Mp3 car radio for a Volvo 360

[foggyjames]

Naturally - it forms an enclosure! Of course that assumes it hasn't collapsed Or that you need to use your boot to its full capacity.

cheers

James

[Azurael]

Lets run boxplot and work out what the dynamics of a 300 series boot as a speaker chamber are

Well, so long as no measurement is 3x any other it should be fine.

[foggyjames]

Or any exact multiple! The bit problems you have are with a) sealing, and b) resonance (of panels). If you can, its better to build a 'proper' solid box inside the boot, as it still loads the enclosed boot space in a pleasing manner! Of course you have 'cabin effect' on your side, which greatly (6dB/oct sticks in the mind) enhances everything below about 120 Hz.

cheers

James

[Azurael]

Hmm... Well, have you ever heard the rebranded Alpine systems that they fited as standard in SAAB 9000s up to about '94? They're amazing, until you fill the boot up

But certainly preferable IMHO to a sub that permanently takes up half your luggage space and drastically overpowers mid and treble.

[foggyjames]

But certainly preferable IMHO to a sub that permanently takes up half your luggage space and drastically overpowers mid and treble.

Not if you don't want it to! The major problem you have is that very few 'mid' drivers (especially in 'bolt-on' settings like 300 series door cards) can produce enough LF before intermodulation distortion sets in to overcome the wind noise at 70 mph. You really do need dedicated LF drivers (or very expensive mid-bass), but of course that needn't mean a huge box in the boot, or disproportionate LF output. You do have a problem in this area though, as LF noise from the car increases far more than higher frequency noise in a car, so you need to be able to turn the LF up and down as you alter your speed.

Having said that, until recently I had a box that filled half a 360 boot until I finally got totally fed up with it...

cheers

James

[360GL]

Go with Pioneer instead of Sony, they are much better in my opinion.

[Lonewolf]

The sound system had in my old 360 was a kenwood head unit and four 4" 2way speakers that peaked at 70w. It sounded rather nice for the money paid, and it had a little bit of thump, but only when the volume was really goin. the only problem with the speakers was the central tweeter stopped the mesh going over the speaker, so the mesh was removed.

My current 360 has 2 of the same kenwood 4" speakers in the front doors,
same setup as the old one, but the rear 4" that were in the sidewall were given the boot in favor of a pair of JVC 4way 6x9's. I've heard other cars with 6x9's but these go off. I couldnt find the rms power rating, but the peak is 350w. Had to make up a 1" spacer for magnet clearance, during the heat of the day there is vibration, i think from the bolts not being tightened properly, so gonna recheck that and run some loctite in the threads. The 4 speakers are run off the JVC head unit which plays plays mp3's but not wma. I dare not dream the consequences of the setup if an amp and/or 12" sub were to be introduced, only that the rear shocks would need stress leave on a weekly basis

I'd prefer pioneer over sony anyday, especially the explode stuff as a few of my friends have their butt kickin 12" 1200w explode and 400w 6x9 sub die on them in 3 months time from bits and pieces wearing out, from overuse, overabuse or poor design i dont know. I'd also stay away from boss amps if it can be helped some of the car audio folks turn green at the name, 2 of them are even suppliers for boss audio, didnt bother asking for what reason though.

Theres plenty of head units out now with more than 50x4 inbuilt amps, the cheap sony ones are up to 52x4 but the biggest i've seen was 60x4 and was one of the pioneer models. 50x4 is good enough for my 4" speakers, if you need more juice to run the big subs youre probably better off with a seperate amp to run them.

The final thing i felt the urge to comment on was mp3 and wma compatabilities. all they are, are file compression methods, mp3's are compressed more than standard songs and wma's are compressed more than mp3's. IMO wma loses too much quality when compared to the original uncompressed form of a song, so i dont use it. The other thing to compare is the frequency with which one change cd's.
Normal uncompressed songs i've rarely seen more than 20 proper songs on a cd.
On average an mp3 is 5mb which comes out to roughly 160 songs per cd.
The few wma's i looked at were roughly 2mb, equaling about 400 songs.

If you want that insane kind of storage capacity though, i'd suggest an incar dvd player. They can cost at least twice as much depending where you shop, but can be wired to those in car screens so DVD/VCD movies can be played. 99% accept normal cd's, and 1 dvd can hold roughly 940 mp3's or 2300 wma tracks, providing u find players that are compatible with the formats, you could throw the random track player on and never hear the same song twice. only problem with that is creating your music dvd's, you need dvd burners... if you havent got one, u'll need to make friends with someone who does.

just my 2c worth... 3c now i added a bit more

[Azurael]

I was planning to build the remains of an old Laptop eith an 80gig drive or maybe an Mini-ITX board into my car eventually for MP3s and just run it into a line-in on the stereo. That way it only looks like I have a cheap tape player head unit - I can hide the amp and computer away, and that makes me a little less of a crime target.

[foggyjames]

To be fair, you own a Volvo 300 series....you're not really a crime target in the first place!

cheers

James

[Lonewolf]

lol thats the truth foggyjames. Azural use common sense and its more than likely you'll never get ur car stolen. Park in well lit areas, park it a carlength or 2 away from the most expensive looking car in the area, and where theres a lot of passers by. Also make sure you lock your doors. Also theres some cheap immobilisers out there. I spent $20 on mine, would have cost $10 if i used resistors on my led first time round.

[5lab]

i quite often dont lock my cars when they're here, its such a safe area i dont think a tenner would be picked up if i left it in the middle of the street!

[360GL]

The car itself is not a crime target, but nice hi-fi gear in it could be. If some druggie were to steal your radio, he would get it in 5 seconds and leave your car a mess.

[Azurael]

Yeah, I wasn't talking about the car - nobody in their right mind would thin it was woth the risk and effort That's why I said I wanted to keep the audio gear concealed.

[foggyjames]

I'm not so sure. For a car without an alarm or immobiliser, the 300 series is quite a hard car to steal. Take a look at the shielding around the lock, the way the lock is bolted in, and the solidarity of the steering lock. I know of a couple of people who have had attempts on their cars...mine being one of them, but they've failed both times.

You're quite right, if they just want the stereo, a brick is going through the window, and stealth is always the best way in my opinion....

Speaking of which, I really ought to go and do a better job of installing my new components which arrived today!

cheers

James

[Fuse]

The steering lock is bomb-proof.. When my old lock wasn't working properly I tried to tinker with it and just getting rid of the black ring around the lock was very hard..