Upgrading Car Audio?

[Smitty2k1]

Hey all, I recently decided my car's audio system needs a little bit of a boost. The sound quality is pretty bad when its played at a decently loud volume, with washed out high and low notes.

Anyways, my car has two 6"x9" rear speakers and two 6-1/2" front speakers.
Im looking to get some new speakers, and two small (8" or 10") subwoofers.

Any special things I should look for in the speakers/subs/amp?
Any recomendations on any brands or models?

As a note, Im not looking to get a system that is 100% pure bass or that can be extreemly loud, Im going for sound quality. Which is why I want small subs, just so the low notes dont sound so washed out.

Thanks guys.

[Miscue]

Hey all, I recently decided my car's audio system needs a little bit of a boost. The sound quality is pretty bad when its played at a decently loud volume, with washed out high and low notes.

Anyways, my car has two 6"x9" rear speakers and two 6-1/2" front speakers.
Im looking to get some new speakers, and two small (8" or 10") subwoofers.

Any special things I should look for in the speakers/subs/amp?
Any recomendations on any brands or models?

As a note, Im not looking to get a system that is 100% pure bass or that can be extreemly loud, Im going for sound quality. Which is why I want small subs, just so the low notes dont sound so washed out.

Thanks guys.

Get: A new deck with 3 sets of pre-outs. Get 6.5" fronts (make sure they fit). Get a 3 or 4 channel amp to power your fronts and sub. Use deck to power rearfill. Get a single 10" sub that's quality. Your stock 6x9's might be sufficient, otherwise get cheap 6x9s.

[Gunny86]

how much money are you looking to spend? for a good sounding system that is cheap i would recomend just ditching the back speakers entirely, and getting a set of lower end cdt's, the braxial series maybe. you could run those off the head unit depending on what kind of power it has but amping them would be better. your choice and you could skip the amp to save some money. as for subs i like orion alot so what you could do is go with somthing like 1 10in XTR pro if you can still find them, other wise one of the new p series or c series. then just amp that sub and you will have a nice little system! one last thing what kind of headunit do you have?

[Miscue]

how much money are you looking to spend? for a good sounding system that is cheap i would recomend just ditching the back speakers entirely, and getting a set of lower end cdt's, the braxial series maybe. you could run those off the head unit depending on what kind of power it has but amping them would be better. your choice and you could skip the amp to save some money. as for subs i like orion alot so what you could do is go with somthing like 1 10in XTR pro if you can still find them, other wise one of the new p series or c series. then just amp that sub and you will have a nice little system! one last thing what kind of headunit do you have?

Hehe. CDT is often first thing I recommend for inexpensive, good quality fronts.

[Gunny86]

cdt is also good if you are looking for some very high end comps, i just got a new set of hd 642's too bad i have to take a few weeks to get my kicks PERFECT before i will even consider running them, lol, i want the first time i listen to this set to be perfect. but thats just me so

[GreasyPigeon]

well...it you want to hit hard you should keep in mind of a few thing.... You need a powerfull deck a 2volt deck will work but a 4 volt will hit alot better. Also keep your wire egual...I mean by equal by use the same guage wire for your power and ground, And the same guage wire for your speakers. If your going to have subs its better to get the speaker box custom made, or some system shop will sell you boxs planes for your speaks so you can make your own box. Just don't go out an buy a box, Cause not all speakers are the same... Some 12" speakers move more air then other and they need a bigger box other 12" move less air and need a smaller box. If you Box is too big you'll blow your subs cause your moving too much air. If you box is too small your not moving enough air and your speakers won't sound good.

For amps stay away from kenwood. Kenwoods tend to over heat and cut out , and Sony audio is going under.

For amps I would go with Pheonix Gold, Nitch, MTX and there are alot of other good ones

Well cause you want your system to sound good you should go with some PG speaks or any speakers with a dual voice coil.

If you have a big amp big you need subs that can handle so look at you peak power on the amp box.


if you go with a high power system you will need a cap so it doesn't kill you battery and so your headlights don't dim when your speakers hit

Five things you should do for a good system .Good wire, Stonge Deck, box, Subs, Amp.

[Smitty2k1]

Right now I have a Pioneer DEH-1500 (50watts x 4) I dont really want to replace it unless it would be that important.

Oh, and Im looking to spend, eh, like $750 or less, I think. But $500 would be better.

And also, is Crutchfield still one of the best places to order from? (Its where I got my head unit, and it came with instructions and all the hardware and wiring harnessess i needed)

EDIT: I was also looking at the CDT braxial speakers... what is up with thoes, are the components that mount on top of each other? Or do you still need to find a new place to mount the tweeter? They do sound nice as hell, although maybe more than I want to spend, I dont know.

Oh yeah, I also was told that the rear speakers should be the first thing I replace, but from what you guys are telling me, it seems like the front speakers are much more important than the rears?

[Gunny86]

in SQ comps i have never seen anyone run back speakers, they tend to ruin your imaging. what you should aim for is having all the sound coming from your dash, like you have a band playing right on your hood. that is the ideal. also, about what someone said earlier, they said to get a cap, caps are only good for some situations, most of the time they will add to the load on your charging system and make things worse. as far as the braxials go, i dont have alot of time at the moment but i believe that the tweet just mounts on a holder that goes out into the middle of the midbass driver making it a all in one speaker.

[Miscue]

well...it you want to hit hard you should keep in mind of a few thing.... You need a powerfull deck a 2volt deck will work but a 4 volt will hit alot better. Also keep your wire egual...I mean by equal by use the same guage wire for your power and ground, And the same guage wire for your speakers. If your going to have subs its better to get the speaker box custom made, or some system shop will sell you boxs planes for your speaks so you can make your own box. Just don't go out an buy a box, Cause not all speakers are the same... Some 12" speakers move more air then other and they need a bigger box other 12" move less air and need a smaller box. If you Box is too big you'll blow your subs cause your moving too much air. If you box is too small your not moving enough air and your speakers won't sound good.

For amps stay away from kenwood. Kenwoods tend to over heat and cut out , and Sony audio is going under.

For amps I would go with Pheonix Gold, Nitch, MTX and there are alot of other good ones

Well cause you want your system to sound good you should go with some PG speaks or any speakers with a dual voice coil.

If you have a big amp big you need subs that can handle so look at you peak power on the amp box.


if you go with a high power system you will need a cap so it doesn't kill you battery and so your headlights don't dim when your speakers hit

Five things you should do for a good system .Good wire, Stonge Deck, box, Subs, Amp.

/me cries.

Dual Voice coil doesn't improve your sound, it gives you more options on how you can power your sub.

The point of a cap is not to keep your lights from dimming, or to bandaid fix an electrical system that can't hang. The point of it is, its ability for instantaneous discharge - where there is lag time with just a battery. Caps actually add additional load to your electrical system.

"If you Box is too big you'll blow your subs cause your moving too much air. If you box is too small your not moving enough air and your speakers won't sound good."

I agree that a box that is too large can be undesirable. As for blowing up? There would have to be something else going on besides the size of the box. Look at subs set for free-air for instance... works fine. And yeah, if your box is too small that's no good either. Although there is the polyfill trick to make a small box act like a bigger box... if you have space constraints.

"If you have a big amp big you need subs that can handle so look at you peak power on the amp box."

That's nearly a non-issue. The problem is when you have an amp that is underpowering your subs - that can kill them. You can "over-power" your subs all day long (Really you aren't overpowering them, unless you turn up the volume way too high)

[Miscue]

in SQ comps i have never seen anyone run back speakers, they tend to ruin your imaging. what you should aim for is having all the sound coming from your dash, like you have a band playing right on your hood. that is the ideal. also, about what someone said earlier, they said to get a cap, caps are only good for some situations, most of the time they will add to the load on your charging system and make things worse. as far as the braxials go, i dont have alot of time at the moment but i believe that the tweet just mounts on a holder that goes out into the middle of the midbass driver making it a all in one speaker.

Yup... rear speakers are unnecessary in some situations. Whether or not you put them in depends on taste... and if you're competing, ideally your setup does not need them.

[cletus]

If your looking for some amazing equipment check out Elemental Designs (http://www.edesignaudio.com). I used to own one of their old A series subs and it just blew me away. The sound was simply amazing...so accurate on the double kicks its indescribable. Sadly i was forced to sell it and the Avionixx 800.2 amp i was putting on it to a friend of mine. Anyone that listened to it was amazing at what was coming out of that single 12 and how loud it could get.

Right now you can buy their new series of subs, either the k.v2 or o.v2 on preorder for a great savings. They are also making component sets now, which i have a set on order. I dont know who else on here has heard or even heard OF them but they make great stuff at a great price.

[ASDadam]

Volfenhag makes an amazing line of quality amps and subs. Check into their 10inch sub and a good amp. You can buy a 1600 watt 2 channel amp off of ebay for around 140 and a 1000 4 channel amp for around 120.

For speakers i like the Polk Momo Series or the Audiobahns if you're going to run an amp.

[cletus]

Sorry to burst you bubble dadam but Volfenhag is crap. The 1600 watt amp that your talking about only puts out 640 RMS at 2 ohms. If you compare that to edesigns nine.1 amp which puts out 1200 RMS at 1 ohm which is only $250 which one would you chose?

[Gunny86]

/me cries.

Dual Voice coil doesn't improve your sound, it gives you more options on how you can power your sub.

The point of a cap is not to keep your lights from dimming, or to bandaid fix an electrical system that can't hang. The point of it is, its ability for instantaneous discharge - where there is lag time with just a battery. Caps actually add additional load to your electrical system.

"If you Box is too big you'll blow your subs cause your moving too much air. If you box is too small your not moving enough air and your speakers won't sound good."

I agree that a box that is too large can be undesirable. As for blowing up? There would have to be something else going on besides the size of the box. Look at subs set for free-air for instance... works fine. And yeah, if your box is too small that's no good either. Although there is the polyfill trick to make a small box act like a bigger box... if you have space constraints.

"If you have a big amp big you need subs that can handle so look at you peak power on the amp box."

That's nearly a non-issue. The problem is when you have an amp that is underpowering your subs - that can kill them. You can "over-power" your subs all day long (Really you aren't overpowering them, unless you turn up the volume way too high)


"The problem is when you have an amp that is underpowering your subs - that can kill them." Sorry but underpowering is a myth, if you have your volume set to 1 depending on the system, amps, subs etc, you are only pushing a few watts to the subs. also JBL proved that its an old myth. it certain cases i have seen subs run off the head unit (not by me but it has been done) all day long with no problems.