Cheap system for girlfriend

[Strakele 10+ year member]

Cheap system for girlfriend

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This summer my girlfriend and I are going to be working on her car a lot, and one of the things we'll be working on is the stereo. Money is super tight with college and all, so this really won't be what most of you would consider a good SQ system, but just something that'll give her some enjoyment when she wants to listen to some tunes.

Car is a '98 Mitsubishi Diamante. Has stock locations for 6.75-7" in door, tweeters in sail panels, 6x9's in the rear deck.

Budget is on the low end of $400-500. She listens to newer rock and pop. Likes to crank it with the windows down.

She already has a Kenwood eXcelon headunit (don't remember which one, but it has time alignment and from what I remember, a decent bit of EQ, no active though).

My plan is to forget about the 6x9's in the rear, add a 5 channel amp, a set of comps that can be bi-wired to get some use out of the features of her HU, and a single 12" sub.

I'd like recommendations for all of the above.

I don't know many 5 channels, but a quick look on ebay shows an Alphasonik model in the $150 range, around 75X4 at 4 ohms and 320X1 at 2 ohms. Don't need a whole lot of power, just need something that'll run the whole system and not fail on her. Haven't seen any bad reviews, and the people who normally buy cheaper stuff like this tend to beat on them pretty hard, so that's probably a good sign. No biggie if it doesn't quite do rated, so long as it doesn't break.

As for comps, I know the PG RSD's are a popular budget choice for $100, but I'm pretty sure they can't be bi-wired, so I'd like suggestsions on cheap sets than can be. If not, this isn't a huge deal, we'll just forget about T/A.

Don't know a whole lot about the lower budget subs either. Right now I'm looking the RE Audio REX12D4 for $60. Confused about enclosures though. I was thinking of going ported, but the specs suggest it's best in a sealed box, and RE recommends a .75 ft^3 box (not sure if this is before or after driver displacement). This yields a qtc of over 1.1 though. If optimum is normally .707, this seems way off.

Anyway, these are my thoughts. I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Please keep the budget in mind. No "if she saved a little more, she could get this" kinda stuff. Want to keep this cheap and sound decent.

Thanks.

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[Blove1991 10+ year member]

A lot of people claim the new RE to be crap. Look for an older RE RE if you are set on RE Audio.

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

Cheap system for girlfriend
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This summer my girlfriend and I are going to be working on her car a lot, and one of the things we'll be working on is the stereo. Money is super tight with college and all, so this really won't be what most of you would consider a good SQ system, but just something that'll give her some enjoyment when she wants to listen to some tunes.

Car is a '98 Mitsubishi Diamante. Has stock locations for 6.75-7" in door, tweeters in sail panels, 6x9's in the rear deck.

Budget is on the low end of $400-500. She listens to newer rock and pop. Likes to crank it with the windows down.

She already has a Kenwood eXcelon headunit (don't remember which one, but it has time alignment and from what I remember, a decent bit of EQ, no active though).

My plan is to forget about the 6x9's in the rear, add a 5 channel amp, a set of comps that can be bi-wired to get some use out of the features of her HU, and a single 12" sub.

I'd like recommendations for all of the above.

I don't know many 5 channels, but a quick look on ebay shows an Alphasonik model in the $150 range, around 75X4 at 4 ohms and 320X1 at 2 ohms. Don't need a whole lot of power, just need something that'll run the whole system and not fail on her. Haven't seen any bad reviews, and the people who normally buy cheaper stuff like this tend to beat on them pretty hard, so that's probably a good sign. No biggie if it doesn't quite do rated, so long as it doesn't break.

As for comps, I know the PG RSD's are a popular budget choice for $100, but I'm pretty sure they can't be bi-wired, so I'd like suggestsions on cheap sets than can be. If not, this isn't a huge deal, we'll just forget about T/A.

Don't know a whole lot about the lower budget subs either. Right now I'm looking the RE Audio REX12D4 for $60. Confused about enclosures though. I was thinking of going ported, but the specs suggest it's best in a sealed box, and RE recommends a .75 ft^3 box (not sure if this is before or after driver displacement). This yields a qtc of over 1.1 though. If optimum is normally .707, this seems way off.

Anyway, these are my thoughts. I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Please keep the budget in mind. No "if she saved a little more, she could get this" kinda stuff. Want to keep this cheap and sound decent.

Thanks.

Well seeing as how you already have the HU bought, there is a lot you can do with $500! My system total cost me around $700.

You can find a lot of nice sets of 6.5" components on here for around $100. The RSD's are quite nice though, very impressive midbass.

Spend most of your money on the amp, find a nice 5 channel. I don't know about Alphasonik as a brand, but with that much power on the sub channel I would recommend two of those RE subs.

Now you might think why two? The subs are 175 watts each, and you'll have 320 watts of power, so 15 watts short of power isn't a substantial loss. Here's two of the old school ones (as mentioned previously, new RE is considered to be plastic crap) for a measly $85 shipped.

Audio Savings | PAIR RE AUDIO RE12S4 12" CAR SUBWOOFERS SQL SUB RE12-S4

I am currently running two of those subs, in a blowthrough in my Dodge Dakota. The box is built so I can add two more, which will be installed tomorrow, and is tuned low at 33 Hz. These subs are by far the best sound quality subs I have ever heard. They play down to 25 no problem, and still sound great in the 50's. They aren't super loud, but at my peak frequency, I have no doubt that I'm putting up a 140 on the TL. And that's only with two.

So far,

(2) RE Audio RE12S4 - $85

Build a box yourself that is 3.0 ft^3 at your desired frequency - $30

Wire - Up to $50

That still leaves you with over $300 to pick out speakers and an amp.

 

[Brian_smith06 10+ year member]

I actually have a 5 channel soundstream amp fs if interested? Im only asking 150 shipped for it. I can send you pics if you like? That would save you plenty of money for comps/sub/wiring and even some deadener

 

[Bumpin' Goalie 10+ year member]

Well seeing as how you already have the HU bought, there is a lot you can do with $500! My system total cost me around $700.
You can find a lot of nice sets of 6.5" components on here for around $100. The RSD's are quite nice though, very impressive midbass.

Spend most of your money on the amp, find a nice 5 channel. I don't know about Alphasonik as a brand, but with that much power on the sub channel I would recommend two of those RE subs.

Now you might think why two? The subs are 175 watts each, and you'll have 320 watts of power, so 15 watts short of power isn't a substantial loss. Here's two of the old school ones (as mentioned previously, new RE is considered to be plastic crap) for a measly $85 shipped.

Audio Savings | PAIR RE AUDIO RE12S4 12" CAR SUBWOOFERS SQL SUB RE12-S4

I am currently running two of those subs, in a blowthrough in my Dodge Dakota. The box is built so I can add two more, which will be installed tomorrow, and is tuned low at 33 Hz. These subs are by far the best sound quality subs I have ever heard. They play down to 25 no problem, and still sound great in the 50's. They aren't super loud, but at my peak frequency, I have no doubt that I'm putting up a 140 on the TL. And that's only with two.

So far,

(2) RE Audio RE12S4 - $85

Build a box yourself that is 3.0 ft^3 at your desired frequency - $30

Wire - Up to $50

That still leaves you with over $300 to pick out speakers and an amp.

Budget wise hard to fight with. Though i think you should get out more if the RE's are the best //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif lol jk. Solid budget woofer no doubt.

Is bi-amping a main factor? As finding a 4 channel to use as a 3 channel would be alot easier.

I personally would port the RE. As far as comps, Type-R's take abuse very well. Not vouching for them as a quality speaker, but if you can overlook that, i dont foresee her killing them.

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

Budget wise hard to fight with. Though i think you should get out more if the RE's are the best //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif lol jk. Solid budget woofer no doubt.
Is bi-amping a main factor? As finding a 4 channel to use as a 3 channel would be alot easier.

I personally would port the RE. As far as comps' date=' Type-R's take abuse very well. Not vouching for them as a quality speaker, but if you can overlook that, i dont foresee her killing them.[/quote']

$85 for two 12's is unbeatable. You can't get Sony Xplods that cheap, brah.

Using a 4 channel as a 3 channel wouldn't work in the case I mentioned, unless the bridged channel is 2 ohm stable.

 

[oldschool4me 10+ year member]

$85 for two 12's is unbeatable. You can't get Sony Xplods that cheap, brah.
Using a 4 channel as a 3 channel wouldn't work in the case I mentioned, unless the bridged channel is 2 ohm stable.

if the two subs are dual 4 ohm yes you can.

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

They aren't D4 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif that's why I said what I did lulz

 

[Strakele 10+ year member]

Thanks for all the comments!

Like I said, I don't know much about the lower end RE stuff, and apparently mistakenly assumed the newer stuff was better. If the older series was better, that'd be fine too. I just chose the RE originally as it's cheap and supposed to be pretty good SQ. Definitely open to other options though.

I originally planned on a single sub to not take up a lot of space. Plus I figured that Alphasonik probably doesn't quite do rated. I'll talk to her about how much space she's willing to lose for an enclosure.

It'd be nice to be able to use the T/A on her head unit. If there aren't any good cheap components that can be bi-wired, then we'll definitely go with a 4-channel amp instead with 2 channels bridged to the subs. I'd probably just give her my MB Quart DSC4125 and pick up the Diamond D9 800.4 that someone is trying to sell me. That would leave a bit more money and a lot more wattage for the sub(s). 500W at 4 ohms vs 300W at 2. How does the RE *** compare to the SE? Same story? There's a gazillion 12" subs in the 500W category.

I'd like other recommendations for cheap components that can be bi-wired. If nothing in the $100 range, we'll just do the PG RSD's