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Technical Anyone played with sound system yet?

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Technical Anyone played with sound system yet?

Blank2k2

Blank2k2

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Just wondering if anyone's hooked up there own speakers or subs yet?

I've been wanting to put a low profile sub in my Eleganza, When i asked Fiat dealership they told me id need a new ECU for £500, + sub for £200 & work at an hourly rate of £30/month, which smells of bull to me.

But I've been wondering if the GP models sub wiring is in there anywhere? or anyone knows how to wire up a small sub without changing the headunit (don't want to lose Blue&Me)
 
Well i had the garage install the pioneer front speakers and the pioneer 6 X4 rear parcel shelf ones for me (well they only provided a connection to the speakers behind the rear panel so I could plug the parcel shelf in). Having done it myself in the Grande I remembered what a bitch it was, having to take the back seats out and all, and thought that £120 for them to do it was a good option. I have to say that the speakers sound much better then they did on the grande so I am guessing the hi-fi system in the Evo must be better quality than the one in the Grande.
 
ayrshiredude said:
Well i had the garage install the pioneer front speakers and the pioneer 6 X4 rear parcel shelf ones for me (well they only provided a connection to the speakers behind the rear panel so I could plug the parcel shelf in). Having done it myself in the Grande I remembered what a bitch it was, having to take the back seats out and all, and thought that £120 for them to do it was a good option. I have to say that the speakers sound much better then they did on the grande so I am guessing the hi-fi system in the Evo must be better quality than the one in the Grande.
Click to expand...

Yeah i can't be dealing with taking seats n stuff out, maybe it'd just be better off taking it to a professional place and getting stuff installed.... Kinda feel abit daft going into a decent stereo place and asking for speakers to be uprated but leave the low powered (incomparison) headunit etc alone, but eh i guess they don't always expect to have tracky bottom cap wearers wanting to put £3000 worth of system in there 1.2 Corsa's
 
Blank2k2 said:
Yeah i can't be dealing with taking seats n stuff out, maybe it'd just be better off taking it to a professional place and getting stuff installed.... Kinda feel abit daft going into a decent stereo place and asking for speakers to be uprated but leave the low powered (incomparison) headunit etc alone, but eh i guess they don't always expect to have tracky bottom cap wearers wanting to put £3000 worth of system in there 1.2 Corsa's
Click to expand...
I would imagine it would be very difficult to upgrade the Evo’s stereo at this time as I don’t think anyone will have made adapters (fascia etc.) for it yet. (n)
An ICE specialist will say that changing the speakers will make little or no difference, but that’s mainly cause they want to sell you a full system. At least if you upgrade the standard speakers you’ll be able to crank up the base and get improved sound quality.
If it’s a lot of base that your after an ICE specialist should be able to fairly easily fit a Sub + Amp, can’t understand why your dealership told you you’d need a new ECU?! :confused:
 
TJ07 said:
I would imagine it would be very difficult to upgrade the Evo’s stereo at this time as I don’t think anyone will have made adapters (fascia etc.) for it yet. (n)
An ICE specialist will say that changing the speakers will make little or no difference, but that’s mainly cause they want to sell you a full system. At least if you upgrade the standard speakers you’ll be able to crank up the base and get improved sound quality.
If it’s a lot of base that your after an ICE specialist should be able to fairly easily fit a Sub + Amp, can’t understand why your dealership told you you’d need a new ECU?! :confused:
Click to expand...


Well i stuck some speakers in the parcel shelve of my old punto running stock headunit, made a really good difference compared to the stock speakers.... Granted, once i put a decent headunit in there it was unbelievably better but yeah i agree, Punto Evo's headunit seems have all the functions for a better than average consumer sound setup.

i'm just after a good bass tone so i can zip up the volume to 25 without worrying about making the speakers parp, should be easy to do.

And yeah the ECU, when I took my car in for some repairs i went to the parts department & asked what would be involved to put the GP Subwoofer in my Evo, guy went around back for 15mins or so. Came back and said well the sub is £200-300 (cant remember), the wiring isn't there so we'd need to run new cables, and Fiat say the ECU in the Eleganza isn't compatible with the GP Sub so we'd probably need to order one of those & might be other conflicts etc .... at which point the smell of bull**** filling the room was too much & i walked out.
 
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TJ07 said:
I would imagine it would be very difficult to upgrade the Evo’s stereo at this time as I don’t think anyone will have made adapters (fascia etc.) for it yet. (n)
Click to expand...

Its not just the facia, if you change the head unit then you would also loose the steering wheel controls, the blue and me and the USB features. Thats why I have never changed the head unit in my Grande. There never seemed to be any adapters that would allow you to change the head unit and keep these features.

Also I can assure you I have noticed a huge difference in upgrading all the speakers. Perhaps not quite as much bass as the sub provides but much more balanced sound. I had a GP for a loan vehicle before I picked my Sporting up and it had the sub and what I have sounds much better.
 
In the 'good' old days with just a wheel mounted remote you could get fairly easily an adapter box to keep the functionality but now like Ayrshiredude points out, you are just gonna loose too much fuctionality :(

Upgrading the speakers WILL make an improvement especially with low-end handling as long as you spend min £40+ per pair. But even these will be designed to be run off a dedicated amp to get the best out of em.

I've been thinking about an underseat sub myself. Most decent mini-subs will take a speaker-level signal from the head unit (as opposed to a dedicated line-level input) and convert it so the sub can used the signal. The trouble is that probably means loosing the rear speaker feed (if you double-up the signal feed to rear + sub the basic head unit will likely blow smoke back at u sooner or later). What would be amazing is if the basic head unit had a dedicated line out aswell but dunno as not looked yet! Looks like you need the blaupunkt style prongs to slide the unit out. Don't forget, once you have the signal you still need to run a +ve power line ideally through the bulkhead and direct to the battery. The -ve can be grounded locally I imagine.
(BTW the GP sub pack includes an additional amp around the passenger footwell side.)

IMO the basic sound on my elegenza is quite good, and the better sound proofing helps a lot. Low volume bass is definatley crap tho.
 
kEvo95 said:
In the 'good' old days with just a wheel mounted remote you could get fairly easily an adapter box to keep the functionality but now like Ayrshiredude points out, you are just gonna loose too much fuctionality :(

Upgrading the speakers WILL make an improvement especially with low-end handling as long as you spend min £40+ per pair. But even these will be designed to be run off a dedicated amp to get the best out of em.

I've been thinking about an underseat sub myself. Most decent mini-subs will take a speaker-level signal from the head unit (as opposed to a dedicated line-level input) and convert it so the sub can used the signal. The trouble is that probably means loosing the rear speaker feed (if you double-up the signal feed to rear + sub the basic head unit will likely blow smoke back at u sooner or later). What would be amazing is if the basic head unit had a dedicated line out aswell but dunno as not looked yet! Looks like you need the blaupunkt style prongs to slide the unit out. Don't forget, once you have the signal you still need to run a +ve power line ideally through the bulkhead and direct to the battery. The -ve can be grounded locally I imagine.
(BTW the GP sub pack includes an additional amp around the passenger footwell side.)

IMO the basic sound on my elegenza is quite good, and the better sound proofing helps a lot. Low volume bass is definatley crap tho.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you know what your talking about :)

Yeah im happy with the general sound from the system, im sure most people will be very pleased with it compared to other cars... but low volume bass is crap, and if you get a decent song on you ramp it up, and its crap feels like your pushing the speakers capability.. "normal" volumes are good though.

Lets hope over the next few months someone will be brave enough to start hacking away at the Evo so they can answer all the questions!
 
Just a bit more info...

The elgenza head unit is a blaupunkt model F199(FL). I think the F199 was also fitted to a lot of Grandes so there could be a wealth of info in the GP forum??? The good news is that it seems to have standard ISO and miniISO connectors on the back. The C1 block traditionally has pins for line outs to an external amp but whether these are free/connected on the Evo is anyones guess at the mo. Anyway that means you could send a signal to an amp/sub without loosing any of the speakers already wired in.
Am very tempted to slide the HU out at the wknd and have a look...will let you know what I find!
 
kEvo95 said:
IMO the basic sound on my elegenza is quite good, and the better sound proofing helps a lot. Low volume bass is definatley crap tho.
Click to expand...

Is this without the factory fit subwoofer?
I've opted for the 'style pack' on my sporting so I was hoping the stereo would sound reasonably good and I wouldn't have to play around with it (it hasn't arrived yet).
I'm guessing now but I've read on here the amp for the factory sub is mounted behind the dash and I would of thought the wiring for it would of been included in the loom. Would make things easier if you're fitting a sub and amp.
 
Marcos999 said:
Is this without the factory fit subwoofer?
I've opted for the 'style pack' on my sporting so I was hoping the stereo would sound reasonably good and I wouldn't have to play around with it (it hasn't arrived yet).
I'm guessing now but I've read on here the amp for the factory sub is mounted behind the dash and I would of thought the wiring for it would of been included in the loom. Would make things easier if you're fitting a sub and amp.
Click to expand...

Yeah thats without the fiat sub - its not an option on the elegenza [Why??? Are comfort orientated people not entitled to bass aswell??] You'll be sorted on the sporting though as the style pack includes the sub.

If the loom for the amp is there then its still pretty useless unless we can get hold of the OEM amp! plus I very much doubt Fiat would bother laying the loom to the back of the boot for the sub box either unless the sub option was specifically ordered!

Anyway, Blaupunkt under-seat subs now just £99 inc wiring kit. Who needs a £500 HiFi option! ha! :p
 
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Its possible, i was considering doing it.

You need an RCA adaptor which hooks up to the speaker wiring.
which will then allow you to put the " red and white" leads into ana mp in the boot and wire the amp and subs up like you would in an older vehicle.

I was considering it but im not sure i want to risk my cars warranty on having a bit of extra bass.

Its a fairly simple process to install it if you have a bit of knowledge about vehicle electrics and stereo units etc.

other than that you want someone with professional equipment etc to do it.
 
So I finally got round to having a little poke around with the stereo this evening. You just need the Blaupunkt pins to pull it out, it does take a bit of effort to release the HU but got there eventually. Unfortunately i couldnt pull it all the way through as something seemed to be holding it back - could just have been a bunch of cables bit I didnt want to put too much force on it! still only 3 weeks old after all!


This is what I wanted to see tho. Standard ISO ins/outs so should be no problem running a line out to an amp under the seat etc. Obviously I havent seen the actual wiring on the back but I assume the aux-ins will be taken up with the mp3/blue&me system.

If anyones interested here's an idea of the space under the passenger seat (UK). No massive but big enough for an 8" seat-sub. You would have to mount a unit to the seat underframe tho otherwise you'll totally obstruct the hot air duct for the rear passenger.
 
kEvo95 said:
So I finally got round to having a little poke around with the stereo this evening. You just need the Blaupunkt pins to pull it out, it does take a bit of effort to release the HU but got there eventually. Unfortunately i couldnt pull it all the way through as something seemed to be holding it back - could just have been a bunch of cables bit I didnt want to put too much force on it! still only 3 weeks old after all!


This is what I wanted to see tho. Standard ISO ins/outs so should be no problem running a line out to an amp under the seat etc. Obviously I havent seen the actual wiring on the back but I assume the aux-ins will be taken up with the mp3/blue&me system.

If anyones interested here's an idea of the space under the passenger seat (UK). No massive but big enough for an 8" seat-sub. You would have to mount a unit to the seat underframe tho otherwise you'll totally obstruct the hot air duct for the rear passenger.
Click to expand...
Well done good to know! (y)
 
Bumping an old thread :eek:

I'm overly cautious but i don't want to mess the car up as theres not so much as a squeak or rattle anywhere at the moment.

I've decided i deffo want to get this sound system sorted out in the new year..

I've emailed uplands to see what kinda price they'd be wanting to upgrade the sound system (looking for a guesstimate)... while im sure they'll charge heaven & earth, it'll be nice to get it done professionally & Not worry about ripping door panels off & things not going back the way they were before, also been checking forum & heard stock ones are riveted in and need drilling out / new holes to be drilled etc.

I'll leave a message here once i get a reply from them & see weather its worth doing or if i'll have to do it myself with a bit of blutack & a hammer.

In the mean time, has anyone else tackled there sound system themselves or know anymore info?
 
Yeah i would like to know, as I get some terrible ratles with my speakers, not all time just on certain songs.

Would anyone be kind enough to tell me what settings they have there EQ on, as atm I use rock and would like to try differnt settings.

:slayer:
 
Settings all on Flat or only +1 or 2 on the EQ's. This will stop any distortion.

If you need to find a good installer in your area give me a PM and ill put you onto somebody.
 
I have my EQ set to USER and bass on +2, Fader on Rear 2. seems to be ok for most songs but not all (dance etc is perfect but RNB etc not amazing)

the main issue i find with the install in the Punto Evo (with speaker package) is actually not the tiny sub (to my amazement) but actually the front speakers. this could be due to being so close to the fronts that the distortion is easy to hear? but anyways ill always be sitting in the front so thats where the money will go for me.

I would like to have maybe a replacement sub for the back as i think it is a little rattly but am unsure of the Sub size? it looks tiny!! (after always having a JL Audio 12" W6) in my old car. so think its probably like 10CM!??

anybody know the size specs for the sub? maybe there is another one we could plug in to the existing amp that can handle a little more. Also anybody know the size of the front speakers?? i have some 6.5" JL ZR650s from my last car but dont want to take the car apart to find out they wont fit.

any help appreciated!
 
https://www.fiatforum.com/gallery/data/2786/1_removal.jpgHi everyone i pulled my stereo out today.I ran the lines for power,earth and remote for my amp.using the lead shown in the pic below. The amp comes on but no sound. when you pull your stereo out theirs a lead already in the slot where the arrow is pointing. when i pulled this out the b&m stops working and the usb slot stops as well. i dont no where else the amp wire could go?.
 
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