Thread: Car audio system for $650

Originally Posted by Sponge

What's good, what's not so good (Car Audio Products)

^Boss, Dual, Power Acoustic... its all there^

I agree with almost all of this (I havent heard half of the high end stuff.)

Speakers are, and always have been personal opinion. Jitter said how wonderful fosgate speakers are. I can't stand anything made by them-their tweeters scream, and the mids always seem to missing something (my opinion, if you love them, great!).

I think that a 15" sub is overkill if you are on such a tight budget. a smaller 10, while not as loud, will be better on your wallet. for budget installs, I have found that kicker and sony(gasp!) both make 'ok' low end subs.

being that you are asking this question on a car computer forum, most here are goign to tell you that a car computer is the best way to go, and usually requires a larger budget, unless you have extra computer parts laying around.


Being that you want sound quality, you might be better off slowly putting money into a system instead of all at once-- there is no cheap system that would fit that budget, and sound good (my 'cheap' quality audio system is nearing $3k, not including the car computer).

A couple of speakers here, a amp there, doesn't affect the wallet as much, and the bonus is that you will hear the difference that new add-on made to your system(and encourages you to keep going).

Another good budget component set for under $100:
http://www.cadencestore.com/ProductC...&idproduct=194

I am planning to buy these http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...574UN&v=glance
What do you think?
I am wondering about amplifire
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...574UN&v=glance
or
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...7FS32&v=glance

or do you recommend anything else?

If sound quality is as important to you as you said that it was then you will have to amplify your component set regardless of what make you decide on. When it comes to sound quality decent power is a requirement, and having a little bit of head room doesn't hurt either. The quality of your installation will play a the largest role in the overall outcome, even more so than your speaker choice. Remember that rear speakers are rarely ever even needed and more often than not will do more harm than good by pulling the sound stage to the rear of the vehicle where you don't want it. When you go to a concert does the band play behind you or in front of you? If you are planning to use a passive component set, which by your budget I would say that you will, then an amplifier producing at least 100 watts RMS per channel would be what I would be looking for. I personally would pick up a 4 channel making 75 watts RMS per channel and run it bridged into two. That will give you lots of power for the comps, and if you decide to experiment with an active system down the road then the extra two channels are there. Try this before you go the sub route, you may just find that you don't even need one.

I would like to point out that you should ensure you are buying the audio equipment from authorized retailers. So many issues often happen when people don't.

Originally Posted by misagh_xp

I am planning to buy these http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...574UN&v=glance
What do you think?

Boom... boom... and bye bye trunk . Is that what you are looking for?

Re-read the thread, there is some good advice in here.

Originally Posted by misagh_xp

I am planning to buy these http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...574UN&v=glance
What do you think?
I am wondering about amplifire
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...574UN&v=glance
or
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...7FS32&v=glance

or do you recommend anything else?

the links for the amps don't work.

I would also recommend getting equipment from either a authorized online retailer, car audio store, or at least a online company that offers a warranty you know they can hold up(sonic electronics). this way, if something happens(and it will), you will have somewhere to go, otherwise your SOL(amazon/yahoo marketplace companies tend to come and go, and most brands don't support products bought online from unauthorized retailers-most aren't authorized).

Could you tell us a couple of your favorite songs/bands, normal volume level(you like it loud?)?

I think that your perception of 'sound quality' and my perception are 2 different things, and knowing what type of music you typically listen too might help.

With this in mind, most in the audio realm define a sound quality based system as able to play any type of music and make people swear that the band is really playing in front of the car. this type of sound simply cannot be achived for a small amount of money. If it could, there would be a lot less audio companies in business today- most of them have products geared toward this sound--ie: alpines X-series, Pioneer PRS Series (none of these are cheap, $650 normally would get you one set of components from any of these lines, with maybe enough left for some speaker wire).

now, on to your product selection: IMO, the kicker lineup is skewed more towards boomy, instead of clear bass, if you choose to go with that premade box, that is one of the worst-- it has a 3ft long, 4" port- commonly refered to as a ghetto blaster.

I have 2 of those 10" compvr's, in a small sealed box. if you are interested in sound quality, it would be best to look into using at least a sealed box, but there are still alot of subs that would be better.

ports are tuned to one freq range, and render the subs useless for anything below that frequency. Don't get me wrong, I have heard ported systems that sound amazing, but this has always required planning, and a custom made box/port setup for the subs.

The biggest thing to remember is taht the enclosure makes the sub-- and most premade enclosures suck. most of them are designed to be universal, and are not made in a particular subs best interest.

I would highly recomend that you look at some sub box building programs, and change the box size to see how drastically simple changes in the dimensions change the response of the sub

Win isd was already metioned (one of the best), but there are alot of other free programs that do the same thing.

I will end my enormous post with this--it's been said before, subs are not needed, esp. if money is tight, my first audio system mod involved 4-5 1/4" speakers that I got for $10 pair--hooked to a factory chrysler deck. I used that setup(wasn't happy with it but made do) until I eventually got a radio..do it slow, and do it right.

Toyotatyrant-- I am going to try to make that my sig (a good remender to everyone)--prob though, it is over 255 characters. so I'll have to make a ps of it later.

Just let me inject some reality here...

You can run some components on MOSFET50 internal amps, they need to be high in sensitivity and will play quite loud actually, not deafening, but loud enough to not clip the head unit amp and roll your windows down on the freeway.

My SRT-4 has a JVC NX-5000 Navi/DVD head unit with internal amp running Hertz 165c components in the front and the stock 6x9's in the back. They are cut-off at 85hz and even on HU power I can run the Hertz wide open without them bottoming out.

But to balance out the sound a bit and because my BTA8100 Bazooka tube has a fixed 85hz low pass crossover, I just keep the HU at 85hz high pass.

I'm used too it and would like it louder and I will be upgrading to a solid Alpine PDX4, removing or upgrading to the BTA10250 or a PDX5 and a sub installed in the spare tire well.

Small subwoofer systems will not out run HU power at moderate volume levels, those are just facts.

Slim subs are compromise, but effective. If you want to keep most of your trunk I could look at the new IB Pioneer slim subs. They sound good, use tiny boxes (12"@1.0cf), but you need decent amount of power.

For your $650 budget I would do the following -

JVC R900 CD Player.

It has Ipod control via USB, Bluetooth and 5v 6-channel pre-amp. Its about $190 on Amazon.com If you get it from Crutchfield, they'll throw in all the installation parts you need, however they send you Metra kits and in some cases Scosche or American might make a better kit, so weight those options wisely.

For power its hard to beat a Kicker 700.5, the key is to run the sub channel at 2ohm and you'll get well over 400w RMS. That's plenty for (1) IB Pioneer 12" (2ohm) slim sub woofer or you can get the pre-boxed Rockford-Fosgate P3 Slim Sub (rewire it for 1ohm the amp is stable) I have heard the RF box and its quite good, sounds great.

Search Google for the best price on those. The Kicker amp runs $300 for RB version and a new one runs about $400 more. I would opt for the RB, why not carries a warranty, you save money.

Spend the rest of it on solid components up front and leave your stock rears for the time being, not that critical.

That should keep you right at $650 and should shake your car pretty good...