience, those are usually piezo-variety, but maybe they put a little better ones in there. You'll have to try it with those connected and unconnected, but they usually don't have the same 'color' of sound as the tweeters in new 2-way or 3-way speakers, so they don't end up sounding that great with new speakers.

 

[prberg]

I'm not exactly sure how speakers are really built, but the speaker just seems to be all one unit. It has that cardboard cone, but the entire woofer seems to be constructed as one unit. The materiel seems decent for a stock speaker, but it doesn't seem as high quality as some of the after market speakers out there.

I put my hand in front of the 'tweeters' in the pillar and the sound didn't seem to change much. It doesn't seem like they are putting out much high end sound. If I replace the stock speakers with the ones that have a separate tweeter in the middle, the car might get even better high end separation. But I'm not expert in this field. Would a regular 6.5" replacement speaker fit or would we have to do some customization?

-Peter

 

[phxsmiley]

From the picture, this door speaker assembly looks very similar to my 2007 Hyundai Sonata. The connector on the left side of the picture looks identical. And, it looks like the speaker connects right to the plastic frame at the foam roll surround.

So, if you remove the screws, you will remove both the speaker and the plastic frame around it.

The 16cm Door Speaker works out to be about 6.3", which is close to a standard size.

www.crutchfield.com is my preferred place for car speakers, as they come with model-specific mounting instructions and lots of mounting hardware you don't get when you buy them from local stores. You can select your car model and they will tell you what fits, and supply a free kit of hardware. However, when I just tried to select the Leaf, they say they 'haven't researched the Leaf fully' to know how to mount speakers or replacement stereo heads.

My hope is that this model will fit. I've installed these (an older model) in my Sonata, and it made a world of difference. Tight bass response for a 6.5", penetrating mids and highs. Crutchfield supplied (at no charge) the mounting ring and other hardware and it fit nicely.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_1086032SI/Infinity-Reference-6032si.html?search=Infinity+VENDORID108&tp=94

 

[tps]

The reason the tweeter is mouted high is so your ears can be fairly much on its major radiation axis, which is basically a line drawn straight out of the center of the tweeter. If the tweeter was down low in the door, your legs would be on-axis, rather than your ears. This is a tradeoff with another audio preference, that the drivers be mounted near to each other. IMHO, the on-axis thing is more important, so I'd probably start by getting a speaker with separate woofer and tweeter components so they could be mounted just where the LEAF designers decided.

Hardcore, no-compromise car audio types sometimes do not use door-mount speakers; rather they sacrafice a little legroom and make custom "kick panel" enclosures in the lower front corners of the cabin. This way they can get enough cubic volume (size) for the woofer to work properly, but still mount the tweeter next to it in a position where it has a straight shot at the occupant's head. If a well designed crossover and drivers are employed, the phase coherency might be good enough to mostly get rid of the "sound at your feet" problem and give one outstanding imaging. Disclaimer: I've never tried kick panel speakers myself; I'm drawing my conclusions from experiences I've had with home speakers, and there phase coherency does wonders for imaging.

 

[evnow]

The small cone at the center of the speaker is called a whizzer cone, and helps extend the high frequency response. It's not as good as a tweeter, but cheaper.

Most likely, they have the same speakers in front and back.

That makes sense. So, anyone replacing the speakers should replace all four.

IMHO, the on-axis thing is more important, so I'd probably start by getting a speaker with separate woofer and tweeter components so they could be mounted just where the LEAF designers decided.

I'd think so too. But it is probably not easy to replace tweeters in the pillars ? You would have to also find 6 speakers that are sonically matched - 2 with coaxial tweeters for the rear and 2 separate tweeters for the front.

 

[EVDRIVER]

Tweeters-highs, lower door mid-range and mid-bass plus some rolled off bass likely. This looks like a poorly engineered system IMO. It's not difficult to design a decent sounding system at low cost, even the one in my 2005 Tacoma sounds better form what I have heard at that's a $22K truck with standard system. I have a direct digital ipod connection and it sounds quite decent for what it is running 330 mp3 files. The lower driver in the LEAF appears to be full range and likely just rolls off.

 

[GeekEV]

But it is probably not easy to replace tweeters in the pillars ? You would have to also find 6 speakers that are sonically matched - 2 with coaxial tweeters for the rear and 2 separate tweeters for the front.

I believe Pioneer sells matched driver/tweeter sets.

 

[EVDRIVER]

This system has an "AV Control Unit" which controls many of the system functions of the entire NAV and stereo and also appears to contain the amps for the system which indicates very low power digital amps since the speakers go directly to the control unit. This is as integrated as it gets and adding AM speakers may make it worse due to efficiency issues, the Nav screen is made by Clarion so perhaps the audio as well :shock: . Quite a low budget system and designed to be as low cost as possible. One may be able to use a line converter off the speaker leads to an amp and upgraded speakers. The more I read the manuals and look at this car the more things I see Nissan cut corners on to reduce cost to keep the price low, even for $25K car there is some real econobox engineering and choices here unfortunately and the stereo/NAV for this price point should have been better for such a high-tech car. Making speaker-only changes here may only afford lower volume levels and poor front-end cabin staging. If one is happy with the mids and highs but want's a bit more bass that could likely be done easily but at first glance it looks like the system needs and amp and all new speakers to make a real and worthwhile difference. After owning a custom audio shop for many years I have no desire to do projects like this and most cars over $30K have reasonable factory systems for most folks, this one seems like a bit old school "Clarion" for those that know what I mean When Clarion bought Mac they could have leveraged that a bit more in their head units.

 

[Azrich]

Deleted by poster.

 

[Jimmydreams]

After owning a custom audio shop for many years I have no desire to do projects like this and most cars over $30K have reasonable factory systems for most folks, this one seems like a bit old school "Clarion" for those that know what I mean When Clarion bought Mac they could have leveraged that a bit more in their head units.

Most cars over $30K don't have $10-15K worth of batteries stuffed into them.

Let's face it, this car is all about the EV, and the sound system didn't get enough attention (for some of us). There may or may not be a line-out on the control head. If there is, the options get a little better. Sadly, mine is a leased car, so I won't even bother with speaker changes since it sounds like removing the door panels is a major PITA. :|

 

[evnow]

Has anyone posted step-by-step instructions on how to load music files (from iTunes - iMac) onto a flash drive? I'm a novice in this sort of thing so would need lots of help.

If its not already posted, would someone please do this. Thanks.

Wrong thread. I suggest a separate thread to get proper responses.

 

[evnow]

http://www.crutchfield.com is my preferred place for car speakers, as they come with model-specific mounting instructions and lots of mounting hardware you don't get when you buy them from local stores. You can select your car model and they will tell you what fits, and supply a free kit of hardware. However, when I just tried to select the Leaf, they say they 'haven't researched the Leaf fully' to know how to mount speakers or replacement stereo heads.

I think Leaf has the standard 6-speaker system of Nissan. So, we could use Versa, Sentra or Juke as a proxy.

 

[tps]

Let's face it, this car is all about the EV, and the sound system didn't get enough attention (for some of us).

One of the reported advantages of EV, though, is low noise. So as a music lover, I'm hoping there will be a way to upgrade the sound system to take advantage of the low noise level of the EV. Of course, one of the disadvantages of EV is range, so one is less likely to make longer freeway trips where a good sound system is really a godsend. In any event, the possibility of sound system upgrade would be one factor pushing me in the buy, instead of lease, direction.

 

[EVDRIVER]

After owning a custom audio shop for many years I have no desire to do projects like this and most cars over $30K have reasonable factory systems for most folks, this one seems like a bit old school "Clarion" for those that know what I mean When Clarion bought Mac they could have leveraged that a bit more in their head units.

Most cars over $30K don't have $10-15K worth of batteries stuffed into them.

Let's face it, this car is all about the EV, and the sound system didn't get enough attention (for some of us). There may or may not be a line-out on the control head. If there is, the options get a little better. Sadly, mine is a leased car, so I won't even bother with speaker changes since it sounds like removing the door panels is a major PITA. :|

Who mentioned $10K worth of batteries or audiophile systems? I'm comparing to base model Toyota products here. There is no line out and the system is about on par with one found in some $18K cars, constantly using the fact that it is an EV to justify Nissan being extra cheap seems silly. take a look at the service manual an you will know what I mean. As a first-time Nissan buyer I'm not impressed with the short cuts on materials and sub-par basic instruments in the car. This car holds a premium price that accounts for the pack cost, that does not mean other things need to be at the level of $15K cars.

 

[tps]

Looking at Crutchfield filtering on Versa Hatchback, it says that Focal 130 KRC coaxials will fit in the rear positions, but the aren't listed for the front. Maybe depth problems??? If not, I'd think the Focal 130 KR separates would be ideal for the front. Depending on the cubic volume behind the charger hump, it might be good for a custom sub cabinet with either 1 or 2 Focal 27KX 11" drivers. These are not cheap drivers, but the sound quality is better than just about any other driver I've heard. Of course all this would require better amplification than the stock head unit, so even more cost involved. These speakers, IMHO, would really be the start of a great car system.

 

[TomT]

+1!

Who mentioned $10K worth of batteries or audiophile systems? I'm comparing to base model Toyota products here. There is no line out and the system is about on par with one found in some $18K cars, constantly using the fact that it is an EV to justify Nissan being extra cheap seems silly. take a look at the service manual an you will know what I mean. As a first-time Nissan buyer I'm not impressed with the short cuts on materials and sub-par basic instruments in the car. This car holds a premium price that accounts for the pack cost, that does not mean other things need to be at the level of $15K cars.

 

[tps]

This car holds a premium price that accounts for the pack cost, that does not mean other things need to be at the level of $15K cars.

So I take it you're in favor of jacking up the price a bit more to pay for these other things? Don't know exactly how I feel on that, because often car manufacturers and dealers really mark up these luxury items... Compared to others, Nissan has done a great job of keeping the cost of their EV down. If that means cutting corners on the audio system, that's OK with me. Anyway, I'm unimpressed by most "premium" factory audio systems, as they are usually tuned so crappy source material from AM, FM, satellite, and crappy CD mastering don't sound too obnoxious.

I hope I get to spend some time in a static LEAF at the DC "Drive Electric" event in a couple weeks with some known good source material, so I can hear for myself what the LEAFs factory system can do.

 

[EVDRIVER]

This car holds a premium price that accounts for the pack cost, that does not mean other things need to be at the level of $15K cars.

So I take it you're in favor of jacking up the price a bit more to pay for these other things? Don't know exactly how I feel on that, because often car manufacturers and dealers really mark up these luxury items... Compared to others, Nissan has done a great job of keeping the cost of their EV down. If that means cutting corners on the audio system, that's OK with me. Anyway, I'm unimpressed by most "premium" factory audio systems, as they are usually tuned so crappy source material from AM, FM, satellite, and crappy CD mastering don't sound too obnoxious.

I hope I get to spend some time in a static LEAF at the DC "Drive Electric" event in a couple weeks with some known good source material, so I can hear for myself what the LEAFs factory system can do.

Yes, I'd pay the extra $100 to make it vastly superior because in their dollars that is a huge difference but that is not needed always. But my point again is that it is far poorer than it should be for this car. I would expect the sound system and NAV in a car like this to be at least decent, the seats to not be cheap and a $2 clock and basic temp sensor to work as well as on in a $12K Toyota Yaris, I think that is reasonable. Since those are items the user interfaces with often it seems like an area to not cut dollars and certainly a cruise control is useless except to those that believe it helps economy which it does not. SInce the original point of a cruise is long-haul freeway driving which the LEAF does not do, I could do without that and have seats that won't look like hell in a year or two. These are the silly marketing decisions companies make and then revise. In fact, I would think that most consumers would expect the sound system to at least sound as good as a sub $20k car that is 5 years old, that does not have to translate into more dollars. Some person in Nissan thought a cruise control was needed at this level of price point and another thought cutting corners on seats was ok. I'm just stating my observations and I have yet to hear a single person say the NAV is good and I would expect it to all be on par better than what is in a Juke that sells in the low 20s. Perhaps this is entirely a Clarion choice issue.

 

[TomT]

Clarion is not know to be - how shall I put this - top or even high-mid level quality... Alpine, Bose, and a number of others that the other Asian manufacturers use are of much higher quality. And for not that much more money. I too would have gladly paid a hundred bucks or so more to get a higher quality nav and sound system.

Yes, I'd pay the extra $100 to make it vastly superior because in their dollars that is a huge difference but that is not needed always. But my point again is that it is far poorer than it should be for this car. I would expect the sound system and NAV in a car like this to be at least decent, the seats to not be cheap and a $2 clock and basic temp sensor to work as well as on in a $12K Toyota Yaris, I think that is reasonable. Since those are items the user interfaces with often it seems like an area to not cut dollars and certainly a cruise control is useless except to those that believe it helps economy which it does not. SInce the original point of a cruise is long-haul freeway driving which the LEAF does not do, I could do without that and have seats that won't look like hell in a year or two. These are the silly marketing decisions companies make and then revise. In fact, I would think that most consumers would expect the sound system to at least sound as good as a sub $20k car that is 5 years old, that does not have to translate into more dollars. Some person in Nissan thought a cruise control was needed at this level of price point and another thought cutting corners on seats was ok. I'm just stating my observations and I have yet to hear a single person say the NAV is good and I would expect it to all be on par better than what is in a Juke that sells in the low 20s. Perhaps this is entirely a Clarion choice issue.

 

[palmermd]

what is the largest rectangular box that can be placed in the back cargo area and have it flush with the hump behind the seats? In other words, what are the dimensions of the cargo area?