alfa 75 audio options

[Divano Veloce]

Hello  75 fans

my new daily has an awful stereo. I would like to improve the audio system by simple upgrades, ie, head unit and speakers, rather than amps and sub boxes.... any advice on brands and size of components? Ie, what size speakers will fit in the doors and parcel shelf? Are there any other places for speakers? Is the factory speaker wiring any good?

cheers!

[jazig.k]

The front door speakers are 4x6" by memory. Terrible mounting onto the weak door card.

If you want really quick and simple, 5 1/4" speakers fit the door cars, but only 2 screw holes line up.
Bigger diameter magnet speakers will foul on the door steel and too deep will foul on the window guide. The magnet will also pull a weak mounted speaker towards these [ever seen warped speaker areas on 75 door trims?].
If you don't pay attention like my previous owner, the speaker terminals will rub the door steel and short that speaker out. Make sure they're rotated the right direction to avoid it. Previous owner scored 2 out of 2...

Get hold of some 6mm MDF and make a panel that fits the door cavity hole, screw that in securely. Then you can mount anything to the MDF, just cutting the hole to suit. If you need clearance from the window rail, you can space the speaker out by cutting rings. You can offset the speaker to avoid the the door steel too.

Having a solidly mounted speaker will improve efficiency too, with less energy flapping or moving the speaker around and more energy driving the cone itself. 

Picture for example.


Or you can cut the hole through the door trim like many people do  . Still doesn't sort out the weak mounting surface.

Just buy coaxial speakers for the front and wire the stock tweeter in with the speaker. Unless you want to fiddle with mounting a tweeter. Without the stock tweeter the front sounds awful [speaker behind the door trim firing into the seat bolster...]. The tweeter is the saving grace for the terrible positioning.

The rears were 5 1/4" in my TS. Not sure if they changes sizes in any models.

I'm not up to date with brands or current models.
Buy from a store so you have access to warranty. Try to stick with a brand name. Most stores will only cover the headunit if fitted by themselves or a "professional".

[lombardi]

i updated my  75 with pioneer cd ipod radio unit fits perfectly and i play mi ipod through it, changed front and rear speakers but found rear speakers pioneer could not handle the base very good as the factory size given for speakers is quite small,i listen to a lot of heavy metal,since no one sits in the back i put 2x speaker boxes on back seats,not pretty but sound is improved out of sight, a bit unconventional but at least ill speead up my deafness

[shiny_car]

The factory wiring is adequate if you're only powering them from the headunit. Only need to upgrade if adding a powerful amplifier and if the speakers can handle high power.

The front speakers will also never generate any decent bass unless the open service holes are sealed over (this principle applies to any door-fitted speakers in any car).



If you want to improve the sound, add some self-adhesive sound deadener (eg: Dynamat). Applied over the holes, it will seal the doors (of course, won't be 100% but still a vast improvement). It will result in better bass, clarity, dynamics, and power handling. Expect to spend another $100 or so for the deadener, then you can apply it yourself. Without it, a $200 set of speakers won't sound a lot better than $50 speakers. But sure, if you're only going for a cheap upgrade, you might skip this step.

I know you want it 'simple', but I plan some heavy modification for the stereo. I will fit 8" woofers in the doors, mounted over the hole in the bottom front corner (bottom left of the photo). There will be mdf wood spacers/baffle, to hold the speaker, the door trim will be modified, the doors will be extensively sound deadened. Still, it wouldn't be hard to cut a basic spacer/baffle to fit a 5.25" or even 6.5" speaker into the bottom front corner.

The factory positions are terrible. For better stereo imaging, the left and right speakers need to be as equidistant from your ears as possible. The factory location has the right speaker much closer than the left, and 'down there' instead of 'up front'. The soundstage is 'dragged, down there', which sounds terrible.

But most people are not too fussy, and fair enough.

[GTVeloce]

Agree with all said so far. As I have a great system in the GTV I didn't want to spend big bucks on the 75. So I got the best 4x6's (didn't want to mess with the original finish of the door cards) that have minimal depth and swapped them over. Kept the original tweeters. Some new 5 1/4in speakers for the rear and a good head unit. I also put some dynamat under the rear speakers. Still no mid range or bass to speak of.

I then blocked the holes in the front doors as Shiny suggested. Some improvement but still not enough bass to make quality sound. Managed to get an old subwoofer and cheap amp - make a quick box and shoved it in the boot. Big improvement. Great sound? No. No longer painful, thin music? Yes.

Currently I am a fan of the JVC KR90BT head unit. It works well with bluetooth (both music and phone calls), has two USB ports, a CD as well as an auxiliary and has great adjustability including being able to adjust imaging properly. It is a single Din unit so will slot in perfectly into the existing space. The major negative is no preset radio buttons so its not great for swapping radio stations. We used it on Perth to Paris and loved being able to connect a tablet to it so the passenger could watch movies or Top Gear will we were driving and have good sound.

[Divano Veloce]

THanks guys,

i found this resource.. seems like lots of work but worth the effort!

http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/

[Divano Veloce]

I auditioned the existing stereos in both 75s today (I found an old tape of the trainspotting soundtrack). Both had the same issue which is distortion at even low levels of bass, mainly the door speakers vibrating and rattling.... Soundstage is pretty good though. As such, I think that I'll first replace the head unit with one from the Berlina and add 5.25" component speakers in the doors and 5.25 coaxial in the parcel shelf. If I'm not happy with this combo I'll add an amp and some woofers in the parcel shelf. I'll be driving this car a fair bit so want some reasonable sound...!

Any suggestions for 5.25 speakers?

Just to complicate things, would a 6" speaker fit in the place of the 4x6?

[jazig.k]

A 6.5" won't fit, the magnet and frame are too large in the woofers I tried directly behind the speaker holes. A small frame and magnet combo 6" might fit?
If you make up the mdf panels, you can move the woofer backwards, not ideal but you can gain more room. Sound only has the holes in the door to come through, it might sound awful...

Making fibreglass pods can get you into all sorts of combos, and ideas go wild. More work. More time. More money. Not too hard though. I'd be happy to help if need be.

There is a white 75 wrecking in eBay with pods in the pictures. Look awful! But they should be cheap. No idea what size speaker they are made for.

[Divano Veloce]

You're right, they do look awful! I think i could do something a bit more subtle....

[Divano Veloce]

New (old) head unit is in! Sound is roughly the same of course.

I was thinking of installing alpine spr-50c 5.25" speakers in the doors and the same or coaxial version in the parcel shelf, all run off the head unit using the factory wiring. Also add dynamat as suggested. Any alternate suggestions for speakers? These are not cheap but are efficient so I should get away without a 4 channel amp and associated wiring. For bass I may add a sub and single channel amp at a later date...

[jazig.k]

The rear end of the spr series looks pretty small. How are you going to mount them? If not just to the door card as original, you could mock up a cardboard dummy to see if the spr60 will fit the front doors in your position idea.
Cut 2 cardboard circles the same diameters as the mounting diameter and magnet, spaced/joined by a toilet roll cut to mounting depth. Hot glue gun from a cheap shop and you knock up dummy bits quick and easily. I can't find the magnet diameter though.


Dimensions SPR60:
    Woofer Diameter (mm): 165mm
    Woofer Mounting Diameter (mm): 136mm
    Woofer Mounting Depth (mm): 59mm


Dimensions SPR50:
    Woofer Diameter (mm): 130mm
    Woofer Mounting Diameter (mm): 118mm
    Woofer Mounting Depth (mm): 57mm

[Divano Veloce]

Those dummies would probably make good replacement door speakers on their own... they couldn't sound much worse anyway!

I think putting 6.5 speakers might be a slippery slope....They're not that much more expensive but I may then want/need an amp to power the suckers....

Started driving the 75 today for the first time since RWC. At very low volumes and albeit with no mid or bass, the soundstage is really nice (or maybe I have low standards...)

[Divano Veloce]

Another speaker option is this offering from Pioneer

TS-D1320C

Quite a bit cheaper at $170 a pair but the tweeters are a bit "look at me". I'd rather not....

[jazig.k]

You can mount the tweeters behind the original tweeter grill. You need to destroy the original tweeter though, by memory. A bit of hot glue to get it positioned there then something a bit more solid to hold it forever (arildite? Spelling?).

Sound stage is awful. But Im only aware of it because I've had the chance to listen to some competitive cars. Before those cars I had very little idea just how bad the 75 was, or even just any factory car for that matter. That's why I started playing with setups.

[Divano Veloce]

I'm thinking that whatever I do i will be cutting the door card (i have two sets to play with...) so i can mount the speaker to the door frame instead. I can mock everything up on the red car then do the install on champs.