OK, I have the car now and won't be driving it until April.
I am just starting to familiarize myself with it and got my copy of the JTIS system installed at home.

AUDIO: Basically the 'alpine' audio in it I find pretty mediocre.

Can someone give me a rundown on what its weakness's are? Is it poor speakers - as I suspect, or the amp or what?

I am likely going to put a double DIN fancy head unit with navigation etc. What size are the door speakers?
I have one new Sub woofer given to me with the car - SHOULD the stock subs in good condition sound ok up to moderate volumes -as this is an older car, it is difficult for me to determine if they are normal or worn out.

For comparison, my 04 Volvo T5 audio system blows this system away, and I would be happy to change speakers and end up at that level.

Looking for some suggestions, and experience.
I am not looking for curb shaking 7kwatt 36" woofer performance.......

Thanks
Pete in Toronto

 

Start with some searches on here (and the UK forum)

 

Hey there Pete in Toronto;

I also run a 2003 R and your statement of mediocre sound system is right on the money which considering when new the car was in the region of 35,000 quid, is something of a let down. The sub is horrible if even pushed only slightly and overall sound quality is just okay.

I have done a lot of reading and my first task will be to change out the speakers for better units. Lot of great information to be found by lots of guys that have done this in the forum however, I will not be changing the head unit.

I am trying to find a more reasonable price on the ACM and feel that this with new speakers will give me the system I am looking for.

Like the man in orthopedic shoes, I stand to be corrected.

 

This is a very interesting topic, thanks for starting/posting. I would be interested in finding out what head units would interface the steering wheel stereo controll buttons.

 

None directly...You will need to wire in an adapter...

 

in my own STR the subs were the weakest link. Actually the door speakers arent that bad, my suggestion is removing the factory subs, integrate a sub amplifier and replace the subs. I have 8's in my rear deck off the factory amp, and it made it worse actually. At first it was okay, but the lack of power available from the factory amp is the downfall. As a start, go with possibly a good 10" sub in a small enclosure and add about a 150-300 watt sub amp. You can use the factory wiring for the factory subs to get signal into the amp. Start there and then work your way into other stuff. Just my 2 cents

 

I don't think you can swap the head unit on a nav equipped S-type.

The audio portion will work but I don't believe you can retrofit the regular climate controls to the car. Anything after the headunit of course can be easily swapped / modified etc...

 

Jason
You seam to be the guru from what I have searched....

1) Can the sub enclosure from an 01 which appears to have two 6x9's in it - fit in the 03, or is the package tray metal all changed?

2) You seamed to be considering making an enclosre for subs to resolve this, has that stopped?

Does anybody know what the Frequency response is for the Alpine 'upgrade' door speakers, and is there anything available which can be used there which has a FR down to 20Hz, lowest I have seen is 25Hz I think.

Pete

 

Pete, stop looking for door speakers that can go to 20 hz, if they say they can, RUNNNNNNN it is nothing more than a lie. i had super 6's built and could barely get audible below 50hz....trust me when i tell you that anything below 50 will destroy a run of the mill 6" with any additional power.

With moving across the country again, it took some time out of the modification stages...but since im in warmer weather again, it will be easier to work on it now. I unwrapped my amps last night, and started the planning of the install. I plan on documenting it as i go. However it will be a slow process at first.

I dont know if the underdeck enclosure will work. I removed some metal from mine to allow the 8 inch drivers to play through the rear deck. They are NOT in an enclosure at this time, however i will be using either 2 10" or 1 12" depending on what i do with my front stage. <insert evil laugh here>

www.imagedynamicsusa.com these are the speakers of choice
www.arcaudio.com are my Signature Series Amplifiers

 

Thanks for the note,
I am patient, and I don't want to do anything twice!
I'll follow your posts as things progress.

 

I just secured the ACM at a very reasonable price so will be installing that soon. After that it will sub's so looking forward to some posts on progress there.

 

I found a saab 9 5 (6x9?) subwoofer locally which is not too expensive to experiment with, may consider trying it in place of the two 6's.
Will take me a while to do this, but it might be a worthwhile experiment.
Pete

 

PHD12volt (this is a long post, but if people chip in and answer the questions it should serve useful to everyone)
I have the JITS installed, AND have viewed the schematic at least once but now it doesn't start up properly on my system - have to trouble shoot.
In the meantime, has anyone summarized somewhere what the "alpine' system actually is? ie

What are the door speakers actually - it appears from some posts that they may be 6" round in an adapter which holds them in a 5x7 or 6x9 pocket in the door - but this could be earlier cars.

What power is the alpine amp in the back - my ***** nilly guess is that it is 35w x 4 and maybe a sub output but I am not sure right now. and I can't seam to find any sub amplifier - but I have yet to take the trim down from the package tray.

Are there adapter plugs available for the rear amp - I know they exist for the head units.

I have seen notes about fiber optic links front to back - but this may be for the factory NAV are there any details like this I need to know about?

If I replace the factory head unit, does the changer become un-usable with aftermarket head units?

Here is what I am considering:
A new head unit for the sake of navigation and bluetooth phone/blackberry hands free, and video/rear camera etc.
Use available double din adapters, and steering wheel link adapters, and
wiring connection adapters.

Amp - need to know what it is currently before deciding to change, and also find something eaily compatible. and hopefully fit in close to the same place.

Sub's - remove the 6's consider some other possibilities driven by their own amp - I have a few things to try;
For JBL sub enclsoure with its amp - I have the stock 6.5" ones and oen which I put a 8" JL driver into.
Build a custom enclosure which will have the volume, but not hang down too far from the package tray.
Consider other OEM sub enclosures like SAAB, or BOSE and see what will fit nicely.
Consider one large air baffle sub.

To some extent a reasonable baseline is the system in my volvo V70 T5, and consider just getting components from this and integrating - he maybe my wife wouldn't notice some swappring around??????

Pete

 

one thing to watch for when swapping in equiptment, check your impedence's before wiring anything. Hate to see you blow out an amp because BOSE has a 1 ohm impedence at times. I checked the factory subs in my vehicle, and they seem to be sitting right at 2.5 ohms. Each.

click here for the procedure to remove the factory subs in my vehicle: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3358987/2

pages 2 and 3 detail the removal process with pics.

 

Thanks I had already seen and reviewed that.
I figure I can remove them, and then possibly use the mouting screw holes from the other direction, and or the child anchor bolts as mouting aids for what ever I do moving forward.
PEte

 

you will need to cut metal out if you end up doing 2- 8" subs like i did. make a baffle plate for the subs then bottom mount them from there, is basically what i did. I havent taken pics of them installed right now, however i am cleaning her out this weekend, and if i remember ill snap a few of them. You will see where they hang down, and the room lost by doing this.

 

Jason,

Are those sub holes in the rear deck of all the S-types, or just the ones that came with the Alpine Premium stereo? Any idea if they are there what they are covered with in a non Alpine car?

George

 

I have most of this apart, thanks to PHD12volts photo thread.
My car has the sunshade, and the package tray cover is still pretty snug, does anybody know if there are more fasterners? Kind of cold and dark in the garage, so I am not working with the best of light.
I intend to get the factory subs out and put the tray back in and button things up.
Pete

 

What kind of power are you looking for? I used a 600w Alpine PDX series in my 300, a very nice class-D amp I think. They don't get hot and they're pretty compact; roughly 10x7.5x2.5 inches. I used it to power two 12" Alpine type-S woofers. Great bass considering how shallow those speakers are. (what can i say, i like alpines)

 

Can someone send me the Audo system schemaitc for the alpine system in the 03.
I can't get JITS working, and I know it was in there.
GOT JITS WORKING THIS MORNING on my laptop and have printed my schematic.

I am trying to plan my install, and really need this to clarify things.
Pete