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Speaker question- UHFS and Light Harmonic

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I took the Light harmonic out of my 2016 MS that had regular sound system- they were a big help. My new (to me) 2018 has UHFS. Opinions as to whether it is worth the time to put the LH speakers into this? Sound is already better than my old car but I have the speakers and was just thinking...

thanks!
 
I think it depends on how picky you are about how your music sounds. I did incremental upgrades to the UHFS in my 2018 S and started with the LH door speakers. I noticed better clarity and separation compared to stock. They won’t be any louder without upgrading the amp. With a premium amp upgrade the front door speakers may be louder depending on the amp used, but the back door speakers won’t since they are driven from the stock basic amp. I next upgraded my subwoofer with SoundQubed in the stock enclosure - again better clarity and separation. Next were the tweeters - went with Morel in the stock plastic enclosures. Finally, I replaced the midrange speakers in the dash and rear hatch with Hertz. All sounded good, more balanced, more high range for sure - needed to adjust the EQ down for the highs. The most important upgrade was the replacement of the premium amp with LH. The whole system came alive. LH has temporarily stopped selling their premium amp replacement because it needed to be changed to properly support MCU2. I live close to LH headquarters and have the upgraded prototype installed - nothing short of amazing. Larry Ho (LH owner) told me they will begin selling their premium amp replacement again in the future.
 
@tcoombes is there a way to modify the LH Amp to "work" with MCU2? I know it works, but aren't there issues with popping or other noises?

I've got an LH amp on an MCU1 and freaking love it, but wonder what will happen with the infotainment upgrade.

Even better would be if LH allows for exchanges for MCU compatible tuners.
 
I bought an original amp from LH and spent an afternoon with them while they modified It to work in my MCU2 Model S. We went through several iterations of replacing some small soldered components on the circuit board until the right combination was found that eliminated both a popping sound on power-up and background noise during operation. It was a matter of adjusting the components to find the point at which both issues were corrected - too far in one direction caused popping and too far in the other direction caused background noise. I don’t know if they will make modifications to amps they previously sold and installed in MCU1 cars, but I do know making the original amp work with MCU2 requires replacing and soldering some very small components and then quality testing.
 
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I installed one rear LH speaker last night, switching from side to side I can definitely notice a difference. Not that the original ones sound bad, but when I isolate the rear speakers and go side to side, the upgraded speaker side sounds better. Hard for me to describe, except to say that the sound is cleaner and more distinct, exactly as @tcoombes reported. I'll definitely finish the swap. Going from a 2016 to a 2018 and from standard to the UHFS, the doors are much better insulated. I used sound deadening mat on the 2016, I won't bother on the '18.
 
I installed one rear LH speaker last night, switching from side to side I can definitely notice a difference. Not that the original ones sound bad, but when I isolate the rear speakers and go side to side, the upgraded speaker side sounds better. Hard for me to describe, except to say that the sound is cleaner and more distinct, exactly as @tcoombes reported. I'll definitely finish the swap. Going from a 2016 to a 2018 and from standard to the UHFS, the doors are much better insulated. I used sound deadening mat on the 2016, I won't bother on the '18.
I noticed even more difference in the front door speakers since they are driven by the more powerful premium amp instead of the base amp that drives the back doors in UHFS.
 
I noticed even more difference in the front door speakers since they are driven by the more powerful premium amp instead of the base amp that drives the back doors in UHFS.

You put the 6 inch LH speakers in the front doors of a UHFS system? I am torn about that- haven't taken the panels off yet and was wondering if it made any difference. Details if you got em! Thanks.
 
You put the 6 inch LH speakers in the front doors of a UHFS system? I am torn about that- haven't taken the panels off yet and was wondering if it made any difference. Details if you got em! Thanks.
Yes, I wondered about that too, but the LH speakers still sound better to me. More punch, clarity, and separation. I suggested to the owner of LH that they consider making a 200mm version of their door speaker to match the size of the UFHS front door speaker - I think that would be the icing on the cake!
 
Yes, I wondered about that too, but the LH speakers still sound better to me. More punch, clarity, and separation. I suggested to the owner of LH that they consider making a 200mm version of their door speaker to match the size of the UFHS front door speaker - I think that would be the icing on the cake!

Did you have to do any modifications to get them the LH speakers to fit?
 
What is a good replacement tweeter? Also is that pillar cover difficult to remove to get the tweeter out?
I used Morel MT220 - nice quality soft dome tweeter and fits exactly in the plastic enclosure integrated into the A pillar trim. The stock tweeters have a 4kHz filter built-in, but I did not add one to the Morel because it can easily handle the power and full frequency without the filter. Part of the A pillar removal/replacement is easy, but there is one part that is a little tricky. The hard part is disconnecting and reattaching the bottom of the A pillar trim horizontally where it fits into the dash. I used an old credit card to insert between the pillar trim and dash to release the clips while wiggling the trim back and forth to finally free it. Putting it back also required wiggling it back into place with the dash and carefully pushing horizontally back into place. I was extra careful not to drop the credit card into the dash area and not to let the pillar trim plastic touch the dash material while wiggling it because the plastic is sharp and could easily damage the dash material. Other clips and screws were easy. There are other threads on the forum with have details, but I can elaborate if needed.
 
Thanks for the suggestion on the Morel, tc. I’ll be glad to search the forum.
I really like Hertz also, and I know they have some nice tweeters in approximately the same size, but I have not used their tweeters in the Model S so don’t have the personal knowledge that they would fit as nicely as the Morel tweeters did. The Morel MT220 tweeter come with different enclosures and you can select which you want to use, if any. The default enclosures are attached to the speakers when you open the box and need to be removed before the tweeters will fit in the A pillar enclosures. They just snap off, but I thought I would mention it because I didn’t know what to do when I first opened the box and was not sure how to detach them, but it turned out to be easy.
 
yeah thats what I wanted to ask if there was any difference in front, back left or right speakers or i can plug any one anywhere.
i just installed two on passenger side of car - one on front and one on rear and i noticed a significant difference in the front speaker after installing the LightHarmonic speakers but on the back not much difference. seems like the front one is playing more powerfully and rear doesnt have much power.
i have a basic sound system so i am not sure if they are using more powerful amp for front and weaker on back?