In Car Audio help...

West · 9 Jul 2006 at 13:58

Hey Guys...

Well my 18th birthday is fast approaching (as is my test lol) and my parents have or rather will give me about £300 to spend on kitting my car out with a better Audio setup, because quite frankly the one I have now is poo, to say the least...

Now this budget is to include at least a 2 or a 4 speaker setup with a Sub too... but also a headunit, now im not sure if £300 will cover all of that so im gonna put an extra £100 aside incase I run over budget... now bare in mind, my car is absolutley tiny, its a Fiat Cinquecento lol, but all the stuff will be moved to a bigger car when I get sorted with my NCB and my insurance goes down etc...

So what could I possibly get for that sort of money, and where would I get it from? (400 To spend MAX tho)

Matt82 · 9 Jul 2006 at 14:06

your best off buying 2nd hand id say. an ok headunit to power some coaxs at the front, a sub and amp plus all the associated wiring.

should be able to get that into budget

what size are the standard front speakers in that car? that may be a limiting factor

West · 9 Jul 2006 at 15:55

They're only small no more than 15x15 Cms...

Zip · 9 Jul 2006 at 15:58

How much would u want to spend on each component?

West · 9 Jul 2006 at 16:02

I know next to nothing about Car Audio, im not too sure what I would ned to get this setup, all I know is that I need a decent HU, and a decent set of speakers and a sub, but I dont really know what to look for, I would obviously want to spend money on the head - unit, but still have enough money to but everything else, so i was considering spending about £150 - £200 on the Head Unit, and the rest on the speaker setup and perhaps the Subwoofer too...

Just the problem is I dont know exactley what I need, i can provide pictures of my cars Interior and whats already in there if needs be

Scrutinize · 9 Jul 2006 at 16:12

West said:
I know next to nothing about Car Audio, im not too sure what I would ned to get this setup, all I know is that I need a decent HU, and a decent set of speakers and a sub, but I dont really know what to look for, I would obviously want to spend money on the head - unit, but still have enough money to but everything else, so i was considering spending about £150 - £200 on the Head Unit, and the rest on the speaker setup and perhaps the Subwoofer too...

Just the problem is I dont know exactley what I need, i can provide pictures of my cars Interior and whats already in there if needs be

www.caraudiodirect.co.uk and their forums www.talkaudio.co.uk. Good mail order supplier and not B-grade stuff. Half the price of Halfrauds tbh.

I would consider a Pioneer HU

Pioneer DEH-30MP Headunit £85 LINK
Pioneer TS-A13C Components £45 LINK
JBL Bass Pack Sub and Amp £140 LINK

Plus you may need ISO/Faceplate adapters and speaker adapters but this sort of set up would be in your budget and for £300 would be what I would put. The Pioneer HUs have great amps in and will run the comonents nicely. Not worth amping tbh. A friend of mine had these comps (6") and HU in his skyline and ran off the headunit brillliantly all things considered.

Sub pack is a bit lacking but good value and will give you enough fill specially in a small car.

Zip · 9 Jul 2006 at 16:13

I dont know a whole lot about ICE but ive been looking on the Pioneer website(the US one) and found these pretty cheap

Speakers
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/album/compare/0,,2076_310069908,00.html

Head Unit. (not so cheap but it looks damm nice)(243pounds after the conversion using XE.com)
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/product/details/0,,2076_310069882_291159496,00.html

Subwoofer. 800 watt 12 inch(there is a 600Watt 10 inch if you want a smaller one)
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/product/details/0,,2076_310069927_297677103,00.html

And amps confuse me a bit so ill leave that up to other people.

The reason i used the American site is because they give the price and its just a lot better set out

West · 9 Jul 2006 at 16:28

Interior Pics...

Front Speaker on Right

Left Interior Speaker

Shelf Speaker

And the Headunit

ScoobyDoo69 · 9 Jul 2006 at 18:12

what car is it?

o wait just seen your sig, never mind

John_V85 · 9 Jul 2006 at 18:45

It looks like it is going to be quite a job to upgrade the audio on your car. The front speakers look like 10cm jobs, and the factory ones will be (no doubt you have realised) very poor. The problem is that it is very difficult to get good speakers at this size.

The generally regarded best route is to have component speakers in the front, although in your car this may prove difficult; as whilst in most cars you can replace the door speakers with the mid-range speaker and only have to worry about tweeter placement, you will have to custom place both. Depending on the sturdiness and depth of your doors this may prove problematic.

Assuming you can overcome this problem then get a sub powered off either a sole purpose amp, or perhaps a 4 channel using 2 for the front components and 2 bridged for the sub.

Go for quality rather than watts, and make sure you look at the RMS figure when comparing speakers, subwoofers and amplifiers; not the max power figure.