front speakers

[damo m]

My car has a DAB Pioneer stereo with Pioneet speakers set into the side of the luggage area behind the seats. The speakers are not of a good quality and the radio reception is poor on DAB and useless on FM.

I wanted to upgrade the ICE and suspect that the radio reception would be improved by a better ariel or improved location/earthing. I have noticed a couple of cars with ariels on the boot but was not over keen on this idea. Has anyone got a better solution?

The location of the speakers is also an issue as again I have noticed that some cars have them set into the area under the rear screen (over the fuel tank?). Does anyone know if there is room for a decent base speaker in this bit?

Finally (!) my car is only fitted with 2 rear speakers. Does anyone have knowledge of the best place for a pair of fronts to be located?

[RichB]

I have replaced the aerial in my Griffith with one of the www.mod-wise electric aerials, and it works very well. I assume a Tuscan and Griff must be pretty similar in that respect. Rich...

[damo m]

Thanks. The Ariel looks quite discrete. Is it?

How much was it?

[RichB]

It's totally contained within the car. Basically you run a co-ax cable from the head unit to the boot, along the sill cavity, then the amplifier straps to the fuel pipe behind the grey carpet and the aerial is a wire that is streatched across the inside top lip of the boot. See www.mod-wise.com/page10.html for more details, the web site says £32.50 Rich...

[damo m]

Thanks Rich. Dopes this completely transform your FM reception? Do you have a DAB stereo?

[RichB]

I only have FM and yes it completely transformed it from being un-usable to being about 95%. To give you an idea let's just say that the RDS system does it's job when listening to R2 on a journey so it seeks around always looking for the strongest signal. Previously there was no signal for it to find! The guy who runs mod-wise is on P'Heads, David Beer - profile the same - have a chat with him he's always very helpfull. Rich...

[RichB]

p.s. Just a sudden thought. I have no idea if Digital signal requires a different aerial?

[Leadfoot]

Yes it does. I've got a DAB unit (Blaupunkt woodstock) in my Griff. When it works it's fantastic, but reception is patchy at best.
I think this is more to gaps in the broadcast coverage rather than the unit.
My DAB aeriel is wedged into the backrest of the passenger seat - there was a gap in the cover which was big enough to push it up thru'. This has given the best reception compared to other locations. It is earthed to the chassis although this doesn't seem to make any difference.
Incidentaly - DAB aeriels need to be mounted as close to vertical as possible for best reception, I've no idea how/what the Tuscan has got.

[IAINSMITH]

Has anybody had any joy fitting a set of speakers in the front (pref. without ripping the car apart) as the Pioneer unit I have will power 4 speakers and this will probably be enough for me to hear it without spending too much time or energy.??

[bizzbozz]

try sqplus near the trafford centre. they've done a few tuscans (front speakers included). very professional, neat work. had my tamora done there. reasonably priced.

>> Edited by bizzbozz on Friday 7th February 18:32

[IAINSMITH]

thanks, was wondering about a simple-ish DIY fix to get a bit more sound in there, especially for summer when the roof's off!!!

[paul-wh]

Have a look at my thread on a DIY fitting. I have now replaced the rear speaker box with version 2 which has a bass speaker in the middle. I will try to take a picture of this and post it. Also in the thread are pictures of jarretts professional fit. After seeing this I also added front infinity tweeters to bring the sound forward as it was all behind me.

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=11543&f=5&h=0

Paul