2005 Easiest Aftermarket Speaker upgrade?

No probs, only couple quid!

So, I have all the necessary wires on the way.
Think I'll try at the weekend.
I will remove old radio, unplug it,
hook up new radio, add steering adapters etc,
hook up RCA leads and remote wire
thread through RCA and remote wire through to the '?' main section of car? via the pedals ?!

That should be me done until I get a sub.

I take it only the sub power leads require that protective stuff?

Oh - and the sub I want - neither those ones on ebay come with the remote control, i.e. a little box that allows you to control the level I guess? Anyone know if this is a problem?
It's this model: https://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product ... -25817.htm

Thanks

I've never seen a sub with a remote (which doesn't mean it's a bad thing to have), usually you set the level and then the volume changes as you adjust the main volume on your radio. There may be some confusion with the remote switching wire which all the subs I've seen have, otherwise you couldn't turn them on/off remotely.

With the extra wiring from the radio, I'd suggest you go under the centre console. This can be raised by removing a few screws, it's a bit more complicated to take it out but all you need is enough room to thread your wires underneath it and fasten them to the existing wiring that already goes that way. You can then go under the seats ready for the sub, carefully avoiding the seat runners.

The power supply to the sub can run along the sill on the outside (inside the car but outside of the seat if you follow ), remove the trim and fold the carpet back and you'll see some wires already there that you can attach your wires to.

Missing Lincs wrote:With the extra wiring from the radio, I'd suggest you go under the centre console. This can be raised by removing a few screws, it's a bit more complicated to take it out but all you need is enough room to thread your wires underneath it and fasten them to the existing wiring that already goes that way

I took a couple of pictures which may help.
this one shows the top of the centre console removed after pulling off the gear knob. You can also see where power is taken off the cigarette lighter or power socket.

This one shows the top of the centre console removed and there is the gear knob in the picture too. From what I can remember the top part in the picture is only clipped on to the base. There are 2 hidden torx screws in the picture below, but I don't think you need to remove those.

Many thanks.

This sub is available too - but I can't seem to see how powerful it is. anyone know if this would be too much for my lil c3?:

Boschmann subwoofer:
The B-55P is a MOSFET powered tune-up subwoofer that sets a new standard for in-car bass reproduction by offering tight transient bass response under a compact design.
A 6" high efficiency subwoofer / passive radiator combination delivers a deep, powerful bass response out of a tiny enclosure.
max 140W High Power Output
* Deep Bass Sound blast effective twin air way system (70w+70w)
* heavy duty 6" Dual voice Coil Woofer
* Volume controll and mute on-off by remote controll
* 79mm thick compact size design for under the seat
* compact high power tune-up subwoofer
* 12V

According to this (see page 15) website it's 60 watts RMS total (2 x 30 watts) which I wold say is about right for a C3, both acoustically and in terms of electrical load on the battery and alternator.

Got the sub.

Got the stereo.

Got all the wires.

Apparently the sub has a 'controller' that needs to be 'mounted somewhere'.

I will give it a go on the weekend!

Many thanks all

Stereo and Subwoofer successfully in, installed and WORKING!!!!


Many thanks to all of you for your advice and patience with me in this and my other threads!

Now I just need to get the levels right, at the moment there is a lot of bass and a little treble and virtually no mid-range!

Thanks again.

That's great news.

At least with the radio you have you can adjust the sound. Pioneer have a couple of controls in their sound setup, 'SubWControl' and 'HPF'.

'SubWControl' sets the upper frequency of sound which is sent to the sub.

'HPF' or 'High Pass Filter' sets the lowest frequency which is sent to the other speakers.

Both values will need to be fairly close to avoid overlap or a hole in the frequency spectrum.

As you have standard speakers I'd let the sub handle as much of the low frequency end as it can. Then adjust the levels to your taste.

Thanks for the advice,

I am having trouble getting a decent sound from the sub.

I have played with 'SubWControl' and 'HPF'. - at the moment both are set at 80. Is this too low/high? I don't really understand how it works. There is also a 1 - 6 setting beside the 80 numeral on the subwcontrol. What does this mean? The instructions say:
Turn M.C. to select the desired setting.
Cut-off frequency: 50HZ—63HZ—80HZ—100HZ
—125HZ—160HZ—200HZ
Output level: –24 to +6
Slope level: –6— –12

And HPF:
Cut-off frequency—Slope level
3 Turn M.C. to select the desired setting.
Cut-off frequency: OFF—50HZ—63HZ—80HZ—
100HZ—125HZ—160HZ—200HZ
Slope level: –6— –12

And on the sub itself there is a + - phase switch. Any ideas what this is?

At the moment the sound I get is either non existent, and then I turn the controller dial up by literally a millimetre and suddenly it is exploding out of the box! For some tones it produces a clean nice rich bass sound, others it, makes a dirty broken sort of banging noise, like it is bursting from the box.

Still though, the mid range is barely there.

How do I fix all this?

Could it be a problem with the second hand sub?

Should I just try getting a new one?

The dial seems so very sensistive and I cant find a setting where everything sounds... nice?

'As you have standard speakers I'd let the sub handle as much of the low frequency end as it can.' Does this mean raising the '80' number to say... 125?? And if so, should I raise it on the HPF?

Thanks

Hmmmm. At first read this deosn't sound good.

I think the first thing you need to do is check to if the sub is working as it should.

Do you have a laptop computer? What I'm thinking is to use a 3.5mm stereo to RCA lead. Plug the 3.5mm jack into your laptop and the RCA end into the sub in place of the leads from your radio. You can then go on one of the many websites that has subwoofer test files.

It could be that you've just got the level settings in the radio way out, but without knowing that the sub works including its own level control, it's going to be difficult to establish what's what.