Hi all, I'm looking to upgrade the sounds in my Fabia as the original speakers are breaking up a bit and I'm finding the alpine head unit I have currently, although good sound wise, too slow to navigate through over a 1000 albums on the ipod. Plans are the following

Alpine IVA-W202R double din head unit or something similarly priced 2nd hand around £200-300 - basically has to have touchscreen, full speed ipod control, DVD & screen, Satnav a bonus. Any other suggestions?

165 components in the front with dynamat in the door. - Probably Focal Access or similar - quoted £200 fitted with the dynamat by Audio Advice in Glasgow - not sure whether to just fit them myself or save the hassle and get it done by them.

That is the basic stuff but on top of these plans I'm wondering about whether its worth getting an amp and what to do with the rear speakers.

Should I get some half decent 100mm speakers with some replacement tweeters (the rears are breaking up pretty bad) or should I get a set of 6x9s in the parcel shelf (got offered some focal 6x9s for £60)? I'm not planning on getting a sub and was wondering whether the 6x9s would provide a little better bass fill. I'm guessing if I go with the rears I'll really need the amp to power it all comfortably but I've never done much with car audio so my experience is limited.

I know... not a major ICE project but I guessed it would reflect what a lot of other people might have gone along the lines of or maybe want to do as it's subtle but fairly high quality for the money.

Any advice or suggestions appreciated.

The quote to do the dynamatting and fit the speakers sounds pretty reasonable really. We have extensive dynatting on all our cars and it really makes a massive difference - especially the doors and spare wheel well in the boot on the fabia.

For a headunit I've not seen anything better than a Kenwood DNX - the 5xx0 seriers are just as good as the 7xx0 and 9xx0 series in my experience and the big rotating volume knob is much easier to use than the little buttons on the more expensive ones. DDX is the same but without navigation or bluetooth and you can always add the navigation or bluetooth afterwards with the plug-in boxes.

Thanks mate, so you found that dynamatting the doors and wheel well made a noticeable difference to the road noise then? Good to know! The DNX units look good but seem to go for more than I was really budgeting given I will seldom use the satnav or bluetooth. That said I might use them more when I have tham and I guess I could just wait longer and save more. I'm really hoping I can get some feedback on what people have done for speakers, especially whether they found 6x9s made a good difference in the back. Or any other info/experiences.

Thanks.

Personally, I'd steer clear of 6x9's in the parcel shelf.. Soooooo chavvy, and 6x9's aren't all that good really - how many high end home speakers use oval drivers? I cannae think of one.

Go for replacements in the front first, and avoid overdo-ing the rear to keep the sound staging correct (i.e., coming from the front). Nothing worst in a car than all the music coming from behind you - I mean, you don't fire up your hifi at home and then turn your back on it do you? If you get a half decent headunit, it's internal amp should be sufficient to drive the speakers.

Hope this helps!

I'm not that keen on 6x9s anyway and my main reason for not being that sure about them is that they look pretty chavvy. As for the sound stage I can alter the fader. My main reason for upgrading is that the rear speakers are breaking up and I like having a balance between front and rear for the sound so just cutting them off isn't an option. Think I need to get all the speakers done at the same time, just stick with some 100mm components for the back.

6x9s only look chavvy if you can see them

http://briskoda.net:80/forums/topic/139625-parcel-shelf-any-ideas/page__p__1747945__fromsearch__1&

Some of the pics in the thread have been lost but there are a few of the finished article

on the 2nd page.

I am very happy with my stereo now.

It's not earth shatteringly loud but the sound quality is much better.

I've got 6x9's in my Polo (not through choice - previous had cut holes in the shelf, and I got the speakers for free, so cheaper and than a new parcel shelf).

They're not amped or anything, just run off the rear speakers in parrallel and you'd be hard pushed to hear them when sitting in the front anyway. Have to change the fader if I have rear passengers too, otherwise they can't hear a word you say to them. Think you'd be better off spending the money up front personally.

I did actually think of making a stealth shelf, I could do it fairly easily as I have access to a well equipped workshop and skills in that area but I'll not worry too much about it just now. Out of interest has anyone ever replaced the standard front or rear tweeters? I'd like to know what size they are?

Ta!

1.5"