Not very hardcore

charlieannear · Post by **charlieannear** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 12:47 pm

OK, all you soon-to-be-deaf cc-er's out there. I have the standard Clarion head unit, factory fitted cd-changer and speakers in my '03 multiplexed 2.0SE. Not very loud is it? What's the easiest way to get a bit more oomph out of it? I don't want to change the head unit or changer. I don't want to be cutting holes in things or removing parts and I don't want a boot full of speakers. How un-cool am I? No that wasn't the question! I guess my question is can I just plug in an (inexpensive) amp somewhere where it will be invisible, won't affect any of the stalk controls or display, and once in I can forget about it? If so, how much would this cost me? :rolleyes:

MattB · Post by **MattB** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 1:35 pm

Simply put... no.

The factory fit speakers won't handle much more power than the headunit can produce.

What most people do is change the front speakers for some components such as Kenwood. You're looking around 130 quid for the hardware, then there's fitting on top of that if you don't do it yourself.

Then you really need an amp to run the speakers as the Clarion headunit won't be able to produce enough power. You're probably looking at another 100 quid for a fairly bog standard amp.

However, by far the biggest sound improvement you can make is to get a sub in the boot. You can get decent sized ones that don't take up too much space but still sound good if you shop around a bit.

All these changes mean some kind of hole-cutting, but if you're careful you can make any modifications totally un-doable and invisible for when you get to reselling the car.

charlieannear · Post by **charlieannear** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 2:00 pm

Cheers for the prompt reply Matt, Oh well, that project will have to be put on hold for a while then- basically until I can talk the wife around!

Won't be getting anything in the boot though- where would I put my building supplies? You think I'm joking?! I could do an ad for how practical the boot space in a cc is!

MattB · Post by **MattB** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 2:24 pm

Won't be getting anything in the boot though- where would I put my building supplies? You think I'm joking?! I could do an ad for how practical the boot space in a cc is!

Yeah I know what you mean. With the roof up there's tons of room in the boot, but with it down you're stuffed! I built my own sub for the boot, but because it's low it had to be fairly wide to get the space I needed.

Do you use your back seats much? You could think about putting some small subs in boxes on the seats...

stephen T · Post by **stephen T** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 2:26 pm

yea ths cc boot is huge when the roof is up. some ppl dont believe me when i tell them.

charlieannear · Post by **charlieannear** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 2:42 pm

There's still quite a lot of room with the roof down too- just there's only the letterbox sized gap to get at anything!
I put the roof up, then put in the building materials- e.g. 2 bags of ballast, bag of sand, bag of cement, carrier of bits and pieces, pull the roller blind and then put the roof back in again.
Same method for the weekly trip to Tesco's, but without the 'extreme luggage'!

Strangely we're never short of volunteers to ride in the back seats, even if they've tried it before!

Anyway, I'm far too old to be having speakers in the back seats... Thanks for the advice though!