200 cup & 106 GTi
Let's face it, the standard system is acceptable at best. I can't see the point in some £30 speakers and a cheap/std head unit so bought some decent stuff. Of course i could have spent much more but there's a limit to how much i wanted to spend for now.
Head unit: Pioneer DEH-P6000UB
Speakers: Focal 130A1 components front & JBL GTO coax rear
Accessories: Autoleads steering wheel & Display interface, Ipod Nano(gen2) & Lacie skwarim 30GB miniHD
.
The head unit;
Bit of Jimmy Eat World(Display shows folder/album(Bleed american) and track name(Get it faster)
I worked in car audio for a good 4 years so have tested every make from goodmans to nakamichi throughout their whole ranges. Technically for quality i should be looking at Alpine and Naka but as an overall package i stick to pioneer for head units. I bought this one because of the many standard features. USB control being most important, this allows full control of the LaCie skwarim hard drive, it loads the TOC for 30gb of music in around 5 seconds, better than the several minutes my old kenwood usb unit took. It also allows direct ipod control & charging and will access music on more or less any mp3 player as well as a simple 3.5mm aux in on the back. On top of that you get the usual MP3 WMA etc compatibility on normal CDs and great sound quality from the CDs.
Another thing that draws me to pioneer is the great inbuilt EQ settings, can change freq for std EQ settings, width of eq band, High pass filter for inbuilt amp & preouts(freq adjustable) LPF as well, variable loudness(always turned off), great resolution to volume settings(0-62 compared to usually 0-35ish) it comes with an IR remote included as well. And just the general build quality and looks. Only ever had one of thousands of units back, compared to jvc and sony which i used to see on a daily basis.
Downsides: Not easy to use, one control knob does more or less everything, requires quite a bit of force to get it to work properly, rather concentrate on driving. That's it really.
Bargain at £118+P&P
*Plugs http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/home.html *
Lacie hard drive:
Great bit of kit, looks a bit camp but whatever. Had mine almost 2 years now, been dropped, abused, plugged into hundreds of computers, been on for days at a time and still looks and works spot on. Bear in mind this is a small internal disc which uses much less power than the larger portable drives so is much more reliable when using it with a car stereo.
Sure you can find somewhere on google that sells them, think i got mine from scan or ebuyer.
Front speakers(usually with grilles fitted) aren't noticeable to even the eagle eyed:
Sans tweeter cover:
What a ballache to fit.
Anyway i've always liked the sensitivity of focals and the sweet treble that they give. Also they are french so should keep the snail-eating car happy, i doubt it'd like english or japanese speakers.
With the crossovers set at -3db on both sides the treble isn't too bright and overpowering, midbass is great and they seem to be sounding very good, sure they'll loosen up after a week or so of easy listening. Also a great value buy from CAS @ £80+P&P. I'd definitely recommend buying these over some mainstream speakers that cost the same or a little less.
Rear speakers:
Piss easy to fit compared to fronts! Just using them to fill the rear of the car with sound, faded forwards by 5 so that they don't dirty the lovely sound of the fronts but they are a million times better than the standard crap anyway and will keep back seat passengers happy. Treble is overpowering as always with JBLs
Head unit: Pioneer DEH-P6000UB
Speakers: Focal 130A1 components front & JBL GTO coax rear
Accessories: Autoleads steering wheel & Display interface, Ipod Nano(gen2) & Lacie skwarim 30GB miniHD
.
The head unit;
Bit of Jimmy Eat World(Display shows folder/album(Bleed american) and track name(Get it faster)
I worked in car audio for a good 4 years so have tested every make from goodmans to nakamichi throughout their whole ranges. Technically for quality i should be looking at Alpine and Naka but as an overall package i stick to pioneer for head units. I bought this one because of the many standard features. USB control being most important, this allows full control of the LaCie skwarim hard drive, it loads the TOC for 30gb of music in around 5 seconds, better than the several minutes my old kenwood usb unit took. It also allows direct ipod control & charging and will access music on more or less any mp3 player as well as a simple 3.5mm aux in on the back. On top of that you get the usual MP3 WMA etc compatibility on normal CDs and great sound quality from the CDs.
Another thing that draws me to pioneer is the great inbuilt EQ settings, can change freq for std EQ settings, width of eq band, High pass filter for inbuilt amp & preouts(freq adjustable) LPF as well, variable loudness(always turned off), great resolution to volume settings(0-62 compared to usually 0-35ish) it comes with an IR remote included as well. And just the general build quality and looks. Only ever had one of thousands of units back, compared to jvc and sony which i used to see on a daily basis.
Downsides: Not easy to use, one control knob does more or less everything, requires quite a bit of force to get it to work properly, rather concentrate on driving. That's it really.
Bargain at £118+P&P
*Plugs http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/home.html *
Lacie hard drive:
Great bit of kit, looks a bit camp but whatever. Had mine almost 2 years now, been dropped, abused, plugged into hundreds of computers, been on for days at a time and still looks and works spot on. Bear in mind this is a small internal disc which uses much less power than the larger portable drives so is much more reliable when using it with a car stereo.
Sure you can find somewhere on google that sells them, think i got mine from scan or ebuyer.
Front speakers(usually with grilles fitted) aren't noticeable to even the eagle eyed:
Sans tweeter cover:
What a ballache to fit.
Anyway i've always liked the sensitivity of focals and the sweet treble that they give. Also they are french so should keep the snail-eating car happy, i doubt it'd like english or japanese speakers.
With the crossovers set at -3db on both sides the treble isn't too bright and overpowering, midbass is great and they seem to be sounding very good, sure they'll loosen up after a week or so of easy listening. Also a great value buy from CAS @ £80+P&P. I'd definitely recommend buying these over some mainstream speakers that cost the same or a little less.
Rear speakers:
Piss easy to fit compared to fronts! Just using them to fill the rear of the car with sound, faded forwards by 5 so that they don't dirty the lovely sound of the fronts but they are a million times better than the standard crap anyway and will keep back seat passengers happy. Treble is overpowering as always with JBLs
