Evora 400 | Audio Setup Guide

[pickle]

@Colin P what charger did your phone come with? I'd have thought you could just use the cable from that to plug into the USB connector in the glove box.

[Colin P]

It's an iPhone. Not a problem, I just expected it to work through Bluetooth. I don't have the car at the moment, but will try it when I pick it up.

[pickle]

Cool, apologies if I was stating the bleeding obvious! 

[xxaarraa]

Hey guys, 2017 Evora 400 here. Trying to follow the OP's guide, but 'other' and 'tcr' are both disabled in my stereo. Any ideas??

[xxaarraa]

9 hours ago, xxaarraa said:

Hey guys, 2017 Evora 400 here. Trying to follow the OP's guide, but 'other' and 'tcr' are both disabled in my stereo. Any ideas??

OK I found it. Copying from another post I came across, this should be part of the well written tuning guide PDF:

pedal down, pull and release handbrake.
pedal down, pull handbrake and release pedal.
<done>, setup tab should be available as long as the handbrake is up.

[au-yt]

I found this and please if this is a repost please don’t shoot the messenger 

 

[xxaarraa]

I could care less about the maps version in the car as I never use the in-car nav. However, does updating the firmware bring any tangible benefits such as better sounding stereo or more features, etc.?

[Cdm2018]

Me personally I went the apple car play route to replace the already upgraded Clarion unit 

apple car play allows my iPhone to link so all music and maps come through 

the head unit itself is much more capable sound wise so gained improvement helped with sub/ amp change too

[j141]

I know this is old, but thanks for this @Bibs, it also works well on the INE-W710D in the GT410 Sport 🍻

[randomusername]

Hi

I've just been through this with the I990BT unit in my new (to me) 400, and I disagree with some of the settings, especially the crossover settings - essentially these control which frequencies (bass / mid etc) get sent where. I'm pretty sure JayEmm (?) made similar comments on his audio thread but I can't find it to link to it. 

Step 25 puts a filter for low frequencies on the door speakers - so anything lower than about (25Hz ramping up to) 40Hz will be filtered out, they won't be sent to those speakers. 

Step 28 does the opposite for the sub - anything higher than 40Hz (tapering up to 50ish) Hz won't get sent to the sub. 

40Hz is very, very low in terms of music. If you want to see what's being sent to the sub, set the fader all of the way to the rear (to the non-existent rear speakers). Play something bass heavy with the volume up and the sub will barely be audible - not a lot of music goes down that low, and you need a big woofer with a lot of power to 'feel' it, rather than hear it (think explosions in the cinema that thump you in the chest, not music tracks!). So in normal listening you've just set the sub to do naff all. 

If you change the values in step 25 to somewhere and step 28 to somewhere around 100-120Hz and repeat the same test, you should hear the sub at least start to work, and when you set the fader back towards the middle you should get at least a bit of a thump now...

I'm not entirely sure if I agree with the time correction settings either - from what I understand the 'aim' is to have all of the sound waves reach your head at the same time, even though the speakers are different distances away from you, so the sound will arrive at minutely different (milliseconds) times - so you set the furthest speaker away as 0, then delay the closer speakers to compensate. I've not had a chance to properly play with the settings for this yet though...

Jon

[au-yt]

Hi Jon

I just set mine as per the Lotus process however I will  make the changes you suggest and save it as number 2 preset as away to get a comparison

Graeme

[Phaeton91]

I’ve adapted my sound settings to those suggested by @randomusernameand I do sense an improvement.  It was a very logical explanation.

I do like to listen to bassy music though and so the fact that the sub gets involved earlier suits that. I have also slightly shifted the front to rear balance to the rear as otherwise I find it too tinny  .  This seemed much easier than changing multiple EQ settings.

That said, the FM radio reception is rubbish and no amount of tweaking can improve it hence I stick to streamed music or radio.

[au-yt]

I'll second that, there is a little more depth to the sound.

[Phaeton91]

Hi. Can anyone point me to the exact location of the factory crossovers for front speakers in the 400?

Also, is the plastic door sill cover simply Velcro’d / clipped down with one bolt to undo? I’m assuming I don’t remove the metal Evora  plate first.  

Would appreciate advice from anyone who has removed the sill covers.

For info, at the weekend I accessed the rear subwoofer and wrapped the housing and some of the surroundings with some sound deadening.  I didn’t go overboard but it definitely makes a difference especially with the settings above and the fader set to -3 or -2 to the rear.  Getting an appreciable difference in depth and bass now.
 

 

Just now, Phaeton91 said:

Hi. Can anyone point me to the exact location of the factory crossovers for front speakers in the 400?

Also, is the plastic door sill cover simply Velcro’d / clipped down with one bolt to undo? I’m assuming I don’t remove the metal Evora  plate first.  

Would appreciate advice from anyone who has removed the sill covers.

For info, at the weekend I accessed the rear subwoofer and wrapped the housing and some of the surroundings with some sound deadening.  I didn’t go overboard but it definitely makes a difference especially with the settings above and the fader set to -3 or -2 to the rear.  Getting an appreciable difference in depth and bass now.
 

 

Incidentally - here’s a picture of the “sub”.  Not my normal definition of a sub - it’s more of a big speaker really as it’s not very deep at all.  Still, the above exercise improved it significantly.  

[Phaeton91]

I asked the question above about the factory crossovers and having pulled it all apart this morning from what I can see there are none.  

Can be seen from the picture above that all that seems to be happening is that the single lead from the head unit is simply split into two and one set of wires go to the tweets and the other set to the doors.

This will explain why I always found the tweeters too bright and shrill.  

[Whitey]

Did you take the sill covers off in the end as the cross overs on the S1 are under the panel forward of the sill covers but you need to remove the sill ones first!.   I dont know if they are there in the 400. Sill covers were a pain to get off as they are fixed with a large amount of hugely sticky double sided tape!

[Bruss]

Sn electrical for the 400 shows crossovers. Work back from the tweeter and it should be in line on the positive side. I'd expect it to be in the same place as on the S, as suggested above.

[Phaeton91]

Yep, managed to get the sill covers off.  The main difficulty was to get the metal name plate up without bending it, but once that’s done the rest of it comes apart very easily.

Unless my 400 has been subject to a modification there was definitely nothing in that area where the s1 had its crossovers but I am still surprised there are none.  

I took the remaining part off too to get more access and following the loom back further than I managed to get is not easy without pulling the whole dash apart.  
 

[Phaeton91]

On the previous picture I posted of the wires, what is happening is that the -ve and +ve leads of the right front speaker wire is split using that bullet connector, into two separate leads to the tweet and the woof.  The bullet is in quite an inaccessible place and so this must have been done when the loom was made and not after.

That’s all I could find - no sign of a crossover so not sure what’s going on with the circuit diagrams.

[Bruss]

Looks like some sort of in line doobrie.

 

 

[randomusername]

Have you pulled the tweeter out yet?

In other cars I've seen a capacitor on the terminal of the tweeter to act as a passive crossover (to block low frequencies) - it could be that's what Lotus have done with the 400...

https://boomspeaker.com/add-capacitor-to-car-tweeter/

Upgrading the speakers is on my list of things to do so interested in your findings!

*edit* looking at the wiring diagram posted above, 'Tweeter Crossover 4.7uF' suggests that it is a capacitor - Farads is the unit of measurement for them...

Edited March 26, 2023 by randomusername

[Phaeton91]

We’re getting somewhere.  

Indeed there is a capacitor of some sort.  So the “splice” is the original photo I added.  As I suspected, that simply splits the single speaker cable into two, and then the capacitor(?) is downstream on the tweeter circuit as per @Bruss Diagram.  See picture attached.

In answer to the other question, and as the cannibalised piece of tweeter cable now shows, I have indeed pulled it all apart.

I now have what I feel to be sound that is immensely better than before.  This is what I did:

Replace the front speakers with Focal Auditor ASE130 component (£95 from Dynamic Sounds). This has proper crossovers which I have stuck behind the side panels.  The tweeters themselves fit snugly into the original A pillar housings (with a bit of double sided tape).

Replace the rear sub with a JBL Stage 82 8” sub again from dynamic sounds for £80.

Added a fair helping of sound deadening  (Canopus 3mm from Amazon - 10sq ft for c£31 although I didn’t use it all).  The 4th photo is the sub housing which completely coated with the stuff.

I didn’t mess about with the head unit or amplify anything and I’ve kept the original cabling where possible using Wago mechanical electrical connections so it can easily be undone if needed.  

I’m not a sound expert and of course am fully aware that the stereo will always play second fiddle to the exhaust and supercharger sound, but the depth of sound is now superb at all volumes and across almost every genre that I listen too.  The radio is still c**p though and so where I need to listen to talkSPORT! I stream off my phone. 
 

 

[randomusername]

How hard was it to remove the loom to the tweeter? Speaker upgrades are one of the items on my to-do list, and re-using existing wiring (and bypassing the capacitor) is much easier than trying to run new ones around the place..

On 03/01/2023 at 22:43, randomusername said:

If you change the values in step 25 to somewhere and step 28 to somewhere around 100-120Hz and repeat the same test, you should hear the sub at least start to work, and when you set the fader back towards the middle you should get at least a bit of a thump now...

As an update to my post, given some time driving round and some tinkering - for the filters for the front speakers (step 25) - if you start with somewhere around 100Hz and see how it sounds, then if you want a bit more bass / "fuller sound" reduce the number down in steps - where the settings for the front speakers and the sub overlap, it means that bass will be played via both sets of speakers, so you will get a bit more 'thump'. It's all a matter of personal preference though, so experiment and see what sounds best to you and the kind of music you like...

[Phaeton91]

11 hours ago, randomusername said:

How hard was it to remove the loom to the tweeter?

It’s quite subjective but I didn’t find it hard as such, just slow and the main reason for that is trim removal and access. I suppose it depends how patient and light handed you are and whether you have basic tools (trim removal etc) and levels of competence with trim and wiring.

Before embarking on the route below, I pulled the head unit out and considered running new speaker cables from the connector blocks there but felt this was going to be far more complex.  Hence I agree with your comment.  

 From memory:

Removing the sill covers (see above)is a challenge without buckling the Evora name plates, but once the metal bits are off the plastic sill covers themselves unbolt/unclip and come off easily.

For driver side, The fascia trim under the steering wheel  unbolts.  Can’t remember how many hex bolts there are but fairly easy to access.

There’s an extra bit of this trim to the side which contains the little cubbyhole.  This is bolted and you’ll need to unclip the adjacent side panel before accessing the second bolt.  

This allows the carpet to be removed from the footwell and then the sides of the passenger compartment (after removing clips).

You should now be able to see the white connector blocks at the end of the tweeter wires.  

You’ll have to unwrap the tape along the loom up into the dash to get to the bullet connectors. This involves contorting oneself into the footwell looking up.

Once you are certain you have the right wires, you’ll have to either cut them or splice into them.  I cut the wires well after the bullet connectors so I had plenty of wire left to play with and for the new connectors to be easily accessible. Given where the bullets are (right up in the dash) it would not be feasible to splice / cut before them.  

Removing the A pillar trims is also necessary but very simple.  Once the white connector blocks are unclipped the tweeter cable feeds through easily - same for rethreading the new tweeter cable down through the dash is easy.

Getting the old tweeters out of the A pillar trims was not easy at all as they were glued in.  It took a drill/dremel a hair dryer and lots of gentle persuasion to loosen the glue enough to remove them with no damage to the plastic housings of the A pillar.  This could not be done in the car - it’s a work bench job.  Once out the plastic seats on which tweeters sit may need to be trimmed back depending upon the size of your tweeters.

On the passenger side, it’s fairly similar but you’ll have to take the glovebox out which is a bit fiddly albeit not complicated.

Changing the door speakers was a doddle in comparison.  

Overall, for the first time doing it on a go slow to avoid damaging anything, it’s a good day’s work.  I also found a couple of hex bolts missing from the trim panels which I have now replaced meaning the dash is tight and squeak free again which in itself adds to driving enjoyment no end.

I also rewrapped or wrapped all wires in cloth tape and all connectors in foam to finish properly and protect and also to avoid vibration.  Worth doing a job properly after all.

Just to add to your sound set up comments, adjusting fade to more rear bias also gives a bit more depth.

[randomusername]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply... I'm sure I'll have a crack at changing them at some point, but probably when the weather is a bit better and when I know I've got a lot more time to take over it!