Modest Speaker Upgrade

[Soixantaine]

After about a month of dilly dallying around, I finally finished my DLS component speaker installation. The new speakers had a mounting depth of 63mm so I had to mount them on 12 mm MDF rings. They just clear the door card speaker grilles. I mounted the low pass cable filter in a shallow depression in the door and the high pass ones on a piece of 6mm MDF that I epoxied to the small package tray under the steering wheel. I thought there might be a clearance issue with the later but so far no problems. I also did about a quarter of the door with Second Skin Damplifier and applied a length of draft extrusion around the MDF for a tight seal.

The set-up sounds pretty good to me even though I'm only using a (much verbally abused) Sony head unit (CDXGT200) and still have the rear package- tray speakers, which I like. At first I thought I'd screwed something up as I couldn't hear anything coming from the tweeters. But when I pulled the pillar trim off and held the tweeter to my ear I could hear higher tones from guitar riffs, etc. The high pass filter has a tweeter level select feature which is a couple of wires that you either connect for high level or leave unconnected for low level. I am assuming, since I am a novice at this, that if I disconnect the wires the frequency range will widen a bit. Is that correct?

Anyway, thanks to previous posts on ICE and some very appreciated advice offered me some weeks ago, I was able to (finally) complete the job without any major problems. Really pleased about that.

S

 

[fraz_micra_88]

nice

 

[Retepetsir]

Nice choice of speakers dude (I also run DLS, but they are a bit larger, with a depth of 95mm!!!).

Get them amped up for them to sing!

Edit: Yes, leave those wires disconnected in order to get more signal to the tweeters.

 

[Soixantaine]

95mm! You must have had to cut out the stock speaker grille to fit them.

You have often advised amping the door speakers. So what do I get if I do, more volume or richer sound at the same levels? They are quite loud now,
actually.

What do you think of Genesis GEN-P69-4 subwoofers to replace the stock units on the parcel shelf?

Interesting article in this week's Auto Express on head units. Pioneer DEH-30MP rated best budget buy.

And another question: why do Sony head units get slated so much? The one I have sounds good and is easy to use. Not very flashy but that's one of the reasons I chose it. Low profile

S

 

[james betley]

not bad

 

[Retepetsir]

95mm! You must have had to cut out the stock speaker grille to fit them.

You have often advised amping the door speakers. So what do I get if I do, more volume or richer sound at the same levels? They are quite loud now,
actually.

What do you think of Genesis GEN-P69-4 subwoofers to replace the stock units on the parcel shelf?

Interesting article in this week's Auto Express on head units. Pioneer DEH-30MP rated best budget buy.

And another question: why do Sony head units get slated so much? The one I have sounds good and is easy to use. Not very flashy but that's one of the reasons I chose it. Low profile

S

Yes, custom speak pod builds, definately not standard! I wish they were though!!! The tweeters are also in custom A-pillar builds

With regards to amping speakers, it wont necessarily be how loud they go, although you'll go loud more easily (i.e. headunit will distory and clip the speakers at some point, the amp will push them harder than this to avoid that). You'll get greater response, harder hitting midbass, bigger bass, etc. It can also easily give you more detail, as the amp will give a lot more control over the speaker. Look for at least 50wrms, ideally 75-100wrms or more. I'm currently running 150wrms into each midbass driver....they go louder than my ears can go, with zero distortion and perfect detail.

The Genesis minisubs are a good choice, although for the price of them you could get a dedicated subwoofer AND an amp to power it with! You'll want an amp if you get the Genesis 6x9 subs, which = lots of cost.

Good choice of sound deadening too btw

Sony get slated as quite often there is better out there for the same price. They used to build some awesome gear, and were dedicated to it. Now they tend to build equipment for the Halfrauds brigade, which quite often means its cheap. There old kit was amazing, think full copper chassis, amps weighing 30kg and about 1m long (for 2 channel only!), £1000+ headunits, etc....

I guess you are a member of www.talkaudio.co.uk? If not, its worth joining the forums.

 

[Soixantaine]

A lot of work on the pods and pillar trims I expect. I wanted a "stock" look and lucked out when I stumbled onto a Micra with the factory tweeter set-up in the trims at the scrapyard. Took me about a New-York-minute to have them out. I did have to modify the stock mounts to accept the DLS tweeters but that wasn't much of a problem.

Thanks for the explanation on amping. Previous research only stressed the need to do so with explaining why. Will give it some thought before I go any further with an amp or the Genesis subwoofers. Probably just enjoy what I've got for a while before I tear into it again.

S

 

[Gurpreet]

where can I buy DLS? better than Infinity? etc. Ta

 

[Antony]

hey theres nothing wrong with us halfords lot...

we do some of the finest audio about. and just cos its not on our shelves doesnt mean we cant get it..

but what is the point in stocking £1000+ subs when your gonna sell maybe 1 a year.... when you can have a £500 sub or speaker system that will sound just as good to the average motorist as any other speaker system?? if you want a £1000 sub or amp....then we can have it here in less than 3 days anyway.


i personaly run rainbow audio components and a Phoenix Gold amp. they aint in there yet but they will be when my wheels are on it..haha

most of the fella's at work use Alpine Type R and Type X stuff if they can afford it. and Vibe "kevlar" stuff if they cant..... but the Head units are nearly always either Nakamichi, Alpine F1's or the DV- range of JVC (what ive got, used to have nakamichi but broke it in a roll over in my 309gti)


nice install by the way....bet it sounds great.!

 

[Soixantaine]

Thank you, Antony, it does sound pretty good compared to the old Blaupunkt set-up. Like night and day, in fact. Very tempted to pump up the bass now.

I bought my Sony HU and the DLS speakers through CAD. I saved a bit on the Sony through CAD and as they also stocked the speakers I got them there too. Halfords prices on ICE equpment seem a little high compared to other sources, particularly on-line outlets. I have noted, though, serious price reductions on some items that were probably over-stocked.

I like Halfords, however, and patronize the local super store quite a bit for oil, filters, tools (very good), etc. Nice place, everyone there very helpful and friendly. Must be a nice place to work. Sometimes I just like to have a browse when I feel like looking at "car stuff."

S

 

[Retepetsir]

hey theres nothing wrong with us halfords lot...

we do some of the finest audio about. and just cos its not on our shelves doesnt mean we cant get it..

but what is the point in stocking £1000+ subs when your gonna sell maybe 1 a year.... when you can have a £500 sub or speaker system that will sound just as good to the average motorist as any other speaker system?? if you want a £1000 sub or amp....then we can have it here in less than 3 days anyway.


i personaly run rainbow audio components and a Phoenix Gold amp. they aint in there yet but they will be when my wheels are on it..haha

most of the fella's at work use Alpine Type R and Type X stuff if they can afford it. and Vibe "kevlar" stuff if they cant..... but the Head units are nearly always either Nakamichi, Alpine F1's or the DV- range of JVC (what ive got, used to have nakamichi but broke it in a roll over in my 309gti)


nice install by the way....bet it sounds great.!

Since when did Halfords stock Alpine F1 geat?

Gurpreet, yes DLS are better than Infinity, you can source it from Car Audio Direct (online).

 

[Antony]

who said anything about stocking it?..... we can get whatever you want in less than three days...direct from the manufacturers....no middle men....(appart from us that is lol)

no, what i meant was that one of my colleagues has an alpine F1 status head unit...

thank you, yeah our tools are good enough for the renault F1 team theyre good enough for anyone..haha.

 

[Retepetsir]

Can you get anything?

If so, what is the best price Halfords can do on a JBL GTO1201.1?

Cheers

 

[Antony]

well....give us a mo and ill find out, im not at work at the mo, but yeah we deal with JBL (as part of the infinity / Harmon Kardon company) so if ya hold on ill get a price for ya....

old on. thats obsolete.... they dont even make that anymore...plus your much better off getting the infinity equivalent or even an alpine.....

but...the price...

£249.99 fitted.....at any halfords store. if you can still get it...

 

[Retepetsir]

well....give us a mo and ill find out, im not at work at the mo, but yeah we deal with JBL (as part of the infinity / Harmon Kardon company) so if ya hold on ill get a price for ya....

old on. thats obsolete.... they dont even make that anymore...plus your much better off getting the infinity equivalent or even an alpine.....

but...the price...

£249.99 fitted.....at any halfords store. if you can still get it...

Fitted? Do they wire it in with an included wiring kit then? If you have more details then that would be great.

I can get it for £220, and afaik its not obsolete, as CAD still stock them at normal price.

Infinity are not as good for the price. If I can get 1000wrms+ @2 ohms for £220 then I'm happy.

 

[Antony]

yeah.... ring halfords grimsby on 01472 347755, ask for carl or Kevin and explain that you spoke to me..... and what your after.... and they will be happy to give you an exact price and talk to your local halfords to get it booked in for fitting too...

ant