ICE Howto

[pzorb]

I know enough about hifi in the home but nothing about in-car. There lots of little bits of info on this site, but was just wondering if we could have a complete thread on the subject? I have a few n00b questions regarding an 855:

I'm looking at replacing the blown speakers with ones that work.
So I need

4x 5-1/4" speakers for the doors.
A new (double din?) headunit.
Im leaving the tweeters in the dash and at the back
A sub because I might as well

So I will need at least one amp. A 4 channel amp seems to be suitable for the door speakers, at around 60 RMS each. Then I'd need an amp for the sub.
Then the headunit. I plug in the door speaker amp into it, and the sub. Then what about the rear and dash tweeters?

I'm all lost!
I'd appreciate the help (or I'll end up in Halfrauds being fleeced!)

Martin

[p fandango]

your new headunit doesn't have to be double din, you can use a standard size (single din) & either use a blanking plate or pocket to fill in the extra slot
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/759/current26qz.jpg

dash speakers are already linked to your front door speakers using a passive crossover, a box of resistors & capacitors which splits the different frequencies & sends them to the relevent speakers (ie highs to tweeters, low to subs). So your front door speakers & tweeters will come off the same 2 channels, leaving the other 2 channels on the 4 channel amp to do the rears. What i did was buy a decent component set (5"mid-bass & 1" tweeter) & made adaptor plates & replaced the dash tweeters aswell (i then used the passive crossover supplied with the set & not the volvo crossover).

If your not fussed about rear fill you can always just run the rears off the headunit without an additional amp

[pzorb]

Oh yeah I need to add a Dremel to my list of things to get!

[pzorb]

I'd prefer a double din but they all seem to have screens etc on them and also protrude a little. I quite like my current one actually, it matches the rest of the car but even though it's alpine I'd like to be able to have an AUX input for my mp3 player - any suggestions there?

[fraz13]

You could wire 4 speakers together into 2 outputs then buy an adapter that coverts speaker wires to RCA which lets you keep what you have if you like it

Dunno what the adapter is called but you should be able to pick one up from a good car hi-fi shop

[p fandango]

You could wire 4 speakers together into 2 outputs then buy an adapter that coverts speaker wires to RCA which lets you keep what you have if you like it
wiring more than 1 speaker per channel (in either parrell or series) will alter the ohmage being drawn & can quite easily destroy the amp if it isn't ?ohm stable (been there done that before i got contacts in the trade)

[GOODVIBRATIONS]

a nice new set of components upfront and u could replace the tweeters in the dash and some co axials in the back all run off a 4 channel amp, and a class d or 2 channel amp runiing bridged to run the sub will sort it.. run a 4 gauge wiring kit down the car and split the feed to 2 8 gauge do the same for the earth and u will b fine. u can get a double din without a screen m8, i think its a pioneer 1..

[pzorb]

Is there any way of getting a sub into the boot of an 855? I would ideally like to keep both the space and the spacesaver wheel - but I looked today and only had 4 1/2" clearance - is there a sub that matches that??

Thanks you Audio Gods!!

[GOODVIBRATIONS]

4 1/2" clearance


so ur after a sub that is that deep?, there are a couple only prob would be a box it would b a proper custom box...

[pzorb]

it would b a proper custom box...

I was thinking of bolting it to the underside of all that wood in the boot )that acts as a fake floor to hide the spare wheel)... It's all about depth!

[mulletboy2]

All suggestions so far sound good :) I can't think of any decent subs that are that deep, although you could go for some 9" midbasses that go all the way down to 20Hz - depends how much you're looking to spend though.

I'd probably go for the amp(s) installed on the sides of the boot, above/behind the wheel arch, then put a sub under a false floor, playing into the air space being shared with the spare wheel. If designed well, you could make the sub baffle light enough and moveable enough to remove for access to the spare. A sub playing into this space will be fine..

If that sounds appealing, let me know and I'll post up some suggestions on how to do it.

HTH

Mark

[GOODVIBRATIONS]

http://www.phase-evolution.de/produkte.asp?p=subwoofer&view=serie&grp=6&ser=44&lang=EN

http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/product_detail.jsp?product_id=8668&taxonomy_id=25-130

heres a couple i know of

[mulletboy2]

The Phase Aliante 8 is a midbass, not sub really. The 12" is WAY deeper than 4.5 inches, not sure about the 10"er though.

The Pioneer presumably has a pole vent given the enclosed nature of the rest of the driver - it must be cooled somehow! The Phase Aliante definitely has a pole vent. Pole vents need air space behind them to draw the air in, otherwise you risk cooking the woofer.

The Aliante was the first thing that came to mind when he said 4.5" depth.. then I thought about pole vent clearance and discounted it as an idea - the sub would have to be no deeper than about 2.5" in order for it to work in that enclosure (and that assumes we're talking 4.5" from the front of the baffle rather than front of the speaker, with a grille over the top).

There are one or two subs around where the motor structure is front mounted, which may be one of the only options in this case... The other that I can think of would be mounting the sub arse-out... then you just need a sub that plays well in the available volume.. although you have a rear end of the sub exposed to flying objects if the boot is in use.

Cheers

Mark

[mulletboy2]

Another possibility: http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/vbb/showthread.php?t=135096 . You'd be limited to a small sub due to the enclosure size, but something is better than nothing :)

HTH

Mark

[Andrew]

Chaps. I'm considering putting a PS2 and a couple of screen in the car for the kids. Would it make sense to put an additional battery in the car, perhaps in the spare wheel well... if so is it just a matter of linking the two batteries up with suitable cable so both are charged etc...

[mulletboy2]

Chaps. I'm considering putting a PS2 and a couple of screen in the car for the kids. Would it make sense to put an additional battery in the car, perhaps in the spare wheel well... if so is it just a matter of linking the two batteries up with suitable cable so both are charged etc...
Hi Andrew.

No need for a second battery really. A slimline PS2 onlt draws 5.3A (not much more than a standard headunit), and screens don't draw lots of power either - only a few amps each. Bigger batteries for things like this are a bit of a waste anyway - most people think "bigger battery = more power", which is wrong - bigger alternator = more power.. bigger battery = nothing useful until alternator output drops below 12V

HTH

Mark

[Andrew]

Cheers chap.

[GOODVIBRATIONS]

heya the deepest alainte is 95mm cheers