The Lotus Evora 400 Audio Upgrade

[JayEmm]

So, as some of you may know I have had the stereo in my Evora 400 upgraded. I believe the sound quality of the car is poor, regardless of the price point that it was being sold it and could be fixed. I love the exhaust noise as much as anyone, but there are plenty of occasions when I want to enjoy my other music.

I had a few criteria for the upgrade:

1. It should be as invisible as possible
2. It should not require any cutting/modification of the vehicle's panels
3. It should be reasonably priced - in my opinion less than £1,000

I spoke to a few companies but in the end went to Peter Doidge in Great Yarmouth. I met them whilst at the Gt Yarmouth show. Very good people, I dealt with a chap there called Scott. We looked at the car together, I heard some of their speaker options and we decided on a kit comprising Hertz speakers and a JL audio sub. Hertz are an Italian company specialising in car audio and seem to have a very good reputation.

My largest concern with the Evora, particularly the 400, was clearance for the speakers. Better speakers are usually bigger and I knew the ones Lotus were using would be cheap and therefore not very deep. I was reasonably confident about the door speakers and tweeters, but not the sub. We also weren't sure where to place the new amplifier - ideally we wanted it out of sight. By chance, I showed them the video that's on YouTube of a chap in America who was upgrading his S1 Evora's audio:

Bear in mind the tweeter and door speaker setup is different in the 400. Lotus shrunk the front speakers, which will not help at all. However the subwoofer setup is the same. By happy coincidence, the amplifier recommended to me at PD was exactly the same brand these guys fitted, so we knew it would fit.

A price was agreed of £980 including VAT and fitting, parts were ordered and the car was booked in. My upgrade consisted of:

Hertz Mille Pro 130.3 Mid-range and tweeter combo with crossovers
Hertz High Energy ES 200.5 Subwoofer
JL Audio 400/4 Amplifier
Audison Cables
Dynamat for the doors

I supplied the guys with the Lotus service notes for dismantling the car, I had also agreed with Lotus that this wouldn't affect my warranty - unless of course they broke the head unit in the process. The head unit being aftermarket is good, because it makes their life much easier.

The disassembly was apparently not very tricky, although it is obviously not the easiest car to move around in. The guys were total professionals and used towels etc... to cover any surfaces at risk of being scratched.

One problem was discovered early on. Each car head unit has a cable bundle at the back which allows connection to whatever you need. Lotus' harness was missing many connections, including the all-important front RCA connections. Lotus amped the speakers direct from the head unit (one reason sound isn't great), so we are currently going to replace that with a correct harness. In the meantime, we are running the speakers off the high-level outputs. Not ideal, but certainly works. I'll report back later if there is an audible difference.

The door speakers were first out, I was very curious to see what type of speakers Lotus were actually using. I had suspected Alpine - on a recent factory visit I wanted to look at a door speaker but the types of speakers being used now are different to the ones in my car. The new cars are using a cheap Alpine OEM thing, mine has this Clarion unit. Pictured side-by-side with the Hertz, you can see a big difference

I looked them up, the Clarion unit sells for around £29 a pair. Harly inspiring. The Hertz units fit straight in.

I knew that the tweeters would be more difficult, as they are glued in. Lotus recommend buying a whole new A-pillar which is supplied with the tweeter in place. Fortunately, they do come out easily. We couldn't identify the tweeters, other than to say they were extremely cheap!

(Original left, new one on the right)

They are slightly different sizes, so we're still working on a solution that fits the Hertz unit which pleases my OCD. There was however no issue with clearance - again something I was worried about. Lotus' placement of the tweeter is really not ideal at all, one reason sound in the car is always going to be compromised. The S1 was much better in this regard.

Finally, the subwoofer. Lotus use some weird thing, I really don't know what to call it. But subwoofer seems a bit generous. 

The Lotus factory woofer...

The Hertz replacement...

You can't tell easily but the factory woofer is fairly shallow, it has no chance of producing any sound! There's no identifying marks on it to say who made it either - always the sign of a quality product

Here is the factory sub/amp install:

...and the new Hertz/JL combination

As you can see, it fits nicely and neatly and is basically invisible. All of the wiring was done professionally and was harness together. It uses the same channels and run as the factory harness. So you basically can't tell. The only giveaway visually is the tweeters at the front now say Hertz on them.

The doors were all dynamatted up where possible, without going overboard

The car was put back together after dialling in the system a little bit. The total install time was just over a day (dropped off 12am, picked up 5pm the next day). I expect if any of you want this done it may be quicker as they now know what they're up against.

 

I will be revisiting for a tweaking session soon but here are my initial thoughts. Bear in mind speakers need time to run in, like an engine, during which their sound can change significantly

- The biggest improvement is in the mid-range, vocals are much more prominent
- Bass is far more musical, although I am still finding a level that is "just right".
- It's a pronounced improvement over the old system but will take a while to fine tune and get it perfect

Overall, if you want serious sound out of the Evora you will need to start hacking things about and getting far more serious, but I believe I've taken the car as far as can be gone with a "factory look" system. You no longer need a crazy EQ just to produce mildly good sound. I would recommend this upgrade to anyone who fancies it - there are many options you can change and you can spend either more or less, depending on your needs.

The only issue I have noticed is that my bluetooth calling no longer seems to work properly - the audio is very distorted. However bluetooth streaming is working absolutely fine. I'm not sure if this is related to the work done, but the PD team are going to have a look at it for me anyway and see what they can do - I'm having an "aftercheck" to get a few things tweaked. As this was the first time they've encountered this type of car, they wanted to get everything perfect. I can thoroughly recommend them.

Anyway, hope that's helped a few people

[Neal H]

That's an interesting and comprehensive write up James. I agree the standard setup is mediocre at best, but it probably doesn't bug me enough to spend £1k on upgrading it. I'm assuming that the actual Alpine head unit is a decent item, or did you consider swapping that as well?

[JayEmm]

Neal, I have no complaints about the standard head unit other than I would like steering wheel controls but I can live without.

I should say it's much easier to upgrade the stereo in the car than the exhaust - some options I have seen for the R8 etc are thousands more than this!

[CocoPops]

How about adding some steering column remote controls?

Something similar to this:

http://www.projectpuma.com/viewtopic.php?t=4567&start=175

The guy has added the ford steering colum control, which you can then get an Alpine adaptor for.

I've seen similar threads for NONFord cars.

 

[pickle]

Hi James,

That's really interesting to hear. Were there any other components that you considered but discarded, or was the choice pretty limited? I'd also be interested in hearing a little more about why your OCD isn't happy with the tweeters (photos?).

Thanks for taking the time to write this up, this is something I'm planning so it's very useful for me.

[chylld]

Thanks for the write-up! Keen to hear how you get on with it as you fine-tune it.

I'm doing a much simpler upgrade to my car; I've just ordered Polk Audio DS522 5.25" coaxial speakers and a roll of SoundSkins deadening material, which is like dynamat but has 3mm of foam on top as well.

My factory front speakers are absolutely woeful:

The outer door skin (behind the speaker) is going to get a healthy dose of deadening as it is super flimsy and resonates a lot. Also going to put some on the plastic speaker hub (and some epoxy putty too) as it is currently so flimsy the speaker may as well be mounted on cardboard.

Will be leaving the factory tweeters in place for now to see how far this budget approach (~£163) will take me.

Also of note is that care must be taken when removing the door cards... the 3 large plastic tabs that hold the top edge of the door card to the door shell are extremely fragile, already broke one when having the windows tinted.

ps where can I find the Evora 400 service notes?

[blindside]

Very comprehensive, well considered & helpful update @JayEmm. Thanks for sharing it!

After a few months, (and with windows closed more now in the colder weather), the poor sound quality of the front speakers in particular is very apparent.

Your hardware recommendations look like the affordable way ahead if/when I can find the time plus someone suitable to do the work.

[JayEmm]

I am sure Peter Doidge would happily quote you to do your car and I'd happily give you a loan car if you wanted to use them @blindside

[blindside]

Thanks James for the kind offer but it would be a stretch for me to get across to your part of the world. Probably a 3 day round trip. Better for me to use your guide as a template for a good car audio guy in my neck of the woods.

[JayEmm]

Oh yeah, I forget you were on that part of the pond. When it does come time send me a message and I can let you know if there's anything in particular that makes life easier

[Bravo73]

On 27/09/2016 at 15:28, JayEmm said:

Neal, I have no complaints about the standard head unit other than I would like steering wheel controls but I can live without.

 

Have you got really short arms?

 

[JayEmm]

No, but I like to be able to perform basic functions like turning volume up/down or changing track on a CD without looking away from the road - the head unit's design is fairly poor on that front.

[Bravo73]

You bought the wrong car then...

[JayEmm]

You mean I'm not allowed to have some basic creature comforts in Lotus' "most useable" car? Sorry, but I disagree that just because I bought a Lotus I'm not allowed any sort of basic ergnomic concern.

Personally I think the steering wheel buttons could be laid out much better, IMHO the cruise control buttons take up far too much of the steering wheel, for a seldom (in my case) used feature. 

That being said, I'm definitely not a fan of Ferrari's "everything on the steering wheel" approach

[DJW]

Thanks for writing this up. Have you a  breakdown of costs for speakers vs labour ?

[JayEmm]

Installation was £220

I don't have the receipt to hand, but the speakers were around £250, the sub is around £110, the amp £299, plus a small amount for cabling, dynamat, mounts, etc...

[Barrykearley]

Labour seems very cost effective indeed

[C8RKH]

Never thought I'd see "labour" and "effective" in the same sentence again in my life time. You're slipping Barry.

[Neal H]

So, one week on - money well spent? Has it made a worthwhile difference?

[JayEmm]

The components are of drastically better quality than those they replace, but the sound is not yet up to the standard I would like.

I am planning a return visit where we will be tweaking, doing some more extended listening etc... as there are a lot of things we can change.

The Evora's a fundamentally flawed car for audio but you can certainly improve the standard system for modest money. 

[JayEmm]

So, an update. The car went back to Peter Doidge yesterday for the previously mentioned tweaks. We re-ran the cable from the head unit to the amp, now using line level/RCA connections rather than the hi-level we had to use first time round (thanks to Lotus having a butchered connector).

We also made some adjustments to the crossover (it's now full range on the main speakers, with the sub being cut around 80hz in the head unit).

The improvement is massive - possibly an even bigger leap over when the system was first installed vs the old system. I now have an excellent sound system in the car, am very very happy with the results.

[Evora54]

Thanks James for this very interesting report on your upgrade! 

really helpful for me too, as - after driving my Evora 400 now for a few weeks time - I have the same opinon: the sound quality of the built-in speakers/sub are really sub-standard quality.

although I love the sound of the exhaust, from time to time I also like listening to some music, and for this an upgrade with the parts & costs you listed seems to me reasonable!

anybody else who did do an Audio upgrade on his/her Evora already and could share some experience?

kr, hymo

[Danelaw]

The speakers in my S model are not so bad at all now I've changed the head unit. It made a huge improvement to the sound. Clearly the 400 has different speakers and I'd understood that Lotus saved some weight with them (sure I read that somewhere?). I'm guessing improved sound will mean more weight?

I'm a bit nerdy about adding any weight to my Evora but would be really interested if I could get better and lighter speakers. Any suggestions?

 

[pickle]

Hi Hymo,

I've got nothing to report back yet, but I'm planning on upgrading at the end of November. I've been quoted for Fosgate Rockford Power series components which should apparently fit and offer good sound. I've just gone with the recommendation of the fitter as I know nothing about this sort of stuff. Total quote including fitting is around £1200 and I'll update my experiences in here when it's done.

I'll also weigh everything going in and coming out to see what difference it makes. To be honest I think it'll be negligible, probably comparble to filling the washer bottle and carrying my tow hook and manual in the car....

[JayEmm]

@Danelaw it's a reasonably inescapable truth that decent audio components are usually relatively heavy... the sub is 3.7 KG (but I already had the Lotus "subwoofer") and the amp is 2.15kg... again, replacing an existing but crap amp.

In reality I think I would have added, at most, 5-8kg to the car? There wasn't even a huge amount of dynamatting done. 

The door speakers in the 400 are smaller than the S, a decision which will definitely contribute to the poor sound quality. The OEM parts are also of the lowest specification, sadly.