N16 System

[TallPaul86]

Does anyone know what the size's are of the speakers in the N16? I would take door panels off n all but my last foray into DIY was far from successful (both from replacing the rear discs + pads which led to £400 worth of MOT failures and with the colour ocding fiasco that every scottish mini meet participant can vouch)

Ideally i want a sound system that produces crystal clear sound (like Bose stereos) and it also to be iPod compatible (that is a MUST) so any suggestions on how to go about that?

I can now think giving it another go with modding my mera due to: -

a) Not enough NCB to upgrade
b) Switching to a better paid job allowing me to have oney spare after bills have came off
c) The fact that both speakers at the back are completely cream-crackered really does pis me off

I'm using the standard nissan cassette h/u with 2 (working speakers) up front and my iPod connected up using this

P.S. i've heard some N16's have tweeters in the A-post how do you go about installing those?

 

[StevenC]

Getting the door panels off is easy, no joke.

The speakers as standard seem fairly good though to be fair. Get your h/u back, with an aux in and all is good with the world man!

 

[wraith]

The standard speakers seem fine to me, particularly with a half-decent sub but I'm not exactly an audiophile.

Are the knackered ones the ones on either side of the parcel shelf? Not sure what size they are but can probably find out.

Loads of headunits come with AUX-IN sockets but that means you have to fiddle with your iPod while driving and if front mounted it means you'll need dangly cables messing the place up and a holder for the iPod.
You'll also likely lose some audio quality through the cable and in the worst-case get interference.

Many headunits are now being made iPod/mp3-player compatable with a USB port so you can navigate the music on your iPod from the headunit controls and the headunit displays track titles etc as if the iPod was just a big mp3-cd (it'll charge your iPod at the same time, too).

I got a Kenwood KDC-W6537U headunit today from Halfrauds for 200 knicker and though I'm using a 160GB USB harddrive with it it's really designed to work with iPods and comes with an iPod-to-USB adaptor cable.

There are other, cheaper HU's that support iPods but they tend to have front-mounted usb ports and I wanted a rear-mounted USB port to keep things tidy (you can cut a hole in the base of the flip-top cubby-hole, run the usb cable between the air vents and keep the harddrive/iPod/whatever in there).
There's an 3.5mm stereo jack AUX-IN on the back of that HU too so I've run an extention for that up to the cubby hole to allow passengers to plug any non-usb stuff in there too.

Sounds great, 4x50w output, 2 pre-outs (one switchable for rear speakers or sub) and loads of tweaking options for ICE fans but still works out the box fine with stock kit.

I'm trying to hunt-down a solution that will allow our steering-wheel remotes to work with this HU too.

The dials and display are blue, too, which would even keep your car colour-coded
(this played a bigger part in my choice of HU than I'd like to admit)

Whatever HU you get you'll need a fascia adaptor and an harness adaptor if your using the same, moulded-in cassette player I had in mine. (Halfords or whoever should be able to order them in for you though I had to wait a month while Autoleads made a new batch of fascias).
You'll need to file down the inside of the fascia adaptor slot a few mm to get a headunit in there (I've had to do that with both of mine) but it's a piece of piss to install (a few clips and six screws and the harness clips together easily).

I'll put a howto together for N16 fascia/headunit replacement when I next take it apart.
Damn, should have done that today. What a muppet