[JU57AJB]

OK so I know my plans here pale compared to most of you but I'm still looking for some honest opinions

Basically when I was 16 (I'm now 21 and poorer but more picky about sound quality!) and getting my Corsa ready I bought a load of ICE equipment I thought sounded incredible at the time - a load of Vibe and Fli stuff connected to a (really nice) older Alpine head unit.

Now though with my E90 clearly most of you are buying components costing well into 3 figures and similarly expensive amps and subs - I can't afford that at all at the moment but im stuck with the hideous base system with no amp or even tweeters :-(

So my plans: reuse my old Fli 900s 4 channel amp and Vibe CBR10 active sub in the boot. The 4 channel amp will be connected to 4" Vibe Slick coaxials for the front doors and...

Taking a slight risk here but I've ordered some 6.5" Vibe Slicks to replace the under seat 'subs' - these will be low/high passed as appropriate but it's the only part I'm not sure will sound OK.

Total cost (to me) for this entire upgrade will be about £50 :

I'll be sure to update this when it's all in place! Any (honest) opinions, especially with regards to my under seat speakers?

Also forgot to mention I have the Eonon D5165E with preouts so no issues with coding etc.

[Wongway]

Only thing(s) to worry about for you might be
a) Mounting depth for the 4" Vibe Slicks. I believe they need to be under 48mm?
b) Not familiar with the sub, but do you have a corner loaded enclosure for it? There's some pre-fab boxes that fit nicely into either side of the trunk out there.
c) also not familiar with the vibe 6.5" speakers, but you might have given yourself a bit more 'oomph' in the midbass range if you picked up a shallow mount 8" woofer like the Jehnert XE200's.

Looks like you've got a very good start to fixing up the base audio!

[JU57AJB]

Yeah I checked out the mounting depths and they're supposedly 41mm for the 4" Slicks so no problem there.

I don't have a corner loaded enclosure no, it's just an active sub box but it sounds decent enough! I could rebuild it into one at some point though, that could be worth doing by the looks of things.

I was after the Earthquake SWS under seats originally, the Jehnerts look very nice too - but the 6" Slicks I got for £14 delivered (ex demo) so about 1/20 of a set of Jehnerts/whatever other 8" under seat drivers, and although the midbass is important I'll be happy enough for now :P

I'm glad to hear someone say that and not "you're filling it with cheap crap"

[Wongway]

Originally Posted by JU57AJB

I was after the Earthquake SWS under seats originally, the Jehnerts look very nice too - but the 6" Slicks I got for £14 delivered (ex demo) so about 1/20 of a set of Jehnerts/whatever other 8" under seat drivers, and although the midbass is important I'll be happy enough for now :P

I'm glad to hear someone say that and not "you're filling it with cheap crap"

I wouldn't even consider the Earthquakes.

By all reports, they're 'okay' if you want a "sub"woofer, but they'll be horrible playing anything in the midbass range. Definitely go Jehnert if you do anything there.

Since you already have a subwoofer, cross the Earthquakes off your list completely. You'd ideally want the midbass to play near the 250hz-80hz area, hence why your 6.5" underseats might be pushing it a tad. Jehnert 8" XE200s have been reportedly fantastic in that area. In comparison, most people have reported that anything above 120hz sounds horrible with the Earthquakes.

And no, I wouldn't call it 'cheap crap'. Especially compared to what we already have/had in the E90's base audio.

[JU57AJB]

That's a fair point - they're also extremely expensive to buy over here so I had sort of ruled those out anyway at least for a long time! The Jehnerts sound like the next step for me once I save up some more pennies (which for now I have no desire to do!)

I don't know how the 6 inchers would handle 80hz either. Probably not very well. I know when I had it all fitted in my Corsa I had some Blackair 6" components (the next model up from the Slicks) high passed around 100hz and the sub low passed the same which worked adequately.

So the Jehnerts sound like my next upgrade.

Thanks for your input here! I'm not sure how familiar Vibe or Fli (same parent company) are in the US but the usual response on the UK forums seems to be "dont buy fli or vibe they r cheap crap lol" even though most people who have it (including me) seem to rate it for the money. Especially when compared to the depressingly awful base audio.

[JU57AJB]

I wanted a Vibe Fastplug on my sub box to make it easily removable but £10?? You're joking. Just ordered the Click CT101 for £2.50 delivered, apparently it works just the same (some enterprising types are selling it for double that as a 'Vibe Fastplug alternative'!)

[JU57AJB]

Ok the Click connector is not a Fastplug alternative! It certainly can't be used for anything bigger than 8 gauge and that's bigger than what it's designed for - I also had to Dremel away half the plastic casing to get the wires to fit through.

It doesn't grip the cables properly either. In summary don't buy a Fastplug 'alternative'

[Wongway]

Sorry to hear.

I realize it's not what you'd like to hear now, but sometimes, it's not better to go cheaper, because you might end up spending more in the long run fixing what should have been done right in the first place. I hope the rest of your install is smooth sailing though!

[bmw325i]

IMO you need to plan it out a little more. Read the stickies. The first thing you should do is find out what system you have. It's probably best to upgrade one thing at a time if you are on a budget.

[JU57AJB]

Yup, whoever said that was a good alternative to a Fastplug was just lying!

Lesson learned for the future though, all part of the fun of working on a shoestring!

I'm not sure what you mean there as I know exactly what system I have (base stereo, 6 speakers, no tweeters, no amp) and I've also thought quite carefully about upgrading it without spending (many) hundreds which I have neither the inclination nor the means to do as most of the improvements would I'm sure be lost on me anyway.

Since I've never seen such an install on the Internet before I guess I wanted to (touch wood!) demonstrate there are some alternatives which will sound very good and can be done with a tiny fraction of the budget if you have some stuff lying about already, or still vastly cheaper if you haven't - I woulnt want to do it piecemeal as I'm someone who likes to get these things done with and then never touch them again, and even if I did do it bit by bit it's still money I could be spending on something else.

Picked up a set of the 4" Slicks for £15 so it's all coming along nicely

[JU57AJB]

I have this all installed now - final specs are Vibe Slick 6 under the seats, Vibe Slick 4s in the doors, Fli 900S amp and I got a couple of 12" subs for my birthday so good times

Overall impressions are wow, this is awesome! Really punchy clear bass and midrange and nice crisp highs. The soundstage seems to sit somewhere around the middle of the dash which is good enough for me, and the 6" under seats really kick harder than I was expecting them to, for someone who doesn't want a huge amount of bass they would sound perfect on their own!

They vibrate the floor like mad when I had them on full range to test, they are awesome speakers and more than adequate for this application. Bandpassed at 80 and 250hz they give no vibrations whatsoever.

Really is an incredible improvement over stock and I'm well happy with the way it sounds

I've set the gains on the speakers with a scope, and the under seats are just a fraction too loud I think so I'm going to have to just turn the gain down and try to tame them a bit but otherwise - this sound system is brilliant and it only ended up costing me about £50! (if I'd not swapped to the 12" subs, plus the price of the Eonon)

[Wongway]

Grats on that! Glad you're happy!

(I can't imagine how much less trunk space you're gonna have now hehe)

[JU57AJB]

Thanks! It still handles the weekly shop OK and the box is removable with my (real) Fastplug so it's all good

The 6" speakers also have no problem playing down to 80hz and lower by the way!

I know it's not the most appealing sort of install to most owners on here but for anyone who wants a huge upgrade without spending huge amounts of money it fits the bill perfectly!

[borinous]

nice work on a budget pal.

How you getting on with the Eonon?