anyone know lots of stuff about sound systems?

[Dennis Chan]

im planning on buying a whole system, so if anyonee willing to help me answer some questions pls pm.. thnx!

[Anthony Vongsana]

if u have a 2G, i have a sealed box for sale ... fits 2 12"

[Dennis Chan]

sorry got a box already and its 2 10's
thnx though

[Andrew Scott]

I think you'll have better luck posting your questions in this topic.

[Mark Ergetowski]

im planning on buying a whole system, so if anyonee willing to help me answer some questions pls pm.. thnx!

I guess you should start with the amount of $$ available for the project. You can get a semi-descent (at least loud) sys for under $1000, but if you want to go crazy, then you need super deep pockets.

I did mine for about a grand and I'm quite happy with it. Shakes your guts allright, however I kept it simple: Alpine head (no MP3), 600W Bazooka amp, 700W no-name sub living in the spare wheel compartment, stock speakers in front and doors, 200W 6x9 in the back.

[Dennis Chan]

im going for 2 10 inch alpine type S, with alpine 350W mono amp (d-type), and i have no deck yet... from those subs and the alpine amp, the system should sound decent right? i dont want hardcore boom boom.. i want comfort and quality.

1 quick question.. does ported box really mattter?? whats the difference between a ported and non ported box?? cuz that ported box i was suppose to buy it didnt fit my 2g trunk.. and vision didnt have any ported for 10's and small..  forgot to ask the guy if he can order me one thats smaller..

[Mark Ergetowski]

im going for 2 10 inch alpine type S, with alpine 350W mono amp (d-type), and i have no deck yet... from those subs and the alpine amp, the system should sound decent right? i dont want hardcore boom boom.. i want comfort and quality.

1 quick question.. does ported box really mattter?? cuz that box i was suppose to buy it didnt fit my 2g trunk.. and vision didnt have any ported for 10's and small..  forgot to ask the guy to order..

Can't go wrong with Alpine, that's my favorite.
As far as subs are concerned, bigger is better (mine is 12") but I would't personally bother with doubles since their resulting impedance (when connected) is often the source of sound distortions, not to mention burned amps. I'm no saying it's a bad idea, just very tricky sometimes and you REALLY need to know what you're doing.

IMPORTANT:
Now, make sure that you get a really good head unit - you can get these days a nice Alpine (of course!!) deck with MP3 for around $300 or so.
Now, make sure that about the deck outputs:
- you want separate front and rear with at least 40W each
- you want independent amp volume control right on the deck
- there's about a million other gimmicks that may/may not be availabe, but it's all up to you.

The first thing listed above (separate front and rear) will drive you "normal" speakers directly and it will be loud enough, but you need the replace your rear speakers for something more lively. You can always install an extra amp later if you want more noise.

That's it in the nutshell I think

[Dennis Chan]

you kinda answered my next question.. what do i need to look for in a deck.

besides the power output " you want separate front and rear with at least 40W each "

on revscene theres on it says "50 W x 4 Max. Power Output " why u need 4? if theres only front and back??

wat about the voltage preout stuff? wats the minumum voltage i need??

do i neeed alpine? or other brand are good.. i see lots of jvc and panasonics and alpines..

sorry for lots of questions

[Graeme Shaw]

Dennis, I've lost your MSN contact, message me and I'll give you some n00b pointers that took me awhile to get together.

[Mark Ergetowski]

you kinda answered my next question.. what do i need to look for in a deck.

besides the power output " you want separate front and rear with at least 40W each "

on revscene theres on it says "50 W x 4 Max. Power Output " why u need 4? if theres only front and back??

wat about the voltage preout stuff? wats the minumum voltage i need??

do i neeed alpine? or other brand are good.. i see lots of jvc and panasonics and alpines..

sorry for lots of questions

Oh yeah, output of 40(or 50, whatever)W x 4, because there's:

Front Left
Front Right
Rear Left
Rear Right

that makes four independent channels. On top of it you need a separate Subwoofer Output - that's where you connect your bigass amp.
In basic car system amp powers ONLY subwoofer, so in a sense it doesn't play music - it produces "Boom-boom" effect that contains only very low frequencies (20-120Hz).
The reason for such setup is because human ear doesn't do very good job in recognizing low tones, so if the level of those is "artificially" increased many times over, those sound waves actually get to our brain through the bones in the skull rather than eardrum. I'm not making it up.

Preouts are (almost) always the same, plus you should have separate input level control know on the amp, so don't worry 'bout that.

Brand? Again, your pocket is your limit. But since you have Alpine components already, I would stick with it, it doesn't get much better than that anyway. I dunno, I like simple things, I couldn't care less whether my system displays some cute dolphins leaping out of the water or not. But that's just me.

[Graeme Shaw]

My setup was chosen not based on brand name but
A)what was available used at the time and
B)the components' capabilities

Head Unit - Panasonic CQ-DRX-900U
CD Player with changer control
Independant Sub control
True 5V preouts
No internal amp

Amp - RF 550X Power amp
4 Channel Amp
Tested at 336 RMS @ 2 Ohms 4 Channels
stable at 1 ohm

Speakers - Infinity 6953i (rear 6x9s) 3-way
Infinity 6.5" (fronts, can't remember serial number) 2-way

All of this I put together for $650.  And, with the help of a VERY good DSMer, it's all getting put in seriously nicely and very affordably.

[Dennis Chan]

any 2g with subs at the back, how did your box fit?? cuz i found 1 thats nice ported and very cheap, super sale, and the height wise didnt fit.. its long but it fits in my trunk, but i cant close my trunk. the height of it seems like an average box.

[Dan Harshey]

I suggest you get a head unit aka(deck) with the highest possible pre-out voltage you can get, for a decent price that is.  The higher the voltage pre-out the cleaner the sound of your subs or speakers.  If you want high quality, high voltage go with something like Eclipse, also fairly expensive.  Maybe something middle of the line Alpine or Panasonic at around 2.5V-5V pre-outs.

[Mark Ergetowski]

...Tested at 336 RMS @ 2 Ohms 4 Channels
stable at 1 ohm...

Be careful with that. Most of the manufacturers claim "stable at 1 ohm" but in reality you end up either with lots of distorsions, or you blow your rear end. RF is a good brand, but still I wouldn't hook up anything less than 2oms IMHO.

[John Hartman]

Graeme, I also run a Panasonic cQ series deck and Infinity Ref 652i's (the 6.5")

Who did your install?  

as for tips, yea do alot of research, I suggest audioreview.com

go to several places, listen to lots of different things.  Also when you go in, and you want to listen to some nice speakers, make sure you get them to play a cd that you like, thru a head unit similar to yours and with a sub similar to yours.  Alot of these places will show you some speakers but they run it thru a $1000 Alpine head unit, running a $1000 Alpine amp, and connected to a couple of big Rockford subs, with a fancy active crossover setup.  And you won't have that, so of course its not gonna sound like that.