Is Upgrading Your Car Speakers ACTUALLY Worth It? 

Not joking, he's one of the best talkers while working on RU-vid.

2:46 Camera man was like: “Yea I’m feelin this”

I must say, being a car audio professional for the last 14 years... That this is the one of the best videos that I have seen, not only explaining the basics of car audio, the install itself was actually very well done. Everything was very well explained and shown ... All his skills and techniques were very good.... The use of good quality brands and good quality wiring.... The explanations of why these things are very important... For example oxygen-free copper... And improving the vehicles thin cheap ground wires... I would have a difficult time Nit-picking anything... I probably would have found separate grounds for each rather than bundling them up.... And grinding the paint on the chassis where he connected the ground to bare metal.... Overall... EXTREMELY good video.... Hats off to you

I used to install competition stereo systems in the early 90's. I can still remember my first one. Let me encourage you, you can do it. It's so satisfying upon completion.

Jobe is going to be a great Dad some day. He makes me feel like I can do anything after just watching a video.

This guy has to be my favorite on this channel. Doesn’t beat around the bush and tells you straight up how things are and how to do things. Makes a beginner like me feel a lot more comfortable getting into the car scene

I just got my first car from my father. 1986 C4 corvette. Its in rough shape but il definitely be coming back to these videos for inspiration throughout my build of it, already watched the James' up to speed.

This was such a great intro into car electronics! Thank you so much. You guys do awesome work and make sense of so much that before, wasn’t easy to learn. Keep up the good work and all the best to you and the crew 🤙🏼🤙🏼

"Do you like to jam out in your car?" Guilty. "But your speakers sound like they're under water?" Absolutely.

next we'll need a video of all of your neighbors yelling at you cause you're bumpin pumphrey while driving around at midnight

I love this channel, is like a one stop and shop channel where you can learn how to fix cars, DIY on music systems, learn about the history of cars, laugh and buy merchandises...lol You guys are awesome!!!

Honestly I just want Zach as a friend, just a down to earth dude with a calm demeanor and a good attitude. A genuine good dude.

Zach needs to install the mod that allows you to manually control when each headlight goes up/down. Then pump "pop up up and down headlights" at full volume while alternately winking each headlight. Get Jeremiah in his mesh shirt as a backup dancer.

Some extra bits of info on the topic for anyone interested in doing this: - It is extremely important that your positive power cable has a fuse on it as close to the battery as possible. If you run an unfused thick power wire - especially a long one - and it accidentally hits the body of the car or gets damaged for example, you are directly shorting out your battery with a very beefy wire, meaning the battery will essentially pump out all of its energy as fast as possible, not only killing the battery and potentially starting fires, but also literally creating an explosion hazard as the battery overheats and starts to boil. - It is common advice to always make sure the ground cable is the first cable you install to an amplifier. Do not plug in the power, remote or especially the RCAs before the ground is connected. Similarly, whenever you are removing an amplifier make sure the ground stays connected for as long as possible. One of the worst mistakes you can make is plugging the RCA in first, then power. As soon as an amplifier receives power on its terminals, even without being turned on with the remote wire, it will charge up a capacitor bank inside which causes a huge surge of current - often even visible on the power cables as a loud spark. If the ground isn't connected, the amp will ground itself through the only path it has - the RCA. Now this huge current surge will run through your thin RCA wires into your headunit instead of using the nice and thick ground cable. This pretty much always results in blowing the audio traces and/or nearby components in your headunit, resulting in anything from horrible sounding audio to no audio at all or even a completely dead headunit. Good order of operations is Ground -> Power -> remote -> speakers -> RCAs. When removing, reverse the order. - On some headunits the very upper end of the volume range is not actually recommended to use, especially with an amplifier hooked up. Past a certain volume level the headunit starts to "overdrive" its outputs, meaning it has already reached "maximum" volume and is now just trying to make it even louder. This is done to for example get full volume out of a music track that is particularly quiet. If however playing "properly made" music - music that is mixed in a way that it hits close to 0dB at some points in the song - the headunit can't actually "amplify" the sound any more and the sound signal will do what's called "clipping" - the round peak of the soundwave gets clipped off. This will bring unwanted harmonics to the audio and if the clipping is high enough the distortion will become audible to even the most untrained ear. Clipping is bad in more than just audio quality though, as it can even break your amplifier or speakers if done for too long. Set the gain knob of your amplifier to it's lowest level. Start increasing volume from the headunit gradually until you feel like you start hearing distortion - this is most audible at lower frequencies, eg. bass. WHen you hear distortion, take the volume a few clicks back until you can be absolutely sure you hear no clipping. Now try with different songs, and if the audio quality increases by lowering the volume, you are likely clipping. Continue this until you have found a volume level at which all songs sound fine. Now start increasing the gain knob on your amplifier, listening for the same distortion again. Once you hear distortion, dial it back again until the audio is crisp. Repeat with many different songs until you are sure you get no clipping. Now you have "gain-matched" your amplifier and also determined the highest safe volume level on your headunit. Never touch the gain knob from this point on unless you change your headunit (the gain knob is not a volume adjuster!!). Memorize what volume your headunit is at when music doesn't clip, and remember to avoid exceeding that volume level in the future when listening to music.

The distortion you heard at the beginning would have been amplifier distortion as the head unit couldn't cope. Just adding a power amp to this setup could have breathed new life into those Alpine Type E's.

Great video. Informative, entertaining, and clean too...family friendly. Really love this style.

As a wise man once said: "a bangin' stereo, for me tunes!"

I have an idea for you guys. How about you do an episode about getting parts from a junkyard to fill out your missing interior pieces? A lot of people don't even consider the picknpull as a place to get car parts.

It is astonishing how this dude can make clear videos and pass info for the wanna be DIY’ers like myself. Thanks a lot and keep up the good work!

Bruh makes everything seem so easy and breaks it down for anyone to understand. Solid 10/10

Now as you can see, I've done absolutely nothing to the exterior of my car, and that is because I've spent my whole 300 quid on *exactly* what a 17 year old wants. A banging stereo, for me tunes!

The way you guys represent your sponsors is so satisfying to watch.

Everytime I think about doing something to my car, you guys have a video out perfectly explaining and showing me what I need to see, thanks!

You can do HPF and LPF within those Pioneer head units as well. But yea, like the video mentions you should be filtering all the low out of those 6" speakers and run loudness/bass boost off then install a sub.

His hair gets more glorious with every episode

Jobe telling me that wiring isn't as scary as it seems feels like hearing it from a wholesome older brother

If you want to low pass filter on your stock head unit to your stock speakers if you have a aftermarket sub setup, you can put a capacitor in line near the speaker and it will filter out the low bass notes

Thanks Zack! Great tips on stereo installation! 🤘

Its a huge coincidence that I am looking to do a speaker swap on my car. This video couldn’t have come out at a better time.

Money pit is honestly my favorite Donut show, deadass. Keep it up, Jobe.

You are one of my favorites on donutmedia, super chill and seem like an awesome guy to know. JL is my favorite audio brands awesome to see you like them too!

Probably the most well put-together video on speaker installs that I've ever seen. I've installed several speakers and subwoofers over the years, and it took a lot of personal research and money to get it right. The only thing missing is adding a fuse in between the amplifier power and the battery, close to the battery. I've had a case where the power wire got shorted and caught fire, luckily only burning the wire. But a poor install can do some damage. Also if you don't have an aftermarket head unit, make sure you use a proper technique to splice into the back of the factory unit, as those wires can become loose over time and give you some headaches.

We need a video of Zach and James just losing their minds while the Miata headlights go up and down

We need in the donut store a Hat with Jobe Hair... Just saying sweet flow bro

Fantastic, I've really enjoyed this video and will have to watch it over again, there is so much going on but at the same time it comes across as a can-do thing even for someone who has little experience at all. Great vid, thanks for the posting.

These videos are fantastic, but this one is like on another level. This is fascinating and you make it so easy to follow and understand. Nicely done folks :)

The little highlighting on the box was SUCH a small thing to put effort into in the editing. I respect it.

Even if they did a video on door handles I'd still watch

Not sure how I came across this vid. Fun to watch. I was installing car stereos in the 90s before I even had a license to drive! The amps and wiring are all pretty much the same over the decades, but what is cool to see are the new wiring tools and accessories for installation. Cool stuff! Really cool to see vids like this explaining DIY car stereos to the next generation of audiophiles. Keep up the great work.

Bro the whole donut media crew just motivates me to be productive in life

Excellent vid and proof you don’t need to spend thousands to get much better sound in your car. Just too bad the new cars lack the ability in many cases to upgrade the head unit. At least the aftermarket companies are doing great keeping up with the adapters you need to add aftermarket amps and speakers. Thanks for this vid and for promoting car audio!

This is probably the only RU-vid channel where I don't skip the ads.

FYI, I love that you add a progress bar for the ad. Thanks for that

Awesome video. Having all the right tools made the job way easier too. Thx for sharing your knowledge.

Back in high school (early 2000s) upgrading your speakers and adding some thump in the trunk was absolutely necessary. We all became experts, meeting up at ours friends houses, popping plastic panels and running wires. If you were real cool you had that Panasonic deck with the 3D dot matrix 😎

Plot twist: the Pop up and down headlights remix was originally made just to avoid copyright in this video.

This was extremely helpful, Thanks Donut !

Thanks for the video! This was incredibly helpful.

Some tips from an old ex-stereo installer: - for running wires through the door grommet boots, get your hands on a 3foot tie strap. Flexible but stiff enough to push though the boot. - the blue remote wire from the head unit turns on and off with the head unit, not the key. The fact that the deck itself turns on and off with the key replicates this action but the blue wire itself is controlled by the status of the deck. - the gain setting knob on the amplifier is used to match the input sensitivity of the amplifier to the output voltage of the head unit. It is not some kind of auxiliary volume knob. Turning the gain up just makes the amplifier max out and start distorting at a lower volume level on the deck. Turning the deck up past there just increases distortion and crap sound. It is better to be conservative with the gain rather than just maxing it out (which we see far too often). - you used a 4channel amplifier and are running just two speakers. Unless you plan on adding another pair of speakers or powering a sub with the the other two amplifier channels, you could have bought half the amp and saved some $$

I swear to god this series is just Zach's master plan to build his dream miata

Thank you so much, Donut. I just got done installing 2, 8 inch subs and used this video as a point of reference for concept. Now I'm rolling around with some great sound!

Agree with you on some of this, but please, look into how to set your amp with a dmm, because gain isn't a volume knobs and is actually a variable input voltage adjustment, when gain is set too high, it introduelces cliping, cliping cliping is bad for your speakers, much worse than overpowering a speaker

I usually dont comment but i just gotta say that i absolutely love Zach, I dont care what the episode is about but if its him ill watch it. informative, charismatic, knowledgeable and overall a pleasant viewing experience. give that man a raise! take it from jarred ;)

You'd do well to insulate the doors and seal them up nicely. It gives a better bass response if all the air gaps are nicely covered and the outer skin has some good sound deadning on it. :)

Grabbed this amp on sale. Can't wait to install it

I have an old 2008 chevy silverado. A couple months back I put the advance auto special sub and amp, (car dual) which is a 600 watt amp and a 10 inch sub. I spent about $250 on it, (including the amp kit), and it doesn't sound bad in my opinion. It hold the bass very nice and doesn't overpower my stock speakers I have. I love it

I’m so glad he talked about hi and low pass filters, so many people put in new speakers and hate it because they don’t tune the speakers for the right notes

Do a b2b on pre-war straight 8 engines.

I have an Alfa Romeo 1999 year in Brazil. Can you imagine how crazy it is? I love your channel and your videos. I learn a lot.

With the 4 channel amp already it would be easy to strap the other two channels together to power the sub and build a small sub box for the trunk. Very little additional cost and would add back the bass filtered out of the mids.

Is no one going to talk about how Zach has 3 arms in the thumbnail?🤔

It’s one of very very few places where no one can tell you to turn it down and you can listen to whatever you want. You owe yourself a good system, we all owe it to ourselves.

Love ur money pit videos

Its not about how loud its about the quality

I've installed half a dozen car head units with amps setup in my life. Still watched the entire video. Zach is just an awesome show host and the video is very well produced. Keep up the great work Donut!

Big speakers and under glow baby let’s rock like it’s the 2000s 😎

Installing a new head unit in a 2001 Frontier was such a satisfying job. This is an awesome video for the next step.

Infinity reference series is the best budget friendly high quality speaker in my opinion. I've only ever put those in my vehicles, never been disappointed. Hella bass response too.

Zach buying all his parts through the company and labelling them as “business expenses”

It's Wednesday my dudes!

YES, it is absolutely worth it. I changed the stock speakers on my 2006 corolla and the difference is insane. More extreme for me considering the damn things were 10 years old and the front door speakers probably getting lots of water and dirt on it over the years since they’re on the very bottom sides of the doors. All and all, for the sub amp, 2 12”s, the ported 2 speaker box, the kicker sub amp, the ds18 mid amp, the 2 rear 3way 6x9’s and the 2 front 2 way 6.5” speakers and the 8ga and 4ga wiring kit, all and all around $1k, replacing the 4 channel 2.5v preout jvc with a 6 channel 5v preout Kenwood Excelon, very excited.

Used to love fitting ICE in all my mates cars and my own Had a massive set up in one of my cars which was a monster one - 1 x15 inch, 2 x 12 inch 2 x 10 inch 6.5 componants, 3 mono blocks and a 4 way amp, 2 power caps, uprated battery / alternator plus hundreds in connectors and wiring.

Imagine if he would blast the pop up headlights song at full volume at the middle of the street...

Having a decent subwoofer will help the perceived loudness of the overall sound immensely. Levels you play the music is uncomfortable but still unsatisfying which can be solved with a subwoofer. It can even be an under seat subwoofer and it'll beef things up pretty good. (down to about 40Hz. if you want lower, under seat subs may not cut it but I think for most ears properly produced 40Hz is more bass than they'd ever want.

Over a year late on most of these videos, but I'm definitely loving watching these videos, I'm happy my car's stock speakers on a Dodge Charger Scatpack is actually super good as stock, loudness and clarity at max volume is pretty good, but I am missing the subwoofer, so I'll be looking into installing that later down the line, with that I may check into upgrading these stock door speakers too, but we'll see!

i just bought my first car, this video is like a warm bath. Good stuff dude!❤

Bringing Zach into the mix was the best move Donut could've done tbh. This series is so good

2 quick tips that you probably did but didn't mention, but would be good for someone who's doing this for the first time to know. 1. Label the wires and label them well, this way they won't get mixed up and cause you fade/balance settings to be almost useless. 2. if you're going to send welding wire (or anything really) through the door grommet, make a small loop on the end and tape over it completely to make sure you don't accidentally nick a wire with a sharp edge and cause a massive headache.

Dude that was awesome! So clear and direct. And I think even I could do it!

Out of all the installs I’ve done, not once have I tried rivnuts, I’m going to try that! Thank you

You guys are always asking "is it worth it?" - Time to familiarize yourself with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It's VERY CLEAR he meant to include 'sweet tunes' at the top as part of 'Self Actualization' - achieving one's full potential, including creative activities.

Bold of you to think I don't like my music played as if it's underwater

Dave, you're right. This guy is easy to listen to and follow. He makes me feel I can do this.

Thank you ! This was very helpful and entertaining!

Can you guys make a album of all your guys music that you done 😂😂

Purpose of weight reduction: allowing you to add big speakers and amps and still be faster than your friends

This is super helpful. Thank you!

Extremely well done video, even though I'm not the biggest JL Audio fan, this had great info in it

“Hydraulic crimpers give the best crimp, let me show you how well they turn out” Forgets to show how well they turn out lol

Good car speakers are one of the best investments you can have just makes driving with music so much more satisfying when it doesn't sound like shit

The role of the amplifier cannot be understated here, even the original speakers that were replaced (that looked to be aftermarket anyway) would have benefitted from the amplifier as it's likely some of the distortion was coming from the head unit's inbuilt amp being absolutely maxed out at '40 volume'. In other words, if you're a DIYer and doing this on a budget, you can do it in stages and the first stage would be putting in a decent amplifier that will allow you flexibility in future. A really good video as always!

This was my first and only project so far. In my 15 year old then 2002 vectra c I installed dynamats and fout time cheaper silent coats in all four doors. Then replaced 8 stock speakers with dedicated pioneer speakers and 2din pioneer radio. . Result was amazing, no need for subwoofer, crystal clear, bass heavy sound.

I've always used the old wire to pull new wire through the door grommet.

Speaking of high-pass filters. The Pioneer head units like the one installed here has a very good setting for filtering sound. Independent adjustable high-pass filters ranging from 20 Hz up to 120 Hz, with slope settings ranging from 6 dB per octave, to 36 dB per octave. Very easy to set up, being that you have the informaion in clear text.

Nice video! Good presentation. Lots of good background info without getting sidetracked from the Main event. I will have to do some research on the high pass filter options. That sounds useful. Thought some of the speakers read about had it built in already. If so I don't want wasted effort. Thumbs up!

Nice job guy, very helpful, thanks.

Thank you so much for going into detail about how you wired your speaker wires. Too many channels on RU-vid glosses so fast over that but you just showed me something that I know am confident in doing 👍🏾

I get flashbacks from the end of 90s - beginning of 2000s, when aftermarket audio was a hot topic. Would be a fun episode if you somehow got Mad Mike from 'Pimp my Ride' to help you choose and install an audio system :P

The only suggestion, and I’m sure it’s been covered, is to make the speaker wires equal length. They’re probably pretty similar on that setup, but sometimes they vary. And, potentially, you can have a slight delay if one wire is significantly shorter than the other.

I suggest adding some tweeters on the pillers. You'll like the upgrade. A small center console custom woofer box with a single 6.5 inch or a 8 inch would sound very nice in the miata.