Hi

Just want to improve the sound without installing a nuclear fission reactor or a flux capacitor, and sub woofers that will pulverise my children's eyeballs.

I have a 52 Punto Active, with a Pioneer HU, and simply want to improve clarity of sound and bass response. I've ordered a used, original Fiat subwoofer (I know...) because I need the boot space and can't be doing with all the carpeted box malarky.

So, a few questions...

1. I understand component speakers in the front are the way to go, as there's already a separate tweeter and mid-range in the door. What do I need, and what adapters do I want to buy?

2. Should I get better rear speakers to fit the original spaces, or go for 6x9s (or whatever) in the parcel shelf?

3. How do I wire the Fiat sub woofer? Is the cabling already tucked behind the trim? The Pioneer HU does have a sub connection-interface-widget-flange thing, so I simply run a cable from that? How does that affect the powered sub?

I appreciate that to do it properly will involve all the mods I've seen in other threads, but with the greatest respect, I just need to make the most of what I've got! I'm after something better than average, but without me using armoured cable to avoid melting the car.

Any help and advice - suitable for a middle-aged numpty - will be muchly appreciated. Please treat me as being stupid! It's not difficult, believe me...

Mucho gracias

JB

First off, welcome to the forum

1 - Personally, unless you're gonna amp them at a later date, you won't get the full benefit from a set of components - they need more power than a HU amp can provide.

2 - No IMO, the sound should come from the front, not the back

3 - The cabling may be there already. You should be able to wire it to the HU if its not though.

HTH

Thanks, Chaos. Much appreciated!

JB

I would tend to agree with chaos you wont really see a lot of clarity just by changing the speakers a lot of the distortion can come from the headunit. If you dont mind a little bit of work you could mount a small amp underneath one of the seats in the front of the car, i think there may be a guide on here sumwhere either that or it shows you in the Fiat Puto modifying Haynes Manual they probably stock it in halfords.
With the small amp that should be plenty to power a set of components in the front and yes you could put a set of 6x9's in the parcel shelf but i would always recomend that you make the shelf out of MDF as this is a lot more acoustic and the sound will be much more clear. If you were to put in 6x9's you probably wouldnt need the sub in your boot. The only disadvantage with 6x9's are that they do look a bit Chavvy but if you can over look that then they are a good option for all round sound detail.
Sorry if this doesnt make a lot of sense but decide what you want to do and well help you find the right bits and tell you how to install it. The installation looks difficult on the outset but with some guidance and a little bit of time is achievable by pretty much everything. I have even tought a few things to my mum and she doesnt know how to use the sky box yet.

chaos said:

1 - Personally, unless you're gonna amp them at a later date, you won't get the full benefit from a set of components - they need more power than a HU amp can provide.

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it doesnt matter how you are powering them, seperate componets with passive crossovers will sound better than any other alternative when comparing like for like RMS wattage. 2/3 way speakers have a hole in the mid driver which kills bass ability (same goes for 6x9s) and you dont have a highpass/lowpass crossover to split the frequencies so distortion occurs earlier.

if they are 100wRMS then an amp would be very wise, but you can buy lots of componets that aren't even capable of amping because they can only take a low wattage signal.

in my experience the mk2/2b punto has great front speakers as standard so you dont really need to change them, the best way to improve clarity is to cut the bass going to the speakers and then have a sub for the bass. doing this will greatly increase the volume you can achieve, and reduce the distortion, however you need to use a proper sub not the fiat factory fitted sub (which is really just an normal speaker with an inline low pass filter). you should also add some passive crossovers to the standard speakers so you can cut the bass going to the tweeters and cut the high frequeccies going ot the mids, this will give you more clarity and allow you to turn the volume up more before distortion occurs. if your headunit doesnt have a high pass filter then you will also have to make sure the bass isnt too high on your equaliser, mid and trebel should be higher, then the sub fills the gap to make them effectively equal.

jug said:

it doesnt matter how you are powering them, seperate componets with passive crossovers will sound better than any other alternative when comparing like for like RMS wattage.

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Yeah but try finding after market components that are designed specifically for 20ish wrms.