Need Help With Aftermarket Car Audio

[Georgie336]

I'm looking into buying a full sound system for my car from a double din headunit, 2 6.5 component speakers, 2 6x9 2way speakers, 1 12" sub and an amp or 2.

So far I've spoken to a guy at BestBuy and he told me the Alpine Type R's are the way to go, he told me to buy this line for the entire car. I then went to Audio Haven today and the guy there told me that the JBL Power series blows the Type R's out of the water.

The guy from Audio Haven also suggested I buy all JBL with a Kenwood DXN5140 a 12" sub and box (JBL) with 1 amp.
He quoted me 2100 with install (I DON'T want to spend this much right now).

I'm a complete newbie when it comes to this stuff. The one thing I really want so far is a doubledin deck preferably with nav. I want to spend around 500-600 on this piece. I'd also like to add that I care more for SQ than SPL. I'm considering buying the deck right now/soon and slowly adding to the setup with a new set of speakers and last would be an amp and subwoofer.

ANY help would be very much appreciated.

[tyfriend]

My buddy bought a Alpine deck for $150. Don't know much more than that.

Have you tried looking for an OEM double din? That would be a place to start I guess.

[internetsandbox]

You should be able to get a pretty nice double dinn for $700. Make sure they ground it out so you can watch dvds out of park. I would spend the money on a rockford fosgate sub and pioneer amp. Something with sub control for the amp. If you don't know what that is, it's an external mechanical dial for controlling the bass so you don't have to muck about in the sub menus of you
deck if a cop is near by. It can mount it in the dash
and it will look factory. Try EHR in Hamilton, lots of stuff there. They did a great job with my truck.

[googoo]

Make sure they ground it out so you can watch dvds out of park.

DOn't do that, you'll be tempted to watch as you drive, and even the best driver will be distracted, and chances are you're pretty young so you are always a bit distracted. It's also against the law!

Skip the in dash GPS thing, it's not worth the extra when you can get a good portable unit for $200 AND take it with you when you travel in other vehicles.

If you need a DVD deck, I'd look at last years Pioneer 4000 model that's still on sale at some FS/BB stores for $400.

I'm not sure how big your car is, but you most likely won't need rear speakers at all, and with a sub in the trunk they might get ruined by the pressure that the subwoofer creates ...... in need a place to "get out", and that's exactly where it went in my 03 Civic.

Pretty much any and brand name subwoofer will give you the kick you need, try to get an amplifier that matched the RMS rating of the sub, and for a good/cheap/safe option go for a sealed box(esp since you are looking for SQ over maximum output).

Start with a head unit and subwoofer and then see what shortcomings the factory story has before upgrading the factory speakers..

HINT, when you put in a new deck and sub trying setting the HU's built in crossover between 60-80hz, and the subwoofer at no higher than 50hz(maybe 60hz if the the HU only has an 18 DB per octave subwoofer crossover). THis will take a big load off of the HU when it's trying to power the factory speakers, and should clean up the sound a little, but it may be enough to keep the factory speakers AND save you some $.

Brent

[ES_Revenge]

I'm looking into buying a full sound system for my car from a double din headunit, 2 6.5 component speakers, 2 6x9 2way speakers, 1 12" sub and an amp or 2.

So far I've spoken to a guy at BestBuy and he told me the Alpine Type R's are the way to go, he told me to buy this line for the entire car. I then went to Audio Haven today and the guy there told me that the JBL Power series blows the Type R's out of the water.

The guy from Audio Haven also suggested I buy all JBL with a Kenwood DXN5140 a 12" sub and box (JBL) with 1 amp.
He quoted me 2100 with install (I DON'T want to spend this much right now).

LOL. Tip: Don't trust any salesperson that recommends or tells you that the "way to go" is to buy all products of one brand. A lot of them will certainly tell you that but they are just trying to make $$$. Now there may indeed be benefits of one sort or another to stick to one brand, but it's certainly not mandatory or the necessary "way to go" either.

The proper explanation might sound something like "oh if you buy this Alpine HU and Alpine amp then you have this feature that they connect together and..."; but just saying "buy all this Alpine gear, it's the way to go" is certainly not explaining anything, it's just selling you something whether you want/need it or not, whether it's as good or better than or worse than the alternative or not. So be aware that salespeople are definitely trying to sell you stuff, not have your best interests in mind.

Also don't believe extreme claims like one product blows another "out of the water", especially not if you're talking about similar priced products both from reputable brands. Are JBL Power series subs better than Type-R subs? Possibly. Do they "blow them out of the water"? Probably not, given their price points. Even I, not a huge fan of Alpine, will tell you the Type-R is certainly competent. What a salesperson will tell you is something totally different. Don't trust for a second any salesperson that bashes any other product particularly when it's not a product they sell. Salesperson knows full well that Type-R would be a good sub for you but that's not what he sells (or not what he wants to sell to you that day), so they tell you "oh that SUCKS dude, go with this it's WAAAY better"

In the car audio world they really do this a lot I find. You can go to any given store, mention a brand they don't sell (which may well be better than what they sell) and they will tell you how it's crap. It's humourous to people that know what they're talking about, but it's unfortunate for those that don't really know much and just go in for what they think is good advice. I've had one guy even go so far as to tell me that Focal speakers are "garbage, Wal-Mart brand quality", LOL.

A lot of these shops will even rag on other shops, like if you mention to Jim's Car Audio that you went to Pole Position Car Audio, then Jim might let you in on the "secret" that Pole Position does shoddy work, sells refurb gear as new, rips people off, etc., all of which are not even true but will certainly get the unsuspecting consumer to stay and buy at Jim's given all that bad "inside info" about Pole Position.

So believe me when I tell you, don't believe the salesppl blindly.

Now moving on to you wanting all that gear but not wanting to spend that much? I dunno I'd say it's going to be hard not to spend something in that neighbourhood, especially given you need the stuff installed for you.

Think of what you just said you want to buy:

-Double-DIN HU with nav (you're already looking at like $600-$1500 here)
-Set of 6.5 comp speakers
-Set of 6x9 speakers (Lord knows why you'd want to buy these but hey you specified so it's on the list for now).
-12" sub
-Sub amp
-[Possibly] speaker amp

But these also entail the following other things:
-Install kit, harness/wiring for your car
-Amp kit--power wire, fuse holder, distro blocks, RCAs, etc.
-Additional parts (like boards/carpet/custom work to put in your amp(s)).
-Labour to install everything and set it up.

How you're going to get all of the above for significantly less than the $2000 neighbourhood I'm not sure.

I'm a complete newbie when it comes to this stuff. The one thing I really want so far is a doubledin deck preferably with nav. I want to spend around 500-600 on this piece. I'd also like to add that I care more for SQ than SPL. I'm considering buying the deck right now/soon and slowly adding to the setup with a new set of speakers and last would be an amp and subwoofer.

ANY help would be very much appreciated.

Ah okay now I get it you want all that stuff eventually but don't want to buy it all at once. Yes you can certainly do that, there's nothing wrong with going piece by piece, though it can be pointless if you take that too far (e.g. why buy a sub and amp separately if you need one for the other to do anything).

Now the question is, what do you want to spend on things even considering buying them at different times.

I.e. What is your budget for speakers? What about for the sub? How many watts are you looking for to drive the sub? Etc.

[Tijuana]

Get the Phoenix Gold RSD's for your comps, best bag for the buck, as for subs, there are many many choices, but dont get anything from FS/BB

[Georgie336]

thanks for the replies!

ES: I think I'd like to spend roughly 200 on the sub, and 200 for the amp. The headunit i'm now looking into buying used online, I may even just buy one without nav because of the HUGE price difference. As for the speakers, im not quite sure. I also don't know how many watts It should have.

As for the 6x9's why do you say that? I want those because that is the size of the stock ones in there now. I have a 94 Celica gts btw.

I also will be installing myself (with a competent friend)

Is the stuff from FS/BB really that bad? I plan on buying a couple items from there, my friend gets a discount...

Tijuana: thanks for the tip, i'll look into it.

[onecoolloser]

thanks for the replies!

ES: I think I'd like to spend roughly 200 on the sub, and 200 for the amp. The headunit i'm now looking into buying used online, I may even just buy one without nav because of the HUGE price difference. As for the speakers, im not quite sure. I also don't know how many watts It should have.

As for the 6x9's why do you say that? I want those because that is the size of the stock ones in there now. I have a 94 Celica gts btw.

I also will be installing myself (with a competent friend)

Is the stuff from FS/BB really that bad? I plan on buying a couple items from there, my friend gets a discount...

Tijuana: thanks for the tip, i'll look into it.

Not bad I wouldn't say (I have full faith in Alpine products), but maybe a tad overpriced. The Type-R sub from FS is going to be the same from Audio Heaven.

I'm not too sure about the JBL Power series, but from what i've been reading the Alpine Type-R is the best bang/buck sub out there...and damn does it pound. Just make sure you get an adequate amp for it (maybe even go used...rfd or craigslist or kijiji) to power that badboy.

[Badman]

you should really wait when fs/bb has thier online only sales. All car audio is usually an additional 30% off. Makes the prices very good.

I used to run a alpine type R and trust me they are really good subs.

another option like mentioned is to go used. You can find some amazing deals on used products. Even check out those pawn shop stores. Some of them I noticed that they don't know much about car audio and don't price their items right

[googoo]

I think I'd like to spend roughly 200 on the sub, and 200 for the amp.

Spend a little less on the sub(say $150) and more on the amp($250), put the speaker in a small sealed enclosure and it should be very hard to kill.

Brent

[bembol]

If you install everything yourself, $2000 budget might work.

Otherwise, unless your speakers are really poor I would drop them for now or even buying a better/new Head Unit.

Don't take the store's advice on which brand. LOL I personally like Alpine's.

[ES_Revenge]

thanks for the replies!

ES: I think I'd like to spend roughly 200 on the sub, and 200 for the amp. The headunit i'm now looking into buying used online, I may even just buy one without nav because of the HUGE price difference. As for the speakers, im not quite sure. I also don't know how many watts It should have.

If we consider a JBL Power series or Alpine Type-R sub, you'll probably want to drive that with about 600W or so. I would recommend getting the dual 4-ohm coil model, if you're just getting one sub. Reason is because it's a lot easier to find (i.e. more selection) in mono amps that put their maximum power into 2-ohms instead of 1-ohm (which the dual 2-ohm model would give you).

Personally I would go with the JBL Power instead of the Type-R simply because it's something different and it certainly is as competent if not better than the Type-R. Everyone and their grandma has an Alpine Type-R, lol. (Actually if it were me, I'd probably rather buy a Kicker CompVX, but that's slightly more expensive than these other two.)

A few amp recommends:
-Infinity Reference 1600a would probably do you well for an amp but it also might be slightly more than $200--you're looking at slightly more than $200 US, so considering either buying here or paying tax across the border say perhaps $260ish? (Note: The new Kappa amps are quite expensive but the slightly older Reference models are a bit cheaper.) Also the similar but different looking older model 611a goes for about the same price.

-Kicker ZX500.1 is nice but it will cost you a bit more.

-Orion HCCA D1200 would do you okay too, and can be had in a similar price range but note with the Orion you will have to get the dual 2-ohm coil woofer because the HCCAs put their max power into 1-ohm.

-If you don't mind picking up something refurbed there are some other good choices. There's a few sellers that sell Kicker refubs on eBay; you can also pick up a Directed D1200 refurbed for like $140 on eBay...

-Actually come to think of it eD is having a sale on their NINE.1 for $195 US (before shipping) though that thing is over 2x the power you need. One of those on a single Type-R you could probably smoke the coils, lol.

-There are others too, just a few to throw out there anyway.

As for the 6x9's why do you say that? I want those because that is the size of the stock ones in there now. I have a 94 Celica gts btw.

Yes but these are rear speakers, no? Ditch the rear speakers, be glad you did. Whatever you were going to spend on upgrading those, distribute to spend a little more on the other stuff. Rear speakers only crap up your soundstage and make tuning difficult. The only reason to run rear speakers IMO is if/when you have people in the back. Otherwise keep it faded to the front or just disconnect/remove the rear speakers entirely.

I also will be installing myself (with a competent friend)

Good to hear, that will save you quite a bit

Is the stuff from FS/BB really that bad? I plan on buying a couple items from there, my friend gets a discount...

Nothing wrong with stuff from there, except the prices. If your friend works there, gets employee discount though then the prices should be decent.

Tijuana: thanks for the tip, i'll look into it.

Yeah RSd components are probably your best bang for the buck for front speakers under about the $250 mark or so. They go for around $90 US for a set and can go up against component sets costing a good bit more. I'd recommend at least a 50W x 2 (RMS of course) amp on them. Something in the 75W range would probably be preferred. Disregard what it says for max RMS on these (I think it's less than 75W)--people on car audio forums have been running these with above specified power for a long time.

Amp suggestion? Kicker KX200.2 or ZX200.2 (newer model) look like they are on eBay for $100; can't really go wrong there. Infinity Reference 475a are actually going fairly cheap on eBay too at like $120, but that's a larger amp and two more channels than you need.