New Alpine iPod system

psi · May 14, 2008

Just fitted the new alpine X100 ipod receiver (no cd player). and WOW! it's rather fab!....I'm without doubt going to get one for the lotus too. easy to install and found a grommet at the back of the glove compartment to push the cable through so the ipod can sit in the glove box. nice and clean compared to all the wires I had out front on the sony system I had.

Also fitted Alpine 6x4's all round as well, there rears were easier than i thought by lifting the rear panels up to get access. Top tip is to have a few sizes of angled screwdrivers (halfrauds £2.99)

Wigeon Incognito · May 14, 2008

Looks tidy!

Were the Alpine 6x4s a straight fir in the front or was there any messing around because of depth etc?

I assume you have the wire mesh speaker grilles on your S2.

PJS917 · May 14, 2008

Had an Alpine with i-pod connectivity for a while in the 44 and it is a really nice bit of kit. I am thinking
of changing to Alpine in the 968 as it does sound better than the Sony head unit.

poprock · May 14, 2008

I removed an Alpine unit from my Turbo because it was just too bling for me. I don't like all the flashing lights etc, but if you're okay with the visuals then the Alpine sound quality is always great.

I use an Alpine amplifier (mounted in the spare wheel) to drive my sub nowadays!

MarkK · May 14, 2008

Got that head unit for my 205 gti,brilliant tidy bit of kit,selecting the artist etc is just like on the ipod itself pretty much-nice[

]

Lemon · May 14, 2008

Me 2, although I have fitted the I pod in the centre arm rest.

Great sound though [

]

djcla · May 14, 2008

have you tried a pen drive also wondered if you can skip folders on them

psi · May 14, 2008

ORIGINAL: Wigeon Incognito

Looks tidy!

Were the Alpine 6x4s a straight fir in the front or was there any messing around because of depth etc?

I assume you have the wire mesh speaker grilles on your S2.

Yep the Alpines are a straight swap for the originals fronts took 5mins and rears to 30/40 minutes and a slight loss of blood, but nothing major, I'll be fine[

] and yes I use the standard grilles, just resprayed them with halfords semigloss black and they came up really well.

psi · May 14, 2008

ORIGINAL: djcla

have you tried a pen drive also wondered if you can skip folders on them

I've not tried it yet, but as the system was out of the dash I made the point of adding the USB cable and also put it through the grommet into the glove box..I just haven't got a pen drive with any music on it at the moment.

Wigeon Incognito · May 15, 2008

A fresh question, which Alpine 6x4 speakers did you use?

I find 2 types but being a bit of a numpty when it comes to car audio I have no idea which has the better stats:

Alpine SXE-4625 -

PEAK POWER 60W
"¢ 15W Nominal Power
"¢ Frequency Response: 70Hz-21kHz
"¢ Sensitivity: 91dB/W/m
"¢ Ferrite Magnet
"¢ Long Fibre Natural Pulp Cone
"¢ Alnico Magnet
"¢ Mylar-Titanium Balanced Dome Tweeter
"¢ High Polymer Foam Edge
"¢ Bass Engine Ready

Alpine SPS-406 -

4'' x 6'' 2-way 140 Watt Car Speaker
Sensitivity: 87 dB
RMS Power Range: 45 Watts
Peak Power Handling: 140 Watts
Impedance: 3.6 Ohm
Frequency Response: 93-22000 Hz
Optimized air flow design
3/4'' Wide Range Silk Dome Swivel Tweeter

So, if there are any audio experts out there, which has the better stats?

Prices are very similar.

psi · May 15, 2008

I am actually a sound engineer/producer by trade and chose the 4625's as they have a slightly lower frequency response and they looked better made. The 406's were about half the price of the others when I looked too.

As for replacing the rears I pulled off the door edging trim, unscrewed the rear quarter panel and carefully tore the trim edge away from the door (mine was glued around under the edging trim). You can lift the trim up enough to get a normal screwdriver into the bottom two screws and then I used an angled screwdriver for the top two screws (it's tight and nasty work and I did cut myself once or twice but nothing major), so it can be done without removing the glass but make sure you are slow and carefull as visibility is crap and getting the speakers in and out require careful movement to make sure you don't damage the new cones or lose the cables. In hindsight I wish I ran some new cabling through the car as it could be hidden easily and would be much better than the crap stuff the car was fitted with..maybe a job to do before I go to lemans.