9 replies to this topic

[Jive]

After reading JamesH1983's post asking for suggestions on speakers i felt it was my duty to post last saturdays efforts for all to see.

I bought a JVC KD-AVX2 head unit and some Infinity Kappa's a a couple months back and was dissapointed concidering how the speakers sounded in my old Astra.

Put Infinity componant seperates in my old Astra but decided i didnt want to start cutting holes in my VX to install the tweeters, so bought the ones in the clicky above. They are not particularly bass'y but that wasnt my aim, i just want sound quality, so if you want bass probably good to look at pioneers speaker offering.

Anyhow after ordering three boxes of Dynamat Extreme (Only needed two ) and the beautiful weather last weekend i set about improving the speaker panel.

First thing to do was remove the rear speaker panel, before taking it back in to the wamth of my lounge and getting to work.

Started by removing the tiny amount of accoustic matting Vauxhall had used, they had used some super tacky glue, which clearly goes runny on warm days as the matting had slipped down a few cm in places. No pics of this yet as i hadnt thought of posting it until just after.

Once it was stripped i rolled out one sheet of the Dynamat and peeled back a few inches on one of the long edges. i lined it up with the middle of the top edge above the alarm sensor and carefully worked my way down the panel making sure there was no air bubbles. Its kinda like fitting carpet i guess.

I had to cut it where the panel sepperates and forms the recess for the shelf, i left 3cm to wrap over the top edges shown in the second pic above. Repeat for both sides. There were ideal sized pieces of Dynamat left over from where it extended past each edge of the panel. I used these to fill in the bith i had previously cut around.

If it wasnt for the fact that i actually bought 3 rolls this would have been it pretty much finished.

However i bought to many rolls as i only needed two and bought three. I wasnt going to chuck it in the bottom of my cupboard for the next five years so i figured i would stick it on the bottom of the shelf for good measure.

After doing all that, which took 3 hours including the hour taken to remove it in the first place all i had to do was cut the speaker and fixing holes back through the matting with a box knife.

Before re assembling my car i made sure i used cable ties to mount the cross overs that came with the speakers out of the way on the roll bar. I had just stuck them tin the speaker void before and they just didnt stop rattling for a moment.

Then i just put it all back together and it was finished, would have preferred to use the original black speaker grills and not the chavtastic ones that came with the speakers but they would have crushed the rubber diaphram on the speakers.

The results were pretty good, before the work my speakers would top out and start fartin, sorry distorting around Vol30 on my head unit, (Max 50). After the actuall volume was about the same on Vol20-25 as on Vol30 before which was a big plus and if i should ever want to turn it up loud, not that i can think of a good reason to drown out the sound of that engine behind me, it will now go up to 40 without too much fuss.

Oh and of course i went for a drive seeing how crispy the day was. Spent a good 3 hours just driving round Dartmoor.

All in all a good day!

Edited by Jive, 09 November 2006 - 09:13 PM.

[Jive]

First thing to do was remove the rear speaker panel, before taking it back in to the wamth of my lounge and getting to work.

Fixed link, remove the rear speaker panel. Link to speakers is to long but never ming im sure ur not particularly bothered anyhow .

[stormtrooper]

top work Jive My next mod is to replace the stereo and speakers in the VX

[Code Monkey]

have you managed to get anything in the front of the car? it's there the sound is needed to pull the stage forward and then need less power behind.

[Jive]

To be honest Code Monkey i never considered putting speakers in the front. i will have a look this weekend and see what i can suggest.

Although the dynamat added 3kg or something to the car im having to justify that by starting at the gym and losing the difference. I dont want to change the ideals of the car to much, to be honest i hated having to change the standard black speaker grills.

Still if it's possible i will find a way.

[DJ_SL]

To be honest Code Monkey i never considered putting speakers in the front. i will have a look this weekend and see what i can suggest.

Although the dynamat added 3kg or something to the car im having to justify that by starting at the gym and losing the difference. I dont want to change the ideals of the car to much, to be honest i hated having to change the standard black speaker grills.

Still if it's possible i will find a way.

nice work man...

for some reason i never got around to upgrading from the standard ICE. surprising considering im into all tha sh*t and used to spend £1000s in my previous cars. a little better quality would be good (as ur motive for this was) however im too lazy

[Jim Mitch]

Thought I'd just post a few pictures of what I have done with my system. I am still using the head unit it came with - saw no reason to change as it did most of what I wanted.

First thing I did was install an active sub. This fits nicely behind the driver's seat, but it wont work for everyone. I'm only 5'9" and the seat is only just off the speaker when in the right position. The sub is a Clarion 303 - not bad, but it's a bit of a compromise. It is helped by sitting on a platform of Dynamat (stuck on the chassis), with Dynamat on the back of the sub too. It's only velcroed on so easy to get in and out. It has a small remote for the controls which I have velcroed onto the chassis down under the front of the driver's seat. This makes it easy to reach but out of the way. I actually had the sub installed by a professional as at the time I didnt have the confidence to do it myself.

This is the sub:






Second thing I did was upgrade the rear speakers. I didnt feel the need for anything really special, but the standard ones are quite crap. I fitted some JBLs which seem fine for what I want. These have small strips of Dynamat around the inside of the hole where the speaker goes (cut to shape around the hole). The principle of this stuff is that it dampens the vibrations, so you dont usually need to use a huge amount for it to have some effect. Also, I couldnt be arsed to take the rear panel out (but fair play to anyone who does because it will probably help more).



I next did the standard "velcro on the roll bar" mod which is described elsewhere. This stops the cheap plastic trim vibrating against the roll bar.





After a while living with this, I decided to see if I could do anything about the front speakers. I read one post here by a chap who had installed speakers in the footwell. These were out of the way, tucked up above the footwell. Unfortunately, whoever it was (apologies I cant remember who it was) was going to post up some templates for the speaker mounts themselves, but never got around to it. I thought I'd take the initiative myself...

The "installation" (that's a bit grand for what it is) involved not just mounting the speakers, but also a bit of wire snipping around the back of the head unit. I cant show you what I did (I'm too lazy to take the unit out again), but I can describe it. I have to say that I am no expert and was a bit afraid of cocking it up royally, but I took a chance and it worked out fine.

Basically, the two small front speakers are connected to the same pins/terminals as the rear speakers on the plug that goes into the back of the head unit (you can tell how technically minded I am). I think these are the pins for the "front" speakers (if you look at the manufacturer's guide, available on the Blaupunkt website). There are no pins for the rear speakers in the plug, which meant that if I wanted a "fade" function I would either have to change the plug or put some more pins in.

I looked for plugs that had all the pins/terminals for front and rear speakers but couldnt find any. I thus had to butcher another plug to get some to put in the existing plug. Not the easiest thing in the world, but possible with patience.

Once all the pins were in place, I ran some speaker cable up through a hole in the back of the chassis (ie under the dash at the back of the head unit). There are a number of convenient small holes ideal for the job.

Now for the speakers...

After looking at the available space, the maximum size I could safely get was 4" co-axials. Not the greatest, but a lot better than the little tweeters installed as standard. I then cut some shapes of mdf to fit in the holes above the footwell.

This is the left speaker:



Note the wiring loom coming from the front radiator/battery compartment on the right hand side of the speaker. I had to cut the speaker mount around this. The red wire running to the left of and underneath the speaker is the power source for the sub.

This is the right speaker:



The most important thing with this side is to avoid the steering column, so again it had to be cut to ensure it didnt get caught up.

In both cases, I left about an inch on the side which was to mount onto the chassis. This allowed me simply to velcro the mounts onto the chassis - didnt want to drill through it. The mounts themselves are backed with Dynamat again.

I used cable ties to keep the speaker wire out of the way of my feet.

I am now quite happy with what I've got. You could do it without a "fade" function simply by cutting the wires running from the plug to the original front speakers and attaching the new speaker cables to the stubs. These are the smaller of the two speaker cables coming from the plug, btw. However, having tried this, the head unit didnt have enough power to run both front and rear speakers off the same terminal. This was why I went to the bother of putting some extra terminals in the existing plug. Also, as the new speakers are so low down and out of the way, you need to adjust the fade for them to have any noticeable effect.

It took an afternoon upside down in the footwells, but it was worth it in the end. It didnt cost a lot to do and it does give reasonable sound. Let's face it, you're never going to get top quality sound in a car like the VX.

Finally, I replaced the battery a couple of weeks ago and this also seems to have made a noticeable difference to the sound quality. Sounds a bit odd, but I think the better power getting to the system (and the sub in particular) makes a difference. It could just be my perception though.

[vectraboyv6]

didnt relised that they were speakers in the front!!

[Joe-Turbo]

what happens when you turn the footwell heating on? cause any problems?

[Jim Mitch]

what happens when you turn the footwell heating on? cause any problems?

Heating? You mean we have heating in these cars?

Seriously, never had a problem with it. The speakers are quite out of the way and still leave a large gap for the air to get through as you will see from the photos.