Zero-60in5

I've been working on my stereo for awhile now. I've installed the Polk DX3065 6.5" component speakers and the Sony XPlod 752EQX 2-channel amplifier. When I first installed the Polks, the power from the head unit was too weak to power the speakers. Polk, in their installation instructions, recommended that the speakers be driven from an amp. When I first installed the speakers, they didn't sound as good as the stock, but I knew that was due to lack of power. I've heard others who have installed speakers and not been happy with the result. If it sounds worse than the factory speakers, then you need an amp.

I purchased the Sony amp through Crutchfield's with their wire install kit. The install kit was worth the $35 or so I spent on it. I spent all day yesterday installing the amp. I followed most of the suggestions I received from this forum (to include running RCA plugs in case I change out the head unit later on). The install went great with one exception: No one mentioned anything about needing a radio code if I unplugged the radio from the car. I spent about 20 minutes getting that since they didn't point it out to me when I first bought the car! But now that the install is complete, the sound is fantastic! It's as good as I could have hoped.

My next step is to buy a CD/MP3 player once a manufacturer that is reliable starts making one. The Kenwood is a little pricey for my taste, and I really don't like Aiwa!

Thanks Pinky and everyone else who gave me guidance and advice on the install of the amp! Pinky, as soon as I am ready to buy a head unit, I'll be getting up with you.

Siper2

Zero-

Awesome! If you can post up pics, please do so.

Amps make a HUUUUUUUUUUUGE improvement. When I got my first amp for my old Acura, it was a tremendous difference. When I bought my Subaru, I wanted to go all-out with a system, so I did. I have a new Alpine 5-channel amp now and it's wonderful.

If you're looking for MP3 players but Kenwood is too much, try Pioneer. I had one of their CD players and it was an awesome unit (Premier DEH-46). Pioneer packs lots of gadgets and abilities into a very good price.
The quality overall isn't as good as say Alpine, but you can certainly get a lot more for your money.

Pinky

Ok: Right now only AIWA and Kenwood make MP3 players to my knowlege. Till more come out we will have to wait. *I told you I told you*(Pinky peeps out)

Glad your happy! Good luck. Hay any noise? Like when you rev the engine with the volume all the way down(not muted). Just all the way down. If not a huge thumbs up!!! If you do OHHH BOY! If you want to get rid of it you gotta learn a lot more.....talk with me and we can try to find it but it may just be inherent in the system setup.

austin-s2k

Something I've been thinking about that might be helpful...

I've been looking into replacement head units lately and found that if I get a Sony head (one that has their bus technology that allows CD changers), they have an adapter (XA 107) that would give me an RCA input to the head unit. Then my portable MP3 player (the Personal Jukebox which has a 6 gig hard drive in it) could just plug into it and it'd show up as AUX 1 on the unit.

I'm not sure if any other products have an RCA input... I think I've seen only Sony and Pioneer mentioned in my searches.

jason

wanabe

0 to 60- where did you mount the amp?

bbsilver

[QUOTE]Originally posted by austin-s2k:
[B]Something I've been thinking about that might be helpful...

I've been looking into replacement head units lately and found that if I get a Sony head (one that has their bus technology that allows CD changers), they have an adapter (XA 107) that would give me an RCA input to the head unit.

SomethingWicked

[QUOTE]Originally posted by austin-s2k:
[B]Something I've been thinking about that might be helpful...

I've been looking into replacement head units lately and found that if I get a Sony head (one that has their bus technology that allows CD changers), they have an adapter (XA 107) that would give me an RCA input to the head unit.

AusS2000

Ahhh, you would be referring to this one:


And this is how it looks on the head unit:


And if you're wondering what I'm connecting:




[This message has been edited by AusS2000 (edited October 25, 2000).]

AusS2000

Please note: the above install is not complete and is in a sort of pre-install test mode. The Input selector (XA-107) will be mounted behind the grey forward wall of the boot, and the Neo 35 will probably be mounted there too with it's face projecting through the grey panelling.

The Neo 35 is turning out to be a troublesome unit. It uses a hard drive to store your MP3's. You can buy it with a drive or supply your own. As freight and duty are expensive, and I have a couple of 10Gb drives sitting on the shelf, I went with the latter.

The Neo 35 comes with two cradles. One mounts in a hard drive bay of your PC, and the other mounts in your car. You can also buy a home stereo cradle too, but it's just the car unit with a 12VDC (high amp) power supply.

The Neo 35 mounts just fine in my PC and I can copy all my MP3's to it. Lovely.

But when I mount it in the car cradle and connect it to the battery it comes up with a start up screen, then goes into a crap load of disc access and gets nowhere.

I found a nice BBS at MP3.COM on the Neo and many users are reporting similar problems. Apparently it's due to the current required to spin up the HD. Surely my S (with the motor running and no other accessories on) has the power to fire up a HD. Granted my HD's are OEM Maxtors which are noted as having trouble with the Neo 35.

Tomorrow I'll buy a Quantum something or other and see how it goes.

The other issue is that the Sony head unit has two buttons for sound source. One is "Source" which selects between radio and other. The other is "Mode" which selects between your head units CD (or cassette), the CD changer, AUX 3 (soon to be an MP3 player) and any other inputs you might have (TV, Nav system, etc). The problem being that your great big Mode button using Pinky's Mod (an OEM PAC product), can only control one of these functions!

Needless to say, when this stage of the upgrade is complete I'll be ranting and raving about it all over S2000Online

bbsilver

[QUOTE]Originally posted by AusS2000:
[B]