Any advice?

[lilyhernandez 10+ year member]

Hi. I need some advice from anyone who happens to know about it. I have a chevy cavalier z24 1993 drop top. I believe that the alternator is 105 amps. Right now I have 2 10inch dual subs and a 600 watt Xplod amplifier. My amplifier shuts off a lot out of nowhere. (I guess thats a safety feature to keep it from having the same fate as my last one which over heated or something because it stopped working and when I looked at it is was blackened and melted in one spot.) Anyways, when it shuts itself off Then I have to restart my car to get it back on. I figure this means maybe I need a bigger amplifier. I wanted to go with a 1000 watt xplod, but my dad says I will need a new alternator as well then. I don't have a cap right now. I looked and I can't seem to find anything over 105 for an alternator except for a 200 ampere alternator which is WAY too much money. If I had that much to blow I would save it to get a new wiring system because apparently my other problem is that my wiring system can't handle a lot either according to best buy, because I asked them why it is that I keep blowing out my 10 amp radio fuse a few times a month. They said I am cranking it too loud. I said why does my radio have those settings if I can't use them? They said I can. If I spend a thousand dollars to rewire the stupid car or whatever. I don't know how much a cap would help for sure, but I am sure it would help some, and if I could even find a new alternator and all would it affect the fact that supposedly my wiring system sucks too? I have a little light shaped like a flame that plugs in to my lighter thingy and its just supposed to glow, but it flickers with heavy bass hits. I don't know, but I thought this could be an indication that the alternator is carrying a bit more that it would comfortably like to. Also sometimes if I roll up or down a window or turn off cruise control if I have the heater or air and everything on, my CD player will turn off and my subs will loudly go BBBBBRRRRMMMMMMM!!!!! (It also makes this noise for some reason every time I start my car) then it will stop and come back on. Its quite the mess. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif Theres so many quirky things going on with my system and I just want it to work right. I want to put some money into fixing it, but I just am not really sure whats the best thing to do. Also I have the factory speakers still and I don't know how those relate to everything else and if they will be okay if everything else is more powerful. I guess my system needs a lot of work and I don't know where to start. Can anyone make sense of it all and give me a tip? Thanks

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[myflow 10+ year member]

before anyone else says it...

it's because it's a sony xplod amp pushing Dual brand subs.

anyway... on to the educated replies.

 

[lilyhernandez 10+ year member]

Is Xplod a bad brand or is it bad to combine them? (srry if its a dumb question)//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif I had a Sony CD player too, but I traded it in for a Kenwood because it sucked. It looked so cool because the front flipped down and it had another screen and all this cool red lighting, but it barely could play a CD. It just skipped and skipped and skipped.

 

[dyabolical 10+ year member]

I will let ya down easy.

Dual and Sony are 2 of the worst car audio brands ever made. Pure junk.

 

[lilyhernandez 10+ year member]

welll, thats good to know before I go buy another Xplod amp. I am new to figuring all of this out. My boyfriend pretty much did most of the work on my system because he likes cars and stuff. He worked at autozone for a while. I am starting to wonder if he really knows as much as he thinks about this... but anyhow, he means well. He knows more than I do at least. What is reccommendable for my car thats quality but won't be expensive? I am a full time college student and I don't have a job. Right now I am looking at spending about 300 maybe on my sytem. Not a lot, I guess, but its a lot to me. Baby steps. I just want to do what I can when I have money to do it. I doubt I can fix every problem, at least not now, but where to start? What should I worry about fixing now, and what should I save to work on when I get money for it?

 

[dyabolical 10+ year member]

your gonna be hardpressed to find a decent setup for so little.

But, you might be able to buy a used sub and a used amp. Even the cheap stuff on this site is infinitely better then what you currently have.

And welcome to the forum, BTW. Incredible amounts of knowledge and experiance here.

And chicks with pics, FTW.

 

[lilyhernandez 10+ year member]

only paid 60 dollars for both of my subs LOL //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif What kind of amplifier would work good if for now I just replaced my amplifier?

 

[dyabolical 10+ year member]

That all depends on what you plan on upgrading your sub to. Just how loud are you wanting it?

 

[lilyhernandez 10+ year member]

HHmmm.. well I like my music loud. Thats all I know for sure. I have wanted a system ever since I saw an SUV pull out of the gas station near my house one day and the ground shook like there was an earthquake. The SUV pulled out of sight and left me in awe even after I couldn't even hear it anymore. Someday if I can have something like that I will be in heaven. But for now, I just want to get as much of a taste of that bass as I can with the little money I have got. Mostly I listen to rap with some heavy bass, but some of my CDs really make it hard for my system. Some songs I know before I play them that I better have a new fuse on hand cuz it will blow out.

 

[audiobahnuser18 5,000+ posts]

Agreed sony and dual are two of the worst car audio brand's ever....but everyone start's somewhere i would suggest save up for a decent amp and make if you want to get louder since dual's **** i would say save up just get a Type R 12" to start out or a nice Tc sound's sub. and also welcome to the forum

 

[lilyhernandez 10+ year member]

Thnx evryone for the welcome:veryhapp: Type R is a kind of alpine, right? what is a Tc? What does everyone think about kenwood amplifiers? I have a kenwood CD player, so my boyfriend suggested getting a Kenwood amp too. Also, are Pyramid subs any good? I have never heard of them before but they sell a 10" for 80$ each and they are red. This probly sounds a bit silly, but I will miss my duals if I get something black or whatever. My duals are red and I really like red. All my accessories on my car are red. I have red pin stripes, red seat covers, red dual subs in a red sub box (which sucks worse than my system right now, but in the process of building hopefully a better one right now).

 

[skadude016 5,000+ posts]

Thnx evryone for the welcome:veryhapp: Type R is a kind of alpine, right? what is a Tc? What does everyone think about kenwood amplifiers? I have a kenwood CD player, so my boyfriend suggested getting a Kenwood amp too. Also, are Pyramid subs any good? I have never heard of them before but they sell a 10" for 80$ each and they are red. This probly sounds a bit silly, but I will miss my duals if I get something black or whatever. My duals are red and I really like red. All my accessories on my car are red. I have red pin stripes, red seat covers, red dual subs in a red sub box (which sucks worse than my system right now, but in the process of building hopefully a better one right now).

TC sounds its a woofer company. yup alpine makes the type r. Pyramid stay away from em. red woofers huh? hmmm I cant think of a single quality woofer with red all over. but i could be wrong. what type of box are you going to make?

 

[lilyhernandez 10+ year member]

Well we are in the process of a fiber glass box... how that is going I am not really sure yet. I sure don't know what we are doing, but as of now the sides bend in when you push on them, which I don't think is good, hopefully they wont when its a finished product. The box I have now is particle board. However my trunk leaks when I wash the car and the particle board is falling apart. Turns out apparently you are supposed to use FIBERboard... NOT particle board //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif ha ha.

 

[skadude016 5,000+ posts]

Well we are in the process of a fiber glass box... how that is going I am not really sure yet. I sure don't know what we are doing, but as of now the sides bend in when you push on them, which I don't think is good, hopefully they wont when its a finished product. The box I have now is particle board. However my trunk leaks when I wash the car and the particle board is falling apart. Turns out apparently you are supposed to use FIBERboard... NOT particle board //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif ha ha.

yes i would use 3/4" birch or 3/4" mdf

 

[SWEET06CAMRY 10+ year member]

Looks like you need to replace your wiring.

Get a 4gauge wiring kit and have somebody install it for you.

that shouldn't be more than 90 bucks..

That would take care of some of the dimming.

And stay away from.

Sony, Pyramid, pyle, BOSS, performance tekniques, Nitro and all those flea market brands that'll only give distortion.