Hello

[Phantom67]

Hey, everyone. I'm new here and haven't been involved in car audio since I was in my 20s. I'm now 50. I recently decided to install a new radio and speakers in my truck and I can feel the custom car audio bug beginning to bite again.

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[JohnKuthe]

Hey, everyone. I'm new here and haven't been involved in car audio since I was in my 20s. I'm now 50. I recently decided to install a new radio and speakers in my truck and I can feel the custom car audio bug beginning to bite again.

Hello Phantom67,

As a contemporary of your's at 57 years old, I can tell you the current state of car audio has grown into as MONSTER! I came here with a little experience at hooking up power booster/equalizers and building pretty good speaker cabinets for my 1969 VW Beetle back in my day, and because I'm an electrical engineer and have lots of historical amateur experience with electronics and sound equipment some here have reamed me a new one!! Testosterone, you know! ;-)

I kinda put my own system together with the assistance of a local "installer guy" I found on Craigslist! And IT ROCKS, despite what some here may claim!

Remember: there are egos here into sheer VOLUME "BURP" (HUGE LOUD bursts of bass!) competitions, not so much actually listening to music! :-(

John Kuthe...

 

[Phantom67]

John, I always thought car audio was pretty big when I was younger. If it's grown into a monster now then all I can say is, WOW! I guess back in those days I was as enthusiastic about serious power and volume as the next audiophile. Now, I think I'm more interested in good sound quality rather than a lot of volume.

 

[JohnKuthe]

John, I always thought car audio was pretty big when I was younger. If it's grown into a monster now then all I can say is, WOW! I guess back in those days I was as enthusiastic about serious power and volume as the next audiophile. Now, I think I'm more interested in good sound quality rather than a lot of volume.

Today that's called SQ or Sound Quality. That's kind of what I was after too. Good and LOUD! Balanced all the way across the frequency spectrum as much as possible. There's some fantastic equipment available now.

John Kuthe...

 

[Darth_Immitis]

Welcome old man!

 

[BOOMINGRANDPA 5,000+ posts]

Hey, everyone. I'm new here and haven't been involved in car audio since I was in my 20s. I'm now 50. I recently decided to install a new radio and speakers in my truck and I can feel the custom car audio bug beginning to bite again.

whats up im 50 too.. sold my old equipment this time last year got some cheap new stuff and spent another $650 after that and shopping everyday for something else., wait for the deal is my game lol.. there's a few good inexpensive amp/ sub options these days.. if u like sealed subs u should look at daytons on parts express.com.. also check out car audio bargain.com and sound solutions audio.com

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

John, I always thought car audio was pretty big when I was younger. If it's grown into a monster now then all I can say is, WOW! I guess back in those days I was as enthusiastic about serious power and volume as the next audiophile. Now, I think I'm more interested in good sound quality rather than a lot of volume.

Whatever you're after the technology has come leaps and bounds and the prices have plummeted. For under 2000$ you can get louder than the world records of the late 80's early 90's and for 1000$ you can buy a head unit that has processing power that you'd have had to pay double that in outboard accessories to have the stuff that even existed back then. Also 30 years worth of enthusiasts pushing the envelope has very much evolved the conventional wisdom of how we even go about getting studio quality sound (or insanely loud) in a car.

Welcome aboard. Folks here can point you in the right direction for equipment selection and good install techniques.

Oh and some general forum advice, John Kuthe is a moron but comes off as a know-it-all. You'd do well to put him on your ignore list or at least take anything he says with a huge grain of salt.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

whats up im 50 too.. sold my old equipment this time last year got some cheap new stuff and spent another $650 after that and shopping everyday for something else., wait for the deal is my game lol.. there's a few good inexpensive amp/ sub options these days.. if u like sealed subs u should look at daytons on parts express.com.. also check out car audio bargain.com and sound solutions audio.com

Unless you're incapable of building ported, there's virtually no reason to use sealed subs today. With power being so cheap the entire industry has focused their research and designs into subs which perform best ported. Even say a W7 (which is 20 years old or thereabouts) that works well ported or sealed still gains an awful lot in a proper ported box.

 

[Phantom67]

Thanks for all the responses, guys. I finally got my little system installed in my truck. I cal it little because it consists of a Kenwood radio/CD player and 4 Kicker 6x8 speakers. It sounds good. Good enough for my truck. Now, I'll start giving some thought to what I could put in my 2004 Cavalier. I'll certainly have more room to play with in it so it will probably get the full treatment.

 

[BOOMINGRANDPA 5,000+ posts]

Thanks for all the responses, guys. I finally got my little system installed in my truck. I cal it little because it consists of a Kenwood radio/CD player and 4 Kicker 6x8 speakers. It sounds good. Good enough for my truck. Now, I'll start giving some thought to what I could put in my 2004 Cavalier. I'll certainly have more room to play with in it so it will probably get the full treatment.

lol i had 96 a caviler with 2 12's, 2 memphis amps with comp set in kick panels it was a good set up.. i ported 12 with 500- 1k rms would be loud in that little car..

 

[Phantom67]

BOOMINGGRANDPA, one thing I'll be interested in doing with the Cavalier is to figure out how I can install everything hidden. I did that once with a Pontiac Phoenix I had(back in my 20s). After I got it all installed nothing was visible except the boxed 6x9's on the rear deck. I even left the factory radio in place and used an aftermarket head unit that was also out of view. I like the idea of trying to keep everything out of sight because, along with a burglar alarm, it seems like a good deterrent to someone breaking in and stealing my stuff.