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Anything about BXs
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rayfenwick
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Post by rayfenwick »

maxgreenwood wrote:yeah i want to get a decent sound set up in mine, nothing too fancy, the doors might need some deadening reinforcement for anything speaker wise from the side, which i'd prefer as opposed to the parcel shelf route, although i've never heard that set up, I'd prefer some stereo image to extend down beyond tweeter range. I got some great mid and tweeter speakers for the Saab, they all go in the top of the dash, although it really needs some kind of sub under the seat or something as the dash holes are only 4", and the bass is, well.. i think my imagination is working hard.
Hi Max. I've not gone too mad with the system in my BX, as I've tried to install systems that are "appropriate" IYSWIM, and as my BX is an 87, it did well to get a CD headunit :) The 2 CX's have appropriate systems for their age too, but the XM is the one with the fairly serious system in it, and I've learned a few things along the way, some of which will apply even more to the BX.


Dash tweeters - definitely. Some people put 2 or 3 way 6x9's on the parcel shelf, and expect that will be ok. It isn't, as by the time the treble gets to your ears it is muddied by everything else going on.

Door speakers - the best way is to get a component system with matched tweeter/woofer. A real crossover is much better than the cheap serial electrolytic to strip the bass way of doing things.

Rear speakers - the tiny grilles on some BX's are too small for anything useful. Parcel shelf is the way to go, in my case a pair of 6" 2 way coaxials. They make a lot of difference.

Amp - if you're going down the road of having something semi-serious, I'd get an amp that will do 4 channels and has a filter to strip the bass from the other speakers - especially the door speakers. This will help preserve the stereo down below tweeters by stopping the bass flapping them around and making the doors buzz and fart. As you said, some deadening in the doors is essential - they drum like crazy.

Sub - no need to have some huge chav monstrosity shaking your kidneys loose (unless that's your thing... :) ). Blaupunkt do some lovely small active subs that have a good reinforcing sound, plenty of controls for level, phase and cutoff to get everything in the system in tune. They won't fill the boot or empty your wallet.

If you are going to have quite a big system I can't recommend a power cap highly enough. It tightens the bass no end, whilst smoothing things out for the battery. Well worth the £30ish (though you can spend mental money, if you want.. )

I hope some of my rambling helps :oops:
Ray

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rayfenwick
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Post by rayfenwick »

Matt H wrote:
rayfenwick wrote:...lots of interesting stuff...
Want to continue this in a new thread?? I'm in the middle of sorting my BX out in this regard :wink:
maxgreenwood wrote:
I'll start a new thread re stereo setup, very interesting info Ray, i think you've got the knowledge there. I think i'll get one of those compact Blaukpunkt subs for the Saab, maybe i can get a deal on two!
I'm just glad I get to contribute something - I'm not so good with the oily bits :)
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Post by mat_fenwick »

Woo hoo, my attempt at splitting worked!

One point worth mentioning is it's worth searching for a base box/tube on eBay, and you might be able to grab something with no other bidders...
I got a small Pioneer bass tube (with a new price of £250) for the start price of £20!
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rayfenwick
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Post by rayfenwick »

It's a good tip Mat.

I managed to get the top Blaupunkt active sub for only £65 plus postage last week - in the box and looking/sounding unused. Bargains there if you can find them.

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Ray

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Post by MULLEY »

I uprgded the speakers in my txd, i've got some nice 6x9 3way pioneers in the parcel shelf & some clarions fitted into the front doors. No tweeters though & with a Blaupunkt CD unit, sounds 20x better than the rubbish that was in there before. I'm sure it can be improved, however, the car is quite noisey so i thought it might be a waste of money.

Dream system would be Nakamichi tape unit with focal speakers front & rear with everything integrated for best sound quality etc... :D
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Post by Mike P »

My first 16V when I was 22 had:

Alpine CD headunit
6 disk changer, under the passenger seat
Crossovers in the dash for the 5" door speakers and 2" IIRC tweeters.
2 amps mounted to the back of the rear seats, to power the:
6 x 9 speakers in the parcel shelf
15" sub and 12" in seperate boxes in the boot, even had an 18" sub for a while.

Sounded awesome, which I put down to the angle of the rear screen directing the sound forwards nicely to the front seats :D

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Post by Matt H »

I recently spotted this little active sub at my local motor factors... £50, so I thought I'd give it a go. The thing I really like about it is the fact it is designed to fit under the seat. Most people recommend fitting a pair of them, but firstly I didn't want to fit anything under the drivers seat in case I need to get to the ECU; and secondly I didn't really want that much bass :lol:

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Fitting...
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At first I was a little sceptical that such a small bit of kit could actually provide any decent bass at all, but after a bit of fiddling with the settings I'm amazed! With the rear speakers disconnected, it still sounds respectable, and you only really miss them when you start going really loud. And this is with the standard 13cm door speakers. I have a choice of either Pioneer or Alpines to go in (from the AX or White BX) and I think the standard tweeters are pretty decent...
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I bought these a couple of years back, and they've really only seen use since I fitted them in the car. Nothing special, and since fitting the sub, I'm starting to doubt their usefulness.
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Although, I did finally manage to engineer a high quality quick release mechanism for the parcel shelf. Something that's always annoyed me is hard to remove shelf speaker cables. I was inspired by the system used in the Peugeot 306... and I found that the 'Neutrik NL4FX 4-Pole SPEAKON Speaker Plug Connector' was perfect for what I need. Still need to tidy up the bottom of the shelf a bit though.

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And the head unit. A rather nice Alpine MP3/iPod/Bluetooth?blah blah... does everything jobbie. I bought this because of the timeless, classy design. I think Alpines look good, without being to 'blingy' and flashing.

All in all, it sounds good. Still needs a bit of setting up, and the door speakers need sorting, but it can drown out the engine/exhaust of my 16v at motorway speeds, which considering the centre-box bypass pipe is no small achievement!
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Post by mat_fenwick »

Matt H wrote:it can drown out the engine/exhaust of my 16v at motorway speeds, which considering the centre-box bypass pipe is no small achievement!
Want to swap it for a Bosal back box? :lol:

I've got two way component speakers in the front of mine, with the crossovers behind the glovebox. I find the treble a bit on the sharp side, and the bass from the front door speakers makes the cone fart on the speaker cover trim - would be much improved if I mounted the speakers on the rear of the door trim.

I have 4" coaxials in the standard rear speaker positions, as cables to the rear shelf would bug me too...

The head unit in the van (old Pioneer unit with the dolphins!) has a handy feature to adjust the frequency cut off between the standard 4x outputs and the RCA sockets, so that you can remove excessive bass from the door speakers. I would guess more modern head units have the same feature?
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Post by rayfenwick »

There's usually some kind of system for sorting out the bass on all but the cheapest/naffest.

Some good looking stuff there. I'm after some of those tweeters if anyone has some - they sound pretty good, and screw in nice and easily. I have a spare pair of Kenwood tweeters, but they're not so easy to mount nicely.
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Post by mat_fenwick »

Just to resurrect this old thread - I've been doing some alterations to the sound on mine. First of al I've replaced the Pioneer bass tube (which lived in the rear footwell!) with the Clarion SRV313 which Matt H had. Part of the reason for this was the fact it meant I couldn't fold the seats down easily without removing it, and putting it in the boot would get in the way too. There is less deep bass than there used to be, but more than enough for me. Clarity is good, and it comes with a remote lead to adjust it without crawling under the seat to twiddle a knob.

As I mentioned before, I was never 100% happy with the sound from the front component speakers. I realised last week after driving the silver one a bit that at low volumes the original speakers actually sounded better! So after a bit of research I bought a set of Alpine SXE-1350S speakers, which do sound a lot more balanced. The other thing is they fit as though they were designed for the BX - the original yellow connector on the door loom just plugs straight in, and the tweeter is dead easy to mount in the dash (although you will need to connect it to the original leads somehow).

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To replace the tweeters previously I had to cut out the originals with a holesaw, and glue the new ones onto the original mounting plate!
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Post by Dollywobbler »

Nice work. I'm really fretting about tunes in my Mk1. At the moment, it has Mk2 door cards, but when I get around to fitting proper Mk1 ones - goodbye door speakers.

Oh and it needs a head unit. Preferably one that isn't like having Blackpool illuminations in the middle of the dashboard!

Mind you, need to stop the wind howling in before getting carried away with tunes!
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Post by Tim Leech »

Dollywobbler wrote:Nice work. I'm really fretting about tunes in my Mk1. At the moment, it has Mk2 door cards, but when I get around to fitting proper Mk1 ones - goodbye door speakers.

Oh and it needs a head unit. Preferably one that isn't like having Blackpool illuminations in the middle of the dashboard!

Mind you, need to stop the wind howling in before getting carried away with tunes!
Mk1 has the tweeters in the top corners of the dash and a Bass speaker behind the dash, the sound from the original Phillips radio/cassette (with no rewind function) in the DTR isnt bad really. A super shiney led-tastic Cd player would look out of place in my opinion.
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Post by Dollywobbler »

Ah, I need to study my new dashboard then. It's still in the back of the car because we're doing the house up and I don't actually have anywhere to put it!

I would like a period stereo, but realistically, this thing's never going to be concours, so it'll have whatever's to hand at the time.
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Post by mat_fenwick »

I have a few period looking radio/cassettes - I think one of them has an aux input on the front if you have an iPod or similar. You're welcome to one next time you're up here.
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Post by Matt H »

I want one of these... Any of them!

Classic car stereos
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