In Car Audio - newbie help pls

( |-| |2 ][ $

( |-| |2 ][ $

( |-| |2 ][ $

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Just purchased a used car and am disappointed with the audio system so would like to upgrade, can anyone offer advise on a make and model. Who's the Arcam of in car audio?

Car: 2004 Seat Leon FR
Current System: Seat single CD with standard 8 speakers. x4 woofers, x4 tweeters.
Desirable qualities: Quality Hi-Fi sound, Modest appearance (minimal flashing lights), Multiple CD or MP3 playback (via CD or hdd). I'm not looking to rewire the car so a single head unit only please (no seperates).

Other questions / factors; Cost is an issue so please keep it ~low end.. Will £100 cover this? I will consider second hand.
I might look to upgrade the speakers at some point but will start with just the unit.

I like to hear my music as it should be so no booming bass thanks.
 
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To be fair just replacing the headunit probably won't be enough, you'd have to buy front component speakers as well. And £100 won't buy you an awful lot either way.
 
As durzel said, you want to spend a fair amount on some decent front components. Wouldn't bother with the back if you tend to drive a lot on your own.


In terms of headunits I am abit behind on them as haven't bothered with after market ones for a while but the old kinda guide was that for sound quality Alpine/Pioneer are the way to go.
 
just replace the speakers,you will be surprised by the better sound quality from good speakers.£100 should fit your car out in some good speakers.
 
your really wanting to spend about 150 for the head unit.. probably 60-80 on some front speakers... *theres some nice component Vibe Kevlar speakers at Halfrauds which have very good quality sound and bass..
 
I spent just over a grand on a decent stereo for my MR2.

£100 would probably get you some nice slot in replacement front speakers. You can always change the head unit and add speakers later on.
 
I'm gonna go the other way and suggest that replacing the head unit first off will help, and should give you lots of nice extra functionality etc if you buy one that does MP3s, particularly with a USB hard drive attachment :) I've always thought in modern cars it's the electronics that let things down often more than the speakers
 
I just got a kenwood head unit that did MP3 cds amoung other things, youll probably need to buy an aerial booster and a DIN-ISO convertor for it.

Total cost ~100 quid
 
Pioneer or Alpine you want.

I think I remember Paradigm saying that the speakers in his LCR (stock) were actually quite good.

All he did was change his HU.

I think.
 
Just upgraded my Fabia vRS headunit and the stock speakers are pretty decent :) I'd definitely change the headunit first before upgrading speakers, you'll be suprised how much difference it makes :)

Pioneer would be my preference but Alpine are pretty good too ;)
 
It's hard to tell really how good OEM speakers are until you actually try and put some proper power through them... OEM speakers are matched to OEM headunits so when you change one of them you're basically taking a 50/50 gamble on whether you picked the "right" thing to change (although it's possible both are equally crap).

If I was forced to choose between a headunit and component speakers I'd go for the headunit, my gut feeling is that it is rarer for car speakers to be crap - assuming a relatively modern car - vs crap headunits.
 
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