What speakers for my car!?

[sam4191]

hi guys,

i want to upgrade the audi symphony sound system. I plan to put a Pioneer P4000 head unit in.

Does anyone have any idea of what speakers that i can replace the standard ones with please? I have a 10" sub to go in the back.

Preferably I want great quality speakers, clear and crisp with lots of bass, even when loud. I have the sub for the bass i suppose! lol.

I have a budget for the speakers of £200 (max i want to spend).

Can anyone help me out please!?

I listen to all sorts of music, from Indie/soft rock to hardcore dance, if this helps.

cheers!

Sam

 

[andybnwc]

Your gonna need a 4 channel amp to get the most out of upgrading the speakers 4" comps up front or 5.25 with messing around and 6.5" co-ax on the rear shelf. Have you a amp for the sub?

Ive tryed various in the front of mine im gonna try some focals next if they will fit , may have to angle the mounts again to fit in between the door frame , tweeters snap straight in factory position or maybe even make some pillar mounts.

 

[sam4191]

Your gonna need a 4 channel amp to get the most out of upgrading the speakers 4" comps up front or 5.25 with messing around and 6.5" co-ax on the rear shelf. Have you a amp for the sub?

Ive tryed various in the front of mine im gonna try some focals next if they will fit , may have to angle the mounts again to fit in between the door frame , tweeters snap straight in factory position or maybe even make some pillar mounts.

right, ok. I'm lazy, you see, don't want too much work, i.e. too much mucking around with things. they usually go wrong for me hehe.

Yes, i have an amp on the sub.

 

[aragorn]

tbh, i tried changing the fronts, and gave up.

Because of the way the speakers are mounted, the nice infinitys i installed actually sounded worse than the standard OE nokia speakers.

I fitted a 12" sub in the boot and left the head unit driving the stock door speakers, and found it more the good enough. Because the door speakers arent having to handle all the bass, they dont get as distorted etc and do a better job producing the rest of the frequencies.

http://lr90.org/Audi/stereo

Some pics there. I went with a Pioneer P3630MP as it nicely matches the dash illumination, and i got it cheap from ebay, and used a 12" pioneer sub i had in an old car with a fibreglass enclosure moulded into the side of the boot. Sub is powered by a 300wRMS sony amp.

Sounds plenty good for me.

The only think you might have to do, is rewire the rear speakers so they take their feed directly from the head unit, as i think the rear speakers in a saloon have some silly amplifier on the speaker itself.

 

[audinary]

Got a feeling that if I end up doing anything, which will more than likely involve running a little sub, i'll probably run the rear speakers from the sub amp (using a four channel with two bridged to mono for the sub) rather than bothering powering them from the h.u. Seems sensible to run speaker cable from an amp already in the boot rather than all the way through the car.

Must admit I'll be sad when my Concert h.u pops its clogs, I like the lway it looks.

 

[aragorn]

I dunno about running it as you describe.

The sub generally needs a good bit more power than the rear speakers, and being able to tweak the subwoofers level independently to the rest is a requirement if you listen to a lot of different music/sources, as the level thats perfect for one song can be wildly overkill for another etc. Plus the huge drain placed on the amp by the sub voicecoil would surely affect the amplifiers on the other channels?

You could always get another small 2ch amp for the rear speakers, and run them from that.

 

[Broken Byzan]

I use a 6 channel for mine Halfway decent speakers in the front on sealed adapters with dynomat to help with sound transfer on one pair of channels, the rear on another but not running much more than rear fill and a 10 inch sub in a sealed encloser behind the boot trim runnig from the last 2 channels bridged. Sounds good, it wont win any SPL competions but privides nice clear sound into the cabin. I have the HU amp switched off, as its so tight in there i recon anyone pushing the HU would find it clipping and overheating quite easily IMO

It prob helps that i have my car 85% sound proofed from when i was in to Audio properly.The only thing is i now have to make more power to carry all the weight,lol

The only thing i would spend proper money on now is a set of better front comps, maybe some focals or rainbows, still 125mm and still sealed into the adapters

 

[aragorn]

The problem i had with mine was that the cone's suspension rubber sat proud of the mounting face, So when bolted upto the adaptor, the adaptor was pressing against the foam suspension, basically acting as a big damper on the cone.

I guess had i managed to find some speakers that didn't have this raised suspension they might have worked better, but after fitting the sub i found it sounded good enough, and i'd already spent the £50 on the infinitys so didnt really have the money to go buy more speakers that may or may not work.

 

[audinary]

Hmm. That's a good point. Thinking about it I wouldn't need to run cables from the HU back anyway, the rear speakers are currently just at line level from the HU until they get to the (incredibly poxy) rear amp. So I can just swap the poxy amp for a better 2 channel for the rears.

Saying all this, at the moment I have the sound faded right to the front at the moment anyway, the rears are that bad that vocals sound like singing down a tube.

 

[sam4191]

tbh, i tried changing the fronts, and gave up.

Because of the way the speakers are mounted, the nice infinitys i installed actually sounded worse than the standard OE nokia speakers.

I fitted a 12" sub in the boot and left the head unit driving the stock door speakers, and found it more the good enough. Because the door speakers arent having to handle all the bass, they dont get as distorted etc and do a better job producing the rest of the frequencies.

http://lr90.org/Audi/stereo

Some pics there. I went with a Pioneer P3630MP as it nicely matches the dash illumination, and i got it cheap from ebay, and used a 12" pioneer sub i had in an old car with a fibreglass enclosure moulded into the side of the boot. Sub is powered by a 300wRMS sony amp.

Sounds plenty good for me.

The only think you might have to do, is rewire the rear speakers so they take their feed directly from the head unit, as i think the rear speakers in a saloon have some silly amplifier on the speaker itself.

The sub looks great mate!

I like the idea of running standard speakers with a sub. Only thing is, my front speakers buzz quite easily, so maybe blown? Need to check them really. I suppose, as you said, fade the bass out of the speakers and into the sub, they should be ok.
Thanks for the help! Can't buy the H.U til next month now, well 2 weeks ish. So hopefully will try similar set up to what you suggested when i get it all chars!

Also, I have noticed a funny black box on the underside of one of the rear speakers.. must be the 'silly little amp' lol!

 

[jcb]

would love to swap my head unit out but all the replacements look *****!!
flashy lights and graphics everywhere, more suited to Novas outside MacDonalds on a saturday night!

anyone found a decent understated head unit that won't clash with the red backlit dash?

 

[Markey]

I fitted this one factory fit and look and the sound quality is good enough.

 

[AndyMac]

As always Becker all the way:
http://www.sextonsdirect.co.uk/GP7992_becker-grand-prix-7992-cdmp3wma-tuner.html

 

[Oranoco]

Becker decks are superb and blend in well.

I opted for my trusty Alpine 9812RB, doesn't blend in at all but does sound the tits.

I also swapped the front speakers for a set of 5¼" Focal components running off my trusty Kenwood PS100 amp and a pair of 12" Kickers off my old Kenwood Powerslide amp

 

[Dans-first-Audi]

Is it possible to run decent speakers off the standard headunit without the need for a amp?

I think the OE set up sounds pretty good - except one of my speakers has blown.

 

[rasA4]

would love to swap my head unit out but all the replacements look *****!!
flashy lights and graphics everywhere, more suited to Novas outside MacDonalds on a saturday night!

LMFAO!!!!!!!!

 

[sam4191]

silly question maybe, but how do i get my head unit out of the dash? It's the double din symphony.

any help... great! thanks guys!

 

[rasA4]

this is how

 

[rasA4]

HERE are the keys. the ones in the post before shows a different type of key, ive used the keys from ebay different shape but worked for me

 

[sam4191]

THANKS!!!!