Thursday, February 12, 2009 - 06:35 pm, by: Thomas Holdaway(Tnt)
I've been looking at upgrading my sound system, and I've been reading that the factory speakers and sub are actually quite good. My soarer currently has an aftermarket headunit put in by the previous owner, a Fusion FCD-135MP3, which states on it 45Wx4, and all stock speakers.
I was wondering if I would get better quality sound/bass by getting a better quality/more powerful headunit. Any ideas?
Friday, February 13, 2009 - 10:01 am, by: Michael Marchant(Mavric)
The single biggest difference to your overall sound quality will come from changing your speakers. HOWEVER as Reepa mentioned you will need a quality amplifier to drive them and get the most from them.
Your headunit will do for the time being, speakers and amp first.
Friday, February 13, 2009 - 10:54 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
As long as your head unit has a preamp out, I'd agree, get an amp for your sub, you'll probably find the sub isn't connected at the moment, as its quite a job to get the factory line-level amp working with an aftermarket head unit, even if you do get it to work the results are dodgy at best from what I've heard.
I've just put a Panasonic head unit into my car while removing all the old satnav and factory amp. In a couple of weeks I'll be putting in a small Sony amp to drive the factory sub, until then I'm subless =(
Friday, February 13, 2009 - 02:12 pm, by: David Brunt(Dbrun)
I agree with buying an external amp. Relieves a lot of pressure on the headunit and usually they come with a lot better filters. However if you do buy a headunit, try finding one that you can turn the headunit output power off. Most alpine ones do this now, that way the external amp is the only one doing the powering. Cleans up a lot of the signal(IMO). Also if you can change the timing of the signals(not just changing speaker bias) this means that there isn't any time delay between the noise from each speaker reaching your ears, as each speaker actually plays the sound at different times. The further away the speaker the earlier it plays etc. You would be suprised how much of a difference it makes. just allows the whole system to sound that extra bit crisper and cleaner. Just my 2c. Oh i do have a biased towards alpine but i believe quite a few headunits do this.
Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 03:21 pm, by: Thomas Holdaway(Tnt)
I'm pretty certain that the sub is plugged in and working, I do get quite a bit of bass... I just wonder how its wired up with 4 speakers in the front and 3 at the back on a four channel headunit
Sunday, February 15, 2009 - 08:31 am, by: Joe Russell(Joe_r)
Splits at the front(LF, RF), two rears(LR, RR), sub runs on 'RU' which I haven't a clue what its supposed to stand for, however it has its own amp so it probly gets the entire signal(balanced from what I've read-thats non-RCA level). I'm pretty sure its does now I think about it.
Just took my head unit out to have a look, and its connected like what Joe said: LF, RF, LR, RR. Nothing seems to be dedicated for the sub so I wonder how its wired in the back? Because the sub is definitely doing something - even if not to its full potential.
When I bought my soarer the guy said that the sub wasn't connected, i didn't believe him at the time but I guess this makes sense.
Anywho, out of my head unit there is also 2 sets of RCA plugs, labeled front RCA and rear RCA which are not currently connected to anything.
Would it be alright to run the rear RCA cable down to the back to an amp (which I am yet to buy), and then find where ever the sub is currently wired to, and instead wire it to the amp?
Saturday, May 09, 2009 - 02:45 pm, by: James Harris(Haro)
I changed my front splits with some aftermarket VDO 4" Splits and i have to honestly say... the stocko ones are REALLY GOOD !
The VDOs did sound a little more crisp but thats about it, the stocko ones went louder and sounded fine, no need to waste money on upgrading the fronts in my opinion.
BUT - disregard that comment if you plan on buying some 6" splits for the front as i know they will sound better with an amp running them.
Sunday, May 10, 2009 - 11:17 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Thomas Holdaway wrote on Saturday, May 09, 2009 - 02:02 pm:
Would it be alright to run the rear RCA cable down to the back to an amp (which I am yet to buy), and then find where ever the sub is currently wired to, and instead wire it to the amp?
Thats what I did in the end, and am very happy with the results. Just make sure you get a mono amp, or an amp with a mono crossover. I just got a cheapy Sony XPlod as I'm only running the factory sub off it.
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