Our new Discovery 2 speaker upgrades
I love a Discovery 2, in fact while I write this with "The Grand Tour" playing in the background for my poorly 2 (nearly 3) year old son Max (who is clinically obsessed with cars).....Jeremy, Richard and James have been given the task of making eco cars out of Discovery 2's......
Anyway, back on task....so the Discovery 2 is a fantastic offering from Land Rover, we've had Discovery 1's and they are brilliant but the Discovery 2 brings more road manners in a very similar package. They are extremely capable as either a long distance tourer, off roader, camper......basically they are very very versatile vehicles which have gathered a strong following.
The first Discovery 2 was built in 1999, some 22 years ago at the writing of this.....and certain things are showing their age but what I'm interested in right now is the speakers.
We previously released a kit to upgrade/repair the tailgate subwoofers that are found on most models, and I am yet to find these that are still intact, normally the outer suspension ring around the speaker cone is completely disintegrated.
Naturally the rest of the speakers are in a similar state and we have been asked by many customers if we will be bringing out other speaker kits for this Landy.
Discovery 2 Audio Configurator
In the rest of this post I'll be explaining how we have tackled/solved each speaker location in the Discovery 2 but when it comes to working out exactly what you want to order we have made a really simple configurator which can be found here.
A-Pillar
Starting at the front of the vehicle you have the A-Pillars, these came as two different trim types, one with a tweeter built in and one which was plain. There are 3 solutions we have come up with for this, the first is to not have a tweeter and I know that sounds like a stupid solution but the door card in the front already has a position in the upper area for a tweeter so it really is upto you how you want to do it. I'll talk more about this when I get to the front door cards.
So if you do want a tweeter in the A-Pillar we have released two kits which are based on which trim you want to use, not what the vehicle came with. Both kits come with two methods of hooking up the tweeter, first is via the supply to the existing tweeter and the other is through the dashboard into the speaker output on the back of the head unit so that covers all bases.
If you want to use trim that HAS a tweeter already fitted then our kit for this uses an Audison AP-1 in an OEM configuration without a grille as the grille on the A-Pillar is not part of the actual tweeter and instead just protects it. So you remove the A-Pillar trim, expose and remove the original tweeter which is bonded in from the rear and then bond/glue our mount into the rear of the trim with the AP-1 tweeter.
If you want to use a trim that is plain and DOESN'T have a tweeter fitted then we do another kit that uses an Audison AP-1 tweeter in it's normal configuration with an integrated grille. For this we provide recommended measurements for drilling the tweeter hole with the hole saw provided in the kit. The tweeter then pushes into the trim from the front.
Front Doors
So the front door cards had two speaker positions, the lower speaker mount is the main speaker which was fitted to all models as far as I'm aware and the upper position is a mid frequency speaker which wasn't on every model
Front Doors Main Speaker
The main speaker is a 165mm speaker but with non standard mountings and a multiplug connector on the rear, so our kit for this location comprises of an adapter ring we have designed and CNC cut which allow the fitment of either an AP6.5 or APX6.5 speaker from Audison. The AP is a bass driver which best reflects the original speaker, albeit to a much higher quality whereas the APX is a coax speaker so it has a tweeter located in the middle of the cone.....this is great if you want a really simple system that sounds great as you don't need any other speakers in the front of the vehicle for this although this won't be the best sound as the tweeter is pointing at your lower legs/feet.
We provide an adapter loom that plugs into the existing multiplug which would have plugged into the original speakers.
Front Doors Upper Speaker
The upper speaker is a mid speaker which mounts to the door card with a non standard screwed on rear which clamps the door card. Now, not all models had this speaker fitted however the door itself does have the recess in it ready to accept a speaker in this location. So if you don't have a speaker here.....you can have one if you want!
We have made two options for this location to furthermore confuse you, but there is a logical reason for this so please bear with me!
First option is most similar to what is already located in this position but this is a full range mid speaker which is a really fantastic little speaker called the AP2 from Audison and unlike a tweeter, it handles all frequencies which we've found gives a really nice balance to the sound in the front. It's a fantastic little speaker that we are planning to use in more projects where we can squeeze it!
Second option is to have a tweeter in this location, again this is the Audison AP-1 tweeter which if coupled with the AP6.5 in the main speaker position gives a fantastic sound and is the same setup as we offer to the front of TDCI/Puma Defenders and means you don't need another tweeter in the A-Pillar trim.
Both options are installed using a stainless steel assembly that we have designed which clamps the door card like the original speaker. The AP-1 is mounted in the front piece of our stainless fitting kit which is powdercoated satin black because it has it's own integrated grille. The AP-2 speaker is mounted in the rear piece of our stainless fitting kit as it has no grille so we have incorporated a grille into the front stainless piece (again this is powdercoated black).
Both kits come with wiring to attach to the existing wiring in this location or via the main speaker input in the door.
Second Row Doors Main Speaker
The second row main door speaker is the same as the front door so the same kit applies for this location.
Second Row Doors Tweeter
Similarly not all models had tweeters in this location but the door does have the recess in it to accommodate it. The kit for this location is a stainless 2 piece assembly the same as the front doors but smaller, there is not enough space to take an AP-2 and to be honest it would be slightly overkill so we have stuck with the AP-1 from Audison for this location and similarly to the front door cards, the AP-1 is located in the front piece of our stainless fitting, again powdercoated satin black.
Tailgate Subwoofer
As mentioned at the start of this post, we previously released our subwoofer upgrade/repair kit for the factory fit tailgate subwoofers. These have been really really popular and feedback has been great. The one thing we now offer as an option for these is a patch loom which connects into the existing plug in the tailgate. If you still have speakers in your tailgate subwoofer housing then you don't need this patch (unless you don't fancy crimping the supplied terminals onto the wires yourself) but we have had 3 customers now with vehicles where the subwoofers had been removed leaving only the multiplug in the door. So if this is you, we now have you covered.
Also worth noting is the fact we offer stainless subwoofer grilles in brushed stainless and powdercoated black stainless.