un1eash

We need to come up with a better step by step guide as many people still keep getting this wrong.

Would love the 123d but there isn't many coupes around. Although I'd love another 350z I'm getting a 111s elise this year.

What BMW you getting, i only had my 350Z for about 12 months and had a 2007 Z4 before that for 18 months, out the 2 i want another 350Z but we've also looked at a 320d/120d M Sport next.

Dont try and be a saint, someone offereing you the money over the phone is a long way away from them handing over the cash. Trade it in and be done with it, theres no come backs either with an unhappy buyer.

On my headunit the 9886 connecting the processor opened up more options and features and yes you could play around with it to achieve the same results, the 9887 i believe had all the options and features out the box. Even then i think you'd still need some kind of meter to get the settings as good as the auto setup does which requires an Audyssey mic and the supplied computer software. I played around with my setup for ages in the Z4 and i just wasnt happy, i couldnt get it sounding right and then my other half brought me the procesor as a present and it was night and day difference. I was showing ikarus who has an awesome JL install on here the difference it made at one of the car shows.

Heres a nice flash site that explains all.. http://www.alpine-europe.com/imprint/ Its basically like the Audyssey auto setup you get on AV Amps but for your car. Worked wonders in my Z4 and 350Z espcially with the bass quality. I even ran it for a couple days using the bose speakers and it made even them sound good.

Here i am.... Awesome headunit but the Imprint Processor cost £650 for that unit.

It'll give you a nice back massage when up and running again. Whats the volume of the sub box?

If your going for upgrade speakers and amps also buy used, my 2 slash amps were £400 each when new, i paid £300 for the both in mint condition. Car audio depreciates faster then a new french car.

I went for a single din for a couple reasons. First I already had the headunit as it was previously used in my old Z4 and I had sat nav in the 350z so didn't want 2 screens or see the point in having 2 screens. Your budget would be a good place to start as don't forget your going to need a wiring loom, fascia etc which can cost £30-60

I went for a single din for a couple reasons. First I already had the headunit as it was previously used in my old Z4 and I had sat nav in the 350z so didn't want 2 screens or see the point in having 2 screens. Your budget would be a good place to start as don't forget your going to need a wiring loom, fascia etc which can cost £30-60

Im an Alpine fan.

Im an Alpine fan.

Hook up some wire to the cars battery to give the unit power.

Hook up some wire to the cars battery to give the unit power.

I would check the settings on the headunit. The way you have it wired wont be good for sound quality. You should wire it correctly then check settings, its possible you have some kind of rear/sub pairing setting. If you plug the sub into the correct sub out and the rears (yellow/black) into the rear outs can you fade front to back correctly? If you can see if your sub fades with the speakers. It may be the headunit is setup for front/rear-sub like some headunits with only 2 pairs of preouts are.

That'll just confuse him even more, everyone will advise you on something different. At the end of the day you need to buy within your budget and get the setup right.

Still won't make a huge difference :thumbsdown: I disagree, i had this setup before fitting my JL gear and it was night and day difference for the better and i was only using the default imprint settings.

It does have a volume control but i'm not sure if its amplified so will be loud enough.

At the time i first wanted a 350Z i was living at home earning around the same as you. I had no bills other then a mobile phone and when i tried to see about a 350Z down the local Nissan (Leicester) i was pretty much laughed at and talked out of buying one. I ended up with an 18 month old 2.0i Z4 then. Less then 2 years later i swapped that for a 2006 350Z GT 300, still living at home not paying rent it was easily affordable. Insurance was actually more on the BMW at just over £1000 for the year. Things have changed now though and i have a big mortgage so the 350 had to go, i could of kept it but it would of taken up alot of spare income that is better spent on the house. Now that we've settled in and theres a little more money coming in i'll be looking at another possibly although i did say the next car i buy will be a S2 Elise. Things change and aslong as you buy smart and have a get out plan you should be fine. I owed 12k on my 350Z when i traded it in last april, i got 13k trade in against 6k Tigra. The same car is most likely only worth 9-10k now. ps. We use to have a C2 VTS aswell, was brand new and got written off by an OAP when she decided to run into the back of us at 50mph when we were stationary. Searh JEJ on c2club.

If you want to make the bose sound great without using new amps/speakers then go Alpine with Imprint.

If you have bose i believe you need the Parrot Drive & Talk adaptor (PD000114AA) which cost around £100.

I swapped my bose unit out for a single din Alpine 9886 and kept the Sat Nav, You can get the nav voice to work with aftermarket headunits. I wired mine into the Aux input, the only issue with this was having to switch from cd to aux input but as i hardly ever used the nav and it works well without sound i lived with this setup. Changing just the headunit made a massive difference as it was the first upgrade i did, problem was there was to much bass from the bose sub kicking me in the back so it had to go along with the speakers. You wont be disappointed with just a headunit upgrade though.

talkaudio is where i found my amps at a great price, new they should of been near £400 each, picked them both up for £280.

Sorry i was refering to used prices. There must be car audio shops local to you that make custom boxes. I had two made for my 10w6v2, the first was slot ported for when it was in my Z4 and then i changed to sealed when it was in the 350z, both were to JL's spec and the sealed fitted perfectly under the strut.