Volvo s40/v50 Audio System.

[jco]

Didn't like black cars til I had my v50 but dark colours seem to suit - also black is nice if you go for window tints

[hagandaas]

Please help me gents.
Log story shortened to prevent you falling asleep.
V50 2.0d S 2004. Already has a ck7w installed but through a didly speaker.
i want to patch it through the stereo. ho hum?

Purchased telemute wires from ebay.
followed diagrams but couldnt find connectors.
spoke with nice gent who advised over the phone how to locate the correct wires situated in the back of the cd unit.
removal of floating dash etc, and hey presto. Oh, dear. the only wires coming out the back is one connector housing fibre leads. !!! dont panic, they are going to a amplifier, these are situated in the back of the car NSR inside the little panel thingy.
whoops not there,
OSR. Not there.
Passenger and or driver seat. Not there.

where the bloody hell is my amplifier or am i being mis guided?

please help.

[iainmd]

Originally Posted by fenton_jd

I know what you mean with the radio.... It does sound quite good with a decent quality CD. Shame theres no kind of EQ options on the standard sound setup.

High Performance up gives you not only treble & bass control but a graphic equaliser for the front speakers and a separate one for the rears. I love the sound quality with the High Performance and have been in a V50 with the standard system. The standard system lacked definition I felt.

I've never heard the Premium/Dynaudio but suspect it would be somewhat peachy ;-)

[VenomS40]

I have the basic performance sound system installed with CD/AUX. It’s a 08 S40 and I believe I have the front tweeters. Can I add the rear tweeters and does the basic come with an Amp? If not can you add one and would you recommend using the Volvo ones or aftermarket items.

Also I read that the front 'loudspeakers' are better in the high performance system, can these be added to the basic system to improve the sound quality or again would I be better off getting some aftermarket speakers and installing all round?

[youngmun]

I say go aftermarket, they will sound better (esp if you are going to mod the radio).

I have a high performance radio which frankly underwhelmed me (I decided to mod it) as I am used to aftermarket stuff. I have installed aftermarket speakers (MTX) in the rear doors and they sound better than the volvo speakers which couldn't handle much and blew up very quickly (after a few mods).

[v40bart]

I find performance system to be flat as a pancake and there is a massive hole in the mid range that can't be adjusted out with what the header offers. what comes out is just noise, damn my little Sony Ipod dock sounds better.

[VenomS40]

When you say about mods of the head I'm guessing your planning on changing the headunit then from the Volvo set up to something else? I'm not that keen on doing that but would be interested in changing the speakers all round. What do you recomend? Also can you add an amp to the standard head?

[v40bart]

And whats a difference between 2 way, 3 way, 4 way and coaxial speakers? my knowlege comes from the times when they were just round and had two cables and power rating...

[youngmun]

Hi,

Yes you can add an amp to the radio but to tap into the radio's true potential, you need to look at this http://www.reqsound.com/. The re-Q provides an interface between the volvo radio and the aftermarket amp, and will also restore bass when adding an aftermarket amp to a factory audio system. For me it was worth the money, the difference was as satisfying as replacing the OEM antiroll bar with an IPD antiroll bar.

I have not changed the volvo head unit to something else, rather I have enhanced the audio system thru some mods. Initially that's what I considered but I later thought better of tampering with the fibre optic system because of the complexity of its interface with the rest of the car's functions, and instead, I worked around it.

In my setup, I have added an additional aftermarket amp which runs an aftermarket bass tube and rear speakers. The volvo amp runs the front speakers.
I have replaced rear speakers with MTX Thunder 3 way speakers.
I have replaced front speakers with MTX 2 way speakers.
I have installed an re-Q3
I have installed a DICE integration kit for Ipod which allows me to use an Ipod as I do not have an ipod/aux input.

2 way coaxial speakers have one woofer and one tweeter, 3 or 4 or 5 way speakers have additional tweeters. In replacing the OEM front and rear speakers with MTX's, I find the sound output is more crisp and dynamic and sounds are carried across a broader range, it's def not flat anymore.

[youngmun]

In regards to speakers, i think this can be quite subjective. I find the MTX Thunder crisp and dynamic, and do not sound as distorted even at high volumes. Previously I have favoured kenwood, alpiine and blaupunkt. Others favour pioneers, JBLs.

I think you won't go wrong u with a decent well known manufacturer but it pays to have a listening demo first if you can before you commit. I had never heard of MTX speakers but after a demo, I wanted them over my usual kenwoods.