Looking to revamp my aging system

[Squirreljester]

I've been into car audio for a loooooong time, but I've also been out of the game for about 10 years.

I have a 2005 Neon SRT-4. My current system is a newish purchased Kenwood KDC-X794 (which replaced my old Kenwood z919 that lasted a good 10+ years and moved through 4 cars), Precision Power PPI PC650 running the stock kicker system (6.5's in the doors, 1" in the top dash firing up off of the windoshield, 6x9 3-ways in the rear deck), and a Fosgate 500.1 running 1 Cerwin Vega VEGA DVC 12" in a 2cft ported enclosure. Stock electrical (with 2 gauge power/ground running to distro block, 4 gauge running to amps)

Everything I have is at least 10 years old (except the head unit), and it's slowing dying, so I'm looking to completely revamp the whole system.

I can dig through the 100's of "what's the best xx under xx" threads out there, but I did have a couple other questions:

1) Should I stick with Kenwood to keep the system all 1 brand? Is there any benefit to sticking with all 1 brand for the whole system? Or 1 brand for sub, 1 brand for amps, and 1 brand for front/rear stage?

2) I'm moving from a single 12 in a ported wood enclosure to a single 10 in a sealed, molded fiberglass, enclosure (and possibly going dual 10's if the bass is lacking that much). I know people say the 12" is the perfect size, I've always had 12's, but I recently happened on a cheap fiberglass box for my trunk, so I want to try it out. Is there anything I should be aware of when going from a wood to a molded fiberglass enclosure?

3) Is there any benefit to running a dual 4 ohm voice coil sub verses a single 2 ohm voice coil sub? I should know the answer to this, but for the life of me I can't remember.

4) Is there anything major that has changed in the last 10 years of car audio I should be aware of, besides the seemingly huge drop in prices of everything?

Thanks in advance for any answers.

-Erik

Click to read more...

 

[massivespl]

If your going from a ported 12 to a sealed 10 on same power it's going to be half as loud I bet.

D4 woofer can wired down to 2ohm or 8ohm

D2 woofer can wired down to 1ohm or 4ohm

Single2 just stays the same

And in last 10 years kenwood and Rockford and mtx etc are beginners stuff. Check out sundown audio, SSA, crossfire,

 

[Squirreljester]

I know the DVC verses SVC wiring options, I'm just wondering what the difference was. Like, take a 400w mono block amp wired to a 400 watt 4ohm SVC sub would be 400 watts going to the sub's 1 voice coil. The same amp wired in parallel to a DVC 400 watt sub would put a little less than 400 watts to each coil of the sub, wouldn't you get the same performance out of both setups? It would one be better than the other? You'd be running the amp in the DVC setup at a 2ohm load, so the amp would run hotter.

I've been hearing a ton of good things from Sundown, but their site ***** for actually checking the specs of their amps, which bugs me. I hate buying stuff blind. I originally had my heart set on Soundstream but I've been hearing a lot of negative things about there line since they redesigned everything. I've also been hearing a lot of good things from Hertz, a company I had never heard of before, as well as Cadence.

I just didn't know if there was any benefit to keeping the whole system from one manufacturer.

 

[fly_marlin]

I've been into car audio for a loooooong time, but I've also been out of the game for about 10 years.
I have a 2005 Neon SRT-4. My current system is a newish purchased Kenwood KDC-X794 (which replaced my old Kenwood z919 that lasted a good 10+ years and moved through 4 cars), Precision Power PPI PC650 running the stock kicker system (6.5's in the doors, 1" in the top dash firing up off of the windoshield, 6x9 3-ways in the rear deck), and a Fosgate 500.1 running 1 Cerwin Vega VEGA DVC 12" in a 2cft ported enclosure. Stock electrical (with 2 gauge power/ground running to distro block, 4 gauge running to amps)

Everything I have is at least 10 years old (except the head unit), and it's slowing dying, so I'm looking to completely revamp the whole system.

I can dig through the 100's of "what's the best xx under xx" threads out there, but I did have a couple other questions:

1) Should I stick with Kenwood to keep the system all 1 brand? Is there any benefit to sticking with all 1 brand for the whole system? Or 1 brand for sub, 1 brand for amps, and 1 brand for front/rear stage?

2) I'm moving from a single 12 in a ported wood enclosure to a single 10 in a sealed, molded fiberglass, enclosure (and possibly going dual 10's if the bass is lacking that much). I know people say the 12" is the perfect size, I've always had 12's, but I recently happened on a cheap fiberglass box for my trunk, so I want to try it out. Is there anything I should be aware of when going from a wood to a molded fiberglass enclosure?

3) Is there any benefit to running a dual 4 ohm voice coil sub verses a single 2 ohm voice coil sub? I should know the answer to this, but for the life of me I can't remember.

4) Is there anything major that has changed in the last 10 years of car audio I should be aware of, besides the seemingly huge drop in prices of everything?

Thanks in advance for any answers.

-Erik

1. No. Getting a Kenwood deck is probably as far as you should go with Kenwood. There are no benefits keeping same brand anything. It can be a drawback as different manufacturers may excel at different things.

2. Only thing is that it's hard to gauge how an enclosure like that will perform since its primary function is to fit - maybe you know what its internal volume is? Sealed, right?

3. With DVC, you get more wiring options, though you probably won't be wiring it to 8 ohms - so in this case, it's pretty much the same. I'm guessing your sub amp is 2 ohm stable? Are you sticking with it? If not, you may want to get something more powerful that's 1 ohm stable as that's generally cheaper.

4. Prices have dropped because technology has advanced, though, beware of things that seem to good to be true.

Also, that PPI amp should be pretty nice and I think you should keep it. I'd ditch the rear speakers and invest in a really nice set of components for the front. What else are you trying to update? I would get a larger amp and a BEEFY 10" sub.

Do you have a budget for all this?

 

[Squirreljester]

1. No. Getting a Kenwood deck is probably as far as you should go with Kenwood. There are no benefits keeping same brand anything. It can be a drawback as different manufacturers may excel at different things.
2. Only thing is that it's hard to gauge how an enclosure like that will perform since its primary function is to fit - maybe you know what its internal volume is? Sealed, right?

3. With DVC, you get more wiring options, though you probably won't be wiring it to 8 ohms - so in this case, it's pretty much the same. I'm guessing your sub amp is 2 ohm stable? Are you sticking with it? If not, you may want to get something more powerful that's 1 ohm stable as that's generally cheaper.

4. Prices have dropped because technology has advanced, though, beware of things that seem to good to be true.

Also, that PPI amp should be pretty nice and I think you should keep it. I'd ditch the rear speakers and invest in a really nice set of components for the front. What else are you trying to update? I would get a larger amp and a BEEFY 10" sub.

Do you have a budget for all this?

1) That's what I figured.

2) I haven't measured it yet, which is something I want to do before I go sub shopping, so I know what will perform well in the box.

3) I'd like to replace it. I like how efficient it is though, when I have it cranked up, even on the stock electrical system, my lights hardly dim at all. I'm looking for that efficiency in a new amp.

4) Oh I know all too well, I grew up during the days of Sherwood and Jenson 2000 watt amps (with rms values around 100 watts) for $50, and Pyramid equalizers.

My PPI amp is dying, and it's sad, because I've had it for like 15 years. I'm down to my last 2 channels on it, which are connected to the front and rear sides in parallel. That also reminds me of another question I was going to ask, is it better to run a 2-ch amp and run the fronts and rears like I have them, or wire them separately and use a 4-ch amp?

You'd ditch the rear speakers completely? What about rear fill?

My budget is around a grand, but obviously I'd like to be frugal, like not spending $100 more for something I won't get much gain from. The only thing I'm keeping is my head unit, It's got 4-volt pre-amp outputs, not crappy 2-volt ones.

 

[fly_marlin]

Does the grand include install by a shop or are you doing this yourself? If the latter, you can definitely get something nice. I think the front components are the most crucial part of the setup and I think that's where more money should go. There are many options as far as good speakers go, just have to budget it out. How loud do you want your sub stage to be? This will largely dictate the budget for the amp/sub.

As far as 2ch vs 4ch, it depends. I have completely ditched rear fill and have a powerful 2ch running the comps. If you fill that you want rear fill now or in the future, get a 4ch. I don't bridge channels for the high/mid amps because you lose a lot of control.

 

[Squirreljester]

Does the grand include install by a shop or are you doing this yourself? If the latter, you can definitely get something nice. I think the front components are the most crucial part of the setup and I think that's where more money should go. There are many options as far as good speakers go, just have to budget it out. How loud do you want your sub stage to be? This will largely dictate the budget for the amp/sub.
As far as 2ch vs 4ch, it depends. I have completely ditched rear fill and have a powerful 2ch running the comps. If you fill that you want rear fill now or in the future, get a 4ch. I don't bridge channels for the high/mid amps because you lose a lot of control.

I've been doing my own installs since the 90's, so yeah I'll be doing everything myself. I enjoy running wires and doing stealth installs. I was apprehensive about doing a molded fiberglass box but I found a guy selling one so it worked out.

I've done one system with just the fronts, and it wasn't bad, it just means I need to get some more powerful comps for the front. As for the sub stage, I really want to feel it, but I don't want to drown out the music either. I usually try and to 10 times the power for the sub, hence why I have a 500 watt monoblock right now matched with the 50 watts per channel from the PPI. I listen to everything from rap to country to rock/metal, edm, and classical/jazz, so whatever sub setup I get I'd like an external gain control I can mount up front to make adjustments based on what I'm listening to.

I was looking at the Sundown SA series sub with a Sundown SCV-1500D amp, but I'm not sure since I can't find any specs on any of their amps on their site, which is really annoying. I was thinking Polk audio, Focal, or Hertz for the fronts, and I'm not sure what amp I should match with it. I had looked at the Soundstream Picaso P2.400 when I was looking at Soundstream for my amps and sub, but I don't know if that's the best option based on reviews I've read. I've also read that Cadence is up there with Focals and Hertz too.

 

[fly_marlin]

You can do this amp for that sub:

Sundown Audio SAE-1000d - SSA STORE

Set I've heavily considered was Focal Performance 165fx (with a new flax cone) as well as HAT Clarus. Both of those are around $650 though - though try to find a dealer, if you do go this route, and you should be able to get the HAT for less. B2 audio also has a nice component set. Also, look into comps from CDT, and even Tantric Sounds - not many people run those, but the few reviews I read were very positive.

Some people like some soundstream amps, though not many. More people love their older stuff, including subs. Their subs now are not in the conversation. Soundqubed HDS210 (and even 310) are very good value for the money and that's what I like to stick into all my friends' cars who want to pound without breaking the bank.

Like I said before, awesome components come first.

 

[Squirreljester]

I was hoping to stay under $400 for the front components. If I drop $650 on the fronts, I'm gonna have to go cheap on the amp to run them, the sub, and the amp to run the sub, and I don't want to compromise the rest of the system just for an expensive front stage. That's the kind of stuff I was talking about, way over spending and not really getting much from the extra money. I'm sure there are plenty of components in the $300's that sound just as good as those $650 ones.

 

[fly_marlin]

Yeah, you can definitely get something cheaper. These should be nice:

B2 Audio Reference 6.1 Component Set

I'm yet to encounter a bad review about B2 audio anything. I have their ref subs and everyone loves their subs and amps.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

I was hoping to stay under $400 for the front components. If I drop $650 on the fronts, I'm gonna have to go cheap on the amp to run them, the sub, and the amp to run the sub, and I don't want to compromise the rest of the system just for an expensive front stage. That's the kind of stuff I was talking about, way over spending and not really getting much from the extra money. I'm sure there are plenty of components in the $300's that sound just as good as those $650 ones.

The front stage is 90% of the music. That's the spot to not go cheap.

If I could fit this tweeter this is what I would run and I have a very nice set of splits.

BC 6.5 | DD Audio

 

[fly_marlin]

The front stage is 90% of the music. That's the spot to not go cheap.
If I could fit this tweeter this is what I would run and I have a very nice set of splits.

BC 6.5 | DD Audio

I'd be very interested in hearing those. Any idea what someone can talk a DD dealer down to for this set? Huge fan of huge tweeters.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

I'd be very interested in hearing those. Any idea what someone can talk a DD dealer down to for this set? Huge fan of huge tweeters.

I got told $300. To me them are better than the AW line. That tweeter is massive

 

[fly_marlin]

I got told $300. To me them are better than the AW line. That tweeter is massive

It is, it's hard enough fitting 28mm ones. Metal dome tweeter that performs is not only hard to find, but should be very pleasing to the ears.

 

[Squirreljester]

I found some reviews on their stuff, and people seem to like it. I even saw a few threads where the owner came on to add info, and I sent a message to them on their FB page, but I haven't heard anything yet, and I'm a little leery because their site (B2 audio - Sweet Like Danish) isn't even up.