Installing a decent after market audio system

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Mason

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In case anyone had ever considered this but thought it might be too tricky, think again :)

I've installed fairly serious systems before, and in comparison the A2 is an absolute joy to work on.

Once the rear seats are out the cable routing takes no time at all. You can easily slot the cables into position with the stock cabling. All you need is a flathead screwdriver or a nice flat knife..

I've even managed to run 2 lots of high end cable to the a pillars, these will be competely hidden though once the dash pods are in place.

Power distribution is nice and easy too with the battery in the boot. Although adding a false floor means no access to the jack or battery The jack is useless to me anyway as I don't have the spare wheel.

But I have knocked up a set of decent jump leads which can be plugged in if the battery were ever to run flat..

Next step is amp and speakers, but I can't see that being too hard, famous last words of course.. Then the false floor will completely cover the amps (fan cooled)..

Hope this helps anyway who is wondering about installing a high end system in an A2 :)

Cheers

Dave
 
what sort of system are you thinking of installing will you use up your boot space for system.

another question to you all is if it has a bose system where is the sub in the a2
 
If you have the Bose system, the sub is here (red arrow), the blue arrow is the TV-Tuner, by the way....
a2boot.jpg


Bye, Frido.

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[img=left]http://homepage.mac.com/frido/a2pic.gif[/img=left]
A2 1.4 TDI 2003 S-Line, cobalt blue, CC, DIS, SatNav+, TV, Apple iPod
now parents' car: A2 1.2 TDI 2002 silver, CC, DIS
My A2OC pics Homepage
 
Hi there Dave,

Sounds (no pun intended) like you're going somewhere. Curious to see how you solve the 'speaker problem' ;) (Yes, those words could just be your famous last ones).

How about this for a decent system: http://www.x-bb.org/~efmax/my kit.htm
Nothing left to wish for. Except for firmer springs, exactly wat EF is now looking for!

Keep us informed. I'd really like to hear about your opinion on the A2 acoustic properties. Because in my car, the components that had proven themselves in other cars, turned out to sound...well...far less than optimal.

Cheers,
Edo

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(2003 Silver 1.4 Tdi Exclusive(SE), black interior, sport seats, heated mirrors, JVC KD-SH909RB cd-receiver, Infinity Kappa 63.1 + Vifa on-dash tweeters, 12" Subwoofer on 300w Amp) and on its merry way to Germany, ABT, to be chiptuned, finally!
 
Swiv, I know Erskine and have already had a good listen to his car :)

It'll be interesting to compare mine to his once I'm done.. ;)

Head unit wise I'm toying with a couple of options, it's either going to be a Nakamichi CD700, Mcintosh 406 or Denon A1. The only problem with all of these is that none of them let you remove the face. So the Mcintosh may well be the best choice, as it's not that great looking and will hopefully deter most t-leaves.. Plus it's black..

Speakers wise I import a high end brand from the states myself so that was nice and easy :)

Amps wise I've gone for a pair of Sinfoni amps which should give me roughly 250-300wrms for each side of the car. Obviously this is massive overkill, but at least the amps won't ever be straining..

Plus the speakers are rated at 200wrms, (that includes the tweets) Right now a lot of people are probably laughing at that figure so here's the tweeter specs..

http://www.morelusa.com/renaissance/prestige/triumph/triumph.html

These are up there with the best tweets you can buy.. RRP on these alone is £360 ish..

I'm very interested about this speaker problem you mentioned swiv. Any more info?

Currently plans are to put the midrange and tweeter on the dash, and the 6.5 inch in stock locations. However this may change and I might build some kickpods for the 6.5's to get a better angle on them.

I'm not going for any subs at this time, mainly as the 6.5's are very capable speakers.. However if I build kickpods I may well put some 6 inch subs in the doors (plus even more sound deadening) I really don't want to use up more than just under the stock false floor unless I have to..

I hope I haven't waffled on too much chaps..

Cheers

Dave
 
Oh dear, a Citroen ZX ;) Didn't know anyone bothered to tune these cars, let alone put such nice audio in them.

No offense meant, of course!
So the brand you import is Phase Linear, or is it this 'Renaissance', like the tweeter?
PL is very nice. They have it hear at my local shop too. Prices for that are among the highest available.... My guess is that Renaissance is even higher up the ladder. Should be interesting.

But, about speakers. Looking at the dimensions of the speakers that you plan to use, and the plan to put mids on the dash, I think that you have plenty of experience and the tools to put speakers just about anywhere you want to.

'Us mortals' have to make do with the stock locations in the doors, which are haunted by the strangely moulded original speakers that are needed to give way to the 'door catch lever' that enters the door on closing it. Search the audio forum here for many discussions on this subject. Weren't you in on of them before? (I recall someone with an imported speaker brand I didn't know - must have been you). Photos, links, dimensions, just about everything is here.

Keep is posted...
Oh, about the headunit. What's wrong with Erskine's Sony CDX-C90? It has a detachable front. But I don't know how it holds up against Nakamichi gear...I have to wade through www.audioreview.com for that, I guess. Didn't even know McIntosh made car audio.

Cheers,
Edo

--
(2003 Silver 1.4 Tdi Exclusive(SE), black interior, sport seats, heated mirrors, JVC KD-SH909RB cd-receiver, Infinity Kappa 63.1 + Vifa on-dash tweeters, 12" Subwoofer on 300w Amp) and on its merry way to Germany, ABT, to be chiptuned, finally!
 
Oi, I loved that ZX :) and the 2.0i engine was more than enough for me ;)

Yeah my last car was lots of Phase linear, but the new gear is a big jump up in theory. In practice is yet to be seen :)

Speakers wise I've bought some 6.5 inch adapters to get that size of speakers in the door. I didn't realise it was so tricky so I'll see how it goes. If it is too hard I guess it's time to get the fibreglass out and build some kickpods. Which is something I may do anyway as there is plently of space there..

I'm no expert on pod building to be honest, I'm just going to take my time to learn how to do it properly. Plus I have some very handy friends..

All the HU's I was looking at had analogue volume controls. Hence no face off's.. There is certainly nothing wrong with Erskine's though, the C90 is a great unit :)

McIntosh make a full car audio line, speakers, amps, subs, HU's. They are just extremely rare..

Cheers

Dave
 
Some people put the tweeters on the A2 in the A and D pillars, there are some pillar covers with premade holes for speakers available on german ebay at the moment....

Just a thought...

Bye, Frido.

----
[img=left]http://homepage.mac.com/frido/a2pic.gif[/img=left]
A2 1.4 TDI 2003 S-Line, cobalt blue, CC, DIS, SatNav+, TV, Apple iPod
now parents' car: A2 1.2 TDI 2002 silver, CC, DIS
My A2OC pics Homepage
 
If Dave was to put his choice of tweeters on the A pillar, then that would seriously enlarge the dead spot that is already present! ;) These monsters are 11cm in diameter and weigh in at over 1 kg. Seems more like Home Audio components to me. And you definately need custom casing for that!

triumph_angle-thn.jpg


The kickpods are a nice idea, but I just don't see how that is all going to fit on the drivers side. Where do you leave your feet then?

--
(2003 Silver 1.4 Tdi Exclusive(SE), black interior, sport seats, heated mirrors, JVC KD-SH909RB cd-receiver, Infinity Kappa 63.1 + Vifa on-dash tweeters, 12" Subwoofer on 300w Amp) and on its merry way to Germany, ABT, to be chiptuned, finally!
 
LOL, they are kind of large aren't they...

One of the ideas is to put them as close to the windscreen as possible. Then I only lose a very small bit of vision at the bottom corner.. Plus I'm tall so I can easily see over them. I have tried them in teh car, and if it was a safety issue I certianly wouldn't use them..

Swiv, they are similar to home audio tweets, but they are optimised to run off axis (not pointing directly at you) whereas home audio tweets are primarly designing to run on axis..

The idea being that I can aim them across the dash without them sounding terrible.. Plus it'll do wonders for path lengths and getting the sound to come from teh centre more..

In terms of kickpods on my SE at least there is a small plastic pod next to the accelerator pedal and attached to the kick panel trim..

With a small amount of violence I managed to prise this off, which leaves ample room for a nice kick pod build.. In fact it should be reletively simple.. I could even modify the pod to make it into a kickwell pod for a speaker..
 
Here is the link to the pillar coverings... http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2460806912&category=53966
The text basically says that it sounded great, that he had Eton HT NCS Series tweeters there, and that he has D-Pillar coverings with the same holes in it left...

Bye, Frido.

----
[img=left]http://homepage.mac.com/frido/a2pic.gif[/img=left]
A2 1.4 TDI 2003 S-Line, cobalt blue, CC, DIS, SatNav+, TV, Apple iPod
now parents' car: A2 1.2 TDI 2002 silver, CC, DIS
My A2OC pics Homepage
 
Glad to see that some one else is using ETON speakers as these are what I use for my mid range.

Must say that they are not cheap and are actually the most expensive speakers in my install but I do like them.
 
hey im realy sorry if im going over old ground but i have checked all the old stuff & cant find what im looking 4.

its realy simple so here goes.

i have 2001 SE petrol with symphony radio/cassette & for some reason there aint any speakers in the rear doors.

im not looking for anything more than decent sound but would prefer speakers in the rear........can anyone tell me if the doors will be pre-wired so i can simply buy some speakers & fix them in or will i have 2 wire them into the stereo aswell?

would also like to know if the entire door panel needs to be removed 2 get speakers in or if can just remove speaker grille & do it that way?

sorry again if im going over topics already mentioned but your help would be much appreciated.

many thanks. Glenn.
 
Yup, been there, done that, discussed all of that before ;)

I'll give you some pointers before I send you off to the 'search' feature of this forum (yes, it's slow and you MUST make sure to check the 'Archived' option in order to find things over 2 months old or so. And search forum by forum, not all in one go, because the server doesn't seem to like that, IMO).

1st: any of the earlier posters (in this thread) will tell you that a good install doesn NOT need rear speakers. Most of the times it make the sound more muddy and less well balanced. But sometimes it just sounds more spacious. Whatever you want.

2nd: if you don't have rear speakers, then there is NOTHING in the door. No frames, no wires, nothing. Pulling the wires 'the right way' is a bit of a job. I never dared to remove the needed parts and went the 'wrong way', through the outside.

3rd: strangely enough the grilles do come off seperately, but that does not leave you enough room to fit an entire speaker through. However, removing the panel is the easiest part of it all.

As for the Symphony: I'm not into Audi audio, so I'm not sure if it is 'ready' to power 4 speakers, in any way.

Look through the archived Audio discussions and set up a new topic for yourself. Seems the best to me. Older discussions should tell you something about the symphony, at least. And maybe you end up wanting an install like the one planned above...

Happy reading!

Edo

--
(2003 Silver 1.4 Tdi Exclusive(SE), 95bhp/235Nm chiptuned by ABT (finally!), black interior, sport seats, heated mirrors, JVC KD-SH909RB cd-receiver, Infinity Kappa 63.1 + Vifa on-dash tweeters, 12" Subwoofer on 300w Amp)
 
once again Edo.......many thanx

will have a closer look.
Glenn.
 
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