Surely the output is the thing that matters, ie the speakers they are what 'display' the sound regardless of HU? Therefore, I would ask what people consider a good speaker upgrade along with your question of why alpine .. my own car i have basic OEM sound system .. I am pretty sure the speakers are the only thing that let it down .. it would be great to be able to plug an mp3 player into it .. I guess that is not possible with an OEM system.

Just read northernboy's post .. i like the idea of the SD card slot!

In fact i like that so much i am looking into buying one ... interested where you got the harness from Northendboy and by your nick I am guessing you are based around Preston area if so I am not too far maybe you could im how much it cost you and who did it, including speakers etc? Thanks

 

http://www.xcarlink.co.uk/product.php?prod...12&cat=3&page=1

 

Richy

Just wonder how big that box is .. and where it would be positioned however ?

 

Ta Nut. It works well for me, though navigating through the files and folders can be a bit hairy whilst driving on the Motorway.

The Infinity Kappa's that I had fitted cost more than I really wanted to pay, but the fitter played me some stuff on his and they sounded fantastic. Only problem is that they are components, so you need somewhere to fit the tweeters.

They also tried to sell me a tuned woofer, but my money had run out by then, a woofer and an amp may be a future purchase.

It was Preston Car Audio that did the work, and they were superb, and did a better job than I could have done. So they may be worth a visit as your location reads NW Coast, assuming that's Blackpool rather than Portland Oregon...

 

My Woodstock DAB54 (which was in the S but is now in the Alfa) has an SD card slot too as well as DAB radio of course. Pretty sure there will be a newer model now.

SD cards are great as they're easy to whip out and update on the PC. I keep an MP3 CD in the head unit with a bunch of "standards" (eg. Beatles, Bowie, etc.) and churn my latest favourites on the SD cards. Works well ...

 

The OEM speakers ARE crap and ought to go as a first off. I used Kenwood 1666s because they are two better than Kronenbourgs.

Stuffed some Sony HU in there because it had DAB at a good price.

 

Getting the door card bits from a >MY02 so you can put proper component speakers in is a very good idea indeed, and will make big difference to sound quality in that the higher frequencies will not be lost in your calf muscle.

Each change to the OEM setup will see improvement, usually in this order

Head unit -> Proper setup of head unit -> Speakers -> (optional) Amplification -> Subwoofer

 

I had a Nakamichi CD400 in my last car - most amazing sound quality I've ever heard - plan and un-inspiring to look at, but turn it on, and the whole car came to life.

When I shifted to the S2000 the Nak went with the old car - I looked around at various options, Macintosh, Nakamichi, Alpine etc - I made the decision of the Alpine was a value and features one - I wanted an active setup in the car this time around, as the car will be used with roof up and down - it allows you to shift the crossover points, so you can adjust things as the conditions change. I went for the 9855R and I have no complaints with, other than the fact that the slider bar is a PITA...

Also I can get an aux input from the AI-Net, and keep my dash controls.

 

Being somebody who has invested a lot of money on my home hifi, more than the cost on my new S2k, I would say in home hifi terms the source component is always the first place to start to upgrade your system. You can upgrade your speakers all day long, you are still getting the same source signal!!!

I however will not be spending a lot of money on a car hifi as the the noise intrusion from road/wind etc means you are loosing 60%/70% of the music.
I will however change my head unit soley to be able to connect my ipod easily and control through dash controls, I do not want a HU that looks like a council house at christmas with flashing lights all over it, any recommendations for a simple, classy looking head unit with out all the flashy lights fuss??

 

My car already had a lead in the locking centre box to connect an Ipod to.