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Thank god for this thread, I've just started looking around at decks and speakers and it's been at least 15 years since I've done anything aftermarket in a car so I'm totally and completely ignorant. After seeing a buddies android phone play nice with his bluetooth deck, I've gotten sick of my 2006 factory deck pretty quickly. I want my Galaxy S3 to talk nicely with my new deck so I can have hands free phone and stream music as well, so hardly overly complicated requirements I don't think. I drive a Honda CRV and originally I was only thinking of single DIN but I have space for a double DIN so could be talked into that if the feature set was pretty amazing. I was also looking to replace the 2 rear and 2 front (6.5" speakers front and rear) factory speakers in my doors but after reading the discussion here about rears I may choose to only replace the fronts for now. I've looked on crutchfield and sonicelectronix and read a lot of reviews, but I'm suffering from an overabundance of choices in pioneer/alpine/kenwood models for decks both single and double DIN. Also someone recommended Polk Audio db6501's for my front speakers: http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_9109_Polk-Audio-db6501.html Reviews seem pretty high but I'm always interested in more educated opinions.
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Oct 19, 2013 17:23
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 14:07 |
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I have Polk DB6501s in a Forester which has the tweeters mounted high and pointed at your face. The highs are very bright and harsh, and I've had a hell of a time tuning that out. I've run them off of three different amps now. With an old Alpine they sounded..acceptable. With a cheaper Clarion they were horrible. Now with a Soundstream Ref amp they sound pretty good. but I still don't feel like my money was well spent on them. If your car has the tweeters in a different spot, and you power them with a good amp, you might be happy. I feel like there are much better speakers out there though. I wouldn't buy them again.
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Oct 20, 2013 18:02
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Misanthrope posted:Thank god for this thread, I've just started looking around at decks and speakers and it's been at least 15 years since I've done anything aftermarket in a car so I'm totally and completely ignorant. After seeing a buddies android phone play nice with his bluetooth deck, I've gotten sick of my 2006 factory deck pretty quickly. Pioneer has a few double dins that play great with Android, not sure about what single dins are good but sometexasredneck has more experience in that part than I
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Oct 20, 2013 19:03
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bolind posted:Not much to do about car audio, but I figured this might be a good place to ask anyway: where can I get that black non-sticky-yet-sticks-to-itself wrap that is used for making cable harnesses? I'm rewiring my car for powered seats, and figured I'd try to make it look reasonably stock. The tesa tape has be suggested, but you could always use some spiral sleeving as well to bunch wires together.
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Oct 20, 2013 21:33
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Pivit posted:After some googling I think that is the intermediate frequency line/diversity antenna connector/zf line. Its supposed to let the aerial amp pick whichever antenna has the strongest signal and use it, without that you'll just be using one antenna. Should be fine. larchesdanrew posted:Could also be a satellite radio antenna, if your stereo has XM/Sirius. MikeyTsi posted:Does your car have factory GPS? Looks like that could be the jack for a GPS antenna. Thanks all  Does seem to be a radio aerial, and it works fine without it plugged in. The harness I have now fits my new stereo fine, and plugs in fine to the car cables- but doesn't power on. Looking at the connectors I saw that wires were not matching up across the connectors- the number of wires are the same, but they are hooked up to different pins, and the colour schemes are entirely different. Will get better pictures tomorrow when I pull it out again, hoping I can find a colour chart that will let me see if all I need to do is a bit of rewiring. DesperateDan fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Oct 21, 2013 |
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Oct 21, 2013 15:57
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FecalFajita posted:I have Polk DB6501s in a Forester which has the tweeters mounted high and pointed at your face. The highs are very bright and harsh, and I've had a hell of a time tuning that out. I've run them off of three different amps now. With an old Alpine they sounded..acceptable. With a cheaper Clarion they were horrible. Now with a Soundstream Ref amp they sound pretty good. but I still don't feel like my money was well spent on them. Fair enough, I do have tweeters in a different spot and I'm not interested in replacing them (partly because I hear it's a bitch), and I don't want to install an amp so the head unit will be the only thing powering them. I guess that essentially takes the DB6501s out of the running then.... given my situation what 6.5's should I look at? I'm far from an audiophile, but the way I figure it, if I'm replacing the head unit, I might as well do the two front factory speakers at the same time.
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Oct 21, 2013 18:23
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Ask Us About Car Audio, Part 4: guess-the-connector edition
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Oct 21, 2013 20:11
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Misanthrope posted:Fair enough, I do have tweeters in a different spot and I'm not interested in replacing them (partly because I hear it's a bitch), and I don't want to install an amp so the head unit will be the only thing powering them. I guess that essentially takes the DB6501s out of the running then.... given my situation what 6.5's should I look at? Maybe don't rule them out yet, I'm driving those Polks off a Kenwood head unit with the tweeters mounted in the doors and I really really like them. My Volvo is decently sound insulated so they're very smooth and clean with deep bass and more than loud enough. I do not have the same complaint about harsh treble, I think they're very nice and balanced. I bought them because my Infinity Kappas were extremely harsh on the treble, (so much I had to run negative treble gain) and these were a huge step better. In my last car I had the tweeters mounted in the dash pointed at the windshield, run with a fairly beefy precision power amp and they sounded incredible and very loud. It might just be the way the tweeters point that makes the difference. I liked them enough to dismount and remount in my new car, and I would buy them again. Just another opinion. LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Oct 22, 2013 |
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Oct 22, 2013 00:05
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If you get components that are around 89-90db sensitivity most head units should be good. ideally you would aim for 91-93db sensitivity though (or even higher)
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Oct 22, 2013 07:55
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Well, I looked through the 24 pages of this thread, nothing really came up that matched my wishes, but perhaps what I want is actually easier than I think. I have the factory Clarion headunit in my Peugeot. It's nice and unobtrusive, uses the car's own multifunction display and steering wheel controls, has good sound quality and plays CD and FM perfectly. Thanks to a CD changer input adapter, I also have a functioning AUX input. When using it, the display always reads "CD 1 Track 1", but I can live with that, the audio is perfect. But I'm getting sick of having my old MP3 plugged into it. I have to run it at 100% volume to get a line level output, and the battery is drained after a couple of day's worth of normal use (30 minute commute each way). I've tried powering it using a USB cigar lighter plug, but that just resulted in high-pitched ignition interference all over over my music. Ideally, what I'm looking for is an inexpensive device that provides the following:
Almost everything I've found is either an FM adapter, which I obviously don't need, or some kind of whiz-bang device with an integrated amplifier and radio and remote control and fancy lights and graphics. The closest thing I've found is the VM202 kit from Velleman, but unfortunately it doesn't support random playback and always starts over from the first track when powered on. Parts Express has a slightly more fancy version of the same thing, but unfortunately that doesn't support random playback either. Is there a device that does what I want, or is a cheap MP3 player really the best option? KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Oct 24, 2013 |
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Oct 24, 2013 15:19
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KozmoNaut posted:I've tried powering it using a USB cigar lighter plug, but that just resulted in high-pitched ignition interference all over over my music. Google "ground loop isolator". You're welcome.
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Oct 24, 2013 22:02
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MikeyTsi posted:Google "ground loop isolator". Neat. It seems so logical when you look at how it works, actually. I can plug that into the CD changer AUX in adapter permanently and I'll check the head unit ground connection while I'm at it. I'd still love to get away from the whole MP3 player thing and have something a bit more purpose-built, however. My ideal solution would be a blanking plate in place of the ashtray, with a "play/pause" button and a "next random track" button, with the electronics permanently wired up to power and the AUX in. I'm toying around with an idea of re-purposing an old displayless MP3 player I have. It should be easy enough to wire up the connections, buttons and the status LED. The biggest issue will probably be the builtin battery, whether I can just rip it out and supply 3.7v directly to the player, or if the player does something fancy with the battery connections. Oh yeah, and hand-soldering SMD components 
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Oct 24, 2013 22:26
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KozmoNaut posted:Neat. It seems so logical when you look at how it works, actually. I can plug that into the CD changer AUX in adapter permanently and I'll check the head unit ground connection while I'm at it. I'd still love to get away from the whole MP3 player thing and have something a bit more purpose-built, however. The main thing is that cigarette lighters typically have the shittest grounds in a car (which for a car is saying something). The isolator is a pretty good way to cover this up, and it allows you to avoid having to re-run ground wiring and stuff. I used one to really good effect on two of my vehicles before I finally decided to upgrade from my 20 year old Alpine to a Pioneer unit that has built-in iPod control.
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Oct 24, 2013 22:32
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I bought this receiver for my car, a 1986 BMW 325es. I bought it without a stereo. http://i.imgur.com/XY5PrAS.jpg (click for huge) This is what I'm working with, no idea how hacked up it is from the stock harness. Plug on the receiver is just a standard 16 pin Alpine. Crutchfield says if I use this I can tap into the stock harness, for the speakers at least, but that appears to only connect two speakers, so would I buy two of those for the front and the rears? The big gray cable I know is for the antenna, and the white wire wrapped up with it raises up the antenna or something but I have no idea what everything else is supposed to plug into. I've never installed a car stereo in my life before so I have no clue what I'm doing. What's the best way to proceed?
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Oct 25, 2013 02:59
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E: ^^^^ Usually there is some sort of adapter kit available. On my old-rear end Corolla, I had to find an adapter from old-rear end Japanese connectors to DIN, and it worked perfectly. Well, I went and spent a fortune ($17) on DealExtreme, which got me an 8GB MicroSD card (supposedly from SanDisk) and this:  It probably doesn't have random play, or perhaps it does. All the instructions are in Chinese, helpfully available in English (translated by a Russian) on DX.com. But it's cheap as hell and will play MP3s from a USB stick or TF card, which I've been told is the same as a MicroSD card. Probably. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 13:15 on Oct 25, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 12:46
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Alright, so I posted earlier and ended up going with this Alpine unit. I had it professionally installed in my 2005 Honda Accord, considering the whole deal with the factory radio not being able to be taken out. I really like it and everything works great on the Bluetooth audio streaming. My only issue is that when I receive a call or text, or activate the hands-free voice control, it takes the radio a full 4 or 5 seconds to switch over to "Phone" mode and start playing audio, and it takes the microphone a few seconds more to actually activate. By then, the person on the other end has said "Hello? Hello?" and hung up or the hands-free voice control has timed out due to inactivity. Anyone with one of these Alpine units had any experience with updating the firmware? The manual says the firmware is updateable and to check Alpine's site, but I can't find anything on the American side. I'm hoping there's some sort of update that will speed up the phone activation time.
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Oct 25, 2013 15:29
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larchesdanrew posted:Alright, so I posted earlier and ended up going with this Alpine unit. I had it professionally installed in my 2005 Honda Accord, considering the whole deal with the factory radio not being able to be taken out. Would you be willing to take a pic of what the finished product looks like? I have an 06 accord (without nav package) and it seems like we might have the same problem.
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Oct 25, 2013 17:06
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KozmoNaut posted:E: ^^^^ Usually there is some sort of adapter kit available. On my old-rear end Corolla, I had to find an adapter from old-rear end Japanese connectors to DIN, and it worked perfectly. The only adapter kit that I can find is the one I linked from Crutchfield.
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Oct 25, 2013 17:08
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nwin posted:Would you be willing to take a pic of what the finished product looks like? I have an 06 accord (without nav package) and it seems like we might have the same problem. Sure, here you go:   
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Oct 25, 2013 17:28
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rscott posted:The only adapter kit that I can find is the one I linked from Crutchfield. In that case if you can't find a complete adapter set (not just speakers). If that doesn't exist, you'll need to find pinout diagrams for both the car and the headunit and wire up a set of Alpine connectors yourself. Sorry. E: This may help, even though the pictures are missing: http://www.brianbernard.com/BMW%20D...aftermarket.pdf KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Oct 25, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 18:53
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larchesdanrew posted:Sure, here you go: Dammit, it sure is the same setup. Back when I bought my car, I had them install an iSimple gateway that had an iPhone 30-pin cable output on it for my iPhone. After just upgrading to the new lightning input, it obviously doesn't work. I just called iSimple up and they said that if I buy the Apple brand 30-pin to lightning adapter that the sound output should work. Here's hoping because I really don't wanna spend over $100 on a new head unit+install.
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Oct 25, 2013 19:06
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rscott posted:I bought this receiver for my car, a 1986 BMW 325es. I bought it without a stereo. To be honest, I'd try to find a donor car in a wrecking yard to verify and/or cut the factory harness out, and splice it together to get you back to a good stock condition, then see about adapters. Failing that, you're going to need to get the electrical diagrams (you wanted the service manual for your car anyway, right?) and you'll need to match the stock wiring with the aftermarket harness so you can get it wired. Make sure you at least use good crimp-style connectors, if you're not going to solder the wires together and use shrink-tubing.
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Oct 25, 2013 19:58
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For stereo stuff I've always used the weather-seal crimp connecters with heat shrink and never had any issues.
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Oct 26, 2013 02:18
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God I'm reading this car audio thread on r3v and this poo poo looks super loving complicated, everything changes from year to year and depending on if you have premium sound or not. Wonder if I should just find an OEM stereo and install that. e: OK I got the ETM for my year, from looking at the harness diagrams it looks like the stock harness is there and intact.  
rscott fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 22:41
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I stripped the harness back pretty far and this is what I ended up with.      The only problem I'm seeing so far is that I've only got 4 speaker wires and I need a positive and a negative for FL/FR/RL/RR. Everything else I think I can figure out with the ETM images.
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Oct 27, 2013 00:55
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I'm looking to buy a double din deck and am choosing between the following two: Pioneer 2-DIN CD/ MP3/ USB Car Receiver with iPod/ iPhone/ Android Control (FH-X700BT) - $160 http://www.futureshop.ca/en-ca/prod...74323fe1c7ben02 Sony Bluetooth USB/CD Car Deck with Smartphone Control (WXGT90BT) - $180 http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/prod...9d914e25833en02 Any thoughts as to which is a better deck?
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Oct 27, 2013 14:34
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argh. I bought a Kicker DX1000.1 to power my L712S4 and I have to turn it all the way down or it starts sounding blatty. I thought it would sound better than this. Also I can't seem to jam the box into the trunk of the 330i. I know it fits because I had the same box in my white 330i several years ago. Rargh. Should I rewire the subs to run 4ohm instead of 2? The amp does 500x1 at 4 ohms or 1000x1 at 2. Right now the DVCs are wired in parallel so it's a 2 ohm load. The other option is that box of 3 10" MTX 6000s.... they had a little teeny MTX Thunder 4250D (125w @ 4ohm, 250w @ 2ohm) powering them. I bet this DX1000 would really kick them. Opinions?
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Oct 27, 2013 22:13
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What size and type box is your L7 in?
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Oct 28, 2013 01:53
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a giant loving folded horn box. I put the MTX 10" subs in. They actually sound pretty great with that DX1000.1 (running 550w @ 4 ohm)
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Oct 28, 2013 04:01
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Nait Sirhc posted:a giant loving folded horn box. Well yeah that would be a problem. I'd suggest putting the L7 in a 1.25-1.5 cubic foot sealed enclosure. It should give a lot more output than the mtx 10s if you feed it 1000 rms. Keep in mind that it takes a bit to break in the L7s but you should see an improvement right away.
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Oct 28, 2013 05:06
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Humdrum Hoodlum posted:I'm looking to buy a double din deck and am choosing between the following two:
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Oct 28, 2013 17:03
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Scrapez posted:Well yeah that would be a problem. I'd suggest putting the L7 in a 1.25-1.5 cubic foot sealed enclosure. It should give a lot more output than the mtx 10s if you feed it 1000 rms. Unfortunately, since the L7 is DVC 4ohm, wiring it in parallel means I only get 550W @ 2ohm  I can't wire it for 1ohm. I guess I could get another one.The MTXs sound pretty good but are blatty when I turn the gain up at all. I wonder if they are blown.
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Oct 29, 2013 01:46
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Nait Sirhc posted:Unfortunately, since the L7 is DVC 4ohm, wiring it in parallel means I only get 550W @ 2ohm Any subs are going to sound bad if not in a proper enclosure for that particular sub. I suggest you build a proper enclosure for either the L7 and run it at 2 ohms or build a proper enclosure for the MTXs. 550 rms will be plenty for the L7. You certainly risk damaging the subs if they're not in a proper enclosure and they won't sound good.
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Oct 29, 2013 19:11
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rscott posted:
It looks like the wire feeds go from the head unit to the amplifier, and from there it splits out to your FL/FR/RL/RR. Consider the ones you're looking at right now to be more "pre-out" wires. So, find where the amp is/was located, you'll be able to patch in to the speaker wiring from there. You should find it anyway, as you're not going to want to run already amplified signal through that amp if it exists. Or just run new wire.
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Oct 30, 2013 21:24
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MikeyTsi posted:It looks like the wire feeds go from the head unit to the amplifier, and from there it splits out to your FL/FR/RL/RR. Consider the ones you're looking at right now to be more "pre-out" wires. Yep. I'm running 4 sets of wire for the speakers from where the stock amp is located up to where the head unit is located. I was going to make the harness today at work since we have a much nicer soldering iron than the one I borrowed but I couldn't find anywhere that sold 20awg wire, much less in different colors close enough to get there and back on my lunch break. C'est la vie. I'll have it wired up this weekend one way or another.
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Oct 30, 2013 21:43
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 ended up getting 20 ft of this for $1/ft, 9 wires in one convenient package.
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Oct 31, 2013 15:57
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I want that, perfect for going from the amp to the factory dash harness. Are they 16GA speaker wires? 18GA?
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Oct 31, 2013 21:40
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I think they're 16awg, not sure since everything in the BMW harness is metric and doesn't line up anyways. Well it took me 4 hours, I accidentally cut the plug to the OBC controller so I gotta fix that, but the stereo works finally. God what a lovely job. One of the wires for the left rear speaker was a different color than the ETM diagram which threw me for a loop for a while. Mostly just awkward trying to solder/splice the harness together in the trunk when you're 6'4". e: Also gently caress BMW trim clips until the end of time holy poo poo rscott fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Nov 1, 2013 |
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Nov 1, 2013 04:05
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rscott posted:e: Also gently caress BMW trim clips until the end of time holy poo poo Trim clips suck in general. I replace the ones that rattle off my bike with zip ties because gently caress clips. The worst are on my Peugeot, though. Specifically the ones that hold the bottom door seal onto the rocker panel. Every time your foot happens to catch the seal, you break off at least one of the super-fragile trim clips, which exposes a hole directly into the rocker. And if the drain holes on the bottom of the rocker happen to get blocked, it can fill with water and rot the entire thing from the inside. It's the only real design flaw on the car, but it's a doozy. All because of a lovely trim clip design.
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Nov 1, 2013 08:22
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 14:07 |
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Why do goons like crutchfield so much? Is it the site/selection? I'm just about fed up with them. I've only ordered from them twice ever and for the second time they totally spaced on shipping my order for a week and I had to call for them to overnight it, even though both times I received an email saying that my items were "shipped" (ie a UPS label was printed out for them and they were promptly forgotten about). I'm at the point where I'm thinking of asking for a refund or something because truth be told I would not have given them more of my money if I knew that they'd take two weeks to get my order to me again.
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Nov 2, 2013 19:50
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