Hyundai Accent OEM car stereo / The good and the ugly

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JeffB

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I have a Hyundai Accent rental car and thought I would say something about its OEM audio system.
After doing a little reading, I have discovered the 4 doors each contain a 5.25 inch driver.
There are tweeters mounted at the bottom of the A-pillars.  I don't know the size of the tweeters.
I have read that there is a single capacitor on the tweeters to cut away the low frequencies.
I have not been able to determine if there is anything on the 5.25 inch driver, but there is no traditional cross-over module to be found.

I will start with the "ugly".
There is some serious mid-range cone breakup at the cross-over point.  This can be piercing and fatiguing and might quickly lead one to be very unimpressed.  There is also no low end bass, so there is nothing for this cone breakup to hide behind.
I discovered that if I use the EQ on the car to just bump the treble down 1 notch, and leaving everything at neutral that this helps considerably to lower the piercing of the breakup.  Any other EQ seems detrimental.

However, the "good", maybe even the totally awesome, is why I decided to write this.
Accept for the breakup region, this is one of the clearest most detailed audio systems I have ever heard.
I know a lot of systems make drums sound great, but I am hearing harmonics from drums like I have never heard before.  It is almost like you can tell what type of skins the drums were made with.  And with guitar, it is like I can hear the angle of the pick against the string or the stiffness of the pick being used.  There is just a detail/edge/harmonic/something that really stands out as superb.  I am hearing so many things that I have never noticed in the same way.  Little echoes in the recording, little breaths made by the singer.  There is an extremely good separation of all instruments.  There seems to be a layering of the instruments that I had not noticed before.  The dynamic attack also seems really good.  The bass, is taught, but not deep.  I think if the breakup mode was not there and there was a 10" sub-woofer that this would be one hell of a system.  I have demoed a lot of speakers, and it is rare when something really makes me take notice.

So perhaps the real reason I wrote this is "why" does it sound so good?  I have found the tweeter modules on-line.  The pair goes for $38.  So nothing special.  I am really wondering if perhaps they are 0.75inch(20mm) tweeters instead of the usual(1 inch/25mm) variety.  Is it possible that smaller tweeters are that much faster and sound that much better.  I really don't know if it is the tweeter that is responsible for what I am hearing.  It does seem kind of reasonable that the higher frequencies are responsible for the subtleties I am hearing.  Besides the tweeter though I have had several experiences where 5.25 inch drivers make mids clearer than 6.5 inch drivers.  So perhaps it is the combination.  It is seriously making me wonder why there are not more good quality but inexpensive 3-way designs with a 0.75 inch tweeter, 3.5 to 4.5 inch mid-range and something like a 7 inch or 8 inch on the bottom.  I am kind of leaning towards the idea that smaller speakers are going to be faster and sound better in the operating range than trying to push a larger cone.  On the other hand if the car really has 1 inch tweeter, it could falsify my hypothesis.  Sony currently has the SSCS5 bookshelf with both a .75 inch tweeter and a 1 inch tweeter and a 5.25 inch mid-range.  So interesting, but I just don't get the size spacing.

Mikeinsacramento

Re: Hyundai Accent OEM car stereo / The good and the ugly
« Reply #1 on: 19 Apr 2016, 04:25 am »
It's all in the tuning.  They spend a million dollars tuning $16 worth of drivers.


verlin

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  • Posts: 5
Re: Hyundai Accent OEM car stereo / The good and the ugly
« Reply #2 on: 24 Sep 2021, 06:31 pm »
I was similarly impressed by a rental Elantra, but when I test drove a Kona with the supposed upscale stereo, I didn't care for it at all. Apparently. outside the USA, you can get one with a Krell system, but not here. Does anyone else know anything about this. I like Hyundai and I drive a 2009 Genesis with a great audio system, but it's on its least legs, and my next car needs to be something smaller and more modestly priced.
Thanks, anyone.
V