Car Audio for Street/Strip car

[chuckwolfe4k]

Hi caraudio.com'ers!

I have a 2001 Camaro with the monsoon amp removed, Kenwood KMM-BT228U headunit, and 4 JBL CLUB 6520 6.5 speakers.
My car is used as a bracket racing car, but I'm not a rich man, I drive it to the track. It has a relatively/very loud exhaust system (single 4" bullet muffler, dumped).

My problem is that I am getting BAD clipping/distortion above 30 (out of 35), and I kind of need to turn it up that loud to hear it over the exhaust.
Weight is a concern, but I'd love to be able to listen to music on the way to the track, I'm a huge gear head, but listening to the exhaust does get boring.

I am not sure whether the radio is a problem, or if its the speakers. I know most aftermarket radios distort past 30, and I also read some reviews that the JBL club speakers **** real bad. I don't want to amplifier in the car, since weight is a concern, and because I only drive it to the track.

Any suggestions or feedback?

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[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I haven't used JBL Club series but have generally had nothing but good results with all the other JBL/Harmon products I've ever used.

Not much you can do to get (or sound) louder without adding weight. Obviously reducing the noise floor in the car would help matters but deadening sufficiently to make a luxury car quiet ride out of an old muscle car with performance upgrades would probably weigh a lot more than an amp. Something like the Arc Audio "mini" would deliver 125X4 and is smaller than a carton of smokes and will only weigh a few pounds. I suspect some of the Brazilian manufacturers make some 100x4 type amps for far less money and even smaller footprints. I mention the Arc because I've actually owned one of those. Granted, getting into a subwoofer would start hurting your weight but I think a modern full range class D amp shouldn't hurt your quarter mile and will be able to comfortably give you 4-5 more clicks of volume worth of output you're after.

 

[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

Any suggestions or feedback?

What hispls said, 100%. No way around an amp. The Massive Audio Nano amps are good and affordable.

 

[metalheadjoe 10+ year member]

Depending on legality, your best bet is noise-isolating headphones. Another option is something you can remove before a run.

Here's the simple setup i have in my 4x4.

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

This is going to get taken the wrong way, I already know, but I'm gonna say it anyway. I don't know why you are worried about weight to be honest with you. Bracket racing isn't like heads up racing where the fastest car wins. Honestly bracket racing is more about racing yourself then the person in the other lane. Sure the first to the finish line wins but that has WAY more to do with reaction time and consistency. Adding an amp to your car isn't going to change the fact that you will be racing your bracket time. Besides you really think a 10-15 pound amp is going to change your time? The rule of thumb is 100 lbs is worth a tenth of a second so you are talking about an absolute fraction of a second that you will never notice.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

I wouldnt think this would take up a whole lot of room. Would help to do some deadening of the flooring and door treatments. Wouldnt take a whole hell of alot. Other than that... Prob just have to wear ear phones and use your phone. But thats not safe while driving to be honest. NVX used to make a Micro 4 chat one time that was the size of a S5 cell phone
https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-71775-NVX-MVPA4.html

 

[chuckwolfe4k]

This is going to get taken the wrong way, I already know, but I'm gonna say it anyway. I don't know why you are worried about weight to be honest with you. Bracket racing isn't like heads up racing where the fastest car wins. Honestly bracket racing is more about racing yourself then the person in the other lane. Sure the first to the finish line wins but that has WAY more to do with reaction time and consistency. Adding an amp to your car isn't going to change the fact that you will be racing your bracket time. Besides you really think a 10-15 pound amp is going to change your time? The rule of thumb is 100 lbs is worth a tenth of a second so you are talking about an absolute fraction of a second that you will never notice.

Not taken the wrong way at all, you're right.
I'm very stuck in a certain mindset, a very old school mindset

 

[metalheadjoe 10+ year member]

This is going to get taken the wrong way, I already know, but I'm gonna say it anyway. I don't know why you are worried about weight to be honest with you. Bracket racing isn't like heads up racing where the fastest car wins. Honestly bracket racing is more about racing yourself then the person in the other lane. Sure the first to the finish line wins but that has WAY more to do with reaction time and consistency. Adding an amp to your car isn't going to change the fact that you will be racing your bracket time. Besides you really think a 10-15 pound amp is going to change your time? The rule of thumb is 100 lbs is worth a tenth of a second so you are talking about an absolute fraction of a second that you will never notice.

That was my immediate thought on bracket racing, but i learned it from nitto1320, so I wasn't confident enough to post it.

 

[chuckwolfe4k]

Cool, I am open to using an amp, exp. if its small
Anyone have experience/opinions on this one? https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-158911-NVX-VADM4.html

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Cool, I am open to using an amp, exp. if its small
Anyone have experience/opinions on this one? https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-158911-NVX-VADM4.html

NVX is a rather dubious brand I think. For that budget you could buy into Soundigital 400.4 EVOX. I've got one of the large EVO amps and while fit and finish seems a bit rough around the edges performance is quite nice and their amps are extremely small footprint.

Sundown is making a very tiny 4 channel amp but from what I'm told by local authorized repair shop they're not good sounding so I'd definitely advise against those until they come out with a revised model
.
Alternatively you could call up Crutchfield and ask them what they have for tiny footprint amps to drive your JBLs. Their prices on equipment is a little on the high side but their price on wiring and similar that you'll need is competitive and once you combine shipping it'll probably be a wash with shopping here and there for what you need. Their phone support is top notch as is their customer service after the sale, so if you do wind up with a lemon or something you just don't like return/exchange should run a lot smoother than buying from a company that deep discounts.

Seriously though, if you're not concerned enough with weight to be stripping off your clothes and you even have door speakers and a head unit to begin with then adding another 6-8 pounds for tunes you can hear over the engine shouldn't be holding you back. Obviously just make sure it's mounted very securely so that it'll stay put under extreme conditions, fuse appropriately just in case, and do be sure to figure out a way to cross over those speakers because 80-100W full range (without filtering out the bass frequencies) will break them.

 

[MattinMO]

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5335951755&icep_item=224425629074
Jbl amp package for cheap

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

That was my immediate thought on bracket racing, but i learned it from nitto1320, so I wasn't confident enough to post it.

Yeah I absolutely hate bracket racing. A 20 second car can win a race against a 10 second car because it's not real racing.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Cool, I am open to using an amp, exp. if its small
Anyone have experience/opinions on this one? https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-158911-NVX-VADM4.html

Dyno results

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5335951755&icep_item=224425629074
Jbl amp package for cheap

Link is broken for me, but as I said above, I've always been happy with JBL/Harmon/Crown/Infinity products since my first pair of bookshelfs back in the 80s. I have yet to use something from them that didn't perform as advertised or that wasn't reasonably well built.

If the physical dimensions/weight are something you can deal with I'm sure that'll do the job and give you a long service life.

 

[chuckwolfe4k]

Small update. I don't drive the car in the winter, but I was messing with it the other day and set the HPF to 80hz and it cleaned up the distortion significantly.
I also ordered a an amp, a used Kenwood KAC-M3004, which I will install eventually (it's too friggin' cold right now)

I appreciate the help, and will update the results of the amp install when the weather gets warmer.