Replacing original ICE in 91 UK MR2

[Kezza]

I have a Kenwood CD player I'd like to have installed in my MR2. It currently has completely original set up with 6 x passive speaker system, amplifier and bass speaker.

When I enquired about it I was told I need an adapter which is around £35 and this would probably by-pass my amp as the new unit would have its own.

The current set up sounds ok and I'm worried that by replacing the head unit and continuing to use existing speakers the sound won't be as good as it is now.

replacing whole set up including speakers is going to be costly surely, is there any cheap way of doing this? Can I replace certain speakers rather than all 6??

Thanks

[JohnA]

The 'adapter' simply reduces the speaker level outputs from the new head unit to line level so it will work with the existing amps, you wouldn't get a noticable improvement by doing it this way.

The whole Toyota premium sound system is a nightmare and sounds awful. If I were you I would rip it out and start again with all the speaker wiring, just run new speaker cables from your head to the speakers.

You can get some pretty good deals on speakers, the Alpine Type-S 6 1/2" front components fit a treat and they come with an adapter to fit the old toyaota mountings.

For the rears you can cram in anything from 5" to 6 1/2" co-axials.

That would give you a really good sounding system for the price of the head +£150 for some speakers. You can get cheaper than the Alpines though and most will be a lot better than the standard ones.

[Kezza]

I already have a head unit so can I replace all speakers for £150? Including the bass speaker??

How much would I expect to pay for fitting for all this including the head unit?

Thanks for your help.

[JohnA]

No, not including the bass speaker (sub). The Toyota one is next to useless you will get more bass from some decent 6 1/2" front door speakers.

If you like get a small, 8 or 10" sub to go behind the passenger seat at a later date.

To get this done would cost a fair bit, it's not complicated but it is time consuming as you will need to remove the plastic trims to route the new speaker wires. I'm sure with a bit of time and effort you could DIY

[Ashy]

My 'new' £100 Sony head unit has built amplifier (4x45W). I tried the autoleads adapter and it was crap and a waste of money. In the end I ran some wires from the head unit to the amp under the passenger seatbelt and wired upto the existing speakers there (thus bypassing the amp but retaining all original speaker wiring). This also retains the sub-woofer and it's amp. Sound was MASSIVE improvement on original Toyota unit and the sub-woofer came to life, I could hardly notice it before. Whole job took about 90-120 minutes and cost about £2 for some wire.

See wiring diagrams in http://www.ashworthonline.org.uk/mr2

HTH

[JohnA]

That's what I did at first, but there was a break in the original wiring to one of the speakers so I decided to rip it all out and replace the speaker wiring while putting some Alpine type-S compnents in the doors. You're right, bypassing the Toyota amp is the right thing to do.

I just installed an Alpine MRV-340 amp last night so I'm not using the head unit amp any more, the difference in quality is amazing! The volume before any distortion creeps in has increased ten fold.

Next stage new rear speakers and a small sub