Hi guys, would be grateful if anybody could give me any advice on the Pioneer TS-A171Ci speakers, was wondering whether they fit straight into mk1 octavia vrs and wether they work well with the stock sound system?

Hi The mounting depth of the woofer on the pioneers is 53.4 mm so will drop straight into front doors in existing locations. I have Alpine spr 60 c components in the front of my Vrs and they are 59mm and went straight in without problem. As for running them from the head unit they are rated at 350w so need to be amplified. The stock Head unit just isn't up to the task ! You would be better off changing the head unit first and then take things from there. Mine is an all Alpine type R set up and sounds awesome it's all hidden away and so looks stock.

Agreed head unit 1st. Symphony HU is rubbish, much worse than the OE speakers.

dont supose u know which head unit to go for, because i red somewhere that it is difficult to find one that is compatible with the 6cd changer

Thanks

Just get one that plays mp3 cds or connects to ipod then get rid of the 6 disc changer, they go for 40 quid on eBay or 80 with the symphony headunit.

Agreed head unit 1st. Symphony HU is rubbish, much worse than the OE speakers.

I must be getting old a few years back i had a grand worth of stereo equipment in my clio, now days i find the standard system adiquate :'(

Change the speaker wiring if you're upgrading the head unit and speakers. Having just done a piece-by-piece changover of my head unit, speakers and finally the wiring I can tell you I was seriously hamstrung by using the stock wiring. It does seem like an elegant solution but it's just strangling your new kit. When I ran proper stuff the difference was very noticeable and immediate.

What I did was take the ISO lead as it comes out the back of the head unit and solder on enough decent cable to reach directly to the speakers, or to the crossovers in my case as I'm using components. I even passed the wiring through the door hinges to the front speakers + tweeters without peeling the inner door seals off. The door cards did need to come off though. For the total cost and effort involved, a bit of soldering and few metres of speaker wire has got to be the best value upgrade I've done.

Have a nose through my faltering, rambling thread here if you fancy replacing your speaker wiring. It's all over the place as I was trying different things and asking for advice as I went. There's some useful stuff of how I threaded the cables and the ISO cable wire colours, although those could differ on non-Kenwood head units I suppose. Put the kettle on and start half-way-down page 2 where I start to get the idea

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/219664-octavia-mk1-noob-audio-install/page__st__20

thanks for the advice guys