Advice on new speakers and head unit

[AAH!]

I'm looking into replacing my head unit from the original Sony (XR-C420RDS)with a 10 disk CD changer to a Becker Grand Prix 7992 (£290) which looks like it will fit in with the look of the car and I read should perform fairly well (?).

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/product ... ts_id=5092

My rear speakers no longer work and the front ones don't sound particularly good, again from what I have read people seem to rate MB Quart.

The problem is I don't have a clue when it comes to this side of things and don't really know where to start. I'm not particularly interested in getting the best system money can buy, just something halfway decent.


Can anyone advise me in regards to speakers kits (?) and what I should be considering for in terms of models and if there is a straight swap for the old speakers or if they have to be modified to fit, etc, etc.

The front speakers in the dash are approx 10cm
Rear Speakers are approx 12.5cm
Rear Tweaters are approx 5cm

Also will my old Sony CD changer work with a new non sony system?


Thanks ... Angus

[S4driver]

Hi Angus.

Rear speakers are 5 1/4 inch. So a set of components ( mid /tweeter/x over are a relatively straight forward fit. The mid/driver fits fine, but (on my current and last RS) both the tweeters did not quite fit.This time round, I have left the original tweeter in the rear door. I had Kenwood in my previous car and this time round have Focal - I much prefer the Focal.

Dash speakers are 4 inch. Again you can go custom route, but you have to mount the tweeter somewere. I had the MB Quart before which were OK, but this time I have some Infinity components, but with a built in tweeter, so no mounting problems.

Trouble is, you can never get any real depth of sound without a subwoofer. I have one I lashed together myself that sits neatly away inside the spare wheel. You can get small powered subwoofers that fit under the seat for instance, or where room is tight......

I also have a Becker head unit. Its an older version of the one you are looking at, but it is a sat nav unit too. The red /amber display is a good match for the rest of the illumination.

Oh and as far as your existing changer working with a non Sony - BTDT.I borrowed a Becker changer lead which fitted both my head unit and the Sony changer, but had no success with it working. So almost certainly not....

HTH,Dean

[GlynRS2]

Angus,

That is the same head unit that I have with the addition of integrated bluetooth. Looks ideal for the RS2, great sound quality with OEM looks.
As far as the Sony CD changer, no it won't work. However, with a MP3 CD player it is pretty redundant anyway, as you can get more than 10 CDs worth of music on one MP3 CD anyway. I also have the iPod controller, which give iPod control on the head unit:
http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/product ... ts_id=4743
If you don't want iPod control on the head unit you can just use one of these:
http://www.bluespot.co.uk/stock/auxin.asp
which works well also for a tenth of the price. I have one of these which you can have if you want.
As far as speakers go, there was quite a good thread over on the S2 Forum in the ICE section.

[scillyisles]

I'm looking into replacing my head unit from the original Sony (XR-C420RDS)with a 10 disk CD changer to a Becker Grand Prix 7992 (£290) which looks like it will fit in with the look of the car and I read should perform fairly well (?).

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/product ... ts_id=5092

My rear speakers no longer work and the front ones don't sound particularly good, again from what I have read people seem to rate MB Quart.

I have MB Quart 10cm front speakers in my RS2 - they were an easy direct replacement for the stock speakers. They produce a clear crisp sound with good treble definition - I'd rate them as bright speakers.
My rear speakers are JL Audio XR525 CSi components which are a more mellow sounding speaker and produce a warmer more bassy sound. They fit perfectly into the OEM speaker holes (the crossovers mount in the door cards easily) - they work well with the MB Quart front speakers.
If you want a really bassy sound then you'd need to fit a subwoofer.

[VaudiGR]

I also have the mexico pro.it is very good.As for speakers,i have no idea.I have never checked.They play fine for me!

[AAH!]

Thank you for your replies Gentleman,

With your feed back the Becker head unit with an ipod dodad seems a sure thing. Did you need a special connector/adaptor to make it fit?
like this: http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/index.p ... 92_294_665

Having done a little more research, despite the S2forum currently down (for me anyway), it seems that if you go the MB Quart component route for the fronts you can utalise the small circular dash side vents for the tweeters. Although I will probably use use non component speakers for ease.

@ scillyisles - Do the tweeters from the JL Audio XR525 CSi also fit the existing holes?

Thanks again, there is so much out there and it is just so much easier with your guidance ... Angus

[scillyisles]

Having done a little more research, despite the S2forum currently down (for me anyway), it seems that if you go the MB Quart component route for the fronts you can utalise the small circular dash side vents for the tweeters. Although I will probably use use non component speakers for ease.

@ scillyisles - Do the tweeters from the JL Audio XR525 CSi also fit the existing holes?

Thanks again, there is so much out there and it is just so much easier with your guidance ... Angus

1. I have non component i.e. coaxial MB Quart speakers in my front dash - they fit under the standard speaker grille no problems.

2. The tweeters from the JL Audio XR525 CSi are smaller than the OEM tweeters but if you remove the OEM tweeters from their mouting fascia the JL Audio tweeters are a snug fit (i glued mine in with araldite to make sure there was no vibration). You then have a standard OEM look with a much improved sound. The JL Audio midrange/woofer drive unit fits in the OEM space more or less as standard (although you do have to drill different holes as it mounts differently to the OEM woofer) The speaker grilles are similar to the OEM ones - so again the car looks as original. There is'nt much space between the rear door panels and the rear seat bench - in mine the speaker grilles do touch slightly but it has no effect on sound quality or the rear seats. In fact I suspect it enhances the bass quality.

[GlynRS2]

With your feed back the Becker head unit with an ipod dodad seems a sure thing. Did you need a special connector/adaptor to make it fit?
like this: http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/index.p ... 92_294_665

Unless someone has butchered your wiring at some point in the past, you should still have the original plugs that will fit straight in. The only thing you might have to change is swap over the ignition switched feed and the permanent live. For some reason VAG always tend to swap these over in their looms for some reason.

[AAH!]

Thanks guys.

[LHD]

With your feed back the Becker head unit with an ipod dodad seems a sure thing. Did you need a special connector/adaptor to make it fit?
like this: http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/index.p ... 92_294_665

Unless someone has butchered your wiring at some point in the past, you should still have the original plugs that will fit straight in. The only thing you might have to change is swap over the ignition switched feed and the permanent live. For some reason VAG always tend to swap these over in their looms for some reason.

Beware of just buying the VAG lead- I did that and found my wiring didn't match. Yes it has two ISO plugs but it also has a third red mini ISO plug. I posted a thread here about it but my car must be one of the few with it. I've done some research and while not 100% sure I think my car has active rear speakers and this red plug is part of that setup. Therefore the standard ISO adapter won't work.

[GlynRS2]

You will only have the third red mini ISO plug if you had an OE Gamma radio, this integrates with this dash computer display etc. Unfortunately/fortunately none of the rhd RS2s in the UK had the factory radio and were dealer fitted with Sony head units. There is an adaptor plug fitted to the rhd RS2s that combines the front and rear speaker plugs to a standard brown 8 pin ISO plug.
With refernce to my previous post the black 8 pin ISO plug is wired as such:
Pin 1, 2 & 3 not used
Pin 4 is the ignition switched positive from terminal 86s on the back of the ignition key switch. (this is not always present unless someone has take a feed)
Pin 5 is a switched positive feed that is used to power the amplifier in the aerial base, this switches on when the head unit is switched on.
Pin 6 is the the illumination feed that becomes positive when the lights are switched on
Pin 7 is the permanent postive from the battery (terminal 30)
Pin 8 is the permanent negative from the battery (terminal 31)

For Becker headunits you need to switch the wiring so the the ignition switched positive from pin 4 to pin 7, and the permanent postive from pin 7 to pin 4.

You will also want to pick up a speed sensitive GALA signal and take this to pin1. This is so that the speed senstive volume control will work (it is also required for Becker SatNav systems, such as the Indianapolis unit). You can pick up a GALA speed signal by splicing into the white and blue wire that arises from the black 10 terminal connector block that can be found at the auxillary relay carrier that is behind the shelf at the base of the steering column. It is the only white & blue wire there.

If you can't find terminal 86s on the back of the ignition key switch you can always pick up an ignition switched feed from the lights on warning buzzer. This is what I did - see here:
http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6734

I hope that helps a bit more

[S4driver]

[quote="GlynG60"]

You will also want to pick up a speed sensitive GALA signal and take this to pin1. This is so that the speed senstive volume control will work (it is also required for Becker SatNav systems, such as the Indianapolis unit). You can pick up a GALA speed signal by splicing into the white and blue wire that arises from the black 10 terminal connector block that can be found at the auxillary relay carrier that is behind the shelf at the base of the steering column. It is the only white & blue wire there.

[/quote]

That would have come in handy when I was fitting in my Becker Nav unit...

Dean

[LHD]

You will only have the third red mini ISO plug if you had an OE Gamma radio, this integrates with this dash computer display etc. Unfortunately/fortunately none of the rhd RS2s in the UK had the factory radio and were dealer fitted with Sony head units. There is an adaptor plug fitted to the rhd RS2s that combines the front and rear speaker plugs to a standard brown 8 pin ISO plug.
With refernce to my previous post the black 8 pin ISO plug is wired as such:
Pin 1, 2 & 3 not used
Pin 4 is the ignition switched positive from terminal 86s on the back of the ignition key switch. (this is not always present unless someone has take a feed)
Pin 5 is a switched positive feed that is used to power the amplifier in the aerial base, this switches on when the head unit is switched on.
Pin 6 is the the illumination feed that becomes positive when the lights are switched on
Pin 7 is the permanent postive from the battery (terminal 30)
Pin 8 is the permanent negative from the battery (terminal 31)

For Becker headunits you need to switch the wiring so the the ignition switched positive from pin 4 to pin 7, and the permanent postive from pin 7 to pin 4.

You will also want to pick up a speed sensitive GALA signal and take this to pin1. This is so that the speed senstive volume control will work (it is also required for Becker SatNav systems, such as the Indianapolis unit). You can pick up a GALA speed signal by splicing into the white and blue wire that arises from the black 10 terminal connector block that can be found at the auxillary relay carrier that is behind the shelf at the base of the steering column. It is the only white & blue wire there.

If you can't find terminal 86s on the back of the ignition key switch you can always pick up an ignition switched feed from the lights on warning buzzer. This is what I did - see here:
http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6734

I hope that helps a bit more

Fortunately being the key point, wish my car didn't have the 3rd plug and therefore I believe amplified rear speakers.
Do you have any idea which adapter harness I require or even if I can replace the GAMMA single CD with another unit?

[AAH!]

Thanks Glyn

That will be seriously useful when the time comes.

I opened things up today just to see what I was getting myself into and found a lot of wires and it all started to look a bit daunting (see pic).

Dean - How is the Becker Nav Unit? is it worth it and does it know where speed camera's are?

Angus

[GlynRS2]

@ LHD
The assignments on the red plug are like this:


Depending on the head unit you want to fit I think there are adaptors out there, for example the Audi A6 94-02 adaptor (PC9-401) here:
https://www.bluespot.co.uk/install/show_model.asp?id=17
This converts things back to standard ISO plugs by the look of it.