Audio Advice.

"Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell." (oppisitelock) 04/18/2015 at 13:23 • Filed to: None

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Hey oppo, do any of you guys know much about putting together a better speaker system. At the moment I have two okayish door speakers and a factory Renault head unit with aux and steering wheel controls. The sound quality is fairly poor with almost no bass, even after adjusting the EQ on both the head unit and the MP3 player I run through it (by the way the MP3 is a decent one and not the source of the bad quality).

I don’t really want to switch head units since rewiring the steering wheel controls is apparently a pain (although there are kits to do it that cost £45.) Would running the stereo signal through an amp and upgrading the speakers give me a good sound quality improvement or even just new speakers? Or would upgrading head units be worth the effort?

MultiplaOrgasms > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 13:32

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Get something with serious bass.

lone_liberal > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 13:34

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Usually the biggest bang for the buck you get is replacing the cheap factory speakers with higher quality aftermarket units. I’d start with that before doing the amp to see if you can skip the hassle of wiring the amp up and then trying to get rid of the inevitable hum.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > MultiplaOrgasms 04/18/2015 at 13:37

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Will this be compatible with a satellite radio tuna?

AthomSfere > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 13:38

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Start with the head unit. Even with great speakers a lot of stock head units just won’t allow the right control.

Personally I’d go with Panasonic, Kenwood or Pioneer.

I don’t like Sony’s sound at all (I can pick out a Sony setup as soon as music starts).

IMO, there is a better than 50% chance a better head unit will fix poor sound (Although rarely wow anyone). But it will be a hinderance further down the road if you buy more EQ. But it also gives you a chance to see where the real weakness in your speakers are and go from there.

Careful getting into Subs, most are made to blow the windows out and kill response / fidelity. I’d go 10” or smaller and in a sealed box if you want to bring up your bass without killing fidelity and drowning out mids and highs.

Your largest speakers would be my second upgrade in any system. (5x10?) as they are meant to do the most (cover lows, mids and highs) and replacing cheap ones that don’t do their job well at all helps identify further weaknesses.

Then I would tweeters if you have them, most tweeters just plain suck so fill out your highs there.

Generally whats left from here are the door speakers (I do those last). At this point you should have a pretty good idea of your sound profile and a good door speaker can bring it all together.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > lone_liberal 04/18/2015 at 13:40

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Our junk Micra had some Sony speakers put in it (duno whether they’re good or just the cheapest ones Sony offer) so I might pull those and try them out before it goes to the big scrapyard in the sky.

lone_liberal > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 13:44

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Worth a shot, right? At worst they sound like crap and you’re back where you started.

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 13:46

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Go for a solid set of speakers. JVC, Pioneer, Alpine or Sony are the brands I would recommend.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > AthomSfere 04/18/2015 at 13:46

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The stock head unit is probably fairly crappy, given that this was only a £10k car new. The only issue is the massive amount of wiring/ cost of switching head units, but as you say I might have to. Although I could just live without the steering wheel controls and save the hassle.

The rear panels have cut outs that would fit a fairly large speaker on each side, so maybe I’ll find something decent to slot in there. I have cut outs to fit tweeters too so I might pick some of those up.

I cant really get into boxes or subs unless they’ll fit under the front seats, since my boot is already tiny. I dont want to go too crazy with this, just want a nice increase in quality for a decent price.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > lone_liberal 04/18/2015 at 13:49

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Yeah exactly. If they’re junk I’ll head to the local scrapyard and see if there’s a car with a nice system in it to harvest. They charge you basically nothing for most audio stuff other than head units.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 04/18/2015 at 13:51

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Our caravan came with a mid spec pioneer system and it sounds pretty good, so I might look into those. They seem very reasonably priced.

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 13:51

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Yeah, certain OEMs use Pioneer because they’re good and cheap.

AthomSfere > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 13:56

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Then I would just go head unit and replace existing speakers as you go.

Also, if you want an easy 8/10 system get a decent head and just go Bose. Bose are far from the best but they impress any non audiophile and provide a good all around sound. Of course, you can save money and probably get better sound if you have a local store that has demos setup (Polk, Rockford, JBL, Infinity are brands to watch for!)

TheHondaBro > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 13:57

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Tuna pun? You cod do better.

Austinguy83 > AthomSfere 04/18/2015 at 14:00

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The new Sony MEX units are NICE. Give one a listen :-).

Sam > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 14:07

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You could always chuck two 12” subs on the trunk, then you'll never have to worry about how the rest of the system sounds. /s

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 14:22

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+1 for speakers first. There’s a few bits and bobs here which will help you fit aftermarket speakers in your Twingo

Nibbles > TheHondaBro 04/18/2015 at 15:00

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In his defense, your pun was pretty crappie too

AthomSfere > Austinguy83 04/18/2015 at 16:12

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Which ones?

There is just something about their sound signature that really irks me. Too warm, flat and not technical enough.

You might like them, but they aren’t for me unless they lack that Sony signature sound, whatever it is.

I need my audio technical, accurate and responsive to all ranges (Think good Sennheiser circumaural headphones). Sony doesn’t deliver. Where beats for example is Muddy, Sony is not. Sony is just flat...

Austinguy83 > AthomSfere 04/18/2015 at 16:18

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The BT-3100p is the one I was cross shopping when I got my new HU. I ended up going with the equivalent Excelon, but only because it was on sale. The Sony was a MAJOR step up from any other Sony HU I've ever heard.

AthomSfere > Austinguy83 04/18/2015 at 16:32

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Well, if I ever see them on display I will try to remember to give them a fair chance ;)

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > TheHondaBro 04/18/2015 at 16:44

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That was a lazy pun, I think you got a bit too com-plaice-ent.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 04/18/2015 at 16:46

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Thanks for the link, I didn’t know you could get all those fitting and such.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > AthomSfere 04/18/2015 at 16:50

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I might see how much a good second hand head unit is down the local scrapyard then. I know some higher end cara came with bose speakers stock so I may be able to harvest some that way.

AthomSfere > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 16:55

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Ah, didn’t realize you were budgeting that low.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > AthomSfere 04/18/2015 at 17:04

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Yeah I’m trying to keep it cheap. Not looking for an amazing set up, just an improvement over the rubbish factory set up.

Noah - Now with more boost. > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 20:23

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Nice replacement speakers are usually good enough for most non-audiophiles (alpine, kenwood, etc). You need to match your head unit to the speakers you purchase though, old/cheap/poorly connected head units will make even the nicest speakers sound like garbage.

NoneOfYourBiz > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/18/2015 at 23:45

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A good head unit makes a huge difference in sound quality, in my experience.

I’ll put in a plug for the Pioneer DEH-X6700 and DEH-X8700. The latter will be about $50 more expensive and moves the aux in and USB to the rear of the unit; 6700 has them on the front.

Try that first; you may find the improvement is enough for your tastes. Failing that, then look at other upgrades.

NoneOfYourBiz > AthomSfere 04/18/2015 at 23:50

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THIS. I’ll leave most of that alone but comment on brands.

As I previously mentioned, my brand of choice is Pioneer. I didn’t even know Panasonic made car stereos; they’re completely unheard of up here in Canada.

I’ve scratched JVC and Kenwood from my list because of BlueTooth connectivity and audio/call quality issues. (most JVCs I’ve tried take something like 30-60 seconds to connect to a phone that was previously paired; Pioneers takes about 5 seconds.)

JDMatt > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 04/19/2015 at 03:17

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Last year I replaced my busted door speakers with some no-name-brand 3 way speakers. Having better speakers made all my music sound much nicer. I’m still using the factory head unit, but I should probably upgrade it to get the most out of my speakers and to finally have an aux jack. Eventually they’re gonna stop selling tape adapters!

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > JDMatt 04/19/2015 at 09:09

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I got hold of some nicer speakers I’m going to hook up soon, hopefully I see an improvement like you did. My factory head unit already has an aux thankfully.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > NoneOfYourBiz 04/19/2015 at 09:10

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I got some speakers for free so I’m going to try those first, but if they don’t sound much better I’ll definitely look into head units.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Noah - Now with more boost. 04/19/2015 at 09:11

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I’m slotting in some new speakers first but if they dont give me the improvement I want I’ll start to look into head units.