Worthwhile sound system upgrades?

[tbclose]

So I've been thinking about it for a while now but I do want to upgrade the sound system in my Vectra C. Has anyone had worthwhile systems/combinations in the past worth considering?

[guy 27]

What's your budget?
What type of music do you listen to?

[tbclose]

Budget is pretty flexible but under $1000. I don't listen to one particular kind of music but I want clarity rather than obnoxious noise.

[guy 27]

In that case get yourself a good headunit to start off with.
This alone can easily take your complete budget if you want to go high end. You can always remove it from the car when you get rid of it and move it to the next car. A good headunit will easily serve you well for a decade or 2.
Personally I'd recommend Alpine or Pioneer. There are plenty of options with both to what you can use.
There are online stores which you will be able to purchase from at much cheaper costs than retail outlets. Just make sure that its Australian supplied for warranty purposes.

Allow up to $100 for a face plate so it fits in the console correctly and also steering wheel control adapter.

As for speakers. This is up to you. Again you can spends hundreds if not thousands on them. Most of the time you will find just by upgrading the headunit your sound quality will dramatically improve and you won't need to change speakers until one fails.

[tbclose]

I've had recommendations to try Polk Audio or Morel speakers attached to a decent amp plus an active sub but the Blaupunkt doesn't have RCA out which is somewhat annoying quality wise. This doesn't allow me to bypass the built in amp which is why I have looked at an eBay head unit which has non amplified RCA out.

I know that the Blaupunkt 2620 head unit the Vectra has is pretty average but I'm interested to know how well the std speakers stand up against Alpine, Polk Audio, Pioneer etc.

My father is also an audio enthusiast but understands that each setup changes character from car to car which is why I'm asking Opel owners who may have experience.

[random_dav]

If you want to keep the standard headunit you can get a speaker to RCA splitter.

As for other stuff you can't go wrong with Alpine, but my mate has always had good things to say about Planet Audio stuff from USA, theres some on ebay sold by 3KingsAudio http://stores.ebay.com.au/3-Kings-Audio?_rdc=1

[tbclose]

Thanks for the link, I sure will look into that.

It would be cheaper for me to convert to RCA out but I'm almost certain that the sound quality deteriorates going through the Blaupunkt amp, I've looked at others on the market which send the pure non amplified signal to RCA which allows the quality to be retained. Essentially from what I've been told is get rid of the Blaupunkt if I want good sound, sad but I guess it's true.

[dutchy]

Thanks for the link, I sure will look into that.

It would be cheaper for me to convert to RCA out but I'm almost certain that the sound quality deteriorates going through the Blaupunkt amp, I've looked at others on the market which send the pure non amplified signal to RCA which allows the quality to be retained. Essentially from what I've been told is get rid of the Blaupunkt if I want good sound, sad but I guess it's true.

and don't play mp3's :swg:

[tbclose]

I tend to avoid mp3 and if I have to use it I download nothing less than 320kbps which sounds pretty good if its been recorded right which half the music on the market hasn't anyway. The CD stacker doesn't work for unknown reasons so I play everything through my iPhone which generally speaking has decent recordings on it. I need to make some changes pretty soon though...

[dutchy]

Even 320 has lots of quality loss but most dont tend to care about that or dont hear it.

[tbclose]

I've learned to hear it over time which I'm still yet to decide whether its a good or bad thing. The Vectra's current sound system isn't good enough for me to pick that out only the Bose 901 system at home shows up the difference vividly.
Where possible I go for Apple Lossless Format which virtually rips music as is without compression. Shame iPhones etc only come with so much memory.

[Bloodnok]

I tend to avoid mp3 and if I have to use it I download nothing less than 320kbps which sounds pretty good if its been recorded right which half the music on the market hasn't anyway.

IMHO this is far more about "If its been recorded right" than anything else. Any recording is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. The vast majority of downloaded music (official sources or otherwise) is taken from the CD version, and these can already have problems -- e.g. CDs with brickwalling.

I would say all, but there are a few notable exceptions where an MP3 download can actually be better than the CD -- the version of Metallica's 'Death Magnetic' sourced from Guitar Hero 3 which is floating around on these here interwebs is significantly better sounding than the official CD release, for example.

It's also possible to make a fairly low bit-rate MP3 which sounds identical to the CD - I've surprised several people who claim to be able to hear the difference easily when they can't tell which is which, on an encoding that was done at fairly low bitrates. The majority of my encodings are at either 192kbit or 160kbit, but my earliest encodings were done at just 96kbit...

[dutchy]

but there are a few notable exceptions where an MP3 download can actually be better than the CD

Got to disagree strongly mate. Any track converted into an mp3 (or any other compressed format), no matter if it's taken off a master disc, has quality loss, no exceptions, period. You might not hear it that clearly through regular or even top of the range equipment but it is certainly of a much lower quality than any original. There are exceptions where very old recordings have been digitally remastered and enhanced, only these are of a better sound quality than that original.

[Bloodnok]

Got to disagree strongly mate. Any track converted into an mp3 (or any other compressed format), no matter if it's taken off a master disc, has quality loss, no exceptions, period.

That's assuming they have the same source. In this case, they don't.

Go get the one I quoted and compare if you want. Metallica's 'Death Magnetic' album as released on CD is brickwalled to hell and back. It sounds bad on the original CD. The copies sourced from Guitar Hero 3 don't come from the CD, and they aren't brickwalled. This gives a LOT more dynamic range. Precisely and only because they come from a better source with no brickwalling, they are far better listening than the CD version.


You might not hear it that clearly through regular or even top of the range equipment but it is certainly of a much lower quality than any original.

In this case, you will hear it night and day. The GHIII version is FAR better. Whatever small amount of loss that exists from the compression beats a HUGE amount of loss from being brickwalled to hell and back. (And if you have bandwidth to burn, get the uncompressed originals - I'm sure they exist out there somewhere too.)

[preludacris]

Go get the one I quoted and compare if you want. Metallica's 'Death Magnetic' album as released on CD is brickwalled to hell and back. It sounds bad on the original CD. The copies sourced from Guitar Hero 3 don't come from the CD, and they aren't brickwalled. This gives a LOT more dynamic range. Precisely and only because they come from a better source with no brickwalling, they are far better listening than the CD version.



how annoying is it. the GH version is tonnes better. they better not try the same sh1t with their next album release...

[Nurb608]

The dvd of death magnetic is better than the cd, i don't know how lars let his drums sound so terrible