Audio suggestions appreciated...

Evening all, I just wanted to pick some brains about what I should be spending my money on, please excuse the essay of a post…

I've had my mk1 on the road for a couple of weeks now and I've decided it's time to get some audio in it. The car came with no head unit, a pair of Alpine 6" x 9"s in the (home made) parcel shelf, a pair of 13 cm holes in the door cards and 11 cm holes in the rear cards.

I plan to fit an amp and speakers and provide audio via my MP3 player. I'm not interested in any ear-shattering volume or anything like that, just a decent sound for a reasonable price. I've read that plenty of people use an amp and MP3 player connected together with a 3.5 mil jack to RCA adapter; this is great for me as I don't listen to much radio and have about 65 gigs of MP3s in my pocket.

But what amp and speakers? Anyone know of any great bargains at the moment? I'm thinking of a four channel amp with the 6" x 9"s on a channel each and the front right and left speakers running in parallel; a channel each for the front left and right. I'm really stuck for amp ideas though. This seems like a good price, but reviews of new Sony stuff are mixed and I'm not sure if it could provide enough juice for 6 speakers. Anyone know any good <?100 amps?

I've listened to these speakers in Halfords and was satisfied with the performance given their price. Having said that, it's tempting to spend a little more and go for some components like these, even if it does mean cutting another small hole in my cards. As we all know, there's not much room in those front doors, so I'm concious of buying some speakers that won't foul on the window, although there's plenty of room in the back.

I know I might be asking for a lot; decent sounding audio without spending too much money, but I hope there's something out there for me. I got the car at a bargain price and have spent very little on it's MOT, tax and insurance; the last thing I want to do is spend that same amount of money on some OTT audio set-up. Basically it's sale and reduced items I'm after.

Any ideas? Thanks! Joe

Any Audio experts help Joe out ?  :dontknow:

I know someone who has got an amp they want to sell if you want me to get more details  :dontknow:

Thanks for the replies guys (and for moving the thread to an appropriate place  ops: )

MalC, that would be good, thanks. I'm not after the world's best amp, just good performance relative to the price of it, enough oomph to power 6 (or maybe 4) speakers, and some RCA inputs.

With a bit of luck my acoustic carpet and spray glue will be arriving in the post tomorrow; so my parcel shelf will look a little less MDF, but I'd really like some tunes to come out of it too!

Thanks again guys.

Right its a X2 Liberator XSA 800

800w Max - 4 Channel, Bridgeable

pic…



Yours for ?30 delivered as will probably cost around ?8-?10 to post - any good? If you need more info let me know

I will give you some general advice that I have from previously being a Rockford Fosgate retailer.  If you only want to spend ?100 or less, then go secondhand.  You will get more for your money but no garuantee that the amp hasn't been running flat out.  As most people use the gain control as a volume control.  Check for smelling of burnt plastic!

If you have 60Gb you may have this on a low bit rate,  so the quality you receive through the speakers will only be an amplification of the quality of sound input to the amp.  Put S**t in, get louder S**t out.  So the reviews on amp that aren't scoring high may well be good enough for you as the quality input to the amp is not that high anyway.

With all things considered you may have a good bit rate of sound on your MP3 Player,  the only other point that will cause a problem is the amp Clipping  (noise distortion).  Its always best to have a High RMS powered amp and have it running at a low value,  than have a small amp running flat out and as hot as an iron.  This is what a large amount of people do and the noise distortion is unbelievable,  eventually killing the speakers.

well said,

i was a RF supplier to , when vieta had the rights.

my personal choice if u want it…

4 channell amp

either running
1 sub and a set 13cm front components in pods or cut into door, kicker do 10cm ones to.

or running good 6x4's all round (infinity im guessing)

u do tend to get what u pay for, also as mentioned before try to overpower or have the poption that way the amp isnt being overworked

e.g if ur speakers are 45W RMS get an amp that will run 45W RMS or more.

there my 2 cents.

if you want cheap and cheerfull amp, id say take alook at theloudest.com for there stuff, but you do pay for what you get.

i had one of these amps running, and it was OK but i eventually melted the insides when i changed subs and it couldnt handle the current!

needless to say buying brand new (high end) is only if you have real dosh, my amps are second hand, and are pretty much mint in condition.

again depends on how much you want to spend, for around 100ish you might want to look at vibe stuff as i hear its good quality for the price

cheers,

james.