It's about time to upgrade the stereo!

[Chazzy]

I’m about to start gathering all the parts together to build an improved stereo in my car. The one thing that lets it down, particularly on longer journeys is the terrible stereo. The first owner replaced the head unit with a sony one (I still have the receipt) but I want a more modern one with Bluetooth, Aux, DAB, USB and CD. That’s the easy bit.


At the moment, my car has the rear trim with small speakers so I’m going to see if I can find the trim which allows the fitment of larger speakers. I should then be able to mod this to get some 5 inch speakers to fit. I’ll keep the old trim though so it can be put back to original if required.


I’ll replace the footwell and door tweeters with a set of components, but think I’ll just put some 5 inch in the rear rather than coaxial ones, although wouldn’t mind knowing what everyone else’s experience with this is. In terms of powering them, I feel I should probably get a 4 channel amp and either mount it under the drivers seat (if it’ll fit) or in the boot – again, I’d love to know where others have mounted them.


Finally, to get clearer bass, I’ll fit a slimline sub, most likely in the passenger foot well, right at the back with another MDF/ply panel over the top. There’s plenty of leg room with the seat back so I don’t see this being an issue.


Hopefully this will all work, I can then spend some time setting up the various filters and EQs to get it sounding clear and lively!


Hopefully I should be able to do the whole lot for £500, I’ll let you all know how I get on!

 

[benf]

Sounds good, I've got all original in mine harman karden and all that, supposed to be good but it's rubbish, you think bmw would have put better sounding kit in. had an audi a3 a few years back and their standard stuff was brilliant, if I had the know how I'd sort it out! atb

 

[Antm72]

A lot of Audi kit is Bose and sounds great. I still run the H.K stuff but have fitted 4" in the rears and replaces the H.K Sub.
Its suprising how clearer the syatem sounds by just disconnecting it when its poor its causes massive interference and the whole system sounds bad.
I removed rhe H.K fromts but put them back as they are quite punchy on the H.K amp and just improved the rear.
Original had a B.T Sony headunit but have swapped it for an alpine one and the sound is better again.
The H.K system is difficult to upgrade as it uses speakers of various Ohm ratings that are odd to match.
A full rewire and all 4 Ohm speakers is the easiest if your going to do it.

 

[the Nefyn cat]

Going to have to do something with mine soon, recently started sounding awful. No real rush to do it, roof down for another few months yet (hopefully) and can't hear much above the wind noise.