Can someone explain to me nearly everything about in car speakers, amps, subs and crossovers e.t.c. but in dummies terms please? I like good quality sound and almost all music, and want good sound and decent depth, but don't have a clue about what to fit in my car (90 spec mk2) and/or what's needed and how to do it! So, it would very kind of you to inform me of all these enigmatic things!
well first start is always the headunit... comparable to the shell... start with a good unrusted freshly painted shell and itl all come together nicely! you want something with at least 3 external outputs usualy for front/rear/subwoofer... avoid anything with lots of flashing colours... usualy they spend all the money on lights instead of internals! next up is a decent amp... now if you want to run at least a front set of speakers and a sub you want a 3 or 4 channel amp... most of the amps these days will allow bridging of the rear channels for a subwoofer this basicaly means it will turn a a left and right output into a single output usualy ouputting more watts. as for front speakers you can fit 13cm in the bottom of the doors and a tweeter up on the dash or you can mount them on the a pillar or on the mirror fixing cover with the sub you could go for a compact ready made 10" or 12" from manufacturers like Vibe or JBL Sony etc etc i mention these as i presume without knowledge there is no point in you spending hundreds of pounds on something you wont be able to setup properly without doing some more in depth reading. they are cheap ready made and provide good bang for a buck! i can promise you now anyone that tells you brand x is better than brand y has no clue what they are talking about... the more you spend the better the quality... but even 500 speakers badly installed will sound like 35 speakers from halfords installation is key in this game... you want to use sound deadning on the doors as a bare minimum... and install the speakers on wooden baffles... basicaly make everything rattle proof and proper solid and itl sound much better... dont spend big money on cabling... just make sure everything is well connected and properly fused if you want some more reading spend some time on http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/ and http://www.the12volt.com/
Cheers D! Might consider the tweeters in the mirror covers, but is there a reason that they should be infront of you? I was thinking of having them in the roof at the rear? Also, I haven't got the door speaker pods, so I will be having my front mids on the dash as OEM. Was also hoping to build a box for the sub to fit in the gap infront of the door locking pump behind the rear-left wheelarch, will that have enough volume(space) for a sub-box? Are coaxials any good or should I just be going for components and setting the tweeter elsewhere? Cheers for the reply
On the Mk2, and the Mk3, I`ve simply gone for Alpine co-axials as a direct replacement for the factory speakers. Cheap as chips (35 the pair for the larger Mk3 ones, 25 for Mk2), and sound great for what they are. A million times better than the standard ones which is all I was really looking for. Teamed up with a Vibe sub/amp combo in the boot (70 secondhand) to get the windows rattling, and I`m happy. Headunit is currently a tired old Sony affair, with no pre-outs (low-level convertor used for sub), that was great when I got it (130 at the time) due to it`s Bluetooth handsfree/music streaming feature. I`ll be upgrading soon to an Alpine CDE-125BT for around 170. Again it has Bluetooth handsfree (Parrot), but also has full iPod/iPhone control/charging too, so is ideal, and a bit of a bargain IMO. Fitted it`s predecessor to an ex-GF`s Lupo, and it was a cracking bit of kit. As said, pointless buying all top-spec stuff if you don`t know how to get the best from it, but you`ll find simple, cheap, easy to install kit will be more than good enough if all your after is a (miles) better than factory sound.
reason to have them in front is your ears point forwards!... basically a sub can be placed nearly anywhere as its hard for the human ear to pinpoint the source, whereas treble and most importantly midrange our ears are deadly accurate... placing speaking in the dash is an ok idea if your just looking to have a bit of music playing sound will bounce off the windscreen basicaly... tweeters in the mirror covers are a great location as it will give good stereo separation and add "space" to the overall sound. play around with the direction of the tweeter with some bluetac firstly... point them facing each other so basically sound is crossing in front of you and play your favourite track something you have listened too at home on something decent if you know what i mean and then slowly angle them towards you... helps if someone else is in the car and find your sweet spot... you could also build some kickpods down by your feet... ive seen 6inch components and they dont interfere with the pedals coaxials are fine if you want to save yourself from the mirror cover tweeter builds and im sure theres enough space for at least a 8" sub in the rear quater pannel...
how much of an audiofile are you? on mine all i have is a pair of good mid/high speakers in the dash, and some 6x9s in a stealth shelf at the back. I've had purists crying out over how crap it must be over the internet, but it really isn't The stealth shelf really makes a difference though, highly recommended. Mine is a great quality one too, looks pretty much identical to the stock mk2 shelf. I have mine this way because I dont want any modifications to my door cards, and more importantly I don't want to loose my door bins. I have all kinds of random bits sat in there like spare relays, fuses, lengths of wire, screws etc. a slightly audiophallic mate commented at how it was surprisingly good for what it is
Well it's my daily but I don't want to spend loads of money just on speakers, just something a better than standard. I'm not too keen on loads of bass which is why I wanted to know about crossovers(?) to try and turn down a subs output (tried it with my mates headunit as he had a sub and it doesn't do it enough) I also don't want any mods to the interior of my car as IMO they usually look awful Isn't a stealth shelf just the regular one with the speakers slung under it so they cannot be seen from above? As stated before I don't have the door speakers - just the ones in the dash and next to the C pillar. I do like good quality sound as I'm surrounded by it quite a lot and have gotten used to it. Would I be best off going to a specialist and getting them to fit/sort it as I don't live too far from "sextons-gloucester" or would that just be wasted
sorry by stealth shelf I meant MDF stealth shelf, big solid bit o wood really helps with the sound. holes cut into flappy oem shelf doesn't really work that well! could just set it up like mine as that is cheap and easy to do, then if you don't like it throw a load of money at an expert dash speakers are Kenwood KFC-1059S 10cm Dash speakers, almost fit but needed to cut the holes in the dash a little to squeeze in, cant see though when you put the covers back on. Rears were Kenwood KFC-6959IE 6x9. All wired up using the OEM speaker wire, direct into a JVC AVX1. I dont want a sub or amp as i likes my boot space, and really cant be fecked messing about with coax cables under the carpets and adding extra power wires. Never had a problem with how mine sounds tbh
Resurrection! I'm thinking to go with co-axial 6x4's in the OE place in the rear, sub and amp in the back (behind the wheelarch, not some barryboy box taking up all my boot), component 3.5's in the dashboard place. But torn between 2 different places for the tweeters. Either the mirror backplates or the headlining at the top of the A pillar. Thought of plenty con's for the mirror backplates: Have to build it Not enough room for it, so will be poking away from the base. Once finished, will have to be covered in something, that will end up being a bit tacky like flock, suede or 3m carbon wrap stuff. plus others... So is there enough room behind the headlining for a tweeter/tweeter build? Don't fancy taking it off for a look and risk possibly fragile clips e.t.c. so does anyone have any pics of that area? To wrap it up; Does this sound okay? any pics e.t.c. Oh and thanks
why not 13cm in the doors , tweeters in the dash ? all standard looking and more ooomf from the 13cm drivers
why not wire it all up, then get a helper to move the tweety about while you listen. see how it sounds in various places and if its that much better to have to faff about making pods
no not at all , was good enough for vw to do it if you want to go mad and get high power speakers and amp them , then you can use a sound deadener or fibreglass resin to beef them up ive got 17cm rockfords with a amp , not rattles or problems at all
Sounds like a good idea, but I'm shooting more towards whichever ones easiest. Not too bad then, seen a few of the speaker grills on ebay, are they hard to come by at all?
