ICE in Noble

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Discussion

stuh

Original Poster:

2,557 posts

280 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2003
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All

I'm currently trying to improve the XPLOD stereo that came with the car.

Obviously it isn't the ideal car to expect acoustic perfection in but i would at least like to be able to enjoy the music when the wastegates aren't singing

I'd hope to be able to supplement the head unit with a power amp and speakers but the 2 dealers i have spoken to have said that the power amp is a non starter due space constraints. The best i have been offered so far is to replace the head unit with a higher quality Sony alterntive and replace the existing drive units with units of identical size from JM Lab Focal (whose domestic speskers i am very impressed with).

Anyone got any better suggestions ?

bogie

16,613 posts

279 months

Thursday 24th April 2003
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Hi Stuh

I havnt got a Noble (yet - next on my list!) but I have been in/driven one.

Ive got an Elise at the moment and normal dealers said that stereos etc were out of the question. Anyway Lotus Specialists, Sincalires (www.lotusrepairs.com) did my install for me and Im very pleased with it. pics are here:

http://community.webshots.com/album/57887221xRqcTQ

Now ive seen the amount of room there is in a Noble and you could easily fit 2 amps, a pair of 8" subs and some 3 way comps in there - I dunno what they are talking about !

Forget Sony head units (and speakers for that matter) in the car audio world they are not very well respected.

Focal are excellent - either some co-axials or some components would be good.

A small well designed low volume bass box behind/above the seats with a pair of Focal 6" baby subs wouldnt take up much room, but with a small 4 channel amp in there too running the subs/fronts it would sound pretty good.

Id recommend getting an Alpine MP3 player (or Pioneer, Blaupunkt etc) so that you can have 10 albums on one cd (saves having loads of cds in the car) - also they have a time alignment feature so that you can alter the delay to the speakers to get a good image - important when the speakers are not ideally located. Stick a bit of Dynamat behind the speakers to reinforce the doors a bit, along with some wadding and for about a 10Kg total weight penalty you can have hi-fi sound in the car

I always get slated by a lot of the Elise guys for having a stereo...but I do 30K+ miles a year in it...not 6K to and from trackdays...so a stereo is a must have to cure motorway boredom!

HTH
bogie

agent006

12,058 posts

271 months

Thursday 24th April 2003
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You'll probably be better off speaking to a specialist car audio installer. I would imagine most would relish the chance to design a system for such a rare car.

stuh

Original Poster:

2,557 posts

280 months

Thursday 24th April 2003
quotequote all
Cheers guys - i also though there would be sufficient room but supposed experts told me otherwise!

Bogie - I'll get in touch with the company you listed and see what they come up with...and report back