Stereo Sound System Uprade

[michaelsdavis]

I'm wanting to upgrade my sound system in my 1.5. If I have a new Alpine touchscreen stereo, a pair of tweeters, a pair of mid-range, a pair of 5.25 sub-woofers, and an amp installed...will this effect or pull too much power from the battery? Will it effect my current range mileage? Of course, the installation shop says it won't be an issue...but they are not Roadster Specialists like we have on this forum.

What do you guys think?

Thanks
Mike

 

[X.l.r.8]

going to depend on type and power of the amp. I have an new old hafler amp i was going to use. Even that worried me and I have 20A feeding a 12V battery.

 

[JohnGarziglia]

I'm wanting to upgrade my sound system in my 1.5. If I have a new Alpine touchscreen stereo, a pair of tweeters, a pair of mid-range, a pair of 5.25 sub-woofers, and an amp installed...will this effect or pull too much power from the battery? Will it effect my current range mileage? Of course, the installation shop says it won't be an issue...but they are not Roadster Specialists like we have on this forum.

What I did with my 2.5 prior to replacing the double-din Alpine receiver with its auxiliary HD radio components was to connect up the replacement system on a bench to a 12 volt power supply (or a 12 volt battery works fine), and measure the amperage at full blast. Then I measured the amperage used by the installed system through the fuse block. I found that the replacement system pulled a little less current than the existing system. Unless you are putting in something designed to shake the asphalt under the car, I doubt any replacement system will pull more substantially more current than the existing system does.

 

[coolVariable]

My aftermarket amp had an extra 12V battery installed.
This was done by the previous owner but I gather that the system was installed by http://al-ed.com/ who apparently did this on a couple of Roadsters.

If you ask me, I would NOT do that though.
This is not a car that benefits from a better sound system. Put in a better radio, but I would otherwise forego the better amp et al. The standard system is pretty decent. The radio is just *sugar*.

 

[MCroadster]

It looks like the factory fuse ratings for the head unit is 7.5A and 15A for the subwoofer amp. So, if you can keep the consumption below 90W and 180W RMS respectively then you should be ok using into the original fuse locations.
If you keep within these limits it really shouldn't consume a lot of extra energy. If I were to guesstimate, I would put the power consumption (at moderate volume levels)) on par with running the headlights at night.

If you are looking for more power, consider installing speakers that operate at a sensitivity at or above 90dB/2.83V. With more efficient speakers the system will be considerably louder as compared to speakers that operate at 85dB/2.83V.

 

[GJVR]

My aftermarket amp had an extra 12V battery installed.
This was done by the previous owner but I gather that the system was installed by http://al-ed.com/ who apparently did this on a couple of Roadsters.

agree partly.
I upgraded my unit recently and can definitely hear the difference. Alpine 702d.
But even better: the apple/Android CarPlay experience.

If you ask me, I would NOT do that though.
This is not a car that benefits from a better sound system. Put in a better radio, but I would otherwise forego the better amp et al. The standard system is pretty decent. The radio is just *sugar*.

 

[X.l.r.8]

JL tr400-cxi. 84. 1 7/8. 2-35 71-22,000

R1525x2. 88 1 7/8. 2-40 62-20,000

R14x2. 85. 1 11/16 2-30 100-20,000

Gto429 92 1 15/16 5-35 75-21,000

Ref-4002cfx 92. 1 7/8. 5-35. 75-21,000

Ref-4012i. 91. 1 15/16 2-35. 85-21,000

Kar110 90. 54mm 5-100 30-20,000

Ki 46csc44 88. 1 1/4 5-50. 60-20,000

Ki 44ksc404 88. 1 13/16 0-75. 60-20,000

Polk DB 402 90 1 13/16 5-45. 60-22,000

In ref4032cfx.92 1 7/8. 5-35. 75-21,000

figures are DB, mounting depth, power range, and grew-range. Just in case anyone is looking, this was a quick list of speakers I was playing with before I found my uniQ’s

 

[hcsharp]

There's a whole thread on updating the speakers. I replaced the front 4" speakers with 5.25" Rockford Fosgates and it sounds way better. More details in this post:
No Brainer 4" drop-in speaker upgrade phenomenon
I had to 3D print some speaker rings but in that post he somehow did it without the rings.

 

[Timothy]

For another point of view--I NEVER put the top up! (Well, almost never.) So there is a lot of wind noise. So the sound of the radio is covered up by mother nature--and I just enjoy the driving experience.

 

[coolVariable]

I agree that replacing the radio and maybe the speakers is probably the way to go.
Everything else (especially a better amp/subwoofer) is a waste of money, time, and electricity/range ;-)