Hi all. I just purchased a beautiful used C32. Only issue with the car is that it came with an aftermarket stereo mess. I'm now trying to sort it out and make it right and could really use some advice on what to keep if anything and what to replace.

Pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/6179281...7631386475476/

Here's the back story. When I got the car I had severe alternator whine and intermittent crackling from the passenger side tweeter. The driver's side tweeter was dead and I couldn't hear anything from the rear speakers. Upon investigation I discovered the stereo mess in the trunk and proceeded to remove a 300 watt rockford fosgate amp, some RCA jack interconnect things and something I think was a switch for the amp. Then I disconnected a couple huge cables, one that connected directly to the battery and one that was probably creating a ground loop, connected to the body of the car.





Big improvement. No more crackling or alternator whine. Passenger side sounded pretty good, but driver side tweeter was still dead. So off come the door panel and I find more mess - this time in the form of some sort of ancient crossover connected to the bass speaker leads and powering the tweeter and woofer in the door. So I remove that and wire up the tweeter and woofer (mid?) to the independent stock wiring and put it all back. Now the tweeter is working but it's way WAY too loud and completely unbalanced from the other side. I was hoping that the stock system would have it's own crossover or something that would work with these after market speakers, but it seems I was wrong. I did go ahead and take out the passenger door crossover as well, hoping to have more harmony, but the tweeters are still way too loud. And there is pretty much horrible sound all around. Even with the bass all the way up and the treble all the way down, and faded a few notches to the rear. As you can imagine - it's all wrong.





So that's where I'm at now. Could anyone suggest a cost effective way to get the audio back to a livable, or dare I even hope for a great sounding system? My goal would be minimum the same factory quality. For under $400?

First thoughts were to get some working crossovers back in the doors:
http://amzn.com/B0041ES1TS
But I worry that without it being designed to work together that I would still have crappy sound. And I don't really know what's in the doors.

So then I saw that there are matched speaker sets with crossovers:
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_107DXI5...50.html?tp=105

Perhaps that is a better option?

So even if I fix my door speaker problem I will still have a bass problem. The stock sub-woofer is missing.



I don't want a speaker box in the trunk, but a nice replacement sub in the stock location would be welcome. Will the stock amp be able to push a reasonable one effectively enough? I have that old 300 watt amp sitting there... it might still be good - could it be of any use here? My inclination would be to just use the stock amp and skip the added complexity that got me here in the first place, but I might be able to be persuaded.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, I hope someone finds the time to help me out. I would love to hear what other people would do in this situation.

Thanks a lot!
Jamie.

 

If you want to invest money you can actually decide on either standard audio or BOSE audio and just rewire the car back to original. Neither is stunning or amazing but I have seen people using audiophile speakers on stock head units and they are quite nice.

Some people goes nuts and invest about 15K so as to make the interior 2008 spec. That is where it gets interesting.

You could research some of the work of MBENZNL

 

I'd like to help you with this, but typing this all up is time consuming. You have MB Quart crossovers. You likely have MB quart separates up front. Google to find an installation guide. That crossover has a jumper to attenuate the tweeter. That will help the over bearing tweeter sound. Your ground loop likely came from the PAC/cheap line
Level converters. Put your money into getting a deck with RCA outs. . I have a number of MB Quart speakers, I may have the tweeter you are looking to replace.

So new deck with RCA out. Hook up the amp, reinstall the crossovers correctly.

Ed

 

Hey man. I had the same problem as you when I put aftermarket speakers in my door, spent a good $500 on component Infiniti speakers for the front, which sounded crap.
The only way to really fix the problems is to get an aftermarket deck. You will be able to control all the settings you want and it will end up sounding way better than the original. You wont be able to hear the rear speakers though, unless you upgrade.
I picked up a Pioneer deck for about $700. It will definitely be cheaper where you guys are from.
Pretty clean install with the face-plate and all,

 

Okay, so the components are worth saving!

Awesome, thanks for the help. I found the guide...
http://www.maxxsonics.net/manuals/mb...fs/pce_216.pdf

The tweeter is still good. It seems it was the crossover that had failed. Maybe I can take it somewhere to get fixed... I know a place that fixed a guitar amp of mine that might be able to do it. I had no idea that they were actually of good quality...

So if I am going to keep the current speakers, then I would have to hook back up that old Rockford Fosgate amp... and you are saying that the PAC (remote turn on module) or the line level converters were the probable cause of the alternator whine and speaker crackling?

Would I still want to keep the power lead direct from the battery and still ground the amp back to the frame of the car? I thought that that was the cause of the ground loop... but I'm just guessing and have no experience with car audio.

I would prever to keep the stock head unit - I like a stock appearance. So I would still need line level converters and the remote turn on module. Could the PAC really cause audio issues? They are pretty affordable parts, so I guess I could just get them and see.

Although I would still be missing the subwoofer... maybe I could add in something like this?
http://amzn.com/B001N0RHRU

Thanks a ton for the help!
Jamie.