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Is this a good Head Unit?



  Nike Lunar Elite's
For god sake please dont listen to Spykee, enough of us are telling you not to get 6x9s. This is coming from someone who has previously owned 6x9s, then realised how s**t they were before promptly ripping them out and chucking them at the nearest chav!!!

Generally an Alpine H/U is better than all the mainstream brands (only really beaten by Nakamichi and Becker) and I would say they are better than Pioneer units as less time is spent on the appearance and more effort put into quality of build and sound in the Alpine.

The Rainbow offer mentioned by Claire is an excellent package and simply can't be beaten for the price.

The difference made by front components is simply stagering, you will not regret purchasing a good quality set for the Clio, especially as the oe items appear to be made of paper lol.
 
  A Fast One!
Munday said:
If I can stretch myself to an Alpine would that be just as good? I know I said I was on a budget but for the sake of a decent stereo I might as well just fork out.
Also, could I make my own shelf for the car? And would I also need to disconnect the rear speakers and run a cable through to the rear of the car?
Thanks again :)

well i have a Pioneer HU myself but that cost me £500 and does everything including surround sound setting, driving a sub and being able to reverse sub polarity!

i have had much cheaper Pioneers HU's before though and for £150 to £200 you will get a decent one. they all come with a 50W per channel MOSFET amp built into them so will drive what you want just fine.

i have also had a Sony HU before but was not impressed with it tbh. i havnt personally owned an Alpine HU but i found that the preset audio settings were not as good as the pioneer's and were better on the treble frequencies that the mid and bass. the pioneer will normally have superbass, powerful, natural and Vocal presets as well as 2 flat settings which you can customise youself to suit the amount of treble, mid and bass that you want, depending on what music that your listening to.

you could make your own shelf for the car out of MDF and some acoustic carpet but that will cost you about £40 in the end anyway. i made one for one of my first cars and it actually broke the c-pillar plastic sills that it sat on as you wont be able to get a perfect fit, unless your a carpenter that is :S

i have just ordered a stealth shelf direct from AutoAcoustics and its costing £97.89 inclusive of 10% forum discount. you also get to chose the colour of carpet used so it matches your interior too. it seems a lot of money but after having one in my last car its definately better than a DIY job or cutting holes in your parcel shelf.

if you were to run cable to the rear of the car then you would need to disconnect the rear speakers as the HU will only have 4 channels, driving 1 speaker each. its not too difficult to run cables through to the rear of the car, you will have to cut into the wiring coming of the HU plug but the HU always comes with a colour coded diagram so you would know which to cut and which is L or R as well so its pretty simple.

decide what your going to do and i will let you know everything you will need to do it and i can try and give you a step by step if you want to run the cables as im planning on doing mine this week as i have only just got my car!


Alex
 
Just don't bother with 6x9s!!!

Get components for the front and disconnect the rear speakers, trust me I have this setup (plus 4ch amp and sub) in my car and the quality of sound would take a beating!

Get a Pioneer or Alpine headunit
Some components for the front
and a 2channel amp to amp the components up.
 

OLI

  205 gti-6
get a DECENT HEADUNIT, 13CM COMPS AND A 10" SUB RUNNING OFF A MONO AMP (SORTED)
Or even better run the front comps off an amp as well if you really want a decent system but thats only if you're spendin £120+ on them.

6x9s are a complete waste of time, and sound sh*t!!!
 
Spykee said:
you could make your own shelf for the car out of MDF and some acoustic carpet but that will cost you about £40 in the end anyway. i made one for one of my first cars and it actually broke the c-pillar plastic sills that it sat on as you wont be able to get a perfect fit, unless your a carpenter that is :S

i have just ordered a stealth shelf direct from AutoAcoustics and its costing £97.89 inclusive of 10% forum discount. you also get to chose the colour of carpet used so it matches your interior too. it seems a lot of money but after having one in my last car its definately better than a DIY job or cutting holes in your parcel shelf.
Save the cash from the stealth shelf and put it twards the other stuff, you'll know you've made the right decision when you have it installed, and you'll be thanking us, (well most of us, lol)
 
  Nike Lunar Elite's
Spykee said:
they all come with a 50W per channel MOSFET amp built into them so will drive what you want just fine.

This is about right for the factory speakers but nowhere near enough for any decent components, most of them put out about 12watts rms per channel, which in all honesty, is gash
 

OLI

  205 gti-6
My system currently consists of:
Boston G5 10" sub
Alpine mrd m500 mono amp
4 guage wiring

lookin for new headunit amp front comps:
...maybe alpine Alpine 9835 hu and rainbow speakers??
 
  Nike Lunar Elite's
Refering back to my favourite comment lol

Quote:
Originally Posted by chiefsilverback
You've just got to love a sale..... ;)

Not when they sell you 6x9s :S



Seriously, what do you consider to be good 6x9s?
They try to be a jack of all trades but end up failing at each of them. They don't offer good bass or mid bass and the high end frequencies produced are targeted from the wrong direction for all passenegers, including the driver. They make you feel like turning around to listen to your stereo which is not good when you are suppossed to be driving lol
 
Would you go to a concert and stand away from the music? Which is why I think it's more important to get decent comps up the front. Just my opinion. :)
 
  One with a few more
Your comment about the 50w per channel mofset earlier betrayed the fact you dont really know as much as some of the rest of us. I yself has=ve a few years of experience in car audio, as do several of my friends. Atm I am working on another competition install.
Your advice just isnt on a par with some others on here.
 
  One with a few more
Spykee said:
as for that, refer to my comment below.... otherwise grow up!
I'd give you advice to be more careful about what you say in posts. No one here is attacking you - just the advice you have given. Please DO NOT star to get personal. No one has made snide remarks, but Dink happens to know a fair bit about audio too as i have learnt, and it may be useful to your future with car audio to listen to him too - instead of being rude.
 
  Nike Lunar Elite's
But you shouldn't take any notice of any claimed figures, its the RMS figure that you should be mainly concerned with
 
  Polo + Micra
MOSFET's have been used for years

it's just that some companies don't mention it as it is not worth it
 

OLI

  205 gti-6
ok, ths is gettin a bit out of hand.

referin to original thread:
"Is this a good Head Unit?" NO
"Should i buy 6x9's?" NO!!!
 
  One with a few more
a mosfet at 50w will only give out 12-15w average rms. Normally this is even lower. 12-15 s never enough to sifficiently power any components for the best peformance they can give.

EDIT: have cleaned up the thread a bit. Lets leave some ego's and misinformed opinions at the door please :)
 
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  A Fast One!
Claire said:
Oh dear, you complain about rudeness and become a hypocrite!

a mosfet at 50w will only give out 12-15w average rms. Normally this is even lower. 12-15 s never enough to sifficiently power any components for the best peformance they can give.

Oh, and its not a contradiction. A few lessons in english would teach anyone that. I'll put it more simply for you - Your comments made it apparent you do not know as much about the subject as others in this thread

ok fair enough, point taken. wasnt intending to be rude to you claire, apologies. your comment about english lessons made me chuckle though, i certainly dont need any lessons in that, i wont go into detail as to why on that matter any further though...... it appears i have done enough thread crapping from the general consensus

Alex
 

Munday

ClioSport Club Member
  RB 182, 1275GT, C220
Wow!

Blimey this has changed a lot since I read it all last night. Looks like I have missed alot of the comments made in here. Sorry if I have started an argument and I am very grateful for the advice given here so thank you.
So it looks like I only need a Head Unit and front door speakers, and then I can disconnect the rears. And then at a later date could add an Amp and a Sub to the car :)

Alex - thank you for your advice, it is good because both my sister and my mate have the setup you are on about and I like the sound so I don't think anyone is wrong here.

Claire - Thanks for your advice, respect goes to you for knowing so much about stereos! I knew nothing before and I now have learnt something :)

Everyone Else - Thanks for your help, I am going to go with your advice :)
 
  BMW Z4 3.0i
To lighten the mood, I'll tell you all about my first install in first ever car, a Rover Metro. I made a parcel shelf from mighty thick MDF and stuck four 6x9's in it and ran them all off a Sony HU! Now that's sound on a budget :D
 
  Clio RT 1.4 '95
Hey guys, ive been following this thread through keeping quiet and observing, making my own conclusions from whats been said etc.

I originally started off with a Pioneer DEH-P80MP brand new from eBay, 4x60W MOFSET and cost me an arm and a leg. I took out all my standard speakers in my mk1 clio, and replaced them with 2 pairs of 4" and 1 pair of 5.25" FLI speakers. I was using that setup for a while, until some low-life stole it from my car (how foolish i was), so i replaced it with a JVC KD-G 201 for around £40. I had been putting a lot of power through those FLI speakers, and all of the 4" speakers had pretty much distorted - wasnt that bothered as they were uber cheap anyway.

I thought then id get some 6x9's, i had a Vibe BlackBox 1 kicking around and thought that'd make for a good idea. Then I realised id probably start looking into a stealth shelf/power cables/rca interconnects, and the fact that the strings that pull the shelf up with the boot often fall off, put me off the idea.

So... Im in the process of takin those FLI speakers out and starting from scratch. Ive got hold of some Vibe ST-50 components to whack into the door, and thought id rig those up to my BlackBox 1 - questions tho:

1) Is this kind of setup a good idea?
2) Is there anywhere thatll advise me where to position the amp/x-overs/tweeters?
3) Are the 4" speakers worth replacing, and what with?

Being a poorly student im not going over the moon again, seeing as i had my old HU stolen (b*******). Comments etc greatly appreciated, cheers.
 

Munday

ClioSport Club Member
  RB 182, 1275GT, C220
I can't really advise you on your questions maxeh sorry :(

But this morning my mate (also my sisters partner) had his 4x4 broken into this morning and had his £300 Alpine nicked. He had left the front facia in the door pocket :(
This is the second car he has had stuff happen to, his last one got stolen and written off! This is kinda putting me off getting one!
 
  Clio RT 1.4 '95
Just FYI the JVC Headunit is 4x50W. Think its roughly £90ish brand new, just understand that i was gutted after my last one was stolen, so wanted an entry level one at the fraction of the cost.

Sorry to hear that happened Munday. I guess the advice Id give to anyone that Ive learnt through this is: if youre planning on keeping the car for a while, and plan on investing in it - get a decent car alarm system, ALWAYS remove the fascia (look where complacency got me), leave the glove box open to prove to the world you took your fascia inside, and park with the drivers side-o/s facing into the road. I guess any kind of visual deterrent, no matter how cheap, is a deterrent none the less to the un-educated thief.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the welcome guys.

So I need to be a member? How do I do that?

My really stupid question was going to be: How much of the display stops working when I replace the headunit? Do I still see the time and temperature or does the whole lot go?

TIA.
 


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