Advice on wattage required please!

Mister-M5

Hey folks,

Not sure if I should be posting here or in the motoring section but perhaps someone may be able to assist.

I was hoping to upgrade the audio setup in my car. As of now, it has the standard factory 2 x 6x9s in the rear and the 2 x 6.5s in the front doors. Sound quality wouldn't be great.

I have a basic Silvercrest head unit from Aldi/Lidl. Nothing major, does the job.

I was hoping to upgrade the system all round. Louder, better sound quality from both front and back, with some decent bass. I don't need to be able to bounce my way to work in the mornings and I won't be opening my boot outside of Halfords to provide a PA system to the car park. At the same time, I would like to be able to turn it up without it crackling.

I drive a small hatchback and a friend of mine suggested that, given the size of my car and the fact that I won't be running a nightclub from within, I won't need a crazy amount of watts to achieve the sound I was hoping for.

I was hoping for some suggestions on the following:
- Do I need an amp?
- Does wattage matter if I buy decent quality products? And if so, how much do I need?
- Will I need a new head unit?
- Do I need 2 or 3 way speakers/amp?

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

ZENER

I'd dump the Silvercrest to start with, any I've heard were just awful. Get a decent head unit - after all this is where the music and amplification come from. If that part isn't of good quality then no amount of good speakers will help. Most now provide 4x30W and some even up to 4x50W. Try to get something with at least aSub output at the rear, if it also has an AUX out as well then all the better for connecting more amps in the future. Halford do some good deals on stereos with Bluetooth Handsfree and A2DP audio streaming from your smartphone along with USB and/or iPhone - iPod connectivity. I got a decent enough Sony head unit from them for about 125 euro with all the above features.

The 6x9s should be upgradable to a better make/construction but it's down to budget. You could pay from 30 quid up to a few hundred for these though personal I'd get adaptors and fit standard round cones, there's a reason hi-fi speakers don't use elliptical cones. If these are fitted to a flimsy parcel shelf as is typical in hatchbacks then consider beefing it up with some half inch MDF to stop them vibrating and rattling.

Upgrade the stock 6.5" in the doors and fit a set of small tweeters higher up on the door or the dash somewhere. High frequencies are directional and get lost in the footwells of a car and stereo imagery is lost.

Start with that and see how it goes and perhaps add a small powered Sub in the boot if you still think its a bit weak.

Best of luck !

Ken

Slaphead07

On a slightly related matter but probably best in the car forums....

Ken old buddy do you know of anyone who'd do a small job fitting 4 speakers in car doors? Cutting into panels and wiring involved. Not big enough for most outfits to consider and I don't feel like crawling around doing it myself (too old!):D

ZENER

What car are they going into ? PM me the details if you prefer ?

Ken

Slaphead07

ZENER wrote: »

What car are they going into ? PM me the details if you prefer ?

Ken

A 1994 Merc W124 estate. Door speakers, nothing too fancy, no sub or anything like that. I may stick with the half-decent Panasonic head unit it currently has because it controls a 6 CD magazine

ZENER

CDs !!? How quaint I'm surprised you don't have one of these . . .



I take it there are no speakers at all currently in the front doors ? You mentioned 4 speakers, where are the other two going ? What do you have in the car at the moment ?

Ken

Rather than take this thread over we should take it to PM from here, yeah ?

Slaphead07

ZENER wrote: »

Rather than take this thread over we should take it to PM from here, yeah ?

Yep