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[Martin_1962]

Well I have now done the front speakers.

I used a 90w RMS (400w) freecycle amp, £15 worth of speaker cable, my old speakers, £15 of adaptors, and about £7 of power cable.

Amp lives near gas tank, speaker cables run back along sills, into the A post cavity at the bottom and pulled out into the door hinge area by the cable grommet.

Then fed into the door, via the cable connector area - there is a small gap outer top which speaker cable will squash through.

Fed it downwards, wrapped around a bracket for the window then back out via the hole where the cables come out.

Left original speaker cables loose. Fitted the cross over inside the arm rest, chopped out a bit of polystyrene style filler. Used my hot glue gun here.

HGG the tweeter cable to the panel and HGG the tweeter into the door panel grill.

I have not touched any of the Vauxhall loom so if I wanted I could return to standard with out too much work.

I tested for 5 minutes, definately clearer, managed to drive the speakers near to their limit rather than have the amp head unit struggle, bass is better controlled, will find out on the way to work how good it is.

Only weak spot is the amp, may need replacing - but I'll leave it as is for now.

Two main problems, one was finding a route to the doors, research took me about 3 hours in total. The other was removing the window switches - they end up dismantling themselves.

[Dazzler]

Top job Martin, should be sounding good with all the work you have done matey

[Martin_1962]

There are some odd spots in the frequencies, I boosted bass very slightly and dropped treble - that smoothed it out.

I will be hunting for frequency sweeps to find the lows and highs soon.

Anyone have a link.

The amp (a freebie) I am sure is the weak spot but it can drive the speakers without struggling.

I also want to recheck the clearances at the weekend speaker to door panel, may be a little tight

[Dave DND]

This CD covers the full range of test tones and is an absolute must for setting systems up

http://ice.dndservices.co.uk/shop_show_item.php/MID/23/IID/59/PAGE/shop_company_index.php

[Kevin Wood]

You can get applications that run on a lap top (or even a Palm / Ipod) that will output various test tones and noise too. If you can get an audio input into it that might be an option. Some of them also do level measurement and fourier analysis on an incoming signal but that might not be too much use unless you've got a decent measurement microphone.

Kevin

[Dazzler]

You can get applications that run on a lap top (or even a Palm / Ipod) that will output various test tones and noise too. If you can get an audio input into it that might be an option. Some of them also do level measurement and fourier analysis on an incoming signal but that might not be too much use unless you've got a decent measurement microphone.

Kevin

:-? :-?

[Martin_1962]

SOunds better today, odd, must be rerunning in the speakers!

[Jay w]

any pics to go along with this Martin?

Sounds kind of interesting, don't know if i should upgrade what i have or wait until i get the miggys replacement

[Admin]

Updgrading is well worth it, but I would be a little less dedicated than Martin has been in doing his.

Good quality headunit is the starting point. Ideally with 3 sets of pre-outs (makes sorting sub crossover easier as you can control it there rather than the amp). In normal market that means Alpine or Pioneer. They produce quality equipment.

Use the current speakers and wiring from loom to sepakers (rerouting with new wire is a git of a job!!) The standard speakers are very good and really do respond well to being amped sensibly.

Add a good 4 channel amp (4x30w rms is fine and painfully loud). Alpine V12 series are highly recommended.

Most importantly, high pass the signal to the main speakers and add a sub. This makes a HUGE difference to the sound (the fun comes with getting the crossover just right so it blends in perfectly with the rest of the sound).

It is a good full days work doing it from scratch but the results are well worth it!

[Dave DND]

In normal market that means Alpine or Pioneer. They produce quality equipment.

Not quite, it means any of the quality brands - none of the Chinese rubbish from ebay.  More sound quality awards have been won with Alpine and Clarion than any other - Pioneer really struggle when you get into serious audio quality, although undoubtedly nice units.

General rule of thumb, if it says something recognisable like Kenwood or Sony on the front, it can`t be all bad - if it says Chung-Sun,  
Foo-Yung  or anything similar to a restaurant menu  then its not going to be of any real quality

 

[Martin_1962]

Well I used a Sony MDX5970 changer control MD head unit, a Sony 10 CD mp3 compatible changer, a FREE MAcAudio MX2000 amp (off Freecycle) and some Infinity 605CS

The Infinitys definately sound better than the Vauxhall speakers, they have their own crossover as well.

They took a day or so to loosen up after being stored for 2 1/2 years.

I was not that dedicated I just didn't want to hack the Vauxhall loom