The ICE thread

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mat_fenwick
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by mat_fenwick »

I think Audax are a high quality small volume manufacturer of mainly home Hi-Fi speakers, so I'd expect them to be reasonable quality. It's possible they may have sold their name though? The front door location isn't ideal for tweeters as they are more directional - better to have them nearer ear level if possible so the dash location seems a good plan.

As for the rears, some people don't bother with tweeters for rear speakers - several head units even have a feature for cutting the treble from the rear output. I have to say this sounds rubbish to my ears! There are some tweeters (piezoelectric) which can cope with receiving low frequency inputs without damage, but normal types need a filter.

Capacitor value is 1/(2*pi*f*R)
where f is the cut-off frequency you want (check the data for the tweeter) and R is its resistance (often 4 ohms).

You'll need an amplifier to drive a subwoofer (which can be mono seeing as bass is least directional). Your head unit will probably have a pair of RCA sockets on the back which can be connected to the amp (or amp/subwoofer combined). If the latter then the filtering will be done in the subwoofer unit, if not then chose an amp with a built in filter. Unless your head unit has an option for filtering the output internally; many do.
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by Jaba »

My approach is slightly different to Mat's in that I have coaxial Alpine 1325s units in the doors as I am happy with the standard supplied tweeters. Then.......

I have two different rigs for the rear. In the GTi I have some old but good Clarion 165mm units on the back shelf and a Clarion srv313 sub under the passenger seat.

In the Hurricane I have a pair of Rainbow 165mm units. These are superb and provide good solid bass, better than the sub in the other car as long as they are driven by a good quality head unit with at least 4x50w RMS output. In other words not the cheapo Blaupunkt unit I bought in France a few years back. I plan to install the wiring for the sub from my ex BX to give some flexibility and swap between cars for comparison.

The sub is somewhat disappointing as the bass sounds a bit one note-ish on most tracks. But the volume is great and drowns out the XUD racket with another sort of racket, my music.
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by MULLEY »

I suppose it depends how old the Audax units are, if they are ancient, then i suspect a modern speaker will deffo sound better. I don't think i paid more than £30 for a pair of semi-decent pioneer front coax speakers. The TXD didn't have the 6 speaker set-up.
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by BX Bandit »

Thank you all, my head unit is out currently so I'll bring it in and post some photos up, you can help me tell what I've got!!
I'll have a look for a date on the speakers Mulley. I think for now my plan is to get as close to my required setup without expenditure (or minimum). Then, once I know what I've got sound wise with my added speakers and tweeters, I can look for improvements.
Actually the tweeters I'll be using are from the Xantia/xm and I think have the capacitors already on. I'll check them out.
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by MULLEY »

Are there dats on the speakers? If they sound crap, then they must be at fault, unless your head unit is that poor, which i would doubt tbh, unless you can borrow somone elses head unit, just to check the sound quality, just incase it is a head unit fault?
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by BX Bandit »

This is the technical blurb:
Amplifier features:
Four channel 4 x 45W max power amplifier (4 x 30W RMS)
Stereo preamplifier RCA outputs (2.0 volt) for connecting optional external amplifier
Separate adjustments for bass, treble, balance and fader
Loudness control
System Q equaliser with three control bands and six preset settings
Source tone memory stores equaliser settings for each source (FM radio, AM radio & CD)

So four 'standard' speaker outputs, two front two rear and then the stereo pre amp. I assume I can run the four standard speaker connections as I wish and use the pre amp output to feed the rear speakers?
My plan thus far is to have:
2 front door speakers
2 dash mounted tweeters
2 c pillar mounted tweeters
4 (2 pairs) parcel shelf mounted speakers
Sub woofer
Amp

Is that realistic/ sensible/stoopid/idiotic? Apart from the amp and sub I have all other bits


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Re: The ICE thread

Post by BX Bandit »

MULLEY wrote:Are there dats on the speakers? If they sound crap, then they must be at fault, unless your head unit is that poor, which i would doubt tbh, unless you can borrow somone elses head unit, just to check the sound quality, just incase it is a head unit fault?
Dats? I was only running the front speakers and dash tweeters in the tzd, basically if you wanted to hear any real detail, you had to turn it to a point where it just became noisier but not clear. It was as if the whole system had no oomph but you are probably right about it being the speakers
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by mat_fenwick »

The pre amp outputs need to go via an amplifier, so would make sense to power the subwoofer. You can split this signal to go to another amp for one set of the parcel shelf speakers, but do you really need all 4?

It's likely the standard 4 channels will be able to each drive a standard woofer/midrange and tweeter connected in parallel, so that will sort out one set of your parcel shelf speakers. You can get 3 channel amps which would power the other set and a subwoofer, if desired.

I don't know what dats are either :lol:
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by Way2go »

mat_fenwick wrote: I don't know what dats are either :lol:
IIRC, dats is the acronym for the successor to the analogue tape (compact cassette) and stood for Digital Audio Tape system. :wink:
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by MULLEY »

Sorry about Dat ;) i meant to type dates, where are the dates on speakers?
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by mat_fenwick »

DAT was the only thing I could think of, but couldn't see how that related to speakers!
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by BX Bandit »

mat_fenwick wrote:The pre amp outputs need to go via an amplifier, so would make sense to power the subwoofer. You can split this signal to go to another amp for one set of the parcel shelf speakers, but do you really need all 4?

It's likely the standard 4 channels will be able to each drive a standard woofer/midrange and tweeter connected in parallel, so that will sort out one set of your parcel shelf speakers. You can get 3 channel amps which would power the other set and a subwoofer, if desired.

I don't know what dats are either :lol:
No I don't need all 4, but just thought that 2 x 5" speakers (possibly 6") would suitably match 1 9x3, whereas 1 5 or 6" might be a bit feeble? Thinking about it, I'm probably completely wrong, so I guess I don't need the 4 on the rear shelf, I certainly keen to reduce complexity, esp if they'd need an extra amp.
In which case, I'm looking at the standard outputs to feed a speaker and tweeter each, and an amp for the sub? If so, I assume this is a passive sub? Will filters be built in?

Mulley, I just been out to the garage to check dates and realised I'd fitted it back to the car, but I'm doing the other side today so I'll check on that one. DATS! :mrgreen:
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by mat_fenwick »

If you're you're buying an amplifier then you need a passive sub (and you need to make sure the amp has a filter built in, unless the head unit does). But it may be simpler to just look for an active/powered subwoofer…I guess it depends what comes up cheaply. I bought an active sub (£250 new) for the starting price of £20 by searching for 'base tube' :D Which I then swapped for the under-seat mounted Clarion job which Jaba also has.

I wouldn't worry about the size of the rear speakers, as a subwoofer will help to fill in the gaps at the lower end.
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by BX Bandit »

Looks like a citroen number on the back of them!
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Re: The ICE thread

Post by mat_fenwick »

Yup, they're the OE ones. I guess the Audax I was thinking of (Scandinavian from memory) is not the same as the one which made these speakers!
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