hello

the coup i just bought has a sony head unit and 10 cd changer, im assuming it has the standard factory amp fitted (whatever that is?)
I plan on fitting 2 way components in the front and a decent pair of 6.5" to the metal frame in the back (as mentioned on this forum)
Will the standard amp be up to the job?
I dont really need a sub and i dont listen at really high sound levels, im just after a quality sound.

cheers

The amp will be in the Head unit unless the last owner had a separate one fitted, The sony unit will say on it the power output on it have a look,

if it is a modern hi power unit you should be ok, If you arnt happy you can always get an amp later, replacing speakers is easier than wiring up an amp so just do them first and see what its like

great, thanks

Agree with Mitch but also consider sound deadeneing the door and rear quarter panels. This cuts road noise and makes a massive difference to the speaker sounds. Solid but not obtrusive bass.

The standard fit HU is a Clarion, no amp or CD changer. A clarion CD changer was a dealer-fit option (at 3 times its price ). Most (all?) cars had the Clarion CD changer cable fitted.

cd changer must have been a standard fit or a bargaining tool as the majority of coops (20vts) have one.

My 20VT+ didn't. There have a fair number of people fitting them later.

I would agree... fit the speakers first and see what it sounds like. However, running them off an amp will improve sound quality massivily even if its only 4x30wrms, headunit power figures are all peaks and now worth taking notice off.

However, if you have never had a sound system powered from amplifiers and this is the first time you have uprated speakers you will definatly be happy with the upgrade..

Also second what bockers said, get some sound deadening in there. make quite a noticeable difference.

good luck

Paul

its a sony MDX-C6500R, apparently its 4x26w (RMS) which doesnt sound bad to me, but i know relatively little of car audio having been a saab owner for the last 4 years and having the unremovable coded in factory audio.

Are there any guides on here about how to remove the door panels? and where to put the deadening material ?

That Sony unit will sound fine without an amp.

How to remove the door card, think there is a guide somewhere but the search function is having a strop with me.

See this pic
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/bockers/doorcardremoval.jpg

That is a 16v card but it is essentially the same as a 20 vt. Remove all the screws and bolts and then pull the bottom of the door card out about 10cm. Then give a sharp tap upwards, it may require a few attempts but be careful as the cards are quite fragile. It is easier with the window down IIRC. To re-install make sure you locate the top edge first then push the card down and replace all the bits that you took off. Make sure that the door grab handle passes behind the door skin.

As for sound deadening I bought a sheet that fitted the whole door. I just cut it to size, using the door card as a template and then cut out the holes for handles and fixings. Then I applied using a hairdryer and a small wall paper roller. I then mounted the speakers so that the screws passed through the material, this provides a good seal around the speaker too.

An easy but time consuming job, fitting the sound deadening in the hot weather is easier too, but you will loose pints in sweat

If you're fitting new fronts, then this will hopefully be useful for the tweeter fitting.

brilliant thanks !

looking for speakers now

do i need to disconnect the battery while rewiring the speakers?
is it easy enough to locate all the wires and highpass filter ? i need to remove the filter and install the crossovers yes?

any tricky bits to be aware of?
cheers

Well you do not need to disconnect the battery, but always a good idea when messing with electrics.

The crossovers are loacted on the tweaters and the wires are joined somewher deep in the dash. For this reason it is far better and easier to rewire the front speakers. Especially if you are useing quality components. The can place the crossovesr in the dash ends, plenty of room there.

It is a very easy job to re-wire and you can use decent speaker wire. Are you adding and amp? If so the best place to locate it is in the boot, but make sure that you do not run your speaker leads and power leads in the same place or you will get noise.

im installing components and im sticking with the sony amp/headunit.

So i can just remove the headunit and connect decent wire and run that to the dash ends, connect crossover and take the wires to the tweeter and into the door for the woofer? simple as that?

thank you very much all, cant wait to get stuck in

oh yeh, i went to B&Q to get roof flashing to use as sound deadening, all i could find was 'flashing tape roll' it was like a dark foil with greyish sticky stuff on it, is this the stuff that people use?