[steviec]

Well after draining various people on here for their knowledge about upgrading the audio in my 156 I took the plunge and had a go. Not upto the standard of the aussie hero on here Mr S.C. but i'm happy with it.
Jobs done are as follows
Make head unit look better
Fit Blaupunkt bluetooth with USB socket
Replace door speakers
Amplify the speakers
Sub woofer of some kind in the boot
I had a Blaupunkt Nashville DAB35 that I had fitted but the facia adaptor was pants to say the least so following the lead of another member on here (you know who you are thanks for all the advice) I built up my head unit to fit the hole in the dash

On the head unit i have got all connections beyond normal speakers outputs and power are plugged into the 3 mini iso plugs. I already had a steering wheel interface plugged into the green mini iso but the blaupunkt bluetooth unit I wanted to use uses both the blue and the green mini iso's so I had to buy a y piece that allows 2 devices to be plugged into the 1 green plug. So that was a doddle to fit, with the mic ant the interior light, the USB socket has gone bellow the ash tray and then there was the button I didn't realise how big it was!!! standing about 12 mm high it was just ugly so out with the cone cutter and the glue gun, drilled a 30mm hole slot the button in and glue gun it in from the underside and its rock solid and looks ok to.



The speaker wiring and the amp wiring I did at the same time, running the power to the amp down the near side of the car, the RCA cables ran down the middle of the car then under the drivers seat and down the off side. Speaker wires ran down the off side then split to the relervant door. I bought a blaupunkt gta470 4 channel amp to run the 4 door speakers , the speakers I picked was Vibe SEK60's for the front components and vibe slick 60's in the back. These speakers are pretty cheap as speakers go but they sound amazing read any review.
Dinomatted all 4 doors and fasioned some speaker mounts out of 18mm mdf (again some great pics on here helped :thumbs So after plenty of bad language got all that done.

Now for the subwoofer, I didn't want anything that filled my boot and mad it unuseable as its a family car and the boot gets used alot. I'd seen these stealth subs but after searching the net for a couple of days i resigned my self to the fact that nobody produced one for and Alfa 156 but what I did find on some web site was how to make one. I looked at the boot and an ideal area for one i thought was the rear near side corner. I worked out the volume of that area and it gave me around 0.5 cubic foot, now to find a sub that would suit a box of that volume. Not much surfing of the net later and I found the perfect sub a rockford fosgate 10" would drop straight in . So I got busy with masking tape, tin foil and fibre glass to make an enclosure. A messy job so had to make sure everything was well covered. 24 hours later I had 3/4s of my sub box just needed to mould in a piece of 18mm MDF and jobs a good one, while all that was drying I needed to amplify this sub so I dropped the biggest bargin ever at halfrauds an 2 channel alpine amp that when the 2 channels are bridged gave a perfect power output for the speaker £27 brand new end of line. That also fitted under the rear parcel shelf and connected to the head units dedicated sub woofer output. Dropped the sub in the enclosure carpeted the front and slotted it in the boot.




Once it was all connected up I set the levels on the 2 amps and the audio quality far out weighed my hopes and expectations and the car doesnt look like a chav car so all in all i'm over the moon

 

[steviec]

Oh and yes I know my car needs a clean!

 

[shiny_car]

wow, that's a great job. ha, i'm no hero, just an average Joe, backyarder that taught myself how to build ICE systems. we all have to start somewhere, and i'm impressed with what you've done. most people baulk at the idea of fibreglassing and any custom work - you've done well.

enjoy.

 

[steviec]

thanks mr s car. the info you have posted on here over a period of time was a major help thanks

 

[alexace]

Glad too see it all in. Mine took me slightly longer :-( (1 year).

I recently added sound deadning (similar to dynamat) to the boot lid and it made a big difference, really easy to do (well, compared to taking the door trim off).

When I saw the phone button I had to laugh, I thought they had changed it to a recessed one as I put mine in the same place and it sticks out masses like you say. A word of warning though, it gets knocked quite easily there, and after two presses it dials the last number used (well it does with my phone). Lets just say I was not thanked when calling someone at 4:30 am on my way to a meeting with them later that day 250 miles away!

You mentioned you use as a family car, there is a great place on the rear parcel to add a power socket for all those gadgets/nintendos etc. As the power is already back there it is really easy.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j10/alexalfisti/stereo/IMG_1962.jpg

 

[156Chris]

top work fella, looks very tidy :thumbs:


@alexace good idea, I might just put one there too :thumbs: