Your knowledge could significantly improve my life

[MattMatt]

Hi there,

I'm a proud owner of a 1987 320 SE which a couple of years ago I put a Kenwood Head Unit in which has always sounded terrible, really tinny.

I've got rear speakers as well which came with the car (pioneers).

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Sorting out the sound in my car is long overdue so can someone recommend a nice head unit (I'm interested in natural sound quality, not power) - it needs to be able to take an input from an iphone too.

Also, speakers.

I seem to get the impression people favour front speakers, right?

And whether or not I need an amp to power my set up, if so which one.

Something else that would be enormously helpful is a recommended fitter or car audio nut who can help me bring all of this to life. I don't mind travelling to the right person but obviously the nearer London the better.

Thanks so much,

Matt.

[mongoose]

In my last car (a ford orion sorry) i had the mtx component up front and two mtx in the back sounded awsome. I had a pionner dehp88rs which is a really gud head unti. I was always told if you got a gud head unti you don't need to amp your speakers. That set was so good ive never seen the need for a subwoofer again hope this help's

but yes unless u sit in the back of your car put more £££ into ur front speakers

i know a good fitter depends on ur location

[Daryll]

MB Quartz seem to be the weapon of choice for the 5.5's in the front footwell.
I've got Pioneer front and rear at the moment running off a 5x100 amp in the boot along with a 10" Visteon sub running at low gain. Considering it's in a convertible with no ski hatch it doesn't sound too bad at all.

[Felix79]

I have a BlauPunkt Milano system in my e30. Has a Aux attachment which my iphone plugs into. Not sure how big the amp in the boot is but the quality and depth I get is 2nd to none.

[Ziggy]

New front speakers (mounted well) should be your first port of call, followed by an amp to power them. Ok, there are some rubbish head units out there, but you can be pretty sure that isn't your main problem here.

The obvious question is: What's your budget?

[DmcL]

u dont need an amp for decent sound in the car. just make sure u have some half decent speakers and a decent headunit with a built in amp tho most nowadays do. the bass boost or loudness + EQ settings should be enough to keep u happy. if u want more u could fit a sub and amp which will take care of the bass allowing u to turn off the loudness on the headunit and adjust the EQ settings for better sound quality and leave the bass to the sub. this will also allow u to run a higher volume level on the headunit without the speakers in the car distorting the sound like they would at a certain point with the loudness on and EQ set for more bass.

IMO this is the best setup on a budget.

[Fushion_Julz]

I disagree with DmcL...

Your headunit is likely to be good enough (although I prefer Alpine or Nakamichi for best sound)...

Choose a decent set of component speakers for the front with 5.25" mids to mount in the standard location...Tweeters should be as near ear-level as possible whilst also being as close as possible to the mid drivers (avoids time-delay issues). In practice that will mean mounting them on the A-pillars just above the dash or (if you can be arsed doing the extra wiring) on the backs of the door mirror mounting covers.

These will work using the output from the headunit, if you are on a budget, until you can afford the next step...
This should be a decent 3 or 4ch amp (or amps) with good quality cabling for ppower and speaker and a suitable circuit breaker or fuse holder.
The amp should provide an RMS rating at least 1.5 times the RMS rating of the speakers...
ie: if your speakers are rated @ 50w @ 4ohm, then your amp should be a min of 75w/ch @ 4ohms all RMS...NOT music power or any other (fake) rating.

Your new amp should be wired to run thh new front speakers from two channels. If you are not doing the next step, then they should run full range...
If, however, you are going the full hog, then run the front speakers with a hi-pass filter around 120Hz.

Then add a bass bin to the boot and run this off the other two (or one) channel of the amp bridged and with a low-pass filter set around 120Hz

You need to open up the ski hatch if your car is a saloon or find some other way of venting it into the passenger cabin if it is a cabrio.

Make sure your amp power comes ONLY direct from the battery and that the signal leads to the amp run well clear of any power leads in the car...Best to run the signal leads down the left and the power down the right....

[mrLEE30]

I just fitted an Alpine 9887 and once you get through the manual it is very good, it also has full ipod functions including control, so the ipod sits charging in the glovebox and its controlled by the head unit. - downside is its expensive.

As for speakers i am currently writing a wiki article on fitting stereo/amps/speakers and subs but it will not be ready for a week or two but basically 6x9 in the rear parcel shelf and 6inch in the footwells will be a good start.

as for the above advice Julz will get you a better system, Dmcl will get you sounds. the main point is the amplifiers in ALL head units are the cheapest ones they can get away with, in other words they are generally rubbish (they are also restricted to size and cooling) so buying even a cheaper amp (from a reputable brand i.e Sony/Kenwood/Pioneer etc) and running speakers from there will always sound better then head unit amp, again the downside is you must buy the stuff and fit it - but some people enjoy this!!

and my last piece of advise is to post in the ICE section, i have moved this post there.....oh and welcome to the zone!!

mrlee

[magpie]

i have a sony mp3 cd/radio for sale?
c/w iso plug cage instruction manual and remote.
it has many functions a two graphic eq's.

[Fushion_Julz]

Sorry, Mr Lee, but unless you sit in the back facing the rear, you don't want 6x9s in the rear shelf...

You want your mid/tops ahead of you to give a proper stereo image...If you put 5.25" mids in the kickwells, then the tweeters should be in the a-pillars close or on top of the dash...

If you want to use co-axial mid/tops, these should be in the doors, as high as possible and as far forward as possible

If you can't screw at least two of the speaker mounting screws into metal panels, then the fibreboard panel should be re-inforced with (at least) 9mm marine ply...Do NOT use MDF as any water will make it disintegrate...

I used to sell and fit car ICE (a few years ago) to competition standards, btw...

[mrLEE30]

i agree but i did not say it was the best option, but with a standard headunit or amp capable of driving only four speakers I said its a good start!!! 6x9 are easy to fit in the rear shelf and 6inch are easy to fit in the footwells - yes i fully agree neither of these speaker locations are ideal - far from it - but i assume Matt does not want to install a competition winning set up, he wants something fairly basic thus 6x9 rear parcel gives a bit of bass and some half decent mid in the front preferably all ran from an amp, if he wants to go down the road of custom door mounts and tweeters then that surely would come much later in his build??

mrlee