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Ian is spot on with his comments about about XM as an audio source. What is happening here is the new tweets are revealing more of the deficiencies present in XM signaling than the OEM tweets could.

When Sirius and XM merged (a HUGE mistake for music fans IMO) compression was increased in favor of expanding the # channels while pretending to expand content diversity. By doing so, the resulting increase in compression ruined already questionable audio quality. XM might be good to expose oneself to music/content that would otherwise remain unknown, but as a source for listenable music it's marginal - at best.

Feeding a head unit with via an AUX port from any source introduces yet another limit to audio, but I don't mean to muck up the thread. For whatever reason, the Pioneer designed OEM RL system weakest link is the tweets. "Upgrading" them is a dual edged sword and has the potential to set a snow ball in motion. With that in mind, just know that XM isn't going to satisfy ones desire for good audio. Even spoken voice sounds "grainy" due to digital artifacts. XM knows this, but they don't care because most listeners don't care (or know).
 
Others have repeated to wait so many hours for tweeters to break in, and now I have first-hand experience. It's a nice feeling when the new Infinity 1031t tweeters are sounding better each and every day. (I assumed the change would be too subtle to notice over time, but it is very noticeable). Seems to be levelling out now and am very satisfied, a very impressive sound stage with both breadth and depth.

Just installed the Infinity 1031t after striking out with 2 other tweeters (Infinity and Pioneer), was looking for plug and play in the RL grille. The 1031t was it, Scotch Extreme Mounting tape 1" folded in half over on itself was the perfect thickness, just pressed the tweeters into place and ran another 1" tape around the outside of that and the plastic round housing built into the grille. Posi-lock connectors made the connections easy.

Got some improvement in sound, but not the mind altering I was expecting. Had to do a lot of EQ, my head unit has 10-bands, and these tweeters definitely responded to the tweaking. Clarity is the number one advantage, but I could not realize the bass improvements referenced on these boards, it seems about the same. One of the bigger problems is there are huge EQ differences built in to the 3 main sources I am using- BT audio, CD and XM, what sounds good on one, not the other... wish I could preset the EQ for each source (probably can, just need to take out the manual someday).

BTW, the 1031T tweeters seemed altogether better quality than the newer 75s I took a look at first, heavier, better package, cleaner solders, etc.
 
I'm about to order the Cadence Acoustics ZRS75T tweeters. I'm sure this is listed somewhere in this thread, but do these just drop in without any modifications? I've seen some speakers that are directional and other warnings about making sure there are crossovers, etc. Just want a simple plug and ply, if possible. Also, after almost eight years, the door speakers SEEM to sound OK. Is there any concern about these things wearing out?
 
I'm about to order the Cadence Acoustics ZRS75T tweeters. I'm sure this is listed somewhere in this thread, but do these just drop in without any modifications? I've seen some speakers that are directional and other warnings about making sure there are crossovers, etc. Just want a simple plug and ply, if possible. Also, after almost eight years, the door speakers SEEM to sound OK. Is there any concern about these things wearing out?
If u beat me to it please let us know how it goes. I actually just received my cadence tweeters the other day ($15.50 shipped at Amazon!!) and I have the same question as you. What the heck am I doing once I get the old tweeters out.
 
If u beat me to it please let us know how it goes. I actually just received my cadence tweeters the other day ($15.50 shipped at Amazon!!) and I have the same question as you. What the heck am I doing once I get the old tweeters out.
OK, decided to take the plunge this evening... completed the cadence tweeters mostly in the dark. Wasnt that bad. I just cut the factory connector off and peeled back some of the tape, stripped the 2 wires and connected a butt connector on each end. Crimped them to the candence wires, and put them back. The real biotch was using the crimping tool in the corner of the dash and stripping the wires. I couldnt find the male/female connectors discussed in various postings by laserguy. So just decided on the butt connectors. I was WAAAY overthinking this install. Mostly because of the tight working spaces and limited amount of wiring. If i would have messed up, could have been ugly running new wires, etc.

Anyway, i agree, the sound is so much brighter. I installed one side first and played around with the Left/Right settings, totally cleaner and brighter highs, so i'll add to the "WTF is with the stock tweeters" complaint. For under $16 shipped the sound is so much better. Currently have the treble down to +1. I listen to mostly heavy rock and early metal.

Sorry, no pics, but there wasnt much to take that wasnt already posted.

Now onto the new HU. Ughh!!! :act018:
 
I too installed the Cadence Acoustics tweeters from Amazon. Huge improvement over stock for minimum $. The install was as easy as it can get.
I agree, I have new Kicker front and rear speakers set for delivery from crutchfield tomorrow, Im thinking about just sending them back. Once the new HU goes in soon i'll make my final determination... especially since with the new HU comes new settings and loss of the factory sub.
 
Just installed my Cadence tweets. They sound great, but I have to admit that stripping the wires and crimping connectors was a PITA. If that had been easier, it really would have been a 15 minute job :) But it was definitively worth it. And if anyone is installing a new GPS head unit, the left tweeter location is a great spot to install the GPS antenna (there's a spot under the left tweeter grille to the right of the left tweeter that you can squeeze the antenna into--with a little rubber cement, it's not going anywhere and it seems to have a full view of the sky).
 
Since the subject is tweeters, I saw a 12' sport w/ aftermarket tweeter boxes in both front door windows.
They also had a Kenwood 7" HU installed, but I think with the larger HU's the RTS & RTL loose subwoofer from what I read on crutchfield.
Anyway...food for thought....
.
 

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^^ Yep. A few on here have done something similar. It's certainly way more custom and time-consuming, but it's a matter of personal taste. The factory location works just fine for me, so I never considered doing the tweets in the sails. And yes, you are correct in that the factory subwoofer is lost when you replace the head unit. The sub is driven by a powered fifth channel within the factory head unit. There are dozens of threads about how to get around this issue.
 
Yesterday, I installed the Cadence Acoustics ZRS75T tweeters. Being skeptical by nature, I was pleasantly surprised by the result. This is definitely a must do mod with a huge bang for your buck factor.

Notice the little plugs I made in the photos below. If you have decent soldering skills, it's not to hard to do. I materials were scavenged were scavenged from an old mother board. Back in the day, mother boards used to have several two pin plugs soldered to the board. They had jumpers or not on them depending on how you wanted the computer configured. I'm not sure if they are used that much on current boards. The size and spacing on the pins is perfect for plugging into the speaker sockets.

Here's how I made mine:

1. De-solder two sets of pins from a board.

2. Solder the wires from the tweeters to the pins. Note that I used red and black shrink tubing to denote + and - tweeter connections. The copper wire is + and the silver wire is -. Done.

3. I used another piece of shrink tubing over both wires to keep the pair from splitting apart.

4. Plug into wire harness socket, observing proper polarity.

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Discussion starter · #792 ·
Yesterday, I installed the Cadence Acoustics ZRS75T tweeters. Being skeptical by nature, I was pleasantly surprised by the result. This is definitely a must do mod with a huge bang for your buck factor.

Notice the little plugs I made in the photos below. If you have decent soldering skills, it's not to hard to do. I materials were scavenged were scavenged from an old mother board. Back in the day, mother boards used to have several two pin plugs soldered to the board. They had jumpers or not on them depending on how you wanted the computer configured. I'm not sure if they are used that much on current boards. The size and spacing on the pins is perfect for plugging into the speaker sockets.

Here's how I made mine:

1. De-solder two sets of pins from a board.

2. Solder the wires from the tweeters to the pins. Note that I used red and black shrink tubing to denote + and - tweeter connections. The copper wire is + and the silver wire is -. Done.

3. I used another piece of shrink tubing over both wires to keep the pair from splitting apart.

4. Plug into wire harness socket, observing proper polarity.

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That's great to avoid cutting the factory wire and connectors.

Some electrical tape will hold it and prevent it from coming off.
 
I have a 2013 ridge line sport, I installed kicker 3/4 tweeters 4 ohm KST20 model in the door black panel flush mount. I run JVC 6 1/2 coaxial doors, kicker 5 channel amp with lighting cap and a kicker comp be DVC 12 inch sub. Kenwood KDC MP728 HU. My system slams and is so clean and loud with the add on tweeters.
 

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I like the HU..looks so retro!! Nice job, welcome to the gang!
 
What kind of box did you use for your 12" sub?? Nice setup
 
I installed the Infinity 1031t and I am getting hissing at 0 volume like tshot12 about 5 pages back. Alpine Hu, no amp or sub, and the Infinity 6022si in the doors. All was fine before the tweeters. I was careful with the polarity during the install. Crossovers on the tweeters are installed. Help...
 
Deleted.
See new post below.
 
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