How much???

S

SirMixalot

I`ve got a standard set-up in my Gti, and feel its lacking a bit of punch and clarity...
Do I have to start spending silly money to improve it noticabley?
I`m not really wanting massive subs etc, just better quality, but Im not sure what bits to upgrade.
Knowing as little as I do about ICE, plus having no-one with an install to compare with makes me wary of getting fleeced by retailers.
Any advice appreciated :)
 
it all depends on how much you want to spend, i just went for vibe speakers front and back. ive also got a 10" kenwood sub for a bit of punch and a little 400w amp, i found the pioneer stereo i bought done the most diffrence as it controls all the speakers/sub seperatly... all in all probably totaled about £200 lol
not to hot on the ICE market so somone no dought can tell you the "in thing"
 
you dont have to go spending loads of money to get things sounding better. theres alot of fairly cheap deals around that are more than capable of delivering quality sounds.
I'd say the first thing to do is get yourself a decent head unit. I got my Kenwood (4x52w) on sale in halfords + free fitting (handy if your not into doing it urself). if your not worried about fitting a sub then i wouldnt worry too much about preouts, but you will need them if you want to expand your system in the future (extra amps etc).
Once thats in think about upgrading the standard speakers, ive been using infinity. there good value and give a really nice sound imo.
if you want abit extra (and dont mind cutting up your parcel shelf) get some 6x9s, you can splice these into the wiring that runs your rear speakers but for best results you'll want to run them off an amp.
Not the best pic in the world but this is my basic set up :)
DSC00097.jpg


hope this helps abit mate. sorry i havent gone into detail about what is best to use or anything, but i think when it comes to SQ its a personal preference.
 
Thanks Taz,
Unfortunately, my canine friend has first dibs on the boot, which would rule out an install like yours...
Otherwise, I`d get a sub.
Seems Im left with maybe replacing the head unit and standard speakers...Would a good amp help with just these upgrades?
 
i have a amp fitted under passengers seat & 6x9 speakers on rear shelf, every thing is pioneer sounds good was all in when i got the car :cool:
 
SirMixalot said:
Rhyd,
Did that make a nice difference?
Click to expand...
did what make a diffrence?? the best upgrade i made was a good stereo, you can get subs that go under a seat if you want a little bit of punch without the big box
 
the best upgrade i made was a good stereo,
Click to expand...
That answers the question :)
I didnt know about subs going under the seats, sounds ideal.
Im off to a retailer now, going to act completely clueless,(not hard :lol: ) and see what they try to sell me...
 
Can anyone recommend a good site for an introduction to the basics of ICE?

I've got a decent head unit, standard N16 speaker set and a 10" 400w sub but the sound I get is still quite 'muddy' - hard to explain but the treble, middle and bass all seem to get smudged across each other - and I'm looking for pointers on how to get a cleaner sound.
 
wraith0x29a said:
Can anyone recommend a good site for an introduction to the basics of ICE?

I've got a decent head unit, standard N16 speaker set and a 10" 400w sub but the sound I get is still quite 'muddy' - hard to explain but the treble, middle and bass all seem to get smudged across each other - and I'm looking for pointers on how to get a cleaner sound.
Click to expand...

check youve got all your positives n negatives the right way round. its any easy mistake to make and can make things sound muffled. also if youve got a standard speaker set up and your running a 10" sub it might be over powering the rest of the system.
Get some uprated speakers to put in place of your standard ones and your sure to hear the difference
 
wraith0x29a said:
Can anyone recommend a good site for an introduction to the basics of ICE?

I've got a decent head unit, standard N16 speaker set and a 10" 400w sub but the sound I get is still quite 'muddy' - hard to explain but the treble, middle and bass all seem to get smudged across each other - and I'm looking for pointers on how to get a cleaner sound.
Click to expand...

The Head unit is the master control of all the sound production, and definitely makes the biggest difference in sound quality. Even with good quality/high power amplifiers, if the signal sent from the head unit is shit, the quality of the overall sound amplified is gonna be shit. So the head unit is key to all, aswell as decent quality wiring/phono kit. Decent quality wires do make a big difference.

As for the sound quality mate. Have you got a decent amp on the sub? To be honest if you have a standard speaker system, the sound will sound a bit muddy, as you have a completely standard setup. The bass from the sub will drown out any other sound from the standard speakers, which is no good mate really.

I have a Sony head unit with standard front speakers/tweeters in my GTi. Then I have 2 Vibe 6x9 speakers on the back shelf running through a 400 watt 2 channel amplifier and also a 10 inch 1200 watt Sony Xplod sub running off a 1000 watt Sony Xplod amp.

The sound clarity in my motor is bang on to be fair. I used to DJ regularly so sound quality is very important to me hahaha!!

I found the sound to be much better by switching the sub amp to Lo Pass , and the amp to the 6x9's to Hi Pass. If your amps have these options i'd deffo recommend it as it only allows the correct frequencies to the relative speaker, which does create a better sound.

You may have to tinker with the Hz control if it has one to 'fine tune' the sound.

Sorry for rambling on hope some of it made sense. If you need help pal PM me or message on here i'll help as best I can if you need advice no problem.
 
you see good results from a set of components and tweeters up front, components at the rear or even co-axials.

If you want clear sound do not put a sub in the boot with speakers in teh shelf..., subs move a lot of air, so think about how they will affect the speakers above it, open air subs are the worst for this, you can mostly get away with this setup using a bandpass box though.

Until recently i had 4 6x9s in the rear shelf running off a 250W amp and it got pretty loud and with punch but obviously nothing like what a sub would deliver...

Now I have removed one set of 6x9s, replaced them with my 10" subs, using the boot space as the box enclosure, the underside of the other set of 6x9s is sealed so that the sub air movement wont affect their sound too much, JBL speakers all round and it does me, cant turn it up past 40 out of 50 on the volume control its that loud and thats with the 6x9 amp turned right down!
 
Fair do's - looks like I've got a fair bit of work to do.

edit: ..or not - fiddling with the sound shaping options has helped things a lot.
 
Am i the only one that thinks the standard speakers are good? I will not be spending money on new speakers till the standard ones give up i feel the quality is really good for OE speakers and i have no quality issues!
 
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