Geezers !

Picked up my new STi 7 last week. Well please with it but a couple of things need to sort.

Got the boogo standard Subaru head unit and speakers in the car. I'm not big into ICE but I do like my music. So from what I can tell the standard front speakers are OK, but the rears are PAP ! The head unit seems a bit crap too.

Whats your opinion on what to replace with and what with - talking direct replacement gear here.... in the following order.

1) Rear speakers
2) Head unit - only want single cd, no 80's styley caaysette !!!
3) Front speakers

Help !!!!! If you folks don't know then no one does !

Ids

 

I'd change the front speakers before the rears. Did it on my sti7 (the originals are horrible thin paper jobbies), and it made than standard head unit sound ten times better.

Iain

 

Just to throw the cat amongst the pidgeons, I'd recommend

1) head unit
2) front speakers

Forget the rears.

Head unit and front speakers are just about the same importance, but I found the head unit upgrade was the first thing to do.

Nick.

 

Hmmm

Intresting..... well i dont quite understand.

Playing about with the unit the weekend, the fronts seem ok but the rears are real 5h1te...... seem to have some bass, no mid and no treble. I recon they are either both duff or put it down to them being worse than the fronts.... hmmm ... anyone else offer any more wisdom ?

How about head units - whats a good one for about £300 (single cd, rds) - do any have that auto-volume thingy modern Fords seem to have ?

Ids

 

I agree with Nick really. Changing the fronts improved the sound ten times, but changing the head unit improved the sound yet again. Some of the more upmarket pioneers have the auto-volume thingy, but not sure if they come in under £300. Have a look on http://www.caraudiodirect.com

Iain

 

You don't really want much treble in the rear - it'll drag your sound stage right back. Admittedly, with OEM speakers front speakers, this ain't going to be an issue

Auto Volume control works ok-ish, in fact the only one I've seen that works well is on my wife's factory fit clio thing. Others seem more hassle than they're worth.

One thing I would strongly advise when looking at a head unit is a steering column mounted remote control. Pioneer, Kenwood, Sony and probably the others do this, but they are absolutely great - you don't take your eyes off the road to change volume when you get to a junction/roundabout/...

Nick.

 

Just leave the rear speakers as they are. I have built my system up over a few years now with 2 Scoobies and learnt that the rears have little impact over the quality of the sound. Improving the rears just moves your soundstage backwards. The other guys are right get a decent head unit, replace the fronts then think about an amplifier for them.

Dave Allan

 

Newbie but here goes.

Agreeing with previous posts, forget the rears and stick with the fronts. Your ears are used to listening to sound comming from in front of you (television, concerts,any stage performances and in conversation) upgrading the rears alone will take the sound to the rear and you will be wondering why the fronts now sound cr4p as they are being drowned.

Advise is upgrade the fronts and get a headunit with at least two preouts, connect either both front and rears directly to head or get an amp aswell and connect to fronts via one of the preouts, you will also have room for expansion with this setup.

 

Spot on advice from Daz, particularly regarding pre-outs!

Welcome to the board

Nick.

 

The power of Scoobynet again

Any recomendations for a decent-ish head unit and direct replacement speakers for the front then ?

 

Thanks for the welcome Nick,

Depending on your definition of decent-ish, there are a varity of head units available. You realy need to narrow it down to what you want (MP3,CDRW,DVD or DAB) There are a couple of headunits in this forum you could check out, woodstock £300 ish and Alpine 7998R £1200 ish. Alpine have also released the DVA 7996 which offers DVD,CD,CDR,MP3 and DAB, about £1000
Check it out
http://www.alpine-europe.com/2002/products2002/gb/dva-7996r.htm
Sorry not a link but someone can eidit no doubt.

I believe the infinity 605cs are direct replacements see thread in this section.

Cheers
Daz

 

Good info... thanks.. now for lack of a search on this site..

Looking at the Infinity site I can see they say the Ref 552i and Kappa 52.3i's (5 1/4" w) should direct fit. Anyone fitted these ?

Next daft question.... how easy is it to get the door panels off on the MY02's ? I know usually they are easy - any special things to remember ?

Last one - to fit a single DIN head in the dash (looking at a Pioneeer DEH-P7400MP):
1) whats the part to ask for for the cover at a Subaru/ICE dealer to blank off the space left.
2) Do you need a loom adaptor for a Pioneer unit. ?

Thanks folks