Thinking of getting a proper audio install

DezUk

DezUk

DezUk

Associate
Joined
20 Sep 2003
Posts
2,379
Location
Scotland
I have penciled my car in at a local audio install shop where i am planning to have a full SQ (geared toward sound quality) system installed that will sound amazing. The cost of the entire thing is looking to be about £1400. Thing that is slightly bothering me is that it is going into a car that has covered 106,000 miles, dont get me wrong the car runs fine but am i being stupid ?

I do plan to keep the car as i cant come to sell it for the kind of money i would get for it.
 
[TW]Fox said:
You can move most of the stuff to a new car anyway.

What does mileage have to do with ICE?
Click to expand...

A significant amount of the money spent will be on labour, and the ability of the installers to choose the right components for the car and to setup/tweak the system to sound its best. I assume the OP is therefore concerned that he may spend all this money on a pro install only to find his Mondeo will only last him 6 months before dying.

Personally I would say that or though 106k is high milage, its not really a huge issue for a mondeo that has been well looked after, and it could easily see a good few miles yet! Only you can judge how the car has been looked after and how well it runs, check back through the service history and see what sort of life its had.
 
only thing you have to ask yourself is "do i drive the car enough that i will actually appreciate it"

another thing you have to realise is that an in-car environment is spectacularly flawed when it comes to reproducing a good hi-fi sound. its noisy in there, speaker positioning is all wrong.

those are just my views after mucking about with a many aspects of ICE years ago (been from stupidly spl systems all the way to big bucks XTANT systems and the like).


i tell ya another thing tho..... there are few hobbies as fun tho lol

id love to get back into it but i never keep a car long enough


enjoy
 
Personally I'd never put an expensive stereo in a car, it really is a rubbish audio environment.
How about putting an OK one in the car, then blowing the majority of your cash on a decent home system which will blow any car system out of the water.
 
yup. my hifi at home (i cant remember if its worth £2700 rrp or £3700 rrp) but in the grand scheme of hifi it is relatively modest.

i have yet to hear an incar system that even comes close for realism.


my personal choice for ICE would be a relatively mundane system. set of ok components up front, bi amp them off the head unit.

get a single 10 or 12 inch sub and a nice amp.


when it comes to ICE, simple setups are more often than not better
 
My advice is have a poke around on the Talkaudio forums and they will spec you an SQ install within budget you could fit yourself. It'll be miles cheaper and more fun to take care of it yourself and when it comes to be moving it on you'll be more confident.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
How about putting an OK one in the car, then blowing the majority of your cash on a decent home system which will blow any car system out of the water.
Click to expand...

Becuase you can't listen to an awesome home system when in the car. I'm sure it isnt just me who only really listens to music when driving.
 
i think the point he wants to get across is that its not worth blowing that much money into car hifi. you reach diminishing returns sooner than youd imagine
 
You don't have to spend all that money on an ICE install.

You have/had an RE sub before didn't you? Why not sell that and get something by Genesis, an RE XXX or an In-Phase?

Get a decent 4 channel amp... again by Genesis or another high-end brand.

Front speakers, some nice components... Rainbow/Genesis/Focal.

And a great sounding headunit like a second hand Pioneer DEHP-77MP.

I reckon you'd get it all for £800 and it's a doddle to install it yourself :)
 
is an RE going to be happy running off a bridged Genesis? unlikely i woulda thought (not had an RE).

i used to have a JL12w3 running 2ohm from my Genny 5ch.

those were cool days :P
 
Well the RE sub i did have blew on me so thats that idea out the window :(

As for the other bits and bobs i will sell them on and put it towards the install. Reason i am getting a nice install in the car is i love listening to music when driving and its where i do most of my listening, gives me a chance to crank it up properly.

This may be a load of pap but the guy at the audio shop said a car was a great environment to reproduce sound as there are hardly any flat edges in acar unlike a room in a house. he was adament (sp?) that once he was finished the sound would be ubber class :D.

The kit was roughly this....

Alpine 9853 HU (already have this)
JL XR 6.5 components
2x JL 12" subs
2x JL amps
Phoenix Gold 32 band EQ
Subtle custom boot build
 
Matt82 said:
the guy was blagging you. how did you blow the RE... thought even the low models demanded 800rms etc
Click to expand...

I'm not exactly sure how i blew the RE i was just turning up the volume and there was an almighty popping noise and it has never worked since. Although i did hook it upto my home amp and it did make some sounds. I didnt want to turn it up to loud though as it inst very good for them. So to be honest im not 100% sure if it is bust or not.

Was running of an ALpine MRD-501 which is still working fine.
 
thats unusual. at 2ohm i think the alpine would have been turning out in the region of 500rms, which the RE would have been perfectly happy with, unless the gains were turned up really high.

possible that a connection came loose somewhere, worth having a play about with again tho. they ought to be pretty hard to kill
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom