Advice?

[ulterium]

hey guys, great forum setup its very formal and informational. ive got two cars, 1 is an '04 honda civic, the other is an '09 lexus is250. im making my civic my primary daily driver. its all basic, nothing has changed, and the speakers need to be replaced because theyre starting to sound a little shitty.

well my birthday is coming up and i want to give myself a quality sounding stereo system. what im looking is for a decent deck, sony looks pretty good, they look mid-ranged in pricing, obviously im going to need an amp, and a decent subwoofer.

So far i know I want a Kicker for the subwoofer, a 10" Kicker is good enough for me, but really im looking for good quality clean deep bass and sound. my lexus came with bose and very very nice bass, so i need something similar or better than that.

Any suggestions for a setup? im willing to spend around $1,000-$1,500

ps- i dont know much about car audio, and i cant order anything online right now, gonna be traveling soon so ill be trying to buy it from best buy, a car audio shop in town, or circuit city

Thanks!

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[bulldogs2013 10+ year member]

1 piece of advice, try your best not to buy high end electronics from best buy/circuit city, its guaranteed to be massively overpriced.

 

[Tone415 10+ year member]

read around and learn some things.. then check classifieds

 

[IamDeMan 5,000+ posts]

Good luck getting one from Circuit City.

 

[ulterium]

Ive noticed they massively overprice their products. im not into buying preowned items, especially sound systems. ive been through that a few times, each time ended up being shitty so im not doing it again.

I can deal with buying some online but im a hard learner when it comes to acoustics.

Ive read Class D is good but Class A/B sounds better but requires more power. Im not sure which amp to get.

Ive decided to try and go with buying a kenwood or kicker 12" Sub, Maybe 2. Id be scared of the amp overheating, ive read kenwood's and alpines do that easily unless theyre 1200w+ ?

Any suggestions?

I havnt found many threads containing amp suggestions or details on good amps to buy from popular dealers.

 

[AlterEgo99 5,000+ posts]

Kinda like Crutchfield.com...eBay is a good choice...have bought much equipment there and never been disappointed. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

Amps don't make the "sound" better...just "amplify" the source. Class D will run cooler than class A/B. If you want to get a quick start on the electronics basics check out the following site:

Basic Car Audio Electronics

Perry is a good guy and his site is very informative.

Also, overheating all depends on where you are going to locate the amp. I have 2 Class D amps located in the center console of my '08 Silverado and to make sure there were no heat issues, purchased two high speed, low noise PC fans....one pulls air in through the side of the console, the other exhausts it out the top...have had this setup now for over a year with no amp problems.