Bundus

Yeah thats exactly where I got the POI's from - cost me £19.99 to subscribe then I downloaded the custom POIs and put them on the card. If I boot up with the card in the sat nav just hangs on the loading screen. If I boot up without the SD in then it loads fine but as soon as I put the SD card in it resets itself then hangs at loading again so I cant even go to the POI section on the sat nav and do it from there. Ill be there Sunday - just impatient and getting frustrated lol!

Thanks for the offer mate, I think I may need to. Thats two of you now that think the fronts are adequate on their own to fill the car so I think I may be missing something You going to be at BBQ, Beer and Banter? Or the Bluewater meet on Sunday?

Thanks H5 Yeah Im sure Ive done everything right. What Im wondering is if the unit is trying to load the maps off the SD card and thats why its stalling cos there are none on there. I want it to load the maps off the unit and then look to the SD card for the updates. problem is that if I let the unit boot up then insert the SD card afterwards the unit reboots and the same thing happens. Perhaps if I had the maps on the SD card as well as the updates and speed camera locations it would work!?! Need to steal your maps off you Mark

Seriously mate Im very close - It just pi$$es me off the way nothing is ever easy. Its the simplest job in the world and Ive followed the instructions to the letter but yet of course it still wont work. When you put your SD card in yours and turn the system on what happens mate??

After this discussion on the forum I went home got in the car and had a listen and a play around. I can fully understand what you guys are saying with regard to where you stand at a concert etc and I must admit that if the stero is turned up to its optimum volume and set up at that volume then the front speakers will create enough fill and be perfectly fine. But I have to say that throughout the volume range - especially when starting low - the front speakers on their own do not wrap me in sound and give me the same feel as if I had the rear ones on. With the volume down low and my rear speakers turned off it just sounds pointless, as soon as I fade it back and the rears come in you can instantly hear how much nicer it sounds. Now yes I know I could set the audio up so that the fronts did sound nice at low volumes but then it would just sound poor when I crank it up. And why should I need to set up a great sounding system with front only speakers if my rears are sitting right there ready to be used? Im sure that someone with a top quality system could show me a front only speaker set up that sounds great so Im not disputing that Im just saying that I personally prefer having front and rear speakers so I can adjust the fade for different volumes and styles of music - having that adjustability is essential to me and in my opinion the rear speakers give me a much nicer sound and feel to the music at lower volumes then the fronts on their own do!

Im almost about to give up on this so hopefully someone can help. I have the stand alone sat nav unit linked up to my kenwood touch screen and I want to update it. I want to update the software and also add speedcamera alerts. I have an SD card and I have already downloaded the software update and put it on the SD card. I put it in the unit then turn on the engine which starts up my sat nav and screen. It gets to the page saying loading maps then stays there indefinitely. If I unplug the SD card it boots up as normal then if I put it back in it reboots but freezes on the loading maps screen. Ive also just paid £19.99 to download the speed camera points of interest. Ive downloaded Garmins POI installer and used it to install the POI on the SD card. Same thing happens as above. Ive even tried bringing the unit into my house and connecting it directly to the pc using the mini usb cable but this does nothing as I cant power the unit inside the house. Im about to throw it out the windo so someonel please help me out Cheers.

I have the Alpine IVA W200Ri double din touch screen in my car at the moment which has a dedicated ipod connection. Unfortunately it doesnt play video. Ive seen a ipod video adapter for the alpine units coming in at around £75. Im just wondering how this works. Most sites ive seen say that the video and audio connections are seperate - does that mean that I have to use two different connections when changing from movies to songs or does the video connection do both? Also Im thinking about changing head units anyway and was looking for one that is ipod video ready. I found the JVC KW AVX720 which looks nice and says it plays ipod audio and video but then on a seperate site it said this iPod Video Playback (KS-U30 Cable Required) iPod Audio Playback (USB/J-BUS) Does that mean that if I buy the JVC unit I still have to buy an additional cable for video? And does it also mean that the video and audio are two seperate connections? How does that work? Cheers guys

If you havent got one already then I still have mine that I bought brand new and never fitted. Ill drop you a PM.

Yeah my JDM reads 121 on the clock when the speed cuts out. I thought it was weird too but I also have a GPS speedometer in my car which record my max speed too. I went round and round the high speed bowl at Millbrook doing top end foot flat to the floor. When I was finished I checked my GPS speedo and it said my max speed was 121 so now I dont know what to believe God knows then I'd trust the GPS I suppose Yeah Id like to think the GPS was accurate but its also speed dependant it seems. When Im doing 30 on the cars speedo the GPS is saying around 26, same at 40 the GPS says around 36 or 37. But when I took the car to max on the speedo which is 121 the GPS also says 121. Ive given up trying to figure out what speed Im doing

Thats a good point. Perhaps its just a personal taste thing for me then. Ive always preferred having front and rear speakers in the car just because its always sounded nicer to me. Perhaps Ive not really seen a system set up with just fronts that impressed me as much as speakers all round. Its interesting to hear different sides to the story and Im sure that both sides could be argued just as well as each other so most of it will come down to personal taste. Keep us informed on the work Lincoln and get some pics up when you make progress

Dont you find that with just using the fronts though it feels like the music is hitting you in the face rather then engulfing you? If the car didnt have any rears then fair enough no need to worry but the rears are there and ready to be used so it just seems a waste to me to have them turned down. Obviously its my personal opinion and you guys may find it perfectly ok with just the fronts but Ive always though that if youve got them then why not use them! A properly setup system that is just using the fronts will fill the car, specially one the size of the 350z which has a tiny amount of cabin space. If you spend the money on getting a better front amp & speakers than you were going to spend on the rears IMO you will get a better sounding system overall. In my old saxo the amount of people who would not believe I had a 1 set of front components and 1 sub was silly - they were top of the range JL 3-ways with proper ampage but went to prove the point. Quality over Quantity If you have a fairly cheap system them it may well be that the rears give you some fill but as you spend more money on better equiptment the rears will loose value But that theory seems to be based on comparing a high quality system running just the fronts to a cheap system running all the speakers. In that scenario yes the fronts would win. But if you took the high quality system you had that was running just the fronts and added in equally high quality amped rear speakers there would definietly be an improvement. Maybe not a huge improvement in sound quality but certainly in volume and cabin fill. I can certainly see that the 350 may not require the rears as its a much smaller car then the ones Ive done most of my audio work on - but in Lincolns case he already has the rear speakers upgraded and he doesnt want to spend a lot of money so I thought the 5 channel would be the best bet.

Yeah I literally dug out the first 5 channel I found - if it were me Id try and find one a little more powerful and spend a few more quid but Infinity is a reputable brand so if you are strapped for cash then its a great option. I have 3 amps in mine all running off on cable to the battery. You just get a splitter connector. Run one thick 4 gauge cable from the battery to the splitter box then run 2 or 3 smaller cables out of the splitter box to the amps. Nice and easy.

Dont you find that with just using the fronts though it feels like the music is hitting you in the face rather then engulfing you? If the car didnt have any rears then fair enough no need to worry but the rears are there and ready to be used so it just seems a waste to me to have them turned down. Obviously its my personal opinion and you guys may find it perfectly ok with just the fronts but Ive always though that if youve got them then why not use them!

I just did a really quick search and found this ex demo amp for sale going cheap. I didnt even look at the spec too much but just wanted to show you a 5 channel amp at a good price. Some more searching will find you exactly what you want. http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/product/products_id/7123.html With an Amp like this you can run front, rear and your sub all from the same stealthily located amp. Please dont ignore your rear speakers - you wont regret bringing them into your system

Ok Im on board with the no show approach - a stealth install is just as good if your not into the show side of it. But one thing I would strongly urge you to do is not ignore your rear speakers. You will get a much better sound from a surround system that has been set up properly then you will from just utilising the fronts. Especially once you get an uprated sub in the boot and have it amped you will really want those rears coming into play. Are the rear speakers still OEM or did you change those too mate?

Well Im always a big fan of doing ICE installs that look good as well as perform so if it were me Id be buying another amp to run the sub so that I could have the symetry of two amps. Then mount the two amps on a rack. Heres a couple pics of my install. You are so right that you dont need to have big power to be effective - Ive seen low powered amps kick a$$ but they are usually expensive ones. If you are on a budget then Id go for a high powered budget amp rather then go for a low powered budget amp. If you had money to burn then you can get a low powered amp from a high class manufacturer and you know its still going to be good. Are you using any amps to drive the rears? If not then Id suggest a 4 channel amp to do the fronts and rears and a separate amp for the sub. If you are on a budget then you can get one amp to do the lot. let me know what youd prefer and Ill look at some options for you mate!

If you have an underpowered amp then it will always be working really hard when you crank the volume. I always used amps that were slightly more powerful then I needed so that I could run them at around 70 - 80% of their power. You can get some really cheap amps now days with big power so Id take Robs advice and get one thats matched to your sub. Little bit more money now saves a lot of upset in the future!

Yeah my JDM reads 121 on the clock when the speed cuts out. I thought it was weird too but I also have a GPS speedometer in my car which record my max speed too. I went round and round the high speed bowl at Millbrook doing top end foot flat to the floor. When I was finished I checked my GPS speedo and it said my max speed was 121 so now I dont know what to believe

Yeah it depends on what vinyl you go for and what coverage you want. The vinyls differ in price per meter so a wrap in chrome will be a hell of a lot more then a wrap in plain white even though the labour time would be similar. £3,000 for a full wrap Im guessing was for something special.

Ive uploaded a couple of distance ones here mate viewtopic.php?f=34&t=24591

Sorry to hear that mate. Ive been in close contact with Beth and she's always been great. Whats your name mate and Ill mention it to her.

Yeah you can send them parts im sure. They mentioned to me that they can even wrap interior parts as long as they have a good surface to stick to and they offer a silver and a white both with carbon effect which could look cool. As for stone chips I think it will hold up quite well as the wrap is pretty tough. But if it does get stone chipped then at least its not your paintwork taking the beating Yeah you can put a gloss coat on it or it can be wrapped in a shiny laminate but then youd lose the texture it has at the moment so Im keeping it as is for now. It looks like dry carbon in the flesh

Thanks guys. Raccoon are based in Edenbridge in Kent. Give Beth a call and she will give you a good quote depending on what you want to have done. Mine is part of an ongoing wrap project so there is plenty more to come. Tell her I sent you too

If all goes as planned it will be on the cover so you wont be able to miss it. But Ill buy next months anyway and they usually have a bit in the back about whats coming the month after so it may be in there and Ill let you all know!