Leaf Speakers Replacements

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Herm said:
I just noticed the small magnets in the factory speakers.. are they using rare earth magnets to keep the weight down?

BTW.. I just love that dark metallic red Nissan uses..

Herm, good guess. The reason that the speaker magnet is so small is that it uses a neodymium magnet, which Nissan has been using for years in their upgrade systems. Here is a link to Eminence neodymium magnet speakers, a high-end manufacturer that has made them for years. In fact, this is what their FAQ has to say about neodymium magnet speakers:

Each material, of course, has different magnetic properties and cost. Neodymium seems to be the wave of the future, especially with reduced weight and overall costs coming down. It produces the most magnetic flux per ounce, making it ideal for use in multiple speaker cabinets to maintain performance while reducing handling and shipping weight.

The reason Nissan uses these speakers in the LEAF is to minimize weight while offering reasonable sound. For most, the standard speakers will be fine. If you are used to a more powerful system, you may wish for more power as well as more capable speakers. Just swapping speakers out may not do the trick.
 
A couple things.
I used a Fein multimaster to knock off the "lip" on the factory speaker rings.
Worked great.

Also, someone noted that they didn't "glue" the speakers to the ring.
Speaker design 101.
Companies spend an enormous amount of energy keeping the overpressure in the front of the speaker stroke, from meeting the negative pressure to the rear of the speaker during the same stroke.

Glue, silicon, whatever, but do something to seal those new speakers to the old rings.
Also, dynamat as tight as you can to delay those inverse pressures from cancelling as long as possible.

Did mine while they were doing the Leather interior.
One of the most time consuming things was de-soldering the old speaker leads.
They were Clamped, and then soldered.

Thanks Thanks for the pictures- They Helped immensely
 
craigmartell said:
Just did this upgrade today. Wow the difference is remarkable!!

BTW, is there any value in keeping the original speakers? I didn't need to dismantle them to install the speakers. I modified the brackets that came with the speakers. So, they are in original shape.

Craig
 
Thanks for posting these pics with the ruler in the car, Helps a lot.

I'm a Polk Audio man. I have Polk Audio speakers everywhere, So I really want to use Polks and I'm thinking of getting these:

http://www.polkaudio.com/products/mm651" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; which are 2-5/8" top mounted so I should be good?



FairwoodRed said:
The fronts however will interfere with the glass and you only have 2 7/8" clearance.

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If you add the stock mounts, you will add 7/8" to both measurements.
 
I have some questions after -trying- to install a replacement speaker.

1) Between the speaker, and the plastic ring it goes into, should there be glue or something? Dynamat is currently backing the whole shebang, but isn't in the middle or anything.

2) My speaker (singular) doesn't sound great. From reading I understand that's probably because I switched polarity. As long as I do the same wiring behind it (red to positive, black to negative) it'll fix?

3) Have you all been clicking the -2 button on the speaker when installing them?

4) Are you all ditching that metal ring that came with the speakers?

5) Are you all using the little screw + metal clip to attach the speaker to the plastic ring?

Thanks all!
 
Posting for Posterity.

I did all four speaker with the Infiniti 629's. I didn't put glue around the rings, I did dynamat behind them. I attached the speaker to the plastic rings with the smaller chubby screws. I used the "-2" setting in the back, but not in the front.

The plastic rings worked fine on all four speakers, you just have to drill out the ends of 2/3 of the triplets (so not the long opening one, but the other two). I mounted it by putting one screw into the car, sliding it onto that, then screwing in the other drilled out part near the end of the allowable space, then sort of jimmying it around until I could see the third hole through the unmodified longer opening.

I did have a minor problem with static, then having the stereo just turn off. I fixed this by untying one of the blocky connector bits from the internal metal I had zip tied it to. Once I did that it stopped static noising/shutting-off. I didn't do a good job attaching those boxes to anything, but put some foam on the outside of them when i remembered to. ***Edit: this isn't fixed. I still get the occasional weird noise. I plan to open it up once more, re-do the wiring, and make damn sure the brick thing is insulated.

The sound is okay. I was underwhelmed at first. I'm still playing with the bass/treble settings. I like it more than stock, but it doesn't blow me away. The noticeable difference is just that it sounds a bit more rich, mainly in the lower registers. The highs do sound better too I think. I find the mids to be improved, but mostly when I turn the treble/bass away from full blast and more towards center. I'm still fiddling with it.

I do have one piece of advice for anyone doing this, which is to be super careful when popping off the clips. I used a screwdriver and a sheet of plastic to stop it from making marks, but I still scratched into the plastic a time or two.

It took me around four hours total, the latter doors going much quicker than the initial door.
 
I decided to upgrade my fronts after a speaker blew. I pickup up the Infinity Kappa 62.9i (2 ohm) speakers. <$70 on amazon. It's an amazing upgrade that was simpler to install than expected. Speakers sound louder than the factory with more bass and higher highs. A must have!

After removing the old speaker out of the factory bracket (via dremel & utility knife), I reused it to house the infinity. I simply screwed the speaker to the top of the plastic bracket without modification and there was enough clearance.

Just so everyone's clear on polarity:



I removed the plastic film from the back of the magnet for better adhesion. Then I superglued the crossover at the bottom of the magnet (no interference with window):

 
Phatcat73 said:
I decided to upgrade my fronts after a speaker blew. I pickup up the Infinity Kappa 62.9i (2 ohm) speakers. <$70 on amazon. It's an amazing upgrade that was simpler to install than expected. Speakers sound louder than the factory with more bass and higher highs. A must have!

After removing the old speaker out of the factory bracket (via dremel & utility knife), I reused it to house the infinity. I simply screwed the speaker to the top of the plastic bracket without modification and there was enough clearance

Wondering if I should attempt this on a 3yr lease. Anyone else?
 
I would like to replace all four 6.5 speakers in a leased 2014 SV. Has anyone tried these adapters?

http://www.car-speaker-adapters.com/products.php?id=adapter_search_consumer" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.speaker-installation-photos.com/Nissan/Leaf/Leaf-1/36116095_fkvLL8#!i=3028542012&k=7KWNb3z" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am trying to save the factory spacers if possible.

Also, I torn between the 6032cf / 6032si, 629i and 639i. The 6032 appear to be designed for a factory (lower power) head and may get better response. But maybe 629i in the rear and 639i in the front is the way to go.

Has anyone tried either of these? ...

http://www.amazon.com/Infinity-Reference-6032cf-6-5-Inch-High-Performance/dp/B002BZFSYA/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1399981994&sr=1-1&keywords=6032cf#productDetails" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002C8AFEE/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2DF622E5CNSJT&coliid=I1526GTUX67BIK#productDetails" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Looks like the adapters would work, but not sure if it's worth $30 a pair for adapters for $60 speakers. To me it's not worth the time to go back into the doors to put the factory speakers back in. I might as well just gut the factory speakers and reuse. Plus gutting the factory bracket will not require you to cut off the speaker wire connector.

You actually may not even need the adapters. My 629i infinity are narrow enough and come with adapters that should work with the leaf.
 
Hi Leafers,

Thanks for all the info posted here. I just installed 4 Infinity Kappa 62.11i 6.5 Inch Coaxial Speaker. I used the existing speaker's bases, applied lots of Noico 80 mil sound deadener.

Sounds substantially better, fuller & smoother sound w/ better highs and lows. And now the equalizer is set as -1 for both base and treble (they were both at +2).

I'm surprised by how well the treble travels up from the low speaker location. I thought the legs would block a lot of the treble. The existing tweeters are still operational so i'm sure they help but they're not that loud. The infinity's have a button to increase the highs and this has not been activated.

I don't notice much difference (based on seat-of-the-pants observation) in the road noise from the additional sound deadener though the Leaf is already quite quiet. I'm sure the base has improved though.
 
I really like the Infinity Kappa 62.11i, but Crutchfield shows that they don't fit in the Nissan Leaf. That obviously can't be true, since you have them. Did you have to modify the car to get them in, use special brackets, rings, etc.?
 
I just bought four Infinity REF6522IX speakers from Amazon, plus speaker harnesses and adapters. It looks like this thread is barely alive so I will try to update my progress for my 2013 Leaf here. I have never attempted swapping out door speakers before so hopefully it all goes smoothly.
 
Over the weekend I replaced the four speakers in the Leaf doors with Infinity REF6522IX speakers from Amazon https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DSIKGJA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. I used these adaptors https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B078GQJ8CT/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and wiring harness https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N03JC9O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 so I wouldn't have to splice any wires and make it as plug-in-and-go as possible. Overall, the whole experience was much easier than I thought with only one slight problem which I will detail below.

I used this YouTube video to learn how to remove the door panels: https://youtu.be/siW8sxZnQ-w
I used an electric drill for all the bolts, which I highly recommend, but a regular phillips screwdriver to remove the door handle. The door panels are really easy to remove, which was nice.

I also bought a set of F.A.S.T. Rings for the two front speakers to see what all the fuss was about. I think they were a good choice, and relatively cheap. Just be prepared to cut them to adapt to your surroundings. They are just foam so are very easy to cut. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B016LFVKHY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 They are just two foam rings and a center piece. The center piece is supposed to stick on the backside of the door behind the speaker to absorb sound waves from the back of the speaker so they don't reflect off the metal of the door.

voycVgg.jpg

XMFiGq6.jpg


Unfortunately, there is a metal reinforcing bar that goes horizontally across the door behind the speaker and some metal bracket or something on the left side. I had to cut the foam to about half its thickness to fit behind that bracket then cut the top third off the circle. I fit the bigger piece of the circle under the bar then the smaller piece to the bar, overlapping the bigger piece a bit . As you may be able to see, I did all this with the window lowered just to be sure the window wouldn't hit anything. The window is pretty much out of the way.

UcJZy1M.jpg

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The smaller ring I stuck behind the speaker cone after I installed the bracket. This ring is designed to be cut so about 1/4 inch sticks out behind the speaker. I just eyeballed it so I probably have closer to 1/2 inch, but it is designed to be smushed between the speaker and the hole in the door the speaker is attached to so it doesn't have to be perfect. This worked fine. To make it fit with the adapter I also cut out notches on the bottom of the ring around the four screws that connect the speaker to the adapter. That way I could get the sticky end of the ring flush with the bottom of the speaker and make the ring fit the way it is supposed to. Basically, the adapter overlaps the speaker where the screws attach so you have to cut the foam around that to make it fit. I hope I explained that well enough because I don't have a photo of that part.

roHHnjD.jpg


Here is where I had my little problem. I installed the rear speakers first. They connect to the door with the bolts in an upside down pattern with two bolts at the top and one at the bottom in the middle. I assumed all the doors were the same so I connected the bracket to the front speakers the same way. The front speakers are mounted rightside-up with one bolt at the top and two bolts at the bottom so the tweeter isn't pointing exactly where I want it to. I had also connected the smaller foam ring to the back of the speaker and I couldn;t remove the speaker from the adapter without ripping out the foam so I just mounted it the best I could. At least the tweeter isn;t pointing down, and the A-pillars have a tweeter in them so this tweeter is sort of redundant. Everything sounds good so I am not sweating it.

EaMS4Lf.jpg


The last step is to attach the bigger ring to the outside of the speaker. This ring is designed to fill in the gap between the speaker cone and the speaker grill on the door panel and funnel the music into the cabin. I have read some people with other cars having to trim this ring to fit but I left it as-is and I was able to reconnect the door panel without any issues.

If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them but keep in mind this was my first time doing this so I am by no means an expert. Still, I wanted to document it as best I could so other people who may want to try this won't be going in blind. I am happy with the results.
 
I put some Infinity Kappa 62.11i speakers in my front and rear doors. I bought them from Crutchfield. They supply free brackets and speaker wiring harnesses that make installation much easier. I took the brackets that Crutchfield included and screwed the Infinity supplied bracket to them to create a bracket with enough clearance to install without hitting anything. I also added some Noico deadening material as long as everything was taken apart.

The speakers were a definite improvement for highs and mids, but the bass was still pretty lacking, so I added an 8" powered Bazooka tube that I had from my old car. That really completed the system and I'm very happy with how my Leaf sounds now. It's not going to rattle anybody's windows, but I'm not 16 and looking for that booming bass anymore!
 
How do you hook up the bazooka tube? I don't want crazy bass but I'd like to have enough to really make a difference. Replacing the four speakers was straight forward enough but I don't have a sub to swap out, so how do you add one to the mix?
 
Just curious ... has anyone done the four speaker swap on a Bose system? I've got a 2017 SV with Bose and although it's OK, i find I really need to push the levels to 3/4 max power to get anything that sounds somewhat balanced. That's with some heavy EQ on the software side from my Android phone playback.

I was reading through here, looking at speaker replacement options on crutchfield (like these --> https://www.crutchfield.com/p_151L2652/PowerBass-L2-652.html?avf=Y), and then it occurred to me that many may have done this on the stock S trim ... I'm wondering how much difference to expect in a speaker only upgrade for the Bose. Even though the sub is passive, I'm probably not going to go down the path of a new subwoofer, so hoping to get as much of an improvement as I can get out of some 2ohm in-door speaker upgrades.

Anyone else do a speaker swap for the bose system? I saw a full bose-ectomy on this topic --> http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=24188&start=10 but that's a bit more than I want to undertake.
 
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