HELP - Need Advice with Planning my new Car Audio System

[mshollan]

Hi All,

I'm pretty new to the whole car audio industry and am looking to get my first aftermarket sound system set up in my car. I just bought a used 2013 Mazda CX-5 Sport with the most basic sound system and am looking to upgrade. My budget on parts is around $500-$800 and I'm hoping to get some advice on how I can get the best sound system with this budget.

Here is what I was thinking so far:

Rear coax speakers - Infinity Kappa 62.11I 150W 6.5-Inch 2-Way Coaxial Speakers - $105

Front component speakers - Infinity Kappa 60.11CS 6-3/4" component speaker - $160

Dampening material - Stinger RKX36B Roadkill Dampening Bulk Pack - $95

Amp - JL Audio RD400/4 NexD 4 Chan Class D Amp - $270

Subwoofer - MTX Audio Terminator Series TNE212D 1,200-Watt Dual 12-Inch Sub - $150

Total part cost - ~$780

Someone also recommended that I also get:

AudioControl LC7i Black 6-Channel Line Output Converter - $135

I'm not sure what this does and if it's required. Is this worth the extra $135?

Installation - The first store I went to quoted me $410 to get all of this installed (Component-$150, Coax-$90, Amp-$170). This seemed pretty steep to me. Is this a normal price to charge for installation?

If there are options that could be less expensive (in the $300 range, I would love to hear those as well).

Any help/advice is much appreciated!!

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[HardcoreBob]

Hi All,
I'm pretty new to the whole car audio industry and am looking to get my first aftermarket sound system set up in my car. I just bought a used 2013 Mazda CX-5 Sport with the most basic sound system and am looking to upgrade. My budget on parts is around $500-$800 and I'm hoping to get some advice on how I can get the best sound system with this budget.

Here is what I was thinking so far:

Rear coax speakers - Infinity Kappa 62.11I 150W 6.5-Inch 2-Way Coaxial Speakers - $105

Front component speakers - Infinity Kappa 60.11CS 6-3/4" component speaker - $160

Dampening material - Stinger RKX36B Roadkill Dampening Bulk Pack - $95

Amp - JL Audio RD400/4 NexD 4 Chan Class D Amp - $270

Subwoofer - MTX Audio Terminator Series TNE212D 1,200-Watt Dual 12-Inch Sub - $150

Total part cost - ~$780

Someone also recommended that I also get:

AudioControl LC7i Black 6-Channel Line Output Converter - $135

I'm not sure what this does and if it's required. Is this worth the extra $135?

Installation - The first store I went to quoted me $410 to get all of this installed (Component-$150, Coax-$90, Amp-$170). This seemed pretty steep to me. Is this a normal price to charge for installation?

If there are options that could be less expensive (in the $300 range, I would love to hear those as well).

Any help/advice is much appreciated!!

The Lc71 or a similar "line out put converter" is unfortunately, going to be absolute must. Your factory head unit likely does not have "rca outputs" to go to your amps... the line converter not only provides these for you, but also takes care of a few other critical issues, like removing all your factory stereos crummy sound alterations (your factory radio has it's own crappy crossovers, like bass reducers that keep your stereo from tearing up the inferior factory speakers)... the line out converter does a couple other good things you'll need as well.

Go to crutchfield, or a similar site, and go to the category for factory radio improvements, you don't necessarily need that particular model, you may get what you need cheaper. The price point starts pretty low, around $100 for the device you need, but goes up to over $1000 for devices that provide the line converter as well as crossovers, EQs and everything else.

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[HardcoreBob]

The Lc71 or a similar "line out put converter" is unfortunately, going to be absolute must. Your factory head unit likely does not have "rca outputs" to go to your amps... the line converter not only provides these for you, but also takes care of a few other critical issues, like removing all your factory stereos crummy sound alterations (your factory radio has it's own crappy crossovers, like bass reducers that keep your stereo from tearing up the inferior factory speakers)... the line out converter does a couple other good things you'll need as well.
Go to crutchfield, or a similar site, and go to the category for factory radio improvements, you don't necessarily need that particular model, you may get what you need cheaper. The price point starts pretty low, around $100 for the device you need, but goes up to over $1000 for devices that provide the line converter as well as crossovers, EQs and everything else.

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Go to crutchfield.com, click on car audio, click on factory radio improvements.

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[youdoofus]

Someone also recommended that I also get:

AudioControl LC7i Black 6-Channel Line Output Converter - $135

I'm not sure what this does and if it's required. Is this worth the extra $135?

with the integration of every dang thing into the infotainment stack in newer cars, yes this is a necessity. there are better models out there, but far more costly, but more effective. Many folks are adding a DSP which does a similar thing as the AudioControl LC7i, but so much more. Keeping stock deck but upgrading the speakers and adding amps and a sub requires a LOC (line out converter). Even if the amps have high level inputs, youd still benefit from a LOC

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Hi All,
I'm pretty new to the whole car audio industry and am looking to get my first aftermarket sound system set up in my car. I just bought a used 2013 Mazda CX-5 Sport with the most basic sound system and am looking to upgrade. My budget on parts is around $500-$800 and I'm hoping to get some advice on how I can get the best sound system with this budget.

Here is what I was thinking so far:

Rear coax speakers - Infinity Kappa 62.11I 150W 6.5-Inch 2-Way Coaxial Speakers - $105

Front component speakers - Infinity Kappa 60.11CS 6-3/4" component speaker - $160

Dampening material - Stinger RKX36B Roadkill Dampening Bulk Pack - $95

Amp - JL Audio RD400/4 NexD 4 Chan Class D Amp - $270

Subwoofer - MTX Audio Terminator Series TNE212D 1,200-Watt Dual 12-Inch Sub - $150

Total part cost - ~$780

Someone also recommended that I also get:

AudioControl LC7i Black 6-Channel Line Output Converter - $135

I'm not sure what this does and if it's required. Is this worth the extra $135?

Installation - The first store I went to quoted me $410 to get all of this installed (Component-$150, Coax-$90, Amp-$170). This seemed pretty steep to me. Is this a normal price to charge for installation?

If there are options that could be less expensive (in the $300 range, I would love to hear those as well).

Any help/advice is much appreciated!!

If you dont have any plans on getting signal to your amp, the whole setup wont ever work. lmao. Paying that much money for a JL 4 channel is a waste of money if you are on a budget imo. You can get other amps that do more power for less. Also if you plan on using the stock head unit with new speakers, Thats gonna sound like garbage as well. Stock head units have their own built in EQ curve to compensate for how sh*tty and cheap the stock speakers are. Even if you have all the settings on flat, its not really flat. Meaning whatever speaker you put in, is subjected to the sh*tty EQ and poor low quality digital audio convertors (DAC) of the stock head unit.

TLDR, good chance your speaker swap will sound worse than stock or barely get any improvement.

Solution, add a digital sound processor, not some audiocontrol garbage. Something like a rockford DSR-1 that can really make the biggest impact on how good your system will sound. Its the tuning and install that matters. You can have sh*tty stock speakers on an amp with a DSR-1 and you'll be destroying EVERY super expensive set of speakers you can get on the market on a stock head unit. Thats just how massivly powerful a sound processor can be. its basically THE most single biggest sound quality upgrade you can get if you get a proper tune with it. Speakers, amps etc... None of that even remotely comes close.

Thats too steep of a price. should be half of that. They are ***raping you with that price and they dont even have the courtesy to give you a reacharound either.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

might also want to buy a quality amp kits. Rather than letting it up to your install using some low quality amp kit...

 

[BOOMINGRANDPA 5,000+ posts]

amp front speakers leave rears alone run off hu and use $ to get better subs., also get different amp ppi 900.4 or something like that save $100 there $70 on rear speakers u can get 1 decent 12 have more power to sub..