Sound System Upgrade
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Joined: Oct 2018
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GLC 300 - 2018
Sound System Upgrade
I am looking to upgrade door speakers on my GLC 300 2018 model. Do you have a recommendation? Also, I have few queries around some of the existing speakers:
1. Speaker on the driving side under the dash near the gas paddle does not work - Any idea how it works?
2. Middle Dash speaker doesn't work. - Any idea how it works?
3. Speaker on the right side under the dash sounds like a woofer? Any idea how to change it ? This speaker is not visible but you can hear the sound.
Any suggestion would be very helpful.
1. Speaker on the driving side under the dash near the gas paddle does not work - Any idea how it works?
2. Middle Dash speaker doesn't work. - Any idea how it works?
3. Speaker on the right side under the dash sounds like a woofer? Any idea how to change it ? This speaker is not visible but you can hear the sound.
Any suggestion would be very helpful.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,249
Likes: 17
From: Chicagoland, IL
09 C63
Hi - not great tips here, but I assume you have base audio? Or is it somehow the Burmester?
On the grilles that don't output sound, if you have base audio, I suspect Mercedes just has one set of trim for both base and Burmester and there are no speakers there for base.
Lastly, with base system, you will have severe limitations. Most OEM sound systems are very oddball resistance (the ohm rating on a speaker) so they can use hyper efficient/read: light and small amps. Usually getting an aftermarket speaker in those specs, so you can reuse the amp is not possible. You have to get a new amp, then a way to convert the source signal to the amp and, of course, all the speakers themselves. There may be some off-the-shelf upgrades... some years ago there was a company that sold kits for BMW cars that were engineered to just replace existing speakers with theirs to the point where holes were in the same place, plugs shaped the same etc. Decent price for decent sound - but great sound is hard to do with just speakers. Oh speaking of - I believe the subs in all configurations are under the front seats or in the front firewall. Usually they stick them under front seats and there are a couple of great upgrades for those to just drop in, but I recall reading that Mercedes started mounting them integrally into the firewall area to get the soundstage forward.
Best of luck to you!
On the grilles that don't output sound, if you have base audio, I suspect Mercedes just has one set of trim for both base and Burmester and there are no speakers there for base.
Lastly, with base system, you will have severe limitations. Most OEM sound systems are very oddball resistance (the ohm rating on a speaker) so they can use hyper efficient/read: light and small amps. Usually getting an aftermarket speaker in those specs, so you can reuse the amp is not possible. You have to get a new amp, then a way to convert the source signal to the amp and, of course, all the speakers themselves. There may be some off-the-shelf upgrades... some years ago there was a company that sold kits for BMW cars that were engineered to just replace existing speakers with theirs to the point where holes were in the same place, plugs shaped the same etc. Decent price for decent sound - but great sound is hard to do with just speakers. Oh speaking of - I believe the subs in all configurations are under the front seats or in the front firewall. Usually they stick them under front seats and there are a couple of great upgrades for those to just drop in, but I recall reading that Mercedes started mounting them integrally into the firewall area to get the soundstage forward.
Best of luck to you!
Member
Joined: Feb 2018
Posts: 197
Likes: 24
GLC
There is no speaker on top of the dash. I wonder if it is prewired so we can just get a drop in. Same with the Tweeter grilles, you can see they are hollow inside. The Burmester system simply has more of the same crappy speakers with a dsp. I wonder if we can just add the factory tweeters and center speaker.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,249
Likes: 17
From: Chicagoland, IL
09 C63
Remember - without DSP there is no point to having a center speaker. It hardly does anything - center channel is for home theater. The key speakers are the ones that go into the sail panels in the window corners and mids in the doors, followed by subs.
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 68
Likes: 8
From: Sydney
GLC, Q7
You can swap the standard speakers with Focals ( Model Elite K2 ES 100 K). For the standard system, you can add front door tweeters from Focal. They fit perfectly in the GLC and greatly enhance the sound quality; albeit, you will need to give them at least 20 hours to properly run in. Cheers
Last edited by Ian of Sydney; Oct 15, 2018 at 05:12 PM.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,249
Likes: 17
From: Chicagoland, IL
09 C63
Those Focal's work as is out of the box with the factory amp? I find that hard to believe. Traditionally Focal is the gold standard of car audio (along with a/d/s which I haven't seen in a long time and companies like BW). Problem has been that aftermarket speakers aren't particularly efficient, needing pretty hefty wattage to work right.
Many car OEM systems are 1.2-2 Ohm resistance, many aftermarket are around 4 Ohm. Couple this with the aspect that most OEM amps only put out 10-20watts per channel RMS at that 1.2-2ohm level, if you put in a 4Ohm speaker, your wattage drops to 5-10 or lower (depending on what it was spec'd for). Now that was some time ago, perhaps things have improved. I don't know what we have in our cars or what the amp output is or what the resistance of factory speakers is. I but I'd bet it's still the same. The smaller the amp, the lower the output, the less weight and smaller package... what manufacturers of the car want.
All that being said, Focal is a great way to go IF the wattage can stay the same or improve. Also - many aftermarket companies offer low resistance speakers for just this application. So it's important to pull what you have, and try and figure out what it is. If it's not printed on the speaker itself, some homework will be in order.
Many car OEM systems are 1.2-2 Ohm resistance, many aftermarket are around 4 Ohm. Couple this with the aspect that most OEM amps only put out 10-20watts per channel RMS at that 1.2-2ohm level, if you put in a 4Ohm speaker, your wattage drops to 5-10 or lower (depending on what it was spec'd for). Now that was some time ago, perhaps things have improved. I don't know what we have in our cars or what the amp output is or what the resistance of factory speakers is. I but I'd bet it's still the same. The smaller the amp, the lower the output, the less weight and smaller package... what manufacturers of the car want.
All that being said, Focal is a great way to go IF the wattage can stay the same or improve. Also - many aftermarket companies offer low resistance speakers for just this application. So it's important to pull what you have, and try and figure out what it is. If it's not printed on the speaker itself, some homework will be in order.
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