Sound system in camper

Unregistered39

Hello all,

This is probably more of a general motoring question but I'd really like to put a decent sound system (stereo? What the hell is it called now?) into the van (2001 VW Transporter). Not stupid money because I'm already going to be paying for the van until I expire but, say, 500? (Or less, less is good). Any recommendations? I'm Dublin based but could travel.

TIA, E

colm_mcm

What do you need it to do better than what you have now?

Unregistered39

colm_mcm wrote: »

What do you need it to do better than what you have now?

Anything would be an improvement. It has 18-year-old rubbish speakers. If I'm going to change it I'd like to do it properly once.

CelticRambler

For when you're driving or when parked up? The ambient noise when driving my Ducato means anything over a tenner would be wasted. Road noise, wind noise from the overcab, whistling through the vents, jingling of cuttlery ... and of course, a 2.8l diesel engine trying to pull 3t up a 5%,6%, 8% hill ...

Parked up, unless I'm sharing my interior space with other people, I've found it better to wear headphones so as not to bother/attract the attention of anyone in the exterior space.

colm_mcm

Unregistered39 wrote: »

Anything would be an improvement. It has 18-year-old rubbish speakers. If I'm going to change it I'd like to do it properly once.

I’d start making a wish list in terms of what you need

Will you be using it when parked up (will drain van battery)
Do you want to add speakers in the back (is there room?)
Do you want the likes of a subwoofer?
Do you want Bluetooth
Do you want an aux-in
Do you want an aftermaket headunit or retain the original (security May be a concern)
Do you want the likes of android auto/Apple CarPlay for spotify, navigation etc

Unregistered39

CelticRambler wrote: »

For when you're driving or when parked up? The ambient noise when driving my Ducato means anything over a tenner would be wasted. Road noise, wind noise from the overcab, whistling through the vents, jingling of cuttlery ... and of course, a 2.8l diesel engine trying to pull 3t up a 5%,6%, 8% hill ...

Parked up, unless I'm sharing my interior space with other people, I've found it better to wear headphones so as not to bother/attract the attention of anyone in the exterior space.

Both, ideally, although with you on the noise thing. There'll always be at least two of us so headphones probably a tad antisocial

Unregistered39

colm_mcm wrote: »

I’d start making a wish list in terms of what you need

Will you be using it when parked up (will drain van battery), yes, but probably limited.

Do you want to add speakers in the back (is there room?). Love to and yes.

Do you want the likes of a subwoofer? Um, had to look up exactly what this does (see what you're dealing with?). Not essential I'd say.

Do you want Bluetooth, Definitely.

Do you want an aux-in, Ideally, yes.

Do you want an aftermaket headunit or retain the original (security May be a concern), Yep, the one in it now is only android compatible, and I'm Apple.
Do you want the likes of android auto/Apple CarPlay for spotify, navigation etc

, That's all sounding very expensive so I'll say ...no?

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this by the way!

cnocbui

Replace the existing speakers with HQ drop in replacements that would fit in the same space. MB-Quart or Focal are good. Connect the speakers to an amplifier powered off a tap to an always live circuit, but with a switch so you can turn it on/off. Leave it on and you run the risk of flattening the battery. Get an RCA to 3.5mm headphone style plug cable and plug the RCA ends into the L&R inputs of the amplifier and the headphone socket end into your phone or iPod.

Best to have the power switch to the amp off before you plug or unplug the ipod/phone, or you will get potentially loud and nasty noises. A 20-30 watt per channel stereo amp should suffice. Look for one where the THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) is 0.01% or lower at the rated power output.

The quality of the speakers and how they are mounted will make the largest impact on the resulting sound quality.

Unregistered39

cnocbui wrote: »

Replace the existing speakers with HQ drop in replacements that would fit in the same space. MB-Quart or Focal are good. Connect the speakers to an amplifier powered off a tap to an always live circuit, but with a switch so you can turn it on/off. Leave it on and you run the risk of flattening the battery. Get an RCA to 3.5mm headphone style plug cable and plug the RCA ends into the L&R inputs of the amplifier and the headphone socket end into your phone or iPod.

Best to have the power switch to the amp off before you plug or unplug the ipod/phone, or you will get potentially loud and nasty noises. A 20-30 watt per channel stereo amp should suffice. Look for one where the THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) is 0.01% or lower at the rated power output.

The quality of the speakers and how they are mounted will make the largest impact on the resulting sound quality.

OK, I've a lot of research and self-educating to do. Thank you!

colm_mcm

A good rechargeable Bluetooth speaker would probably be enough for when you’re parked.

As above, replace the factory speakers and see where you are then. If your headunit is an eBay Chinese job, it may be the reason for poor sound.

CelticRambler

Unregistered39 wrote: »

Both, ideally, although with you on the noise thing. There'll always be at least two of us so headphones probably a tad antisocial

It's a question of priorities, then! I have a four-point speaker system, that I switch to rear-only when we're parked up, but the placement of the rear (living quarters) speakers means that only someone sitting on the table is getting a proper stereo experience.

When we were travelling as 2 adults + four children, and the adults wanted to watch anything other than PG movie, we used a set of headphones each with a splitter plugged into the laptop.

These days, everyone is "over age" so that's not a problem ... rather, it's a question of those in the back not wanting to listen to the same [music] as those in the front, so individual headphones/earphones have become the norm.

autumnalcore

You can get car audio stuff very cheap on ebay used.

I paid about €100 including parcel motel for pioneer pro series speakers, tweeters and a jvc bluetooth head unit.

The jvc head unit is the firstone I've ever had that didn't require constant repairing with different phones and the jvc microphone produces excellent handsfree call quality when mounted by the sunvisor (considering how noisy the van is!)

One thing to note in a van is that treble is very directional meaning that your ankles are the only bit of your body that door speakers sound good to. You will want dash / pillar mounted tweeters and mid-bass drivers in the doors.

Most speaker specifications are lies and nonsense. A decent speaker will have a very substantial magnet on the back. Beware of speakers with plastic covers over the magnets to disguise how measly they are. Small magnet produces far less volume for the same power input. 20w into a quality speaker could be far louder than 50w into a crappy one.

Unregistered39

Thanks all for taking the time to reply, really kind of you. I may start by replacing the head unit and see how much that improves things.

cnocbui

Speakers would by far make the most difference. Changing the head unit to one with a higher clean (low distortion) power output, probably wont make much, if any, improvement.

Unregistered39

cnocbui wrote: »

Speakers would by far make the most difference. Changing the head unit to one with a higher clean (low distortion) power output, probably wont make much, if any, improvement.

Good point, although I need to replace it anyway as the current one doesn't work! Hopefully I can get a package deal ...

cnocbui

I haven't used a head unit in a car for about 15 years. I switched to an iPod as I just want to listen to music, not yak. Put in a tiny 14 wpch Nakamich PA-150 4 channel amp, connected an RCA -> 3.5mm lead to it and replaced the front door speakers with MB-Quarts that were the same size and shape as the originals, I just had to make spacers to stop the beefier magnets obstructing the window glass, but was still able to fit the original door grills. I was able to just use the existing wiring to the speakers by unplugging the socket from the back of the factory head unit, buying a socket matching the head unit one and then wiring the speaker outputs from the amp into the socket and the power wires then just plugged it into the unplugged speaker lead socket. Volume control comes from the iPod - sometimes the phone. iPod eliminates the possibility of Guards going on about a device capable of making phone calls. I could remove the amp and return all except the speakers to stock in about 10 minutes - just swap the plug back to the factory head unit.

CelticRambler

While I regularly feed my system with MP3 or MP4 files, I wouldn't ever get rid of a real radio from a campervan. There have been so many times during my travels that I've used/needed the radio to get local information about travel/weather/other goings-on, or just to listen to live events that I definitely wouldn't want to be dependent on arguing with a phone/tablet, a foreign (maybe non-EU mobile signal) and patchy data while driving.

cnocbui

My mobile phone has an FM receiver, I could just plug that in. I understand your argument, though, makes sense with your use case.

CelticRambler

So does my phone (and tablet) - but neither has RDS, and it's a real pain in the hole trying to find the "other" frequency for the station with e.g. the traffic news when you're not familiar with the voices/jingles/language/etc.

It's also damn near impossible to use the FM receiver effectively when you're also using the device for navigation!

cnocbui

I use a simless Nokia 720 phone for navigation - essentially a dedicated GPS - using HERE offline maps. Much handier than using my phone.

Unregistered39

Crikey, I should really have opened my OP by saying I know absolutely sod all about electrics, just love my music! Food for thought everyone, and thanks again.

delynet

I had a really crappy stereo in my Ducato based camper. Switched it out for one of these

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32816764445.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dZfOGEe

Got it for around 130 in one of the Aliexpress flash sales. I did need to cut the lights on signal wire to it as I need to leave lights on in my camper as the rear camera gets power from this supply. If the radio go a signal that the light were on it would dim making it impossible to see during the day.

Really handy that it has full European maps built in.

Only negative is I have not worked out how to get it to remember radio stations after power down.

autumnalcore

delynet wrote: »

Only negative is I have not worked out how to get it to remember radio stations after power down.

This is common issue accross lots of vehicles you need to swap the 12v cables, good Din adapter cables usually have these with inline bullets for ease of swapping.

cnocbui

delynet wrote: »

I had a really crappy stereo in my Ducato based camper. Switched it out for one of these

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32816764445.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dZfOGEe

Got it for around 130 in one of the Aliexpress flash sales. I did need to cut the lights on signal wire to it as I need to leave lights on in my camper as the rear camera gets power from this supply. If the radio go a signal that the light were on it would dim making it impossible to see during the day.

Really handy that it has full European maps built in.

Only negative is I have not worked out how to get it to remember radio stations after power down.

Back in the day, such head units would have two 12v positive power supply leads. A thicker red one (usually) that went through the ignition switch and a thinner yellow secondary one which was connected to an always live + wire like the one to a clock or interior light. That is probably what you need here in order to retain the memory.