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[tunnie]

i want to upgrade to Bose, tired of having the huge sub in the boot. I think its time to ditch the sub and do either 2 things.

1) Upgrade to full standard Bose, which would include SatNav

2) Go aftermarket.

I already have SatNav really in the shape of a PDA with full Europe maps, was great in The Netherlands, find food/petrol supermarket when needed.

I have an Alpine 9854R fitted currently, out of most aftermarket stuff i think its not too bad seams to look ok and sort of fit in.

What would be a good choice of speaker to replace the standard Vx ones?

Could i get sound as good as the Bose system, with just my headunit and replacing the 4 speakers?

[Dave DND]

i want to upgrade to Bose, tired of having the huge sub in the boot. I think its time to ditch the sub and do either 2 things.

1) Upgrade to full standard Bose, which would include SatNav

2) Go aftermarket.

I already have SatNav really in the shape of a PDA with full Europe maps, was great in The Netherlands, find food/petrol supermarket when needed.

I have an Alpine 9854R fitted currently, out of most aftermarket stuff i think its not too bad seams to look ok and sort of fit in.

What would be a good choice of speaker to replace the standard Vx ones?

Could i get sound as good as the Bose system, with just my headunit and replacing the 4 speakers?

You can drastically improve the sound quality by replacing the internal speakers, personally, would look at Focal (or Clarion if on a budget) but you will struggle to replace any depth if removing the subwoofer.

By all means go for an aftermarket sub that is a little smaller, but don`t expect any make of door speakers to be able to faithfully reproduce the extra depth of sound from the subwoofer. Aftermarket subs don`t have to be the monsters you see in the Chavmobiles, but in a large car such as the omega, I would look at an 8" or 10" sub, ideally self powered (look at the Vibe offerings)

 

[Kevin Wood]

Agreed. Standard speakers are not great and there's not a huge amount of space in the doors. You can just get 165mm bass drivers in the door of a faclift as long as they aren't too deep. You need mounting frames from a Corsa IIRC (slanted ones, not the straight Vectra / Prefacelift ones) and I had to space the speaker away from the frame using 6mm MDF to give enough clearance for the window glass. This just about fits behind the door card. I had to relieve the frame of the door card in a couple of places to help it along.

Crossover can go in the area inside the arm rest, which currently contains a large chunk of polystyrene. Cut out a suitable cavity using a hot wire and fit crossover here.

Regarding the tweeters I removed the mounting rings from the factory tweeters and fitted them to the aftermarket ones with a little modification and glue so they clip into the door card in the same way.

Quite a bit of work but worth it. The details, including measurements, have all been covered in here before.

If you don't like having a sub what about mounting some bass drivers in the parcel shelf Bose-syle and running them from an aftermarket amp & active crossover?

Kevin

[Marks DTM Calib]

Its foolish to consider using door speakers to supply low bass anyway....much to much stuff in a door to rattle and a very flexible enclosure.....

[tunnie]

Thanks for the replies, I have a Vibe CBR10" Active sub in the boot already, still can't get the damn thing to work right.

The problem i found was if sat in the front the sound was fine, but if sat in the back, there was too much bass.

I want  more 'full' and rounded sound now that the Bose gives.

What about putting speakers in the parcel shelf holes? Are they standard 6x9's?

[Kevin Wood]

How low have you got the crossover to the vibe? Sounds like you may have it too high and the  top end of its' frequency range is still quite directional.

Kevin

[Dave DND]

If you don't like having a sub what about mounting some bass drivers in the parcel shelf Bose-syle and running them from an aftermarket amp & active crossover?

Excellent idea, but if mounting speakers into the parcel shelf, used ones that are termed "Free Air" as that way the over large Boot area acting as the sub enclosure will not cause too many problems.

As far as the Vibe Sub goes, Active 10 is a stunning performer - but needs to be wedged against the back of the seat with the speaker itself facing towards the boot, as this gives the correct "focal distance" for the bass frequencies in the cabin. Check frequency not set too high (around 75Hz to start with) and also make sure that the phase switch if fitted is not set to 180, or if so, try it at 180.

 

[Marks DTM Calib]

I assume the free air ones are high compliance and as a result likely to be lower efficiency?

[Kevin Wood]

Excellent idea, but if mounting speakers into the parcel shelf, used ones that are termed "Free Air" as that way the over large Boot area acting as the sub enclosure will not cause too many problems.

True. The boot makes a rather large cabinet volume.

I am thinking about something like this myself, as an LPG tank precludes most other options.

Kevin

[tunnie]

If you don't like having a sub what about mounting some bass drivers in the parcel shelf Bose-syle and running them from an aftermarket amp & active crossover?

Excellent idea, but if mounting speakers into the parcel shelf, used ones that are termed "Free Air" as that way the over large Boot area acting as the sub enclosure will not cause too many problems.

As far as the Vibe Sub goes, Active 10 is a stunning performer - but needs to be wedged against the back of the seat with the speaker itself facing towards the boot, as this gives the correct "focal distance" for the bass frequencies in the cabin. Check frequency not set too high (around 75Hz to start with) and also make sure that the phase switch if fitted is not set to 180, or if so, try it at 180.

 

I spent about half a day fiddling with the sub, all to no joy....

Still had the problem, raise volume from 0 to 1 and it would 'thud'

I have re-earthed it, fold down the rear seats and at the bottom there is a metal arch type thing which runs the length of the boot and is straight into the chassis. Had some holes in it, earthed it there.

It has the 0/180 swither thing, also had freq & gain adjusters, started off with everything at 0, soon as freq & gain were just turned just slighly up it would do the thud. Even between track changes  :-/

Switched to Aux, and there was bass 'noise' almost like thunder!  

Nothing was touching the actual aux feed cable.  :-/


Had enough of it, was too bassy for passengers in the back anyway, hence looking at new options.

I do like the bose sound, but its going to cost fair bit to install when i could just fit some bass drivers in the parcel shelf.

I already have power & rca leads going to the boot, I was thinking of maybe getting a Bose shelf which has the cutouts, and mounting speakers there? Take the RCA feeds to a AMP, and driving those speakers from that, hoping that would give me a more rounded sound, and not too bass heavy.

[Dave DND]

"Thud" is down to earth faults upon installation. 100% certain of that !!

Eiether poor earth to the unit, or earth differential between head and amp. Relocate the earth to a dedicated earth point (don`t use existing bits of metal or holes - always poor!) and if thud still persists, then try a ground loop isolator inline with the RCA`s.

I assume the free air ones are high compliance and as a result likely to be lower efficiency?

Yes, designed to work in a large enclosure ie:Boot. Not as good as a sub in a dedicated enclosure, but an excellent interim measure.

[Kevin Wood]

Tunnie, IIRC, you have had this setup for a while. Is it only recently it has started playing up? If so, ask yourself what has changed.

Kevin

[Dave DND]

I have re-earthed it, fold down the rear seats and at the bottom there is a metal arch type thing which runs the length of the boot and is straight into the chassis. Had some holes in it, earthed it there.

Not a good place, as the welding is very poor and covered up with seam sealant - gives a high resistance between the panels.

If you imagine the box section chassis running the length of the car and under the boot area, you need to put a nice big shiny self tapper into this section, or as close as you can get it without any seams, welds or panel changes between the self tapper and the chassis if that makes sense.

Best place is near the rear suspension turrets where the turret meets the floor, as its the place where the welds and panels are strongest - and where the earth is the best.  Not to say you haven`t another fault, but this is certainly where to start - ground  loop isolator is next.

 

[tunnie]

Tunnie, IIRC, you have had this setup for a while. Is it only recently it has started playing up? If so, ask yourself what has changed.

Kevin

Thats the thing, nothing has changed!

I unplugged it all, took it out, dumped it in the spare room.

Drove to Holland, came back. Plugged it back in, and its been buggered ever since.

Only thing i have done is change the spark plugs!  

[Kevin Wood]

Tunnie, IIRC, you have had this setup for a while. Is it only recently it has started playing up? If so, ask yourself what has changed.

Kevin

Thats the thing, nothing has changed!

I unplugged it all, took it out, dumped it in the spare room.

Drove to Holland, came back. Plugged it back in, and its been buggered ever since.

Only thing i have done is change the spark plugs!  

Ahh, but you did take it out and put it back in, and if it was working Ok beforehand, it should work Ok again, with the settings you previously used.

Sounds to me like a poor ground connection that has been made worse by removing the unit and replacing.

Kevin