Just A lil Info For the new guys

[Tom Da Tech 10+ year member]

Car Audio System Planning

What is system planning? It's the process that keeps you from making costly mistakes and ending up with equipment you don't want or can't use. This is what keeps new people from staying in the audio hobby wasting money that they do not have. Here's system planning for most new car audio shoppers.

"My friend just got two fifteens for his car and it booms! I just got the same ones he bought but I bought the new million watt amplifier I saw in the magazines. I also bought a new high end head unit but I want to keep my factory speakers because I don't want to spend too much money."

Everything sounds OK until you realize that he drives a Mazda Miata and barely has enough trunk space for a bag of groceries let alone the six cubic feet those two fifteens require. Oh, and he also has a premium sound system that requires an $80 adapter to interface with the factory amplified speakers. Too bad he already opened the boxes and now they're not returnable.

So what could have prevented this? Planning. Newbies you need to know four things. ( I had to learn these the hard way )

What you want

What you have

What you're willing to give up to get what you want

What you're not willing to give up

Here's how it should be done.

I want a stereo system that sounds clean and can be heard for three blocks.

A Honda Prelude with a factory sound system

Money

Trunk space for my Anything

I am a father so I need trunk space for kids stuff , shopping, toys, other hobbies. so Trunk space is a huge factor for me

Now that you know what you want you can figure out how to get it and stay within the set parameters. Here's how I went about it.

Get the best set of component speakers you can afford and drive them with 75-150 watts of clean amplifier power. Install a high powered subwoofer system.

Remove the factory sound system and replace it with the CD head unit of your choice making sure it has at least two sets of pre-amp outputs to allow fading between the front speakers and the subwoofers.

Expect to pay $350+ for the component set. $200+ for the head unit. An amplifier for the component set will run $200 and up. Small box subwoofers will be $500+ per pair. Add another $100 for a custom enclosure. A high powered amp for the subs will be about $400+ with a built in crossover and one ohm stability. And don't forget $100 for wiring. Expect an installed cost of $2,000+.

You'll need to get a subwoofer system that can fit in an enclosure small enough to allow room for the stuff you need to haul. I'd recommend subwoofers built for small enclosures. You could get a pair of twelve inch woofers that would only require 1.5-2.0 cubic feet of space total. Maybe even a fiberglass enclosure that could be form fit to the car to really maximize available space. You'll want a large amplifier to run these woofers at high volume levels. I'd also recommend installing some sound deadening material to your car to keep the vehicle from sounding like a tin can when the system is turned up.

Make sure you take into account any vehicle limitations. This includes shallow space in the doors, bottom mount only rear deck speakers, shallow depth head unit, etc. Almost any car audio problem can be solved if you have enough money. This is where most new guys have the problem. Not enough space for large subwoofers? Add more power to smaller subwoofers. No room for a double DIN head unit in your dash? Have the dash reconstructed. If you don't have a lot of money then you need to make better buying decisions.

Maybe only one subwoofer instead of two. Maybe a four channel amplifier instead of two stereo amplifiers. A head unit without the dancing lights. One note of caution when budget shopping. Don't skimp on the speakers, especially the front speakers. If there's one thing that should be the best you can afford it's the front speakers. In my experience there is nothing else that can make or break a system like the quality of the front speaker set. The best head unit and amplifiers won't make a difference if you don't have a great front stage. Make sure quality front speakers are a part of your system plan.

I hope this helps anyone from new guys to the older guru's that go a little over board.

Click to read more...

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

$350+ for a comp set? Jesus what kind of comps are you getting lol you can get some for $100 and less

 

[ace_800 5,000+ posts]

HAT's, CDT's, Boston Pro60's...just to name a few close to that price.

 

[Falcons 5,000+ posts]

some of the prices are jacked, but it is a decent read.

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

I don't agree with some particulars of the post but it has some good points. It's similar to what I would discuss for system planning, which is a lot more helpful to people than just showing off your most expensive products and trying to get them to think about selling a kidney.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Unfortunately people don't always know what they want. Sometimes they come here looking for advice and post a long dissertation asking for help but nobody answers because it'd take a week to explain it all. The OP's post just scratches the surface. Where does a noob go to learn what questions to ask?

 

[Tom Da Tech 10+ year member]

I was being general and trying to be helpful and all. I am not a pro by any means, but these are the things that I have learned from trial and error. I did not mean for this to be a rule to live by or build by just some friendly help for the new guys is all. I 'm sure there will be more people that disagree in many other ways but I did my best and hope that this will help some of the people who read it is all. Thanks for the input guys keep it comming.

 

[sacsking916 5,000+ posts]

Cliffs???

 

[CHEMMINS 10+ year member]

Cliffs???

Don't get started into car audio unless you have 2 grand to spend.

 

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

Car Audio System Planning
What is system planning? It's the process that keeps you from making costly mistakes and ending up with equipment you don't want or can't use. This is what keeps new people from staying in the audio hobby wasting money that they do not have. Here's system planning for most new car audio shoppers.

"My friend just got two fifteens for his car and it booms! I just got the same ones he bought but I bought the new million watt amplifier I saw in the magazines. I also bought a new high end head unit but I want to keep my factory speakers because I don't want to spend too much money."

Everything sounds OK until you realize that he drives a Mazda Miata and barely has enough trunk space for a bag of groceries let alone the six cubic feet those two fifteens require. Oh, and he also has a premium sound system that requires an $80 adapter to interface with the factory amplified speakers. Too bad he already opened the boxes and now they're not returnable.

So what could have prevented this? Planning. Newbies you need to know four things. ( I had to learn these the hard way )

What you want

What you have

What you're willing to give up to get what you want

What you're not willing to give up

Here's how it should be done.

I want a stereo system that sounds clean and can be heard for three blocks.

A Honda Prelude with a factory sound system

Money

Trunk space for my Anything

I am a father so I need trunk space for kids stuff , shopping, toys, other hobbies. so Trunk space is a huge factor for me

Now that you know what you want you can figure out how to get it and stay within the set parameters. Here's how I went about it.

Get the best set of component speakers you can afford and drive them with 75-150 watts of clean amplifier power. Install a high powered subwoofer system.

Remove the factory sound system and replace it with the CD head unit of your choice making sure it has at least two sets of pre-amp outputs to allow fading between the front speakers and the subwoofers.

Expect to pay $350+ for the component set. $200+ for the head unit. An amplifier for the component set will run $200 and up. Small box subwoofers will be $500+ per pair. Add another $100 for a custom enclosure. A high powered amp for the subs will be about $400+ with a built in crossover and one ohm stability. And don't forget $100 for wiring. Expect an installed cost of $2,000+.

You'll need to get a subwoofer system that can fit in an enclosure small enough to allow room for the stuff you need to haul. I'd recommend subwoofers built for small enclosures. You could get a pair of twelve inch woofers that would only require 1.5-2.0 cubic feet of space total. Maybe even a fiberglass enclosure that could be form fit to the car to really maximize available space. You'll want a large amplifier to run these woofers at high volume levels. I'd also recommend installing some sound deadening material to your car to keep the vehicle from sounding like a tin can when the system is turned up.

Make sure you take into account any vehicle limitations. This includes shallow space in the doors, bottom mount only rear deck speakers, shallow depth head unit, etc. Almost any car audio problem can be solved if you have enough money. This is where most new guys have the problem. Not enough space for large subwoofers? Add more power to smaller subwoofers. No room for a double DIN head unit in your dash? Have the dash reconstructed. If you don't have a lot of money then you need to make better buying decisions.

Maybe only one subwoofer instead of two. Maybe a four channel amplifier instead of two stereo amplifiers. A head unit without the dancing lights. One note of caution when budget shopping. Don't skimp on the speakers, especially the front speakers. If there's one thing that should be the best you can afford it's the front speakers. In my experience there is nothing else that can make or break a system like the quality of the front speaker set. The best head unit and amplifiers won't make a difference if you don't have a great front stage. Make sure quality front speakers are a part of your system plan.

I hope this helps anyone from new guys to the older guru's that go a little over board.

u have 5 posts,quit the lecture

 

[wenn_du_weinst 10+ year member]

$350+ for a comp set? Jesus what kind of comps are you getting lol you can get some for $100 and less

that would be destroyed by my $800 6.5's, it all depends on your goals.

 

[sobe3yourself. 10+ year member]

OP, how old are you?

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

that would be destroyed by my $800 6.5's, it all depends on your goals.

But for the average joe who needs to be spending $350 or more on comps...you can get a solid comp set in the $200 range.

 

[dirtyunclerandy 10+ year member]

550 plus for subs? I bet most of the people on here haven't spent that much. I think 400 would be a little more reasonable. Also, sub amps don't have to be 1 ohm stable.

 

[CHEMMINS 10+ year member]

I got about $1400 into 2 subs.......