Need Tips/Suggestions for system!

[G8rgrad98]

Morning all! My 16 year old just got his first car and, of course, as we all did, he wants to deck the audio out. I'm a few years past the last car audio system I bought/installed and am hoping the forums can give us some tips!!!

He is obviously on a budget, as all 16 yr olds are (or should be //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif ).

He has a 1995 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, in pretty good shape, but we're working on cleaning it up. It was free from a friend, so you can't beat that price!!!!

He would like to replace the head unit, all speakers, and add a sub and amp if possible. Realistically my guess is that to make this worthwhile, it's going to be around $600 for a good bang for the buck system, does that sound right? I know we could put $1000s into it, but for a 16 year old's first car and all, we're not looking to break the bank.

We need any and all advice at this point from brands to target/stay away from (is Pioneer still a solid head unit? MTX subs? JBL speakers? Etc etc etc????) to where to buy from. We have a nice shop locally that can often beat internet prices, so we will be stopping by there in the coming weeks as well.

Thank you all!!!!//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/greedy.gif.5a53e6246569d7ab79867170f3b06629.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/thankyou.gif.5451126d09e870f796f50c3a4dd5acd7.gif

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[loopkiller 10+ year member]

I would highly recommend buying local vs online, unless you are 100% comfortable with dealing with the issues of buying stuff online. I usually only buy stuff like wire or other small accessories online. I would never buy a higher priced item online unless I knew exactly who I was buying from and was certain they were factory authorized. Not many are.

As for brands, Pioneer and Alpine are still the most popular brands of head units. As for speakers and amps, there are so many to choose from that it would make you head spin. Stick with a brand you are familiar and comfortable with. A single 12in sub with about 500W should wang pretty good in a vented box. Add in some front comps and a 100 x 2 amp and it should sound pretty good. It won't be ready for competitions or get much notice, but that is probably a good thing for his first system.