New here looking for audio advice

[God help me]

Hi I've just signed up on here after buying my wife a 2007 197 which turned out to have no speakers fitted.

I was advised to buy some vibe slicks from halfords and ended up buying a set of components to fit in the doors and another set of coaxial speakers for the rear. I've also fitted a Sony head unit which is 4x54w and it all sounds pants! No bass whatsoever...

I was unsure about the colours of the wires and after googling it I went with using the grey wire as + and the purples as - other the the passenger rear which was different colours.

I noticed the wires at the radio plug didn't correspond to the wires at the speakers so is there some kind of built in amp or cross over that I've missed?

Any advice would be great thank you

 

[nutnutwelshman]

@DS197 can you help please tx kevin

 

[DS197]

If you have a look under the driver's seat, there may not may not be a small box mounted underneath. If there is that means the car originally came with the Cabasse Auditorium 6CD unit and the box is actually the standard amplifier and receiver. I also believe most aftermarket speakers require an adapter for the front speaker plugs. Have you turned the bass all the way up on the head unit too?

 

[Barney626]

Not trying to hijack the thread, but does anyone have suggestions for particular speakers (Front and rear)? Mine came with only 1 speaker and I've been meaning to get a good set since I got the car... Christmas present to myself I'm thinking

As DS said, make sure the Bass is turned up on the head unit. Makes a massive difference for me.

 

[DS197]

Not trying to hijack the thread, but does anyone have suggestions for particular speakers (Front and rear)? Mine came with only 1 speaker and I've been meaning to get a good set since I got the car... Christmas present to myself I'm thinking

As DS said, make sure the Bass is turned up on the head unit. Makes a massive difference for me.

Not really sure in regards to rear speakers, I imagine any set of decent coaxials will do, however for the front quite a few people have gone for Pioneer TSQ131C which are plug and play iirc. There are mixed reviews on them, but for the most part people do notice an improvement.

Some people also say installing a sub helps further with sound quality too as you're offloading the lower frequencies from the front speakers. I'm currently debating getting an underseat sub or installing a single large sub and amplifier which i've already got sitting in the shed if I can find a good way to secure it.

 

[God help me]

If you have a look under the driver's seat, there may not may not be a small box mounted underneath. If there is that means the car originally came with the Cabasse Auditorium 6CD unit and the box is actually the standard amplifier and receiver. I also believe most aftermarket speakers require an adapter for the front speaker plugs. Have you turned the bass all the way up on the head unit too?

I'll have a look under the seat.
As for adapter the plugs had already been chopped so I had to join a section of the speaker wire that came with the speakers.
There is quite a lot of settings on the Sony head unit including the option to set what frequency goes to front and rear and I've upped everything on the bass side of things and it just sounds tinny.

Now going to check under seat!

 

[God help me]

Nothing under any of the seats.
Perhaps it's because they are only 5.25" speakers? But I would of expected a little bass infact my Amazon echo sounds 10 times better.

 

[Barney626]

I'll have a look under the seat.
As for adapter the plugs had already been chopped so I had to join a section of the speaker wire that came with the speakers.
There is quite a lot of settings on the Sony head unit including the option to set what frequency goes to front and rear and I've upped everything on the bass side of things and it just sounds tinny.

Now going to check under seat!

Try getting into the eq and dropping highs and boosting mids. Idk if it was specific to my speakers but the highs were way too loud and there was no mid...

I have a set of Pioneer TS-G1333i installed in the front with nothing in the rear. They are pretty crap, the bass just gets distorted at any decent volume, I've used both the standard HU and a Sony one and they both sound shit so fairly sure it's the speakers...

 

[God help me]

Try getting into the eq and dropping highs and boosting mids. Idk if it was specific to my speakers but the highs were way too loud and there was no mid...

I have a set of Pioneer TS-G1333i installed in the front with nothing in the rear. They are pretty crap, the bass just gets distorted at any decent volume, I've used both the standard HU and a Sony one and they both sound shit so fairly sure it's the speakers...

I'll have a fiddle and see if I can improve it any. I was starting to think that they might want amping up as like you say at higher volumes they just distort and read that if that can happen if under powered but I've never before had such an issue...

I have a sub to go in but I just wanted to sort out any potential issue before hand mostly because it's too cold outside to bother pissing about fitting the wiring kit lol.

 

[nathan-burgess]

I have a Sony head unit, I replaced both front components and rear coaxail's, they are now better sounding than factory speakers, but to get any decent bass your looking at adding either a sub as noted above, or add some 6x9's on parcel shelf. That's what I have and bass is good enough to do without a sub. Although i am tempted myself by an under seat sub.

 

[God help me]

I have a Sony head unit, I replaced both front components and rear coaxail's, they are now better sounding than factory speakers, but to get any decent bass your looking at adding either a sub as noted above, or add some 6x9's on parcel shelf. That's what I have and bass is good enough to do without a sub. Although i am tempted myself by an under seat sub.

I've just installed the sub out of her old car which is a 12" JBL with a little alpine amp that I know nothing about and it's instantly better.
The only issue now is the standard tweeters seem really loud and crackly so I poked the wires in the plug for the vibe tweeters that came with the components and they seemed to sound a lot better but it's to dark to be pissing about trying to fit them so for now I've tried to reduce the treble and fade out to the rears which seemed to be an improvement.

 

[nutnutwelshman]

If you have a look under the driver's seat, there may not may not be a small box mounted underneath. If there is that means the car originally came with the Cabasse Auditorium 6CD unit and the box is actually the standard amplifier and receiver. I also believe most aftermarket speakers require an adapter for the front speaker plugs. Have you turned the bass all the way up on the head unit too?

Thank you@DS197

 

[STODGY]

my stereo is crap also. sucks when you come from a decent German car.

 

[Big Ben]

my stereo is crap also. sucks when you come from a decent German car.

Into a crap Renault

 

[nutnutwelshman]

Into a crap Renault

Love my stereo in my Clio ask Ben

 

[fezza555]

I fitted a pair of Focal 130AS components to mine with an Alpine head unit and a bit of sound deadening in the doors, I have standard speakers in the back. Sounds great! I get to where I am going and just carry on listening to my music for a bit , more than enough base with these too. Highly recommend them; see link attached for the speakers. I did have to use a dremel to remove the lugs on the speaker to fit them but not too much fuss.

https://www.dynamicsounds.co.uk/foc...iBo2l6j_kg-14p7CFRtN0pOVpUpcIAAqX0aAnUh8P8HAQ

 

[God help me]

I fitted a pair of Focal 130AS components to mine with an Alpine head unit and a bit of sound deadening in the doors, I have standard speakers in the back. Sounds great! I get to where I am going and just carry on listening to my music for a bit , more than enough base with these too. Highly recommend them; see link attached for the speakers. I did have to use a dremel to remove the lugs on the speaker to fit them but not too much fuss.

https://www.dynamicsounds.co.uk/foc...iBo2l6j_kg-14p7CFRtN0pOVpUpcIAAqX0aAnUh8P8HAQ

They look smart I'd of probably of been better off getting a set of them instead of buying 2 sets of vibes although being new to a 197 I think the fuel consumption is going to limit any future spends!!! Lol.
Out of curiosity did you ditch the standard tweeter's?

 

[fezza555]

They look smart I'd of probably of been better off getting a set of them instead of buying 2 sets of vibes although being new to a 197 I think the fuel consumption is going to limit any future spends!!! Lol.
Out of curiosity did you ditch the standard tweeter's?

Yer there a decent bit of kit, I got somebody to fit mine as I wasn't confident fitting the tweeters or crossovers without messing it up aha. Yer 26Mpg is laughable really my car didn't have any tweeters fitted as standard, they had the wiring for them though so just fitted them straight in but yes would have replaced the standard tweeters if they were there.