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Willson777

FOCAL IS TOY 165 - Not that impressed?

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So after upgrading my head-unit to a Pioneer 160DAB (initially for Apple Carplay etc - not specifically for audio reasons), I thought I would tackle the speakers and saw on the forums that the TOY 165 by FOCAL were considered a decent bang-for-buck, plug and play replacement without too much faffing about.  

I have had them in for a couple of days now and can say I'm not very impressed. The tweeters are better mind you, but the door speakers really don't have much volume to them for some reason?
I was beginning to think I may have not wired them properly but it's literally just the one connector (pushed all the way in), and the tweeters I assume are wired as picture below.

I took a 10 min drive the other day and realised that I'm pretty sure there wasn't any sound even coming out of the door speakers (or it was too low, I couldn't feel any vibration with my hand either) - but then on the way back, they seemed to be playing louder.

Is there something I've missed with these speakers, as the stock door speakers seem to be better so far, imo. 

Also I have heard about the 'running in' period for speakers, although there is also consideration that this is a myth if you look online? 

What are everyone's opinions?

 

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I’ve gotta be honest I don’t like those spade connectors (left hand side of the connector block with the speaker wire in), they really should be insulatated. You risk damaging the head unit otherwise ‘cus you could short out the outputs (might also explain why they didn’t appear to be working at one point).

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4 hours ago, Neil-h said:

I’ve gotta be honest I don’t like those spade connectors (left hand side of the connector block with the speaker wire in), they really should be insulatated. You risk damaging the head unit otherwise ‘cus you could short out the outputs (might also explain why they didn’t appear to be working at one point).

Would this affect the door speakers though? As when the door speakers weren't working, the tweeters were fine.

Maybe I'll also wrap the connections in some electrical tape

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I replaced the stock door speakers with the Focals and the sound went from grim to barely acceptable.  An improvement, certainly, but just about ok for spoken word radio.  I then found a pair of top dash midrange speakers as sold in the US market and replaced the tweeters with those and the sound went from barely acceptable to just about acceptable.  My head unit was swapped to an Eonon Android unit, which helped too.

Just face it, guys, our cars are not suited to high-quality audio.  The doors don't allow for very good drivers and the air space behind them resonates, the body allows noise through and the engine and exhaust are noisy.  It's not a great acoustic environment.

I get along fine with a little LBC and a touch of Radio Paradise.  When I want proper music reproduction, I play the big rig at home.

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Focals are okay, I went with JBL components, more faff but with some sound deadening and speaker adaptors they sound miles better then the oem.

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On my Focal tweeters there was a small piece of plastic insulation over the metal spade connector, possible left over from manufacturing. This stopped the tweeter from working and was quite difficult to spot until I was looking for it. In this instance my tweeters weren't working until I removed this sliver of plastic.

They are not amazing, but better than the OEM speakers. I just assumed it's because they are an afterthought in the car TBH.

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I've found them to be pretty good - it's not audiophile stuff but as @MartinT has said, it never will be in these cars. What you are describing, @Willson777 doesn't sound right (some pun intended!) they maybe won't knock your socks off but they should sound decent and should certainly be heard! Maybe check the set up in your head unit?

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21 hours ago, MartinT said:

I replaced the stock door speakers with the Focals and the sound went from grim to barely acceptable.  An improvement, certainly, but just about ok for spoken word radio.  I then found a pair of top dash midrange speakers as sold in the US market and replaced the tweeters with those and the sound went from barely acceptable to just about acceptable.  My head unit was swapped to an Eonon Android unit, which helped too.

Just face it, guys, our cars are not suited to high-quality audio.  The doors don't allow for very good drivers and the air space behind them resonates, the body allows noise through and the engine and exhaust are noisy.  It's not a great acoustic environment.

I get along fine with a little LBC and a touch of Radio Paradise.  When I want proper music reproduction, I play the big rig at home.

Ive experienced Martins ‘big rig’, and it is truly amazing sound, could sit in that room every night getting comfortably numb to music! 
 

5 hours ago, McDude said:

I've found them to be pretty good - it's not audiophile stuff but as @MartinT has said, it never will be in these cars. What you are describing, @Willson777 doesn't sound right (some pun intended!) they maybe won't knock your socks off but they should sound decent and should certainly be heard! Maybe check the set up in your head unit?

So today they did seem a bit better, i dont know if this is a break in period, or because i had upped the volume and maybe that had ‘loosened’ them up somehow… 

Ive looked at the various settings / EQ etc in the headunit and tried various combinations to little avail. As mentioned though they were sounding better now so im gonna keep an ear on it! 

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From what I gather any break in would not have a significant effect in the grand scheme of the noise in our cars.

It seems to be more a tonality thing rather than SPL.

Like you say though, split thinking on it and even between esteemed speaker designers/bods. Personally I think there must be an element of truth to it in some cases/certain drivers but I can't say I've ever noticed it because by the time you put in the considerable hours for them to break in you've no reliable reference for exactly what they sounded like to start with. It doesn't appear to be a measurable thing.

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I swapped to the focals and put some sound deadening sheets in the door at the same time. Difference was night and day. I would still like a little more volume occasionally but overall listening to music in the car is enjoyable. Standard head unit. I've got a decent stereo at home and in the past have had a subwoofer in my car. The focals give reasonable bass for what they are.

Willson I think something is wrong - can you use the stereo settings to isolate one speaker at a time and make sure each is working correctly?

" just about ok for spoken word radio " - there simply must be something wrong with your setup. This is wildly different to my experience!

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