Looking for two speakers and an amp - I have $300 to spend

[sjv13 10+ year member]

I am looking for two speakers (new) and an amp (new). My car currently is completely stock except for a Pioneer mvh-8200bt deck. I have no idea where to start looking as I really dont know what brands are good for this equipment. I was told that I will want component speakers (seperate mids and tweeters) and that's pretty much all I know. So I was hoping someone could tell me what speakers (I was looking for a pair of comps), amp, and wires I should get. My ultimate goal is just to get better sound than stock. Also, is it possible to get new speakers now, and just buy an amp later, so that I can spend a bit more money on each thing?

I own a 2000 Volvo v70 if that helps.

Thanks!

EDIT: I was thinking about ordering from Crutchfield.com (is that a good place?) and was thinkning I might get this for speakers http://www.crutchfield.com/p_500SPS600C/Alpine-SPS-600C.html?tp=105 or this http://www.crutchfield.com/s_500SPR13S/Alpine-SPR-13S.html?tp=105

EDIT2: Also, can someone explain what RMS, watts, and ohms are in the case of car auidio and how it affects things?

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[wickedwitt 10+ year member]

RMS is a measurement of watts. RMS is the rating to go by, as some brands tote a 'max watts' rating. This is a BS rating. Ohms is the resistance on electrical current. When starting out, the only thing you really need to worry about is that your subs final ohm load matches up with the ohm load your amp is stable at. Most subwoofer amps are rated to be stable at 1, 2 or 4 ohms. Multi-channel amps are more often than not 2 or 4ohm stable. Most lower to middle end subwoofers have voice coil configurations of 1, 2, 4 or 8 ohms. Some subs are dual voice coil, meaning they would have 2 voice coils with each coil having a resistance of 1, 2, 4, etc ohms. The best thing for you to do, is find subs that you want, then ask on here or a professional audio store what your final ohm load would be. Then you can make an educated decision on which amp to match to your subs.

I know you said new, which is perfectly fine, but for your budget there are some great deals here on the forums of people selling quality equipment that has been taken care of and will perform and last just like new equipment. Good luck, and by following some of these guidelines, and getting help from more experienced people; your delve into car audio should be an enjoyable one that you grow to love more and more over the years.

 

[sjv13 10+ year member]

Ok. Thanks for that help. The questions I still have are:

1) What does a crossover do?

2) Is crutchfield.com a good place to order from?

3) Are the speakers I posted links to worth buying? Which ones?

4) Do I NEED to have an amp right away, do aftermarket speakers require one, or can it wait until I have more money?

5) Will I need wires? And if so, which ones are recommended?

Thanks.

 

[xmakeafistx 10+ year member]

Do you know the size of component speakers you need?

& crutchfield is a dependable place, but its kinda overpriced. I would look on Amazon first. I would honestly suggest these speakers, they come with tweeters. You can probably find them on amazon for 100 dollars, from what I hear they are pretty amazing speakers, especially for the price.

TS-D1720C - 6¾" Component Speaker Package with 260 Watts Max. Power | Pioneer Electronics USA

 

[wickedwitt 10+ year member]

Ok. Thanks for that help. The questions I still have are:
1) What does a crossover do?

2) Is crutchfield.com a good place to order from?

3) Are the speakers I posted links to worth buying? Which ones?

4) Do I NEED to have an amp right away, do aftermarket speakers require one, or can it wait until I have more money?

5) Will I need wires? And if so, which ones are recommended?

Thanks.

1) A crossover stops signal from hz ranges that your speakers in question aren't designed to play. Most amps have a built in hpf/lpf of which takes care of this for you. Higher end decks will have individual crossovers for front/rear/sub, but quite a few decks don't offer this. If used correctly, a crossover will help you keep your speakers working longer. If set too liberally, they won't actually do anything for you. If set too conservatively, they can fade out some of the tones causing your system to not play the full audible range.

2) Been answered

3) They look decent. Alpine is known for quality, and with anything, you get what you pay for. There are tons of decent component sets in that price range. Just do some searching on here to see what other people have used.

4) On your front stage, without a massive sub stage, you can get away with running components on deck power. To give them more clean power, and to bring them to life, a good multi-channel amp will really liven them up.

5) Depending on the vehicle's stock mids/highs system, you may not have to run any new wires to swap to your components. It would just require taking the factory plug off the end of the wires and wiring up matching connectors to the leads of your speakers. For some systems in some vehicles, it means a complete rewire. This is usually the case with newer vehicles having 'high-end' factory setups (Bose, Mach, etc) Best thing to do is find someone knowledgeable about your vehicle and find out what is what. Unfortunately, I have no clue about Volvos so I can't help you out here.

If you put an amp on your highs, you can do one of two things: 1) run jumper wires behind the deck from the harness to be able to get input to your speakers from your mids/highs amp or 2) re-run all speaker wires directly from the amp to each component set. Running the jumper is easier, running new wire is cleaner and ultimately better in the long run but not necessary.