Sound Quality

[BadBoyVTEC]

The sound quality from the original stereo is pants. Thats why I have decided to buy an equaliser soon and install it in the cubby hole above the plastic and 12v plug in front of the gear knob. Probably going to get the Kenwood KGC-9044 equaliser. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...item=9726269322 theres a link to an eBay thing selling it.

But will also have to get the new front Speakers and rear Speakers and an amp before I install it.

Your thoughts?

[Daniel Pereira]

why not buy a new radio? you would have the equalizer, more power and could read mp3 for example..

[BadBoyVTEC]

why not buy a new radio? you would have the equalizer, more power and could read mp3 for example..

Because the original radio looks good in the dash because of its oval shape. Also that way it still looks standard and the equaliser is sorta hidden underneath the heating controls.

[aygo vvti]

why not buy a new radio? you would have the equalizer, more power and could read mp3 for example..

Because the original radio looks good in the dash because of its oval shape. Also that way it still looks standard and the equaliser is sorta hidden underneath the heating controls.

well sort of hidden as you are telling everyone here where its gona be :o

[Daniel Pereira]

heheh.. well, man, i have a blaupunkt radio on mine, and i think it looks cool!

[BadBoyVTEC]

heheh.. well, man, i have a blaupunkt radio on mine, and i think it looks cool!

Get a picture on!!!!

[AygoUgo]

It may be better to buy and install the Speakers first and see how the sound is then. An equaliser will not turn poor sound into good sound it is there to help bring out the full range of frequencies from Speakers that CAN reproduce those frequencies, ie an equaliser won't give you bass from the front 4" Speakers, they will just distort and be ruined in no time.

What are you wanting to do to the sound ? What do you feel lets the sound down ? Remember that you have small speakers that are trying to reproduce frquencies from bass, mid bass, mid range and up to treble. Small speakers can do the midrange and treble but struggle with mid bass and bass. If filtered so that they only need to reproduce the mid to high frequencies then they will be more efficient and sound better - even cheapo originals. Also as they are not moving so much to try and create bass they can go louder without distortion.

Adding something to reproduce the lower end of the spectrum tends to bring biggest benefits. no need for a 10", 12" or bigger sub that takes up all your boot. If you want quality and then try a 6" or 8" sub in a nice tiny box (can be as small as a shoe box size) and you'll be amazed at the difference. Also as things are spilt up you can control the levels separate to get a good balance between bass to mid and mid to treble.

As an alternative to a boxed sub in the boot, Toyota do a sub for under the seat but I think it's about £280. Others do an under seat sub that comes fully amplified see the links below:

Car Audio Direct Active Subs

and CEL Direct Sub Packages and Active Subs

You may notice the Alpine under seat active sub is only £89.00 at CEL Direct and all it needs is relevant cables to connect. Could be a cheap and effective option so long as you don't want to blow your head off with bass.

HTH

Kev

[BadBoyVTEC]

It may be better to buy and install the speakers first and see how the sound is then. An equaliser will not turn poor sound into good sound it is there to help bring out the full range of frequencies from speakers that CAN reproduce those frequencies, ie an equaliser won't give you bass from the front 4" speakers, they will just distort and be ruined in no time.

What are you wanting to do to the sound ? What do you feel lets the sound down ? Remember that you have small speakers that are trying to reproduce frquencies from bass, mid bass, mid range and up to treble. Small speakers can do the midrange and treble but struggle with mid bass and bass. If filtered so that they only need to reproduce the mid to high frequencies then they will be more efficient and sound better - even cheapo originals. Also as they are not moving so much to try and create bass they can go louder without distortion.

Adding something to reproduce the lower end of the spectrum tends to bring biggest benefits. no need for a 10", 12" or bigger sub that takes up all your boot. If you want quality and then try a 6" or 8" sub in a nice tiny box (can be as small as a shoe box size) and you'll be amazed at the difference. Also as things are spilt up you can control the levels separate to get a good balance between bass to mid and mid to treble.

As an alternative to a boxed sub in the boot, Toyota do a sub for under the seat but I think it's about £280. Others do an under seat sub that comes fully amplified see the links below:

Car Audio Direct Active Subs

and CEL Direct Sub Packages and Active Subs

You may notice the Alpine under seat active sub is only £89.00 at CEL Direct and all it needs is relevant cables to connect. Could be a cheap and effective option so long as you don't want to blow your head off with bass.

HTH

Kev

Already put in my 10" Sub. The quality is just terrible. The reason for the equaliser is because it has in-built crossovers so I can manage the sound better. And it was always in the plan to change the Speakers. Also the bass from the sub atm doesn't sound top notch. Thanks for the advise. What else would you suggest?

p.s. gonna get the comonent Speakers made by Fli and amplifier. For the future may also install sunvisor screens and an xbox 360. Will also probably have to get another Battery. info: http://www.fliaudio.com

[AygoUgo]

It would be good if you had a diagram to show your current setup. I'm assuming that you have not filtered the standard Speakers so they are still being fed with all frequencies. You can buy small passive filters so that no bass frequencies reach the speaker - they are little more than a capacitor that is connected in line with the +ve of the speaker feed.

Next you need to balance the output of the sub with the rest of the Speakers - a 10" sub is always going to mean an overall bass heavy sound - fine if that's what you are wanting. The "gain" control can help here but not for big adjustments. The gain is there to provide optimium performance of the amp from the given input signal - not a volume control. If you are driving your sub from a powerful amp then again this will make for an extremely bass heavy sound. The best way around this is to further amp the other Speakers - as a rough guide subs should get about twice the power of other speakers.

The equaliser could well help some of the problems you are having by suitably filtering each output but if you are using a mother of an amp for the sub then you will need to amp the other speakers to suit. That may also mean replacing the other speakers if you end up supplying more power than the original speakers can take over powering speakers is okay so long as you don't run at max power - much better than under powering speakers as the associated distortion can destroy speakers very quickly)

Get back to me if you have any other questions of better still if you ahve a digram and component info

Kev

[BadBoyVTEC]

Cheers, will make a diagram later because I'm at work atm. But will heed the advise about the crossovers and goto the small car audio shop later and enquire.

[AnD85]

I thought the quality was poor at the start aswell. But I've tried a couple of different 10cm Speakers in the front since then > I tested 2 sets of sony 10cm ones. First set were just original sony 110W, which were a bit better to originals. Then tried a set of Sony Xploders after that which sounded much better. These Speakers fitted just fine into the original holes in the front, recently I bought a set of Infinity Reference 10cm for better quality.

>>> These Speakers don't fit into the original holes because they have a wider base to them. So if anyones going to get better speakers for the front - you might need to work a bit on the plastic, or create a small base underneath for them to sit in.

The sound off these 2 are tremendouse compared to everything else. Got base blockers on each and they still sound great coming from the original head unit. So there's no problem with the quality. Got 2 vibe 6x9's in the back which is great for the rest (had them running straight off the head unit for a while and they sounded alright too).

I've got a 10" sub in the back which is turned low at the moment. Would there be any problems with the glass boot if a sub was turned up higher?

[AygoUgo]

I thought the quality was poor at the start aswell. But I've tried a couple of different 10cm speakers in the front since then > I tested 2 sets of sony 10cm ones. First set were just original sony 110W, which were a bit better to originals. Then tried a set of Sony Xploders after that which sounded much better. These speakers fitted just fine into the original holes in the front, recently I bought a set of Infinity Reference 10cm for better quality.

>>> These speakers don't fit into the original holes because they have a wider base to them. So if anyones going to get better speakers for the front - you might need to work a bit on the plastic, or create a small base underneath for them to sit in.

The sound off these 2 are tremendouse compared to everything else. Got base blockers on each and they still sound great coming from the original head unit. So there's no problem with the quality. Got 2 vibe 6x9's in the back which is great for the rest (had them running straight off the head unit for a while and they sounded alright too).

I've got a 10" sub in the back which is turned low at the moment. Would there be any problems with the glass boot if a sub was turned up higher?

Cheers for the info - good to hear from somone who has the chance to try a few different Speakers.

The glass hatch will probably be okay as long as your ears can take the bass best not to test it too far though !

[Daniel Pereira]

heheh.. well, man, i have a blaupunkt radio on mine, and i think it looks cool!

Get a picture on!!!!

there you go!

[BadBoyVTEC]

heheh.. well, man, i have a blaupunkt radio on mine, and i think it looks cool!

Get a picture on!!!!

there you go!

Nice one. Where did you get the adapter for the edge of the radio as that one doesn't look too bad. May consider it for the future.

I've got a 10" sub in the back which is turned low at the moment. Would there be any problems with the glass boot if a sub was turned up higher?

Nah theres no problem with that. I have mine pumped permanently and so far so good.

[tommygun]

Well, as you all noticed; I connected my subwoofers yesterday. Even the guy from the shop was impressed with that sound!!! It was really lood and clear and very deep. I only used the headunit and offcourse the amp.

[BadBoyVTEC]

Well, as you all noticed; I connected my subwoofers yesterday. Even the guy from the shop was impressed with that sound!!! It was really lood and clear and very deep. I only used the headunit and offcourse the amp.

Wicked lets see a video of it :)

[tommygun]

Well, as you all noticed; I connected my subwoofers yesterday. Even the guy from the shop was impressed with that sound!!! It was really lood and clear and very deep. I only used the headunit and offcourse the amp.

Wicked lets see a video of it :)

It's very rainy here so I'm waiting for a little time now but there will be a link on tonight ;)

*update* I really tried but I tried filming with my telephone. It's really not the quality I prefer to use for show :P