How To: Disconnect Center-Speaker on Sony 9 Speaker System

[Dialed]

Many people have mentioned the improved sound stage when disconnecting the center speaker in the focus. From personal experience, I can tell you it results in much more distinguished left and rights, and a less muddy sound up front.

What you'll need:

4 Pennies
Flathead Screwdriver (Optional - If you don't want to risk cutting yourself)
Some tape (Scotch)

I recommend using either your fingers (being extremely careful not to cut yourself) or a flathead screwdriver with tape around the end to prevent damage to your dash. With whatever you chose, very lightly pull up on a corner until it's high enough to slide a penny under the edge. Repeat until you have 3-4 edges held up by pennies, then evenly pull the speaker out of the slot.


Don't pull too hard. The wire connecting the speaker is very short and there isn't any leeway.


You'll see the connector at the end of the wire. Again, the cable is short, so maneuvering your hand in to pull the little tab out and pull the wire out of the connection will be tricky. Big hands, good luck.


You'll see the little recessed tab on the right of the connector, that;s what you need to pull out to release the lock.






At this point, use some scotch tape to tape the now loose connector to the inside of the slot, this will prevent inevitable vibrating and/or loss of the cable (though I'm pretty sure that can't happen).

Now you can lightly and evenly re-insert the speaker into the slot. You'd never know it was even removed.


Spoke to my dealer today, they had no concerns about this mod what-so-ever.

Enjoy!

[Sponsor]

[Dysan911]

Wow, really? I can't imagine unplugging the center speaker would actually improve the sound. Interesting.

[feta_mgp]

Well, I never used pennies or scotch tape with my "9 speaker mod" but good write up. Also didn't use a flathead, but that's a good idea because I did cut myself on the plastic grill when I did this last week, lol.

Thanks for the pictures! I was too lazy to bother.

[ohnoy2k]

It really is rather easy to use your fingers.

It sounds quite better to me. With the center speaker it makes things sound like it's low bitrate.

Sent from my MB860 using FF Mobile

[Edbro]

If you look inside there is a tab that you can plug the speaker cord into. No need to tape it down.

[Dialed]

Originally Posted by Edbro

If you look inside there is a tab that you can plug the speaker cord into. No need to tape it down.

I saw that too, but I didn't think it could possibly be for that and didn't want to break anything.

[Nick Markham]

Can anyone provide more opinions in if this improves the sound?

[Timthom62]

For me it was a vast improvement. I found that the center speaker, which had a big mid-range presence, really muddied up the sound of the Sony to the point that it was often like listening to mono rather than stereo. To compensate, I had shifted the balance/fade pretty far in the cabin. This diminished the center presence but also the other front speakers as well and while you could tell that it was in stereo, it sometimes sounded as if it was coming from the car behind me.

Five minutes (and a plastic trim tool) and the above problem was gone. Speaker out, disconnected, plug stowed, speaker in, balance reset, problem gone.

Now it's easy to distinguish between the left and right channels and having the balance set properly lets me really enjoy my Sony system.

It takes very little time or effort to do and is easily reversed - give it a shot and see.

[me.awesome]

Just unhooked mine with just a screwdriver, no tape, didnt cause any damage at all. I just ran the screwdriver along the edge of the speaker cover and it loosened up nicely. I do agree it gives the car a nice R/L separation. I could tell right away that the highs sounded much crisper, no more mid muddeling up the highs. I just used a command strip to secure the plug against, what i think is, the driver side vent duct. should be easily enough removed if i want but i doubt i will.

[Titanium Tony]

I just did this a few hours ago and yes, it does make a difference for a cleaner sound. Like mentioned above, no need to tape the plug cause the dummy receptacle is just under and forward of where the speaker sits.