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Thinking that the Crying pumpkin could do with a tasteful* speaker upgrade.

 

One set of speakers seems to be 6" in diameter - prices for speakers to fit seem to range from £20 to £200.  In theory I'd get the £200 ones if they are that good but I would welcome input from the autoshite jury.

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Are you still using the factory head unit? if so, upgrading speakers will be pointless.

 

From experience, don't go cheap as they will die in about a week, but it is not worth buying super pricey speakers as they are no better than the mid-prices ones

No - using a much newer JVC one - but that will likely be changed too.

 

The factory setup was unusual for 1994 - a Clarion radio/cassette head unit and optional CD changer (that bit wasn't) that fed signal level to an amp in the rear that powered the six speakers - 4 in the front doors and two above the tailgate.  There's a separate two channel amp for the factory sub, too.   Most of that hardware is still there, but the wiring's been butchered.

 

In the short term I need the front lower speakers to be better and capable of handling a bit more power.

 

I looked in Halfords yesterday as I happened to be in there - their offerings seemed fair.

 

Got back and looked at stuff online - there are JL audio speakers for c£200 - I will buy them if they are really that much better.

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As above, spend some money on some sound deadening for your doors, use a separate amplifier and the difference will astound you.

 

I bought some £100 JL audio components for my old camper van and with the above mods they sounded great. The reason that I chose them was for their silk tweeter- I absolutely hate the sound of metal tweeters as I don't listen to R&B at 200dB. On anything else they sound raspy and abrasive imho.

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A £200 speaker in a floppy doorcard, backed by rattly metal, will sound like a £20 one anyway.

 

I know it's chavvy but since you've already got a position for a sub in t'pumpkin, the difference you'll get by separating the sounds and using distinct sub, mids and tweeters will amaze you. Replace the "full range" door speakers with some mids, drop a crossover in for the tweeters which you can mount at the bottom of the windscreen, and get that sub going. Even with the JVC head unit it'll sound 100% better, and it often works out cheaper than some amazing tri-axial door speakers (which people only buy because they've got a little hatchback on PCP which they don't want to run wires and speakers all over)

 

+1 on Halfords clearance, their target market is so caught up on the latest thing they mark down last years speakers and head units by a daft amount.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thought I would bump this rather than starting a new topic. My newly acquired XM still has the factory tape deck & I would like a CD player for it. My thoughts are either find a factory CD changer or head unit or swap it out for an aftermarket job. I am sort of leaning towards keeping it factory if possible as I would then be able to still use the steering wheel volume control buttons. Or is it possible to somehow use the steering wheel buttons with an aftermarket head unit?

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You can *often* use steering wheel buttons with an aftermarket stereo, but this relies on both finding a head unit with that feature (big names like Alpine and Clarion, rather than Lucky HappyFun £8.59 eBay specials) and an adaptor cable - the head unit will just have an input lead on the back which is specific to that audio manufacturer, then they'll sell you a cable that joins their plug to the cable in your XM that plugs into the back of the factory head unit.

 

Try googling for "Citroen XM head unit steering wheel adaptor" or something, but don't be surprised if there's not warehouses full to bursting of those - it's would have been quite a "specific" part back in the day, let alone 20 years later.

If you're lucky, Citroen will still be using the same plug for newer models, but it's unlikely.

 

Edit: Here's an example, from XM to Blaupunkt. There'll be different ones for Alpine, Kenwood etc.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PC99-X17-Blaupunkt-Citroen-XM-1994-2000-Car-Steering-Wheel-Interface-Adaptor/181424146240

If you really want to use the wheel controls, it might be a case of finding an adaptor then locating a head unit to suit it rather than the other way around!

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Lots of tedious cross referencing.

 

For example, find all the different wheel adaptors you can get for an XM (mostly just different brands of head unit, might be one or two for each I guess)

Then use those manufacturers to Google for head units with "steering wheel input" in the search term and see if the model number is listed for that adaptor.

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Well I have bit the bullet and ordered the lead http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CITROEN-XM-STALK-ADAPTOR-CONTROL-PC99-X17-NEW-FREE-PATCH-LEAD/290687902228 which comes with a free patch lead.

 

And head unit http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alpine-CDE-130R-Car-Radio-REDUCED-WAS-129-CD-USB-IPOD-iphone-AUX-Car-Stereo/122564224416. I was going to get a more period correct one but they all seem to be scratched to buggery and this one looks fairly basic and the green illumination will match the XM's.

 

Fingers crossed this will work as intended but if not I will just have to reach over to the center console the old fashioned way.

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Well I have bit the bullet and ordered the lead http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CITROEN-XM-STALK-ADAPTOR-CONTROL-PC99-X17-NEW-FREE-PATCH-LEAD/290687902228 which comes with a free patch lead.

 

And head unit http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alpine-CDE-130R-Car-Radio-REDUCED-WAS-129-CD-USB-IPOD-iphone-AUX-Car-Stereo/122564224416. I was going to get a more period correct one but they all seem to be scratched to buggery and this one looks fairly basic and the green illumination will match the XM's.

 

Fingers crossed this will work as intended but if not I will just have to reach over to the center console the old fashioned way.

Let me know how you get on, what year is your XM? Mine is a 1991, pre facelift and I think the wiring is different.

 

Sent from my SM-A510F using Tapatalk

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Yeah will do, mine is 1996 so I needed Autoleads PC99-X17. I guess you would need PC99-X19.

 

This guide is handy.

 

http://www.armourautoretail.com/sites/armourautoretail.com/files/AL_SteeringWheelControlBrochure_FINAL_printAPPGUIDE(web).pdf

That appears to be the right one....I'd love to get the controls on the steering wheel working.

 

I'll add it to the list but that's more a post MOT treat should it pass :)

 

Sent from my SM-A510F using Tapatalk

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not having much with getting the Steering wheel controls working so far. First of all I was supplied the wrong patch lead with the PC99-X17. It was the Sony one, they both have a 3.5mm jack on the end but different wiring. I now have the correct patch lead but the buttons don't work properly, volume control does nothing and the only button that works as it should is the input selection. Googling seems to suggest that it is a common problem with Alpine units.

 

I just ordered this Sony unit http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152655484684. Going to have one last attempt and then give up. I have already spent nearly £100 on a car I don't intend to keep that long lol.

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