ICE: S40 stereo upgrades

**Phlex** · Tuesday 23rd May 2006, 11:36

I’m looking to upgrade the factory sounds, I don’t really want to go changing the factory cd/cassette/tuner headunit as it seems decent and most aftermarket units with their Las Vegas lights would spoil the understated elegance of the interior.

Is it worth changing just the speakers, or would that not improve sound quality much?

If the factory HU must be changed I’d consider a stylish Balupunkt or Becker head unit. I’d like thoughts on this as well because I have reservations about Blau reliability/quality but Becker is another price bracket.

The car seems to have 6 speakers – doors, dash, & rear shelf. Surely the factory stereo does not have 6 amplifier channels! How is it wired and how would you recommend wiring an aftermarket 4ch HU in this case? I don’t really want to install an external amplifier but again if it must be done, so be it.

Also, what set up is recommended? I was thinking premium 2-way in dash and just woofer in door to lift sound stage etc, and 2-way in rear.

Before I go tearing my door panels and dash apart, can anyone confirm what the speaker sizes are exactly in the dash doors and rear shelf and at a long shot: the mounting depths also to allow me to select aftermarket speakers.

Any thoughts welcome.

Cheers,
Adrian

**madness** · Tuesday 23rd May 2006, 21:18

i have replaced my door and parcel shelf speakers with jbl items. straight off the shelf although i did buy some white spacers to take the speaker away from the window drop. these are standard fixings elsewhere on the door panel , and the spacers are built into the standard speakers . they were 13cm i think. big improvement to sounds .

**mulletboy2** · Wednesday 24th May 2006, 19:49

If you're going to upgrade the speakers, make sure you go for lower priced (and hence specced) ones - as a rule of thumb, they tend to be less power hungry than more expensive aftermarket items/component sets. If you want to keep your OEM headunit, speakers with low power requirements is a must - at a guess, you're probably getting between 7 and 10W per channel out of the headunit. An amp would be a definite improvement, BUT, to be honest, if you're sticking with stock locations (which suck from a sound quality perspective), there's no point in going all out with equipment. The easiest way to ruin what has the potential to be a great system is to use crappy speaker locations/mountings, which is exactly what Volvo have done. This isn't to say that you won't ever be happy with the sound - far from it, but just that there's no point in spending hundreds and hundreds and expecting the earth from the stock locations - you'd probably get 99% of the sound from speakers costing 1/10th the amount.

HTH

Mark

arbee · Wednesday 24th May 2006, 20:52

Originally Posted by mulletboy2

If you're going to upgrade the speakers, make sure you go for lower priced (and hence specced) ones - as a rule of thumb, they tend to be less power hungry than more expensive aftermarket items/component sets. If you want to keep your OEM headunit, speakers with low power requirements is a must - at a guess, you're probably getting between 7 and 10W per channel out of the headunit. An amp would be a definite improvement, BUT, to be honest, if you're sticking with stock locations (which suck from a sound quality perspective), there's no point in going all out with equipment. The easiest way to ruin what has the potential to be a great system is to use crappy speaker locations/mountings, which is exactly what Volvo have done. This isn't to say that you won't ever be happy with the sound - far from it, but just that there's no point in spending hundreds and hundreds and expecting the earth from the stock locations - you'd probably get 99% of the sound from speakers costing 1/10th the amount.

HTH

Mark

the man's right -n as I know to my expense... must sort out somer door builds! - mark, hows your build going? all done yet?

**mulletboy2** · Wednesday 24th May 2006, 22:05

Originally Posted by arbee

mark, hows your build going? all done yet?

No mate, far from it, lol. I keep getting diverted by other projects, such as home TL bookshelf speakers: http://www.devgeek.co.uk/myphotos/ic...f/dscf0297.jpg

I've gone for a bit of a mad plan with my doors, so they're going to take a while. I wasn't going to post a preview, but seeing as it's you

A transmission line enclosure for a pair of 3.7" mids each side, tuned to 140Hz and the mids configured in a D'Appolito arrangement (what this means, I'll leave google to explain as it's pretty technical). Passenger door here: http://www.devgeek.co.uk/myphotos/ic...s/dscf0283.jpg

Obviously they'll be much better integrated than this, but the box dimensions are critical at all points from top to bottom, so it had to be constructed first and the integration is yet to follow.

So yeah, more time necessary

Btw, did I ever speak to you about that lovely set of builds for sale by a mate in the states? They aren't cheap, but they look the nuts. If you're interested, drop me a line.

Sorry for the hijack Phlex

arbee · Wednesday 24th May 2006, 22:59

woooah there! did some searching on your funky arrangement - thats seriously trick! Gonna have to do a bit more reading to understand the theory tho!

I must admit I'm v impressed with the amount of imagination that goes into your install, regardless of what it will end up sounding like

Building your own home cabinets now? isnt the car audio stretching you enough!?

As for-

Originally Posted by mulletboy2

Btw, did I ever speak to you about that lovely set of builds for sale by a mate in the states? They aren't cheap, but they look the nuts. If you're interested, drop me a line.

nah I don't think you have, tho tbh, I doubt i could ever justify 'em if by your standards 'they aint cheap' lol I will get some spare cards and play around with some MDF and filler - eventually - too much to do, too little time!

**mulletboy2** · Wednesday 24th May 2006, 23:19

Originally Posted by arbee

woooah there! did some searching on your funky arrangement - thats seriously trick! Gonna have to do a bit more reading to understand the theory tho!

Yeah, TL's and D'Ap configurations are very cool. The mids I'm running are pretty special, so I thought I'd go for something to really show them off.

I also have some very special prototype 10" "midbasses" on the way that may get shoehorned in to the kicks (if physically possible). Why can't I just pick an install to do and stick with that idea?

Ah well... it's all part of the fun.

I must admit I'm v impressed with the amount of imagination that goes into your install, regardless of what it will end up sounding like

Cheers

It'll sound good - VERY good! Albeit only image well from one seat (as is ideal for the classes I'll be competing in).

Building your own home cabinets now? isnt the car audio stretching you enough!?

lol.. it all started by me building a test TL for the pair of mids... I decided it sounded so good that I wanted to do the same for in-home, to run the speakers in before the doors are finished. That expanded to adding the tweets, and I've now convinced the missus to let me build some proper floorstanders for the living room... so I'll have a 3-way passive car audio setup going in - 7.4" midbass in a TL, 3.7" midrange in a TL and 19mm tweet possibly with its' own TL. If I'm going to do this though, I've got to build a custom TV/hifi stand so that everything'll fit and look good in our living room.. so that's another diversion. Can you tell I'm a bit TL crazy at the moment?

nah I don't think you have, tho tbh, I doubt i could ever justify 'em if by your standards 'they aint cheap' lol I will get some spare cards and play around with some MDF and filler - eventually - too much to do, too little time!

Here's the email he sent me:

I'm looking for $700 plus shipping & handling. The custom fiberglass is wrapped in Connelly leather, and I was without my car for a week and a half...$1000 all said and done it was.

He got them done by one of the most well respected shops in the States.. would cost probably around £500-£600 for anything remotely similar over here.
http://www.devgeek.co.uk/door1.jpg
http://www.devgeek.co.uk/door2.jpg
http://www.devgeek.co.uk/door3.jpg

So yeah, if cost isn't an object, they're awesome looking pods (I was thinking of buying them off him before I went and got sillier ideas)

Cheers

Mark

**Wobbly Dave** · Thursday 25th May 2006, 09:04

Have you got a linky to where your build has got to so far?

"Nookie in Bits" as the title??

I should come around and inspect?

**mulletboy2** · Thursday 25th May 2006, 09:14

Dave - I've fallen behind on the pics tbh mate.. the door cards aren't being shown "publically" on the audio forums yet... I want them to be a surprise. But other than them, there's essentially nothing you haven't seen yet. The dash has been put on hold and I'm just going to slot the headunit where the OE one went for now, until I get time for something more ambitious.. I'm just gagging to get some decent sounds for now.

You're welcome any time mate, but the only finished item is the fans in the rear shelf speaker pods

Oh.. and there's these:

http://www.devgeek.co.uk/myphotos/ic...w/dscf0199.jpg (currently repairing the crack in the plastic)

http://www.devgeek.co.uk/myphotos/ice/preview/7.jpg

If you want to pop over at the weekend, give me a bell mate

Cheers

Mark

**Wobbly Dave** · Thursday 25th May 2006, 10:03

It has been a while and I think it maybe your round?

**Phlex** · Thursday 25th May 2006, 14:14

Originally Posted by mulletboy2

Sorry for the hijack Phlex

No worries, got my answer.

Just one more question though: do I have to remove the whole door panel or does the grille come off seperately cos it kinda looks like it could. How about for the dash and rear tray?

Cheers