I have read a few forums that state the Infinity Reference 6532IX is the way to go with the door speaker replacement. I actually bought some JBL speakers that didn't work out so I will probably replace them with the Infinity's. On a positive note, removing the door and changing the speaker is super easy.

 

Do you know what size the speakers are?

 

Thanks veru much for your reply, will check this out

 

I'm also interested to know the size and depth of the door speakers, midrange dash speakers, and tweeters in the sails. Anyone have this information?

 

I'm planning to pull my car apart to investigate the speakers and amp in late October or early November when I have a spare car to drive for a few days. Once I get the speakers out i'll go down to my local shop and see if I can find speakers and adapters that fit for all the components. I'll post when I have that done. Maybe I can do it sooner if I get free time.... I'm itching to change the amp, but I need to figure out how the Balance/Fader/Surround is controlled. I'm hoping to replace the amp entirely, but I need to see what inputs are being used. I'm hoping the Rockford Fosgate DSR-1 will work.

 

My installer tested the iDatalink/Maestro RF DSR-1 with optical module, but it doesn't work yet with the EV6 or Ioniq 5. However, in the future it may support the EV6 and when it does I will have him swap out my Mosconi LD4C bluetooth receiver for the DSR-1. He mentioned that when measuring the POST stock amp signal, the frequency response was okay and the noise floor was above average compared to other modern AVHU he's worked on. I'm digging the results despite him having to tap off the amp high level outputs, but the sound should improve quite a bit once the digital signal can be taken directly from the AVHU. FYI, the stock amp is located under the rear seat which has to be removed to get access. If there are any specifics you would like to know, just ping me and I'll try and get some answers from my installer.

Btw, he was able to fit 2 10's in that space and it's not overkill at all

 

This weekend I decided to take my door panels off to understand the speaker that are being used in the meridian system and figure out what is needed to upgrade the speakers. I am planning to investigate the amplifier too, but didn't have time for that yet.

Door panel is very easy to remove. Start with the tweeter sail panel. pry that off with a plastic pry tool. Only held in with 2 clips. Remove the rubber insert in the handle and remove the screw. After that start at the botton with a pry too and pry the panel out.

you can unplug the harness from the door card. and the door handle cable removes easily. Depress the little latch on the white clip.

And now we can see the speaker in the door. Let's remove it.

Here is the factor connector. I'm not familiar with this, so if anyone else knows another car that uses this please comment...

Speaker removed. It's a 6.5" in a raised surround.

The basket is 1 7/16" tall

This magnet is tiny and low profile. It's like that for a reason unfortunately.

Here is the opening of the door. I have the window rolled all the way down, and you can see it behind the speaker opening. Also there is a large piece of plastic encroaching on the right side. This appears to be her only to hold a wiring harness behind it. This could be removed and the harness secured another way.

Clearance to the window is only 2 3/8" deep from the opening. add the basket height and that is 3 13/16" total clearance from the top of the speaker to the window. So speakers will either need a small magnet the doesn't interfere with the window, or need to be compact enough to be in-front of the window. This means fitment may be hit or miss depending on the exact speaker.

To Be Continued

 

Let's look at the tweeter now...

Here is the connector. Not sure which one this is, but I will take a look at my local audio shop and see if I can figure it out.

The tweeter is held in with 2 screws. The plastic housing is oddly shaped. Making a custom mount will need a material that can be heated and shaped. I see a capacitor on the speaker which made me think that the tweeter and woofer are on a single channel from the amp.... I check the connectors and was able to confirm that the woofer and tweeter are on a single channel and it uses a capacitor to block the bass from the tweeter. This is almost certainly a 4.7uF cap (I was able to read the cap in the rear door). Because the speakers share a channel, if you get aftermarket components and use the factory wiring, both the woofer and tweeter need built-in crossover components. Otherwise you either need to run additional wires to the tweeter and/or mount the crossover in the door.

Full tweeter size is 1 1/2". But I think a full 1 1/2" aftermarket tweeter will be very difficult to mount. I will probably go with 1" or less.

I decided to measure the resistance of each speaker to figure out the impedance for the entire channel (woofer+tweeter). The woofer looks like an 8ohm and the tweeter is a 4ohm. You can't measure the resistance with a capacitor, so this may make the tweeter appear to be a higher impedance, so keep this in mind. Combining the 8ohm woofer and 4ohm tweeter, the amplifier should see 2.67 ohms. Therefore I recommend a 4ohm replacement component set.

I had an extra adapter ring in my garage and it mounted directly to the door, so it should be easy to find from door adapters. The rear is a different story. (next post)

 

This is the rear door.

I initially thought the rear door would use the same speakers as it appeared to be the same size. Well I was wrong, so I'm glad I removed the rear door panel too. Removal is the same a the from door. Remember to remove the blank sail panel on this door first too.

Speaker is a 5 1/4" (actually it looks slightly larger, but for aftermarket you will probably only fit a 5 1/4"

This time the window does not interfere behind the speaker. Although this extra black plastic and wiring harness is again present.

The mounting depth from the speaker mount to the closest interference is 5 1/2" and the max depth at the top is 6 1/4". So this at least has good depth and you probably don't have to space the speaker out with an adapter. I forgot to measure the speaker height, but I can tell you it was much shorter than the front, and since there is plenty of door depth I don't think it matters.

I did not have an adapter that fits, so I made a sketch that I can take to a local store and see what they have. I'll add to this if I find one that works. (or maybe we just need to drill some new holes in the surround.

The tweeter is in the door behind some sound insulation. It's the same as the front, just with a different mounting bracket. Again we find all the same at the front. Tweeter + Woofer on a single channel. 4.7uF cap on the tweeter. 8ohm woofer, 4ohm tweeter.

The opening for the tweeter is just about 1 5/16'. (I measured with the other (correct) side of the caliper and flipped it over for the picture, so don't mind that it appears miss-aligned in the pic.)

Here is the Capacitor on the rear speaker. I assume its the same on the front too.

This is all I have for now. but I am planning a few more things.

I have already removed the sub. I'm going to try bench testing the stock sub with a better amp and see if produces any sound. I'll probably build a custom box anyway though.

I will find the amp and test it to see what the inputs are, how many channels it is (looks like 7 at the moment), and determine if the amp controls most functions (Fader/Balance/EQ/Surround). I am assuming we will need something like a datalink Maestro to replace the amp.

I'm not planning to remove the center channel as I never run one, but I may try to determine what speaker is in there at some point.

 

I pulled apart the front and rear door this weekend and created a thread on what I found.

Door Speaker Information

 

Thanks for all the detailed information. This is useful information for the community.

Unfortunately for me, I don't have the Meridian sound system so I'll need someone without Meridian to do the same. I would have assumed they were the same sizes, just fewer speakers to replace but then you found the front and rear are different sizes so I'm not so sure I can assume.

You're not happy with the Meridian sound? I haven't heard it myself, but I've always been a fan of Meridian for home audio. I am aware some on the internet have expressed disappointment in the Meridian sound system.

 

I like the Meridian sound now that I figured out the surround settings. In order to get all the speakers to play at the same volume the surround setting needs to be custom.

there are a few things I don’t like. The front doors have too much bass and are boomy. The sub is legit useless.

Ideally I’d replace the amp with a five channel amp and a Maestro DSR1. Then build a sub box. But I needed to know how this were wired and impedance. I often replace speakers just because I like certain ones, but in this case I do like these speakers more than I thought I would.

 

Awesome, thanks for posting this great information!

 

Great de-construction job!
I await your comments on the new sound...

 

Great write up, looking forward to future developments.

 

Merged threads as one was asking what the other had done or started.

 

I also made some templates for creating a subwoofer box. Here is the top plate template which will support the subwoofer itself. I Drew some circles on it representing different options for subs. 1x10" or 1x8" or 2x8" or 2x6.5"

I also attempted to calculate the internal size of the box. Depending on how I make it I should get between 0.5ft^3 to 0.7ft^3.

I'm probably going to try to make a fiberglass enclosure or something similar. There are too many angles to makes a wood box. I could make a stacked ring wood box, but that would probably cost $1000 in MDF right now. That will have to wait until October though as I have plans until then.

 

I'm going to try and fit dual 10's in that space...

 

So a quick question to the guys that have started modifying. I have a LR without the Meridian Sound system. Going to build a custom box for an 8" sub / Autotek BTS amp. I'll need to pick up on the rear door speaker wiring (probably). Do you guys know the best place to pick up on the wiring? Does the rear door speaker wires run under the front door sill plates (the plastic trim just outboard of the front seats)?

 

based on what I am hearing playing test tones you may want to use the front doors. The rear doors have limited bass that I think is being controlled by the amp. The fronts went well below 40Hz in my testing, but the rears did not.

 

The amplifiers on very early in the production year EV6'S (2022MY EV6 (CV) vehicles produced from November 17, 2021 through February 15, 2022 ) have external amplifiers which are likely to fail. Affected cars were to have their audio systems inspected in different modes and update the ‘AMP’ software logic to improve noise and mute prevention logic, or to replace the AMP on some . Depending on the inspection results, the external AMP system software may need to be updated or the AMP may need to be replaced.

I was a First Edition preorder; my EV6 was produced in December 2021, and I took delivery on February 16, 2022. I'm definitely in the impacted group, and I'm currently waiting on the replacement amplifier.

EV6'S with this problem can exhibit all kinds of unintended problems, from blasting noise to dead silence. Most of the impacted cars have logic faults in the circuitry contained in the amplifier module which permanently MUTES the output of the rear channels. The easiest way to check for this is to go into the Sound settings and select Position. Center the Balance control on the bullseye (where everything should be equal).
Now move the balance to full front. Did you hear anything change? Now move the fader to full rear. Did you hear anything different? If you have the problem, you will hear the front speakers fade, but the rears will not change. This is because the logic circuits for the rear channels are permanently muted. Nothing you can do with the balance control will make the rears any louder. This doesn't just impact the subwoofer, ALL the rear speakers are muted.
If you are impacted, adding an amplifier to the subwoofer (or replacing it with a powered one) will improve the subwoofer output, but it won't correct the lack of output on the side mounted rear speakers. So taking this route is really a compromise, because the rear channels are still muted. In reality, you are merely amplifying a muted output for the sub, and leaving the other rear speakers muted. Even if you have taken matters in your own hands by adding an amplifier or totally replacing the subwoofer, (which does improve the sound), you still haven't addressed ALL the muted rear channels.
If you are one of the unlucky early owners, you really want to have this repair made so you can hear the Meridian system as was intended. Unfortunately, the replacement amplifiers are in short supply, so you may have to put up with the mediocre sound a little longer. But when it gets fixed, you will be amazed at the difference.

 

Thanks for your thorough explanation!
My EV6 has a date of 06/22 and it does not suffer from the mute issue.
But it did suffer from nearly non-existent sub audio until the installation of JBL Basspro Nano.
Now there's clear and fat bass presence in the car, but in the trunk, those side panel speakers sound
just awfully tinny.

But my nagging question is this:
Since I'm tapping right off the female sub harness, I am feeding the wires into the high-level inputs of
the amp/sub. So in order to verify polarity of those 4 pins, I probed them using the multimeter set to AC.
With a heavy-bass music playing, there is no reading (basically 0 no matter which pin I probe). Yes, I did test the meter with a normal AC outlet. If I set the meter to DC, it does register some values in mV.

Please can someone set me straight on what I should or shouldn't be doing?
By the way, as expected, polarity switch on the amp makes no difference in the audio.
So I'm trying to learn about the speaker voltage levels and how to measure them.

 

Is there anything protecting your subs? It doesn't look like it, but would cargo going on top potentially damage them? Or do you have a cover that you took off for the picture?

 

That was a must have, there's a braced hard wood/wire mesh cover that can withstand heavy luggage while allowing the amps and subs to breathe.

 

Wow that setup is impressive and may i be rude and ask a cost.

 

Sweet!!!

 

Installation costs were equivalent to 2 arms and 2 legs, let's just say I'm barely going to get half of my tax credit back. This was a total revamp so there's more to it then just what's shown in the photo. I'm happy with the craftsmanship and it sounds killer, worth every penny. The KIA logo was a surprise bonus which I thought was pretty cool of them to include in the design.

 

Do you have a thread showing the entire system transformation? I'm trying to climb the corporate ladder at KIA now before going all out aftermarket, but not sure how much longer I can handle the Meridian System in it's current state lol.

 

@Manticore I just picked up a 2023, was the 2023 amp issue fixed?

 

My dealer replaced my amp. It took them 3 days to get one, that seems pretty fast. It did not however fix the low rear volume issue. Mine aren't silent. Just very low volume (Unless they didn't replace the amp, 3 days seems fast as I thought replacement amps were on a long back order)

 

The door speakers and tweeters are upgradeable. Make sure the new speakers are the same size as the old ones if you plan to install new speakers. You can check the size of your car's speakers online. You should check out this website, as they have an article on car speaker sizes that helped me. In terms of power, it's crucial to ensure that the speakers you choose are compatible with your car's current audio system output power.

 

Do we know the power rating of the meridian 'premium' amp/channels? Thank you