Stereo depth

[phorbiuz]

From doing a search on here it would seem this only affects my mk2 Surf but I thought I'd post anyway to get any relevant comments. I'm hoping some of you ICE mad people may have some input.

I currently have a Sony CDX-MP30 Xplod CD/MP3 player fitted, with 2 Sony Xplod 10cm 3-way 100w's in the front dash, 2 Sony Xplod 4-way 120w 6x9's in the rear quarters, and a Vibe 10" 600w sub with built in amp in the boot.
The head unit puts out 4x 50w max, with seperate output for the bass.

The first problem is the sound quality from the Sony speakers (without the bass). At low levels it sounds decent, although quite 'tinny'. This can be solved by turning the bass up on the head unit. However, if you then turn up the volume it gets quite distorted, lessened by turning the bass back down. I also get vibration from the panels. The tinny noise problem is covered by the bass box, but even then the Sony speakers still distort at volume.

Problem two is that I was thinking of buying a better quality head unit, with a choice of two Sony's (trying to keep it all matched) - CDXF7700 and CDXM8800, although I don't want to get a decent head unit if the speakers still sound crud. The biggest problem here though is the clearance behind the radio. My current head unit is 16.1cm deep, and even then the phono leads into the back from the bass have to be forcibly bent to fit the radio into the dash. The newer ones are both deeper.

So:

Q. Anyone any advice on the speakers?
Q. Anyone have the problem with the radio being too close to the bulkhead?

Cheers.

[madcampbell]

I put mine in the side lockers for better sound & So I coul use them outside If camping/beach...
Mark

[Koi]

Just spoke to my mate who does this for a living.
Conclusion, the head unit is not powerful enough to run the speakers properly, ie not enough power from head unit to drive the speakers to work effeciently.
Says it a miss conception that people buy large watt speakers so it sounds bettter. You can have 200w speakers and a 50w head unit, speakers will only ever have 50w pushed through them. So they sound pants because they are designed to handle more power at normal running.
200w is the peak power is the nominal running watts thats more important.
Had the self same problem on my car, pair of Alpine HDD 200w in the front
and pair of 250w in the rear both with crossovers/tweaters & 10" sub. Kenwood head unit 4 x 55w, at low volume was fine, turned it up and it sounded awful. Mate convinced me it was all underpowered. Fitted an Alpine amp 5 channel 500w, result was unbelievable sounded 100 times better, almost full volume and no distortion to the speakers.
Speakers need to be fitted to something solid like door panels etc anything flexible etc will also make them sound pants.
On my surf I fitted speakers behind the rear panels on to the frame work where the old speakers were, sound OK but vibrated a bit on higher volume. Mate said fit them to a piece of MDF first then secure to metal frame with some Dynamat sandwiched in between, huge difference.

[markmobile]

Stereo depth

Hi mine was the same ,my head unit only just went it catches on the array of phono leads on the back.I managed to tighten the unit in but it squashes the wires, it seems to catch the back panel this is soft and i presume that it is some kind of dampner for engine noise and was tempted to cut a piece out to fit.The other thing i was going to try was move the radio from the top of the double din to the bottom position to see if this gave any more room this would be the way you would have to do it if the head unit was a DVD player as well and a din mounted screen (popout) would have to use the top slot.

[dirtydog]

Defo - bottom DIN is bigger and my Alpine unit was a very tight fit in tge top slot.
Koi is right, run things off an amp and even dodgy speakers will sound ok compared to amazing speakers with no power.

Hope this helps.

[jonnytoil]

Defo more room in the lower din slot,go for a Rockford Fosgate head unit superb quality sound even with standard six way speakers, try ebay i picked up a used one for £80 dabs very impressed.www.rockfordfosgate.com