Audio set up advice???

[johnnyboy666]

Hi guys,

I am looking for a bit of advice, I have been using some co-ax 6.5" infinity speakers running through my Apline iXDA100 head unit for almost a year now with pretty good results, sounds much better than I expected but as you can guess, it could do with a bit more headroom. I recently managed to get hold of a set of brand new and boxed JBL600gti speakers for £30 at a local audio shop sale along with some panasonic super tweeters complete with filters for £1 (yes £1) again boxed and brand new. Looks like this stuff was a few years old and they were shifting it. On what I believe to be a true bargain I thought I might look around for an amp to do this justice. I picked up an Alpine MRP-T222 in a halfords end of line deal for £30. Now I feel quite satisfied with my thriftyness at this point but my next issue is fitting it all and here comes my questions;

1)Has anyone here got an amp and if so where did they mount it? I can't squeeze it under the seat like I hoped so it looks like behind the seat or in the boot. Which is best?

2)Tweeters, where to mount them? I have read lots of different opinions on this on, I was thinking of on the doors at the top with a nice OEM finish but since there is no room behind the door card I can't fit them flush so since they will be stuck on and not in the in to the door they can be stuck on anything.

3)Any pitfalls to avoid or common mistakes whilst fitting all this stuff?

Long post I know but I will be doing this on the weekend and thought some input from some people have have already done this would be really helpful.

Thanks,

John

Edited by johnnyboy666 on Friday 29th January 11:58

[MX-5 Lazza]

Best place for the tweeters is on the dash all the way into the far corners of the windscreen firing upwards so the sound is reflected off the screen into the cabin area. That gives a nice natural sound spread.

I have a (very) old Phillips amp behind my seat attached to the bulkhead by velcro. It used to be under the seat (Elise seats) but I have other stuff under there now. On my old Mk1 I had it fitted down the tunnel in the boot beyond the spare wheel between the fuel-tank & side of the car - it's a long narrow amp though and most won't fit in there unless you can stand it on end, maybe mounted to a board.

Wherever you mount the amp make sure it's somewhere dry

[johnnyboy666]

I have to say the tweeters up on the dash is an favourable choice as my brothers 5 series has them there as stock and they sound great up there. Some people seem to suggest that they need to be close to the mid speaker, I take it this is just people being a bit over the top?

[DennisTheMenace]

Not really , mount the tweeters miles from the midbass and the soundstage goes to pot , Not that an Mx-5 is an ideal place to do decent car audio , OP you would get better gains by adding a 2 channel amp rather than swapping speakers , infinitys are very good so i would keep them rather than go JBL .
Here is what im running in my 5 , people slate the sony stuff but the XM-502 amp is a lovely punchy little thing , and it did infact come from a time when they made half decent stuff , get one on ebay cheap , you will be impressed .

Headunit alpine ida x100


usb and ipod live in the centre console


speakers Alpine sxs1757 component's


Amp as mentioned above , lives in the boot

[roverspeed]

I am running a similar set up, I have the amp behind the passenger seat along with the crossovers for the components.

6.5's in the doors, the tweeters I have attached in the supplied pods to the very corners of the dash as previously mentioned. I have the head rest speakers switched so i can just turn them on for when I am at speed with the roof down.

I am sure I don't need to tell you, but good cable makes a difference too.

[johnnyboy666]

Well after a weekend of fun with both my Mum's speakers as well as my own I have achieved half of my jobs. I have replaced my Infinitys with some JBL GTIs in the door with a Panasonic ST21 tweeter mounted on the top door strip (the same place as the factory tweeters on the higher spec eunos roadsters) as I couln't find enough room on the dash due the the instrument housing and vent leaving very little space. The tweeters connect via a filter off of the main speaker leads. They sound great! The GTIs are clearly on another level to pretty much and other 6" speaker I have heard. The tweeters keep up well too if I was being ultra picky i could say on the odd song they can be a tad too bright. With speakers like these I can't possibly see the need for a sub. They are a fraction louder than what I had before so not sure to Amp them or not. Would an amp make much difference to the sound quality or would is just make it louder?

John

Edited by johnnyboy666 on Monday 1st February 11:16

[neil_bolton]

DennisTheMenace said:

Not really , mount the tweeters miles from the midbass and the soundstage goes to pot , Not that an Mx-5 is an ideal place to do decent car audio , OP you would get better gains by adding a 2 channel amp rather than swapping speakers , infinitys are very good so i would keep them rather than go JBL .
Here is what im running in my 5 , people slate the sony stuff but the XM-502 amp is a lovely punchy little thing , and it did infact come from a time when they made half decent stuff , get one on ebay cheap , you will be impressed .

Headunit alpine ida x100


usb and ipod live in the centre console


speakers Alpine sxs1757 component's


Amp as mentioned above , lives in the boot

Nice set up - although I briefly had that Apline unit and hated it so exchanged it (although the clock was cool - but the iPod part didn't work correctly).

I've ended up with the 103BT which is the identical unit with a different display, but you can play CD's and you get the Bluetooth.

You can run components off the head unit itself and it's more than pokey enough - to the point that the doors rattle too much now. I've a set of JL Audio TR650-CSi Component 6.5's in the door and very nice they are too

However, I'm still toying with the idea of the amp as I have a spare 2 way in storage somewhere...

[MX-5 Lazza]

Adding an amp isn't all about making it louder - a head unit usually makes it plenty loud enough. What it adds is distortion free power. If you like to turn the volume up loud (pretty much have to in an MX5 if you want to hear the music, especially top-down) then without an amp you will probably be getting a fair amount of distortion and if it starts "clipping" you can damage the speakers. Contrary to what people generally think, an amp will protect the speakers from distortion & clipping.

[neil_bolton]

MX-5 Lazza said:

Adding an amp isn't all about making it louder - a head unit usually makes it plenty loud enough. What it adds is distortion free power. If you like to turn the volume up loud (pretty much have to in an MX5 if you want to hear the music, especially top-down) then without an amp you will probably be getting a fair amount of distortion and if it starts "clipping" you can damage the speakers. Contrary to what people generally think, an amp will protect the speakers from distortion & clipping.

Good advice I agree wholeheartedly - I just didn't go for an amp for space reasons - the combo I've got is based on the Alpine been very good at driving speakers from it's internal amp.

However, now I've seen how Dennis has done his, I'm going to have a go...

[johnnyboy666]

Cool well in that case I will go for it. I think what I would like is just a bit more headroom which is what the amp will provide me with. I also think I am going for the boot option. I like the idea of being able to hide it in the little dip in the boot and then cover over that with a vented lid that I can cover in boot carpet type material so you wil never know it's there. I'm not looking forward to wiring it through to the car though!

I put the speakers in with a baffle made from this carpet underlay stuff I found. Like dynamat but much cheaper, and it has eliminated pretty much all my rattles! It's the Gel based stuff you can get in carpet right.

John