Sound System Upgrade Choices

Can anyone advise me of what speakers/tweets to get, that will be an upgrade yet still compatible with the standard HU in my 172?
(I hate the look of aftermarket)

Davyy said:

Can anyone advise me of what speakers/tweets to get, that will be an upgrade yet still compatible with the standard HU in my 172?
(I hate the look of aftermarket)

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you mean fit in the original locations?

Another vote for standard speakers with a sub and new HU. Little tip, if you go down the same route as me and pick up a really big chav style sub 🙈, have it facing towards the rear seats. For me the difference in bass was night and day this way! Aiming the sub at the boot lid really detracted from the quality.

bozothenutter said:

you mean fit in the original locations?

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I'm not technical, but I mean that will work and be an upgrade and will just plug into the standard headunit. I've been told before that it's pointless upgrading speakers etc unless you change the HU.

Davyy said:

I've been told before that it's pointless upgrading speakers etc unless you change the HU.

Click to expand...

spot on.

Davyy said:

I'm not technical, but I mean that will work and be an upgrade and will just plug into the standard headunit. I've been told before that it's pointless upgrading speakers etc unless you change the HU.

Click to expand...

anything will plug in mate....just like speakers at home...at worst you'll have to cut some wires or get extension leads.
standard speakers with a sub would do fine, if filtering the bass out of the fronts.
Replacing the standards with more capable speakers like Hertz (what I have)..will give the speakers the headroom to deal with the bass.
both options will need crossovers adding tough.
didn't pioneer make a ready to fit set?

found it:

http://www.pioneer.eu/nl/products/car_accessories/Renault/Clio_II_3-door/03_1998/speakers.html

Yep, Changing speakers is a long winded bugger about of extracting tweeters from the top of the dash, rewiring some crossovers somewhere in the dash and then kicking back and listening to how low grade the standard unit is, in high def.

Which is clearly a much better idea than chopping out the OEM (AKA s**t) headunit, which takes nearly an entire 5 minutes.

If you want to be all "OMG, so OEM", then just keep the stock unit in the glovebox and refit it anytime that you think it matters. You might do it twice.

some of the german makes do boring looking HU don't they?
something like becker or blaupunkt?...never mind, Becker only do navigation now.....and blaupunkt have gone all shiny too!

Becker, yes.
But you can't buy them new any more and when you could they were about 3x more expensive that the equivalent Alpine.
Nakamichi is another one which looked nice and standard, had a tax on it for exactly that reason and doesn't exist on shelves any more.

How about an auxiliary install, put the new stereo in the glovebox, run all the stalk-adapters through to there.
Then disconnect the OEM unit and leave it for dead, in situ.

Sure, you lose a glovebox, but you gain a....errr... dead head unit in your dashboard?

As everyone else says, you need a HU in order to unlock your sound potential. I myself need quality sound in my life, my set up has lasted me 3 years and still is the best thing I've heard and everyone else who's heard it agrees. And all I have is a sub and upgraded HU running on standard speakers. Sounds simple but yet they're expensive!

Running a chavtastic Vibe black air 10" sub and amp combo taking up half my boot space which is connected to the highly recommended but yet expensive "Parrot Asteroid"

Too much stuff to list but it's;

Handsfree phone etc
Voice recognition mics (press the speak button to call or choose an artist to play)
Subwoofer input
Detachable face
Bluetooth
Line in AUX
SD Card
2x USB port
1x USB dedicated to Apple products (grace note media database, basically portable iTunes)
AM&FM Radio
GPS/Satnav
Couple of Apps

Plus Quite a few more I've missed and a truck load of custom settings to tweak!

Here's a few photos of said unit and a few options I've just mentioned:











Here's the mini iTunes I was on about. If using the apple usb you get options to see your album artwork etc, use the voice recognition search to just say a artist or album name, it'll search said Apple product and play

Here's a few shots and settings:
















Option with or without the album cover:





With the apple usb you can connect and charge your phone (if Apple) it uses your stored music as above. In my case I use a in car usb in the cig lighter to charge the phone and I've hid my apple wire as so down and around under the Gaitor plastic connected to an old unused iPod i had lying around. It charges when the cars on and boots up when the cars on so Music is always there. Like so:







Detachable face just incase you're paranoid about theft. SD card slot behind it






More settings;









Anyway that's that. Don't look like a gameboy or Christmas tree, tons of settings for your toons and different ways to blast your tunes in the retail parks or race wars.

Tad expensive but then again how much are people willing to pay for uprated speakers and tweeters?

Enjoy my long ass winded post that took me a while to write up.

Yes, the Asteroid is fairly good, Ant runs one in the Toledo and says nothing but good of it.

Looks like a nice head unit.
Only snag is its no longer available.
Just searched the net, and non for sale... anywhere....

There's an updated version which allows for Google maps to be displayed on the screen, giving you some kind of poverty-spec fixed-nav solution.