V70 audio upgrade

[gareth71]

Been looking at this fella's site ...

http://www.jimrothe.com/volvo/

... and was quite taken by the idea of the Dynaudio speaker upgrade and the trade-in to an upgraded head unit.

Anyone know if this upgrade and the head unit trade-in option are available in the UK? Or is this just a US thing?

[Simon Linton]

I've just had a look at it - excellent site with some very useful comments on brake pads and the "hidden" settings on audio gear.

Worth a look by anyone with the model.

[NugentS]

I have the speaker upgrade in my S70 (1998)

I don't know about the H/U upgrade as I have a Becker unit in mine now along with a couple of Amps.

Sean

[gareth71]

>I have the speaker upgrade in my S70 (1998)

How do you find it? Did you go to a main dealer for it? And if you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for it?

I have a V70 Classic, and I find the sound a bit thin at the moment - I really want to do something about it as I intend keeping this car for quite some time, and I'm thinking that the speaker upgrade, h/u upgrade and the Volvo amp package that sits inside the centre console would be the ideal route as long as it doesn't cost the earth.

[Networkguy]

I have the Dynaudio upgrade in mine although I don't know wether it was done by the dealer as the last owner had them fitted together with an upgrade on the head unit (to an SC805).

It does sound very good indeed but looking at the cost of Volvo audio kit, I am guessing you could do just as good a job for less money with none Volvo branded kit. After all, Volvo don't make the stuff so you should be able to get it straight from the source.

[NugentS]

I like them very much indeed.

I paid £750+VAT for the speakers which was garage cost plus £1,000 for the Becker SatNav unit and two amplifiers. I also have a 12" sub in the back. Fitted myself (sort of)

The amps I use are installed in the back - both Directed Amps
One is 4 * 75 RMS
The Other is 4 * 75 RMS + 1 * Something as a Monobloc Amp.

To be honest the Volvo speaker upgrades are the easy option as they just drop in (on the S70 you have to drill two holes). If I had wanted to do it cheaper I would have replaced the front components with something from Focal or Diamond (or Dynaudio), left the rear doors in place and put something into the parcel shelf from the same manufacturer. This plus the sub would have done. Obviously you don't have the rear parcel shelf

However:
I did this all in stages and I have a number of observations from the stages that made sense (with hindsight)

1. The OEM speakers aren't that bad in fact - but are not good at bass. If you install a sub and take the bass off the OEM speakers they become very acceptable.

2. Again the OEM speakers sound much better if you amp them rather than run them off the H/U. Be careful not to drive them too hard cos I don't think they can take as much "abuse" as the Dynaudios but they actually handle quite well.

Probably the easiest upgrade route (IMHO) is to first install a sub woofer (and amp), turn the bass down on the main speakers and see where you want to go from there. Then amp up the main speakers (fronts) and run the rears from the H/U as fill in.

Sean

The Dynaudio drivers are a subset from this page:
http://www.dynaudiousa.com/products/car/driver.htm

[NugentS]

>I have the Dynaudio upgrade in mine although I don't know
>wether it was done by the dealer as the last owner had them
>fitted together with an upgrade on the head unit (to an
>SC805).
>
>It does sound very good indeed but looking at the cost of
>Volvo audio kit, I am guessing you could do just as good a job
>for less money with none Volvo branded kit. After all, Volvo
>don't make the stuff so you should be able to get it straight
>from the source.

When I costed it up the Dynaudio drivers, bought from a normal dealer totalled greater than the list cost of the Volvo Premium package......... and you didn't need to add adapters etc as all the required cables where included to attach to the Volvo speakers wires.

Sean