Decent Stereo System for < $200?

[joeshmo 10+ year member]

Hey, kinda new to the car audio world. My brother, who drives a 98 civic EX loves his car stereo. He's got a lightning audio enclosed dual 10" sub. Kicker tweeters and some visionik crap in his dash.

I have a '92 Lebaron Convertible LX model. Love the car, but the audio is...lacking. Even when it worked, it sucked. Crackling, even playing cassettes(which my factory head enjoys eating). I could only hear my door speakers, even when it worked. My back seat panel speakers are 5 1/4" Sony XPLODS which I have been advised to remove =P.

Anyway, so far I am fine with an unamped system, I just want something that sounds nicer than stock audio crap with no woofer and little treble.

I was looking around on crutchfield and this is what I have come up with.

Front Door Panel:

Boston Acoustics S55's- 60 dollar pair

http://techronics.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=3856&aff=72182

Rear Door Panel:

Kicker 07DS5250, 2 way car speakers, 5-1/4" for $40 pair

http://techronics.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=8269&aff=72182

Kenwood KFC-T207 with crossovers, 40 dollar pair.

http://www.cartronixplus.com/templates/detailnf_price.cfm?zq=91989456&uas=N&globaldesc=na&rnumb=1826&wherefrom=SEARCH&whichord=965276&department=ALL&class=N&special=R&sold=Y&nextrow=Kenwood%20KFC-T207kfc-t207&prevrow=Kenwood%20KFC-T207kfc-t207&nextprev=0&subclass=ALL&subname=na&pagename=Online%20Store%20%3E%20%20ALL%20%3E

So far weighing in at 140 ish. Any suggestions/changes? Any help is appreciated!

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[macq32 10+ year member]

its all personal preference, and what you have sounds like it will definitely beat the crap out of whatever you were listening to.

personally I wouldn't bother with rear speakers, I think a lot of people here would think the same thing, especially in a convertible (unless you have a lot of backseat passengers I suppose). I would just get some used components and a headunit. I'm sure you could find something a notch above what you've listed for cheap, used, and in good condition in our classifieds section. An amp would really help any set of speakers perform to their full potential though. Crutchfield is great for their customer service and whatnot, but you pay top dollar for their products for the most part.

 

[joeshmo 10+ year member]

Yeah, thanks for the advice! I've been looking up components that fit into my car on crutchfield and just google shopping, finding the lowest price. Usually I find products about half the price they are on Crutchfield. So If I leave the XPLODS in the rear, Replace most of my front and maybe throw in a woofer I'm good? I really have no idea how much amps cost, how to use them or how to wire/ground them properly. From my experience, documentation on car audio has been lacking, at least in the midrange market. I've heard Alpine is a good brand, personally I'm interested in Boston Acoustics because they seem cheapish and look fairly high quality. I found a few amps from Profile, the AP400 for some decent prices. As for my headunit, I'm trying to build a budget carputer and wire it via AUX input to the stero head. So anything with an aux in and a decent amp would work. Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[macq32 10+ year member]

find a cheap HU, you could post in the WTB forum

and just say want to buy cheap head unit with aux in... you can get a good idea of what's available. Maybe do the same for components. BA are good Alpines good, a lot of stuff is good but its all relative to the person. in our classifieds there are some old school fosgate amps (which are nice) for cheap. http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=363536&highlight=fosgate

it would depend on what components you get but old fosgates are very underrated so if it says 50watts per channel its probably closer to 70. And thats a good deal I would jump on that if I were you

 

[joeshmo 10+ year member]

find a cheap HU, you could post in the WTB forum
and just say want to buy cheap head unit with aux in... you can get a good idea of what's available. Maybe do the same for components. BA are good Alpines good, a lot of stuff is good but its all relative to the person. in our classifieds there are some old school fosgate amps (which are nice) for cheap. http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=363536&highlight=fosgate

it would depend on what components you get but old fosgates are very underrated so if it says 50watts per channel its probably closer to 70. And thats a good deal I would jump on that if I were you

Thanks alot! I found some pairs of Alpines for close to 50 bucks a pair, looked decent to me. As for the fosgate, that 55.2 looks about in my pricerange thanks. I'm not really quite sure I would know which amp to buy. If my understanding is correct:

The output of the amplifier must be less than the peak input of the speaker?

So if I buy 70w speakers, my amp should be

 

[macq32 10+ year member]

Thanks alot! I found some pairs of Alpines for close to 50 bucks a pair, looked decent to me. As for the fosgate, that 55.2 looks about in my pricerange thanks. I'm not really quite sure I would know which amp to buy. If my understanding is correct:The output of the amplifier must be less than the peak input of the speaker?

So if I buy 70w speakers, my amp should be

yes there would be a difference for sure between HU and an AMP. The amps rated power would ideally be at least as great as the speakers continuous power handling rating. 50rms speakers and an amp that does 80rms isn't a bad thing either, it gives you "headroom". If you dont have any headroom you just want to tweak your amplifier conservatively when setting gains and whatnot. But ideally your amp will have at least the power as the speakers, and up to 15% more power is a good measure to insure headroom. 70w speakers aren't going to sound as good as they should if you are under powering them with only 20 watts. The rated power is the amount of power it takes to get maximum results from the drivers, if you are way under what they suggest you probably aren't getting nearly as good of a sound out of them

 

[macq32 10+ year member]

So if I buy 70w speakers, my amp should be

so I guess to answer your question, no, its actually the opposite. Amp should be at least the power of the drivers