Caravan audio transformed

[SteveW]

Just sharing what I’ve been doing today on the caravan audio front in case it inspires anyone else to upgrade their audio. I fitted a decent Pioneer car radio to our 15 yo Bailey van some time ago, the quality and max volume have never been exactly the best on the built in speakers. So, I found a couple of Eltax bookshelf speakers on eBay, didnt cost a lot. I finished fitting them today, clearly they need to be firmly attached in a van, to achieve this I moved a corner shelf on the right (see picture) and used some plastic corner brackets to mount the left speaker. The Bailey wiring was pretty appaling, turned out to be really nasty thin twin cable like you used to get with 70s stereos. Also found that Bailey had not used the radios negative speaker returns at all, rather bringing the negs together elsewhere. All a bit suspect and likely to affect volume at the least. So I ran new 1mm cable pairs in the lighting conduits back to the radio.

The result surprised me, a complete transformation of sound quality and volume available. Well worth the effort, it’s a pleasure to sit there and listen to music now.

I appreciate many don’t want to chop their vans around, we bought an older van precisely because that’s the type of thing I like to do and we don’t mind alterations. Anyway just to say it is well worth finding some smaller shelf type speakers if you are the least bit fussy about sound in a caravan,

Steve

 

[otherclive]

Nice looking speakers that actually enhance the appearance.

 

[SteveW]

Yea they don’t look as out of place as you might think. Not sure if I dare try darkening the finish to match the van, they have some varnish over, avoided it so far,

Steve

 

[Jcloughie]

Great job and a good achievement. But not for me. Looks nice and no doubt sounds good.

This is what I do now. (The pioneer supplied with my van is awful).



Plus



Sounds great and works with the TV also.

John

 

[SteveW]

Great job and a good achievement. But not for me. Looks nice and no doubt sounds good.

This is what I do now. (The pioneer supplied with my van is awful).

Plus
Sounds great and works with the TV also.

John

I can see that Bluetooth everything makes things simpler for sure. Certainly this setup allows Bluetooth playing from a phone, the Pioneer radio does that. I also use the wired auxiliary input into the Pioneer to play from the TV and directly from the satellite box. Eventually a Raspberry Pi will also provide computer audio in as well. I’ve used the optical outputs of all of the kit, converted to analogue to get round a noise issue, car kit not being designed to work with all of this. Basically I love wires.

Steve

 

[Jcloughie]

I can see that Bluetooth everything makes things simpler for sure. Certainly this setup allows Bluetooth playing from a phone, the Pioneer radio does that. I also use the wired auxiliary input into the Pioneer to play from the TV and directly from the satellite box. Eventually a Raspberry Pi will also provide computer audio in as well. I’ve used the optical outputs of all of the kit, converted to analogue to get round a noise issue, car kit not being designed to work with all of this. Basically I love wires.

Steve

I understand where you are coming from. Nice to know that you have achieved something by your own skill. Yes bluetooth works well for music. But can’t sync the tv so use aux.

John

 

[SteveW]

I understand where you are coming from. Nice to know that you have achieved something by your own skill. Yes bluetooth works well for music. But can’t sync the tv so use aux.

John

TV should have a sound sync option in its setup? I always fully turn off TV internal sound with this type of setup, obviously it all goes horribly wrong if you have both,

Steve

 

[Jcloughie]

TV should have a sound sync option in its setup? I always fully turn off TV internal sound with this type of setup, obviously it all goes horribly wrong if you have both,

Steve

The TV is old, in fact, it does not even have BT, so it's academic anyway. 😁


John

 

[SteveW]

The TV is old, in fact, it does not even have BT, so it's academic anyway. 😁


John

Probably as old as our caravan 😀

 

[Beachball]

Looks like you very handy with your hands it looks great enjoy