all you car audio guys I need help

[hubadlatimmy]

Well I am looking to spend about $500 total on everything I need. I simply know nothing. I don't know where to look, what to buy or anything. Any suggestions at all would be great.

1. What brand of head unit should I look for

2. Should I go with a good set of speakers and just skip the amp and subs.

3. Should I get subs at all, I mean bass is cool to have but I don't really need to have massive amounts of it.

4. Where should I look, I would like to purchase everything together if at all possible.

5. Any particular brands I should look for.

[subbeh]

If you only want to spend $500, stay away from subwoofers, they really are not necesary for great sounding bass. All subwoofers seem to add now-a-days is the "cool factor", because a set of mids can do bass tones just as well without all the rattling, IMHO.

I would suggest a medium range head-unit. Sounds lame but I really like some of the Pioneers. I would suggest getting a 4 channel amp and replacing all your stock speakers, and this should put you right about $500-600 if you stay all medium price range. So it would be HU, 4 channel amp (recommend Alpine, but not for your price range... anything but Xplod!), and 2 good sets of mids. Maybe some tweeters as an add on... you should have a very good sounding audio system.

SQL over SPL anyday, IMHO!

[Xen]

well when you only have 500$ to spend its kinda toughf.

What kinda car is it? It must have 6x9s for does it have compsite 6 1/2s in the door or thoes like 3 1/2 dash speakers? If you r car has a CD player in it forget about the head unit now. Just buy a decent pair of frount and rear speakers. Cerwin vega makes decent speakers, Rockford fosgate also. Reason I said dont get a deck if you have a CD player is that in the future when you upgrade you will need a higher quality deck with preouts and more features to tune your system. Forget subs till you have $ to spend.

[hubadlatimmy]

That helps some but not enough for me to justify spending $500 yet. Thanks though

I will be putting them in a 94 GMC Jimmy, I am assuming they are 6x9's but I have not totally ripped it down yet and checked as they are behind some stuff pretty well. I will let you know tomarrowish when I do it.

[FrAuStY]

Originally posted by Xen
well when you only have 500$ to spend its kinda toughf.

What kinda car is it? It must have 6x9s for does it have compsite 6 1/2s in the door or thoes like 3 1/2 dash speakers? If you r car has a CD player in it forget about the head unit now. Just buy a decent pair of frount and rear speakers. Cerwin vega makes decent speakers, Rockford fosgate also. Reason I said dont get a deck if you have a CD player is that in the future when you upgrade you will need a higher quality deck with preouts and more features to tune your system. Forget subs till you have $ to spend.

Whoa whoa whoa, ... the head unit is what tells your speakers what to play... if you have crummy headunit... its gonna sound terrible no matter what speakers you hook up on it. Go with something in your price range.. also.. go to a sound store (Sound advice/Circuit city etc) and Actually listen to headunits..through different speakers. Find the one you like, can afford, and sounds best to you.

After that.. get a nice 4 channel amp. What you want to look at is not peak wattage..but RMS wattage. Thats the maximum amount it can constantly supply. I.e. a BOSS (POS IMO)is advertised at 200 watts 4 channel. If you look in the manual..its RMS is only 35 watt 4 channel.

Also pick speakers that can handle the same amount of wattage RMS that your amp can supply. I.e. Boston Accoustic Rally series (Bad#%% Mofo's) can handle like 85-100 watts RMS and 200 watts peak. You don't want these speakers running on that boss as you'll most likely blow the speaker due to under power, or blow the amp from over-draw. You can make a good sounding combination from just about any "brand" of equipment..it's the matching of components that brings out the quality sound.

Anyway.. your best bet would be circuit city as those guys don't make commision on sales and if you're honest, they'll be honest. Make sure you hear the combination prior to buying and remember, sound in your car will sound different than a room.

Brands: Kenwood (headunit), Boston Acoustic (Component set/Mids/highs), Rockford fasgate (Punch series amps for subs is a must), Premier (amps), JL Audio (Mids/Highs/Subs are very hard to damage from excessive power). I personally love the "Natural" sound you get from bostons, 300 a pair for 5.25" or 6", with crossover and silk dome tweeter. Yumm Yumm.

*EDIT* -Also when it comes to picking speakers... cost does not always equal quality, you want to get the speaker with the highest sensitivty i.e. 92Db would be louder than 87Db speakers. Keep in mind the power consumption and impedance, take the boston's for example:

Nominal Size 6 1/2" (165mm)
Recommended Amplifier Power 20-275 watts
Nominal Impedance 4 ohms
Frequency Response (3dB in car) 60-20kHz
Mounting Cutout Diameter 5-1/8" (131mm)
Mounting Depth 2-9/16" (65mm)
Sensitivity (1 watt (2.83v) at 1m) 90db
Tweeter 1-inch (25mm)
System Type 2-way

90 Db is good response.. very few are 92 and some of those aren't very clear at high volume since they move too much.

[hubadlatimmy]

Thanks a ton dude that helps so much more. I am kinda waiting for a reply out of miscue if at all possible because I know he knows alot also.

[Xen]

why WASTE the $ on the head unit. Any decent headunit is 600$+ alone. dont buy garbage unless you want garbage sound.

BTW im talking if you want to get bet stuff later. IF you want just stuff to sound decent go with fausty he has a agood # of tips.

Personaly I didnt buy a headunit till I got a good deal on a eclipse VM7211 7" display and eclipse 55090 headunit. Then I picked up some nice sounding vega 6x9s and 3 1/2s. then 88000 Series eclipse dual voice coil subs, 2 12"s then the eclipse 33230 620-Watts 2-Channel AMP (x2) to round out my system.


Sure it woulda cost a lot but a buddy at Tweeter hooked me up good with his discounts.

[subbeh]

Originally posted by Xen
Any decent headunit is 600$+ alone.

Hahahahahahaha

No.

[S14-Racer]

I dont really want to type alot but I can back frausties claims to the boston. Well not the rallies as I never had them but I went from a set of MB-Q 6.5 comps to a set of boston pro 6.5 comps and never really had a need for another different set. I love em. They sounded ok with about 100 watts a side but sound much better with 200 watts a side continuous. Ive had them for about 2 yrs now and never had a problem with them. I had alot of different types of speakers from alot of manufacturers back when that was my thing but I still tell people to by the bostons, even after Ive been out of the game for 1.5 yrs.

Ive also had the 12.5 2ohm pro subs running off of 450 each and it was nice. Overkill and too heavy though so I ripped em out for handling and speed. But Im getting a set of 8's or a single 10 again for light weight but audible low end responce.

Get a decent head unit first though like stated. I am biased towards eclipse as that is what I use and trust. Also it only skips when hitting nasty potholes at speed in my car. Just for stiffness reference if you stand on the door sill and jump up and down it only sways an inch or two max :) Head unit translates and sends all the info to the amps.

Then a decent amp next. Like stated a higher end lower wattage amp will pound any of those bootleg / flea market amps to the ground. Remember its not how loud it can go but how loud it can go "cleanly" (spl freaks need not listen to this). It doesnt matter if I can hear it over here if it sounds like (!) in the car. I wouldnt skimp on these two areas as this is where the signal is generated. If the HU and amp suck and you install Focals in your ride itll still suck.

Speakers are funny things. Low end speakers in a professionally (research and practice save tons of money, "diy", untill you constantly rebuild your system for fun) installed system with decent components can and often do sound better then high end speakers with crap components, and a rigged install. I would sort of the HU and amp first then spend the rest on speakers.

Also you gotta think about what connects all this together. This is important too, but not mentioned. If you get a decent hu, and amp and run a high to low level converter you should be shot :) Connect it with quality cables (note: not the cheap rad shack non shielded ones) and keep it away from main harnesses and other emi generating areas. Also rewire your speakers directly from the amp. Try not to splice the wire if possible and I wouldnt use the oem harness. Make sure you use the correct guage power wire (ask when buying the amp but 8awg may suffice for now), and wire it directly from your battery to the amp with a fuse rated the same as the amp 18" or less away. Also use the same guage neg cable and mount it to the bare metal chassis, as close as possible to the amp. This will keep the amp fed and happy and cooler. Dont run the power cable with the signal cables either. Generally run the signal down the center and the power down the side of the car. Following these steps will avoid alot of emi whine found in some systems, and eleminate the need for a ghetto filter.

Oh well I wrote too much :) CHeck out the www.sounddomian.com forums as well as they where a usefull place for me. Termpro.com is another great place.