Ice setup

[johnnyho]

I need help on deciding parts of my system. Ive ordered an Alpine 9853 head unit. Was wandering if the steering wheel control adaptor thing is easy to fit as I have heard that the connector is just under the display. Also, will the car display work or just the controls?

Next I need a sub and amp. Been looking at Alpine, Diamond and JL for subs and Alpine, JL, Vibe and possibly Sony even though Ive been told to stay away, for amps. Do I really need to change the speakers for the time being? Some people have told me to fit some comps for the front and amp them, will the head unit not be enough?

I also need a ipod connector for the head unit, but they seem quite expensive. Is there a cheaper way to connect an ipod to the head unit?

How easy would it bwe to fit all this as I dont know a lot about car electrical stuff, I think I can fit the head unit but not sure about adaptor for steering controls.

Any help would be great!

[Edited by johnnyho on 6/24/2005 4:31:17 PM]

 

[Andy_sport]

headunits are a doddle to fit, trickiest part is removing the old one! then its just a case of sliding in the new one and plugging the wires in at the back of it

steering control adaptor is a little more involved as you will mist likely have to take the top part of the dash off to get at the wiring loom behind the clock display, once you have access to that you can fit the wiring adaptor into the loom fairly easily

im not sure about the alpine adaptor, i have the sony one for my sony hu and the steering controls work fine altho the clock display now only shows time and temp (no song information, but you get that from the headunit and imo no one is dumb enough to need to be reminded TWICE what song they are listening to)

you can run your standard factory speakers from your new headunit for the time being yes, but to really get any benefit from an upgraded head unit you need to think about upgrading your speakers too

im guesing your headunit will be 4x45w or possibly 4x50w and thats fine for running decent comps up front and a nice pair of coaxials in the rear

however, if you find yourself wanting more (and you will soon be addiceted haha) then yes amping up all your speakers will greatly improve them and take the strain from the headunit

you really do get what you pay for tho, my system is a budget £300 job, but you could spend £1000s

 

[JAMESSRICH]

Full on Alpine!!!

 

[Claire]

Quote: Originally posted by Andy_sport on 24 June 2005

you can run your standard factory speakers from your new headunit for the time being yes, but to really get any benefit from an upgraded head unit you need to think about upgrading your speakers too

im guesing your headunit will be 4x45w or possibly 4x50w and thats fine for running decent comps up front and a nice pair of coaxials in the rear

however, if you find yourself wanting more (and you will soon be addiceted haha) then yes amping up all your speakers will greatly improve them and take the strain from the headunit





Just as a comment. Running comps off a h/u realluy is no good long term. H/us quote a 45w output but it is very rarely higher than 20w rms. this means you could quite easily damage your speakers through too much distortion and clipping

The headunit provides very limited SQ and output and if you do upgrade to a nice set of comps (which is highly advisable) you will notice hardy any difference in quality intil they are running off a seperate amp

Its best to amp them tbh, you only need a cheap 2 channel thing capable of around 50wrms. For example Im selling a brand new PG amp which is 2 channel 75w rms - and ran a pair of highend JLs quite nicely

 

[johnnyho]

Thanks for they reply - havent had access to a computer for a while so only had time to check now. Is it possible to bridge the output from the HU just to run front comps? I konw its all getting too complicated now, probably better off getting a 2 channel amp but thought ill ask.

Got my HU now, waiting for adaptor. Andy_sport, how easy is it to get the top part of the dash off?

Im going to leave it for now, then decide if I want to keep standard speakers and upgrade with sub and amp or upgrade to a better quality pair of front components first. Thanks everyone for their advice.

 

[Dink]

yes it is possible to run a set of comps off your hu.

but it would not use the the x-over that comes with the comps but connect each speaker to the hu.(tweeters to the front channels and mids to the rears) nd then move the switch on the hu to 3-way