Changing HU and Speakers Question

[lamborgini8]

Just a quick thought actually...

I have been after a new head unit for some time and I have recently checked out the standard speakers in my car. I have read that there are component speakers in the front and coaxial in the back...

My question is, if I changed the front and rear speakers before I get a new head unit is there a chance Iw ould have to change them again when it comes to the new HU?

Assuming I can just plug the new speakers into the old connectors in some way, will they still be able to plug into the new HU or would I need different cabling and different speaker types for the HU?

 

[Alexjfinch]

From my basic understanding at the moment...

There is a set of Pioneer speakers that are specifically designed for the Renault cars, which are components, some people rave about them on here.

Then you'd buy a set of coaxial speakers for the back.

Then when you buy your new headunit, the original cables would plug in the back OR you'd have a ISO type cable thing which would do the conversion for the new HU.

There is a guide here somewhere to upgrade the speaker cable in the doors.

You could go further and AMP the front and rear speakers, but thats way above me!

 

[DeanJ]

ok heres the simple way of putting it.

when you upgrade your speakers you simply snip the old connector off (where it used to plug into the crappy renault speakers) and put Spade connectors on the end, this is what 99% of speakers use. Make sure you get the polarity correct.

This is your new speakers installed. it runs all the way back to the ISO connector that plugs into your head unit so you don't need to worry.

When you upgrade your headunit 9/10 either fit the ISO straight into the headunit or have a plug coming out the head unit which the ISO connector fits straight into.

So to answer your question no, your upgraded speakers would work perfectly fine. Most HU's will put out 45wX4 so this is about the wattage you would be looking for, for replacement speakers.

In terms of Amping the front end its easy but based on the question I'll leave that unless you specifically ask for it

 

[GR4H4M]

I wouldn't go snipping/splicing anything, well not if it can be helped, just purely for ease of returning to standard! Get yourself some of these for the speakers (need two sets if doing front and rears), plug and play then

 

[lamborgini8]

ok heres the simple way of putting it.

when you upgrade your speakers you simply snip the old connector off (where it used to plug into the crappy renault speakers) and put Spade connectors on the end, this is what 99% of speakers use. Make sure you get the polarity correct.

This is your new speakers installed. it runs all the way back to the ISO connector that plugs into your head unit so you don't need to worry.

When you upgrade your headunit 9/10 either fit the ISO straight into the headunit or have a plug coming out the head unit which the ISO connector fits straight into.

So to answer your question no, your upgraded speakers would work perfectly fine. Most HU's will put out 45wX4 so this is about the wattage you would be looking for, for replacement speakers.

In terms of Amping the front end its easy but based on the question I'll leave that unless you specifically ask for it

Seams pretty simple then.

All these speakers I find in fleabay marked as 200W will work but wont be able to output 200W from most head units unless I amp them? Which chances are I probably wont bother doing.

My main reason for asking is that I had to take the door cards off yesterday and saw the hideously rubbish standard speakers and seeing as I am having trouble finding a decent HU with stalk compatibility at the moment I am thinking about the easy option and upgrading the speakers now.

 

[oliver.james]

All these speakers I find in fleabay marked as 200W will work but wont be able to output 200W from most head units unless I amp them?

That's most likely a 200W Max figure they're quoting, which doesn't really mean anything

It's the rms power handling you should look for

 

[lamborgini8]

That's most likely a 200W Max figure they're quoting, which doesn't really mean anything

It's the rms power handling you should look for

Best I have found is 120W RMS.

 

[DeanJ]

Seams pretty simple then.

All these speakers I find in fleabay marked as 200W will work but wont be able to output 200W from most head units unless I amp them? Which chances are I probably wont bother doing.

My main reason for asking is that I had to take the door cards off yesterday and saw the hideously rubbish standard speakers and seeing as I am having trouble finding a decent HU with stalk compatibility at the moment I am thinking about the easy option and upgrading the speakers now.

Well don't do what I did and upgrade, then upgrade again because it wasn't good enough. take it slowly I'd say get a good headunit first you'll notice a difference in sound quality straight away. then go for some good mid range speakers not crap on ebay.

Ok so my recommendation for a good headunit would be a Alpine. I've got the Alpine CDA9856R it's about 3 years old now but does a lot. It cost me £200 notes. It has 3 Independant RCA Outputs. 1 Auxiliarry Input (RCA), 1 Digital Auxiliary Input. And basic sound sampling for adjusting cut off range of Tweeters/Mid Range/Bass. Something like this would fufill pretty much all of your needs and be more than enough to 'play around' with.

I knew less than nothing about sound before I got this headunit and just got a recommendation for it.

Now for speakers my personal favourite is JL Audio. To me theyre range is pure perfection none of this halfords crap which doesn't sound even half as nice.

JL Audio TR650Csi IIRC are the ones to go for. They are a component set meaning you get a mid range and a tweeter seperate just like the Clio has as standard. They should set you back about £100 and won't need an amplifier if you have a decent head unit.

These bad boys are the entry/mid range speakers IIRC and would be more than adequete for your needs.

Now just to hammer home the point, you could go into halfords and get yourself a set of speakers for £50 you might be pleased with them and they might be 'ok' but it's like buying the Clio 1.2 it's ok to start with, its a great car but after a while you want something with more power. if you spent £1000 on a clio 1.2 but could just jump straight into a clio 172 for £2000 well why waste the £1000 in the first place (take out the part where you could actually sell the clio afterwords cause you can't really recoup value on a pair of speakers)

I hope you get my point save up do it properly and you won't regret it

 

[MT AUDIO]

So to answer your question no, your upgraded speakers would work perfectly fine. Most HU's will put out 45wX4 so this is about the wattage you would be looking for, for replacement speakers.

Remember that figure is still max power,RMS your looking at 16-22w in most cases.

Unless you are going to amp there's no point in looking for such high figures,make sure you intend to look at soundproofing.