Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Stereo upgrade on a 4/4

So I have my second 4/4 now, a 2015 wonderful and well looked after car from a fellow forum member and I am planning a few personalised upgrades.

One thing I was looking to do was remove the original Alpine single din stereo, which is truly dated, and replace this with a modern, main brand DAB and Android auto unit, a simple job. I'm looking for on with a remote control as it's too tricky to change any settings when driving, volume being the main one.

For the speakers I was going to replace the stock Clarion with Focals or similar, same size.

I also am considering a subwoofer, possibly the footwell, but that may overkill in such a car and out of kilter with the aesthetic, and I really want to preserve the rear parcel shelf for any trips I do as luggage space as you know is minimal.

Would anyone recommend any particular model of head-unit, and speaker combo, I'm also planning to run some decent speaker cable which I already have at home in volume.

Simplest way to go is a CD player with a bluetooth connect-ability and use your phone as the interface. Simplifies things so much. Kenwood have a rich sound in my opinion so if going un boosted I'd have a look to see if they are still available.

Nothing much wrong with Clarion speakers in the Mog as its hard to improve the sound quality above all the other intrusive noises. Its more a sense of the sound playing rather than Hi-Fi!

I have only ever once had a car with an amp and sub woofer and I felt a bit of an idiot driving about with it on so that's not for me but... each to their own!

Agree with Sewin.
From Amazon, for £10.99, bought a “Zoachii bluetooth wireless auxiliary adapter” with 3.5 jack to plug into the aux socket of the radio and usb at the other end of the cable to power up the bluetooth. It works a treat. We use google maps on the phone for navigation and so get the verbal instructions through the car’s speakers. Music of choice comes by courtesy of Spotify. The best bit of course is that volume is easily controlled by your phone volume controls.

Interesting your mention of sub woofer Steve. I have recently purchased an 8.5 inch sub woofer with built in amp to supplement the rather tinny 3.5 inch Focal speakers I added. It should be easy enough to wire in with supplied cables to my existing Sony DAB/FM radio. It's back panel has dedicated RCA connectors for such. I also envisaged it fitting in the passenger footwell, specifically out of the way on underside of bulkhead immediately below where windscreen wiper motor is attached, and facing down. Dimensionally it fits in the space comfortably but I need to find some means of supporting it. It's sold as an under seat unit with just a strip of velcro by way of locating. The casing seems to be fairly thick wood so attaching some sort of bracket would be an option. Open to any suggestions bearing in mind it's not particularly light.

I believe Peter J on here did a DAB conversion to his car, a search on here should bring it up.

Does anybody know what happened to him, last seen on here October 2024.

I recall him selling his Aero Plus 8 Keith and spending time with the Boxter he was full of admiration for. Apologies if you know this already.

Thanks for the suggestions, for all they cost now I quote fancy a new single Din, but would like DAB. The bluetooth adaptor would wok but I quite like android auto. I'm still to decide on a phone mount, most likely window quad lock suction cup or ram mount combo. The speakers, I'm sure I can get better quality - the Clarion is quite weedy. Sub - my thought was a triangular foot box, foot rest kind of set up, maybe overkill.

My 59 made did with a bluetooth speaker in the dash shelf!

I recently decided to move to an Apple smartphone-based setup in my car, due mainly to my faithful old TomTom being shaken to bits on a trip across the Trough of Bowland.

I went for a Quad Lock mount, and because I wanted to be able to adjust the angle of the phone I went for the Motorcycle mount that fits to the top of a hydraulic brake or clutch cylinder. I mounted it to the dash so that the phone screen is close to the steering wheel in roughly the 2 O'Clock position, where I can see it and reach it easily. For sound I use AirPod Pros, usually only one in my right ear so I can hear SatNav instructions clearly.

I'm very happy with the setup. I have never got on with suction cups mounted to the screen because I have found they shake too much.

I have a few on my bike but I don't want to hard mount the phone mount, the car is too nice, will try to figure something out, I find my Sony in ears are great, but nav mount is the issue really.

So I decided to crack on and do the upgrade, which was very simple. The 4/4 has a standard loom, so a matter of plug and play, and the hand built nature makes it very easy to upgrade the stereo.

I picked up a new Pioneer 580 DAB unit, with no CD, wireless bluetooth and hands free call capability (retails around the £150 mark presently). The speaker chosen were a direct fit Focal Access 100 (10cm), a little deeper than the original Clarion but much better and a steal at under £100. Surprisingly the Alpine unit was of good quality, just not up to spec with recent tech, the Pioneer was a 2017 launch so period to some extent but with modern functionality. The windscreen makes a perfect earth for the powered DAB aerial, and it is very discreet when fitted.

Speaker wire is not great, so I may replace that later, and clearance was slightly tight on the right but doable.

I also noticed that the OBD port wouldn't hold secure under the dash as the plastic sheet they use was too thick so a gentle amendment and it clicks securely in place. The wiring and work on this 4/4 is very neat, I secured a couple of wires with a cable tie that looked like they could benefit, aside from that a tidy and very clean behind dash space.

The cage was replaced easily with the Pioneer being slightly different, the old one removed simply. I ran a DAB windscreen powered aerial to the left windscreen, the blue LED will be blanked. This is discreet under the dash, and surprisingly effective for £10! The mic for the hands free calls was run to the right of the steering wheel and a spare foam boom cover added off my Sena kit for roof down calls (not that I intend to make many but it's handy to have).

The sounds was pretty dramatically better. The core issue is deadening, but I'll leave that as I don't want to add the lead panels I normally use on my cars as I want to keep the body stock.

Overall for less than £300 a very good upgrade and I'm very happy with it. The only addition I would consider would be a footwell sub tucked up, but I think for what the car is, less is more here.