Discussion
Went out with the kids in the Cerb yesterday. I'd forgotten how bad the stereo is! (It's the standard Pioneer head unit -- no text display of CD tracks -- with an autochanger in the boot.)
Thinking of doing an upgrade in stages:
Stage 1: Alpine head unit with iPod interface (all our family's music is on iPods), 6.5" Infinity shallow depth speakers in the front -- will probably disconnect the rears
Stage 2: Sub between the rear seats and an amp driving it
Stage 3: Replace the rear speakers (maybe some 4" Infinitys)
A couple of questions though.
What can I do about mounting an iPod? We have all sorts of variants that would need to be connected (Photo, Mini, Nano). My wife's car (BMW with Dension IceLink Plus) has a cable that comes out into the sunglasses holder above the gearstick, where any size iPod can be connected and the cover shut for a real stealth install. If I do the same in the Cerb, the iPod will start flying around when cornering, accelerating, braking....
As I don't really know much about in-car audio, is it considered "form" to run the four speakers from the head unit's onboard amp, and the sub from a separate amp? The main speakers will be between 35 and 50W RMS, and I guess the sub will be a couple of hundred. How do you size the amp to the sub? How to also manage the amount of bass going to the sub?
Half*rds are doing the Alpine head unit for £200 with free fitting. Anyone entrusted a Cerb to them? I'm envisioning a disaster of blown fuses and melted wiring.
Thinking of doing an upgrade in stages:
Stage 1: Alpine head unit with iPod interface (all our family's music is on iPods), 6.5" Infinity shallow depth speakers in the front -- will probably disconnect the rears
Stage 2: Sub between the rear seats and an amp driving it
Stage 3: Replace the rear speakers (maybe some 4" Infinitys)
A couple of questions though.
What can I do about mounting an iPod? We have all sorts of variants that would need to be connected (Photo, Mini, Nano). My wife's car (BMW with Dension IceLink Plus) has a cable that comes out into the sunglasses holder above the gearstick, where any size iPod can be connected and the cover shut for a real stealth install. If I do the same in the Cerb, the iPod will start flying around when cornering, accelerating, braking....
As I don't really know much about in-car audio, is it considered "form" to run the four speakers from the head unit's onboard amp, and the sub from a separate amp? The main speakers will be between 35 and 50W RMS, and I guess the sub will be a couple of hundred. How do you size the amp to the sub? How to also manage the amount of bass going to the sub?
Half*rds are doing the Alpine head unit for £200 with free fitting. Anyone entrusted a Cerb to them? I'm envisioning a disaster of blown fuses and melted wiring.
Most have universal connector blocks now and its just a case of joining the right blocks together.
BTW, I just use an IPOD dock/fm base that plugs into the cigarette lighter. The quality is good enough for me. They are about £20. Much more convenient than messing around with the CD autochanger that I have in the boot.
BTW, I just use an IPOD dock/fm base that plugs into the cigarette lighter. The quality is good enough for me. They are about £20. Much more convenient than messing around with the CD autochanger that I have in the boot.
For an ultimate sound i would not use the amp on the head unit, a good effective way would be, a good quality four channel amp, this could power the front door speakers off channels 1&2 and then channels 3&4 could be bridged together to power the sub. Or a 2 amp system a four channel amp for the channels 1&2 for front door speakers, channels 3&4 for the rear speakers, and then a 2 channel amp bridged up to power the sub. I run JL Audio speakers and do find them to be nice and crisp and even drop low in the mid range. I have not got these in the cerbie yet as they are a 3 way set and cant find any were to mount all 3 speakers, but know doubt i will be investing in a set of 2 ways and slamming them in.
carl_w said:Definitely go that way rather than Pioneer's iPod adapter, as its a pain in the ar$e to say the least becuse the interface just doesn't work well with a good selection of music.
Thinking of doing an upgrade in stages:
Stage 1: Alpine head unit with iPod interface (all our family's music is on iPods),
You've got to setup your playlists well, or live with albums that exist at the start of the alphanet in genre/albums/artists etc.
carl_w said:We must have had the same one then
I think the Pioneer head unit is left over stock from 1985 or something.
I bought the iPod adpater thinking I could just plug that into it, then found that it didn't even support iLink, so could even support a CD Changer or anything - now all rectified. The one good thing about the old one is it doesn't have any silly toys, animated screens etc. just plays music, unlike most head units these days.
carl_w said:Mine a non-smokers car either, so no ideally sized slot.
Where have you put the iPod? Do you have a bracket for it? An obvious solution would be a little tray where the ashtray is, but my car doesn't seem to have an ashtray nor a hole for it!
At the moment its in the CD caddy bag I have, hidden in the pocket so it can't be seen and won't fly around during high speed cornering (or spinning at the moment given my rear tyres!), not sure what to do long term though...
carl_w said:
Went out with the kids in the Cerb yesterday. I'd forgotten how bad the stereo is! (It's the standard Pioneer head unit -- no text display of CD tracks -- with an autochanger in the boot.)
Thinking of doing an upgrade in stages:
Stage 1: Alpine head unit with iPod interface (all our family's music is on iPods), 6.5" Infinity shallow depth speakers in the front -- will probably disconnect the rears
Stage 2: Sub between the rear seats and an amp driving it
Stage 3: Replace the rear speakers (maybe some 4" Infinitys)
A couple of questions though.
What can I do about mounting an iPod? We have all sorts of variants that would need to be connected (Photo, Mini, Nano). My wife's car (BMW with Dension IceLink Plus) has a cable that comes out into the sunglasses holder above the gearstick, where any size iPod can be connected and the cover shut for a real stealth install. If I do the same in the Cerb, the iPod will start flying around when cornering, accelerating, braking....
As I don't really know much about in-car audio, is it considered "form" to run the four speakers from the head unit's onboard amp, and the sub from a separate amp? The main speakers will be between 35 and 50W RMS, and I guess the sub will be a couple of hundred. How do you size the amp to the sub? How to also manage the amount of bass going to the sub?
Half*rds are doing the Alpine head unit for £200 with free fitting. Anyone entrusted a Cerb to them? I'm envisioning a disaster of blown fuses and melted wiring.
They weren't keen on Hardwiring my road angel, so it is in the cigar lighter socket.I find the Staff at Stafford Halfords very helpful, especially a pher called Lizzy, she lost her boyfriend in his Cerby last July
(Jason Benn)She's only 20 and when i took mine in Lizzy was the audio and Road Angel Expert. Imagine how bad I felt when she told me she Hadn't seen one since she lost her boyfriend.Anyway she was fine with it in the end and she got me to start it up for her and she still wants one when she can afford the insurance. This is the Stereo set up in mine It is a sony Xpod with a single slot Cd 5 sony xpod speakers including an 1100 watt subwoofer between the seats and a big silver box in the boot(sony xpod 500watt amplifier).Hope this gives you some ideas cheers Dougie.
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)matches the exterior.itsallyellow said:
im currently doing the same kind of thing to my cerb. not sure how its going to work yet but im putting the system from my range rover into the tvr. 10,000 watts worth!! probably going to build it down the middle of the car.
Have fun and good luck. I also did quite a quite major install (though not 10,000 watts!!!!!). Don't forget to post some pics.
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