Righty ho chaps...ICE - car - me

There is an odd link in the chain and it's me.

So I have this octavia, it came with crap speakers so I got some new ones and an alpine head unit about 3 years ago.

Traded a parcel shelf and got some oval jbl things, never really wired them up properly though.

Have some 4g ( I think itt's 4) wire to the boot, presently doing nothing as I have a sub somewhere in a garage over an hours drive away, although it's bit big to be a resident in the boot.

What I'm looking for is somebody who can give me some pointers on wtf to do with ice in a car to make it sound good...

Good by the way is a test devised by SWMBO; a classically trained piano player and more importantly likes to listen to music, where as I just hear noise.

Anybody up for a 101 or even recommend a place where I can deposit a car and some money for something that is respectable but fairly priced. Not looking for half of GEC's capacitor production supply in the boot, but also it has to be better than the single speaker and two tweaters i have presently have, as it has finally got the better of SWMBO, I need to do something

Colin, whats the budget fella? My advice would be to ditch the "oval things", a small (10") sub, and a 4channel amp along with some replacement front speakers.

I'll happily help if I can, have done one or two installs in my time!

No idea how much this stuff actually costs.

I've never brought a new hu ever, the sub in the garage is about 2' square in a box, well it's big to make me think it's big.

I'll dig out what I have to a list while tootling up the m6 tomorrow, see if that provides a base point.

Front speakers are sony and similar for tweaters.

shelf is 6x9 jbl ...

Well 2' is fooking massive, so unless you like "choonz", I'd keep the boot space.

A sub is essential imho, it takes a lot of the hard work away from the speakers, and when set up properly, you won't be able to tell the sub is in the boot. Something like THIS or the one I'd stretch too here would be ideal, they don't need big enclosures. A custom box to fit in the cubby hole on the side of the boot would be a doddle, keeping bootspace at its max.

These are great low-end speakers, although a nicer pair like these would be an absolute joy. If you want to spend more, £300 is, imho, where the law of diminishing returns starts to make it less bang for buck.

Then a nice amp like this (cheaper versions available - second hand is a good option for amps) a, wiring kit, and you are laughing. Lovely set up for peanuts, or a wee bit more if you so desire.

I'm sure a friendly Briskodian would help fit it all, indeed I would. A decent audio place would probably charge around £150 for that little lot, assuming you didn't want a custom box.

But please fella, ditch the 6x9s...

A nice starter system for £350 here too... A great stepping stone onto the ICE ladder, and a 10x step up over OEM.

After listerning to Gibbo's setup in his old octy. The fronts just didnt sound that good. Might be worth some sound deadening on the outer skin and the back of the silver thingy that has all the motors on. I went a little ott and used 2 layers of flashing tape and a layer of bodyline. The otter skin in rock hard but midrange sounds alot better. Got some Second Skin Rattle pad now to put between the door panel and the door just to help with the odd rattle.

Like Tom says get rid of the 6x9 and just use the standard speakers for some rear fill, nice set of front components and a sub. Then use a 4ch amp to power the fronts and the sub. 2ch for the front other 2 bridged fro the sub. Then spend alot of tiem with the music you listern too playing with the settings.

Saying that whats the alpine HU like for power? I find the std fabia cd-player is good enough for me with just a alpine m500 for the sub. Could just use that to power the speakers then get a nice 2ch or mono for the sub.

Col is you fancy a listern to mine to see what you think feel free.

It depends if you have passengers sitting in the back. If it's mainly just two ppl in the front then I'd go for some Alpine Type R 6.5" components at the front powered by an Alpine 2ch amp. Give them around 150watts RMS each channel and they'll sound great. Then get a 10" Alpine Type R sub in the boot and power it with a class D Alpine amp, something like an MRDM500. If you have passengers in the back then leave the stock speakers there and power them from the headunit.

As stated above, sound deadening is a must. It really makes a difference to the front speakers and reduces rattles too.

You dont sit in the back, so turn the rear speakers off, your screwing your soundstage

Well I've followed some of that

I have nothign to do in December, so taking the car apart might be on the agenda.

I did have the hu model number, but can't find it now. 9815 or something, have a apline changer and aux input box on the boot too.

thanks for replys thus far

350 is bang on the good side of budget.

Nowt wrong with that HU Colin.

As John says though, sound deadening makes a huge difference. Even if its just a 10" square thin pad behind each woofer.

Come to Blackpool fella, I'll be doing nowt on the morning of the meet!