new to "the game", where to start?

[PwnFx 10+ year member]

No one has asked this but can you do the work yourself or have someone that will do it for you? If not, that budget just got a whole lost smaller. If you plan to redo all of it and can't do it yourself, go ahead and assume about $300 for the installation process. Most will charge at least $100 to install a subwoofer depending on where you go. Then there's the installation of speakers if you decide to go that route.

The whole thing will be a learning process for me, which means I'm going to learn how to install this myself. I won't pay someone to do something for me, because I want to know how it's done. I can't let someone do a job for me if I myself am interested in learning it, and from 99% of the reviews I've read about various places, they pretty much f*** you over, and have no clue what they're doing, so I may as well learn it myself, rather than trusting some idiot to mess up the stuff I'm paying for.

You can get a nice system for 1k ,whats your listening habits? do you find your self cruising with the volume cranked? or do you only crank it when you want to?

If I had to describe it, I usually listen at a "medium" volume, and occasionally crank it.

You might be able to get what you're looking for with less than 1k. If you like bass, focus on the sub stage first, then deadener, then speakers and amp for the speakers. You probably won't have to upgrade your electrical since you made it seem like you don't need to be that loud. You will need wiring, though.

I like bass, but I'd rather have good sounding speakers before anything, my current speakers can't handle anything too deep or too high, so it ruins the music I listen to, to the point where I don't want to listen.

What do you mean by "need wiring"?

start reading, as many tutorials as u can BEFORE YOU BUY ANYTHING. $1000 isnt alot to start fresh. may wanna save some more depending on your expectations.

Will do, are there tuts posted through out the forums? I haven't taken the time to look much yet, I'll probably end up answering my own question in a minute.

I don't expect much, I already have a headunit which is about 1/6 the cost as far as I can tell.

I want better than some junk walmart setup, but I don't want to have to spend more than I can afford.

I'll be getting between $750-1,200 back on my return, and until then, I'd like to get more educated and see what my options are.

what i think you should start with is ur electrical then go from there. start with how many amp alternator u have. then if u wanna run 4 or 0 awg. then find amps for a sub and some comps that will match what u can put out for ur electrical. see how much cash u have left. then pick ur comps and sub. thats what id suggest.

The sub stage is the subwoofer and it's enclosure and amplifier. It's what provides bass to your system.

Thanks for clarifying.

 

[Fi_ 10+ year member]

1k is plenty of money man my system cost about that altogether and I'm very happy with it and it's very loud but the difference is I used experience and intuition to make my setup the loudest that it can be so sometimes knowledge is what makes it sound the way it does and not budget. Personally if you want to run anything less than 2,000watts total (4 channel and monoblock included.) then you shouldn't need any real electrical upgrades other than Big III and 0 Gauge (look up big III you WILL want to do it.) One of us can design an enclosure based on your vehicle and what equipment you choose a good start would be telling us:

What type of vehicle (measure the trunk and give us H x W x D dimensions so we can design a box.)

What size Alternator

What type of battery

One we figure all of this out we can start to recommend products based on your description. 1K is a fine budget and you should find everything you need for that price and/or want. Personally I'd grab the Wire, Terminals and Connectors and start there getting your big III done and getting your wire ran. Don't cheap out on your headunit a good headunit (cdplayer) can go a LONG ways.

 

[PwnFx 10+ year member]

I think one heavy ten will fit nicely in that trunk, at a minimum of 600rms, at a 2ohm load in a 1.6 cu ft ported box on like an old school Autotek BTS 7150 or 66Mean Machine new like the SStream Rubicon 1000, and like approx 70-80 rms for staging(speakers)like on the SoundStream LilWonder 640 new, and like about an Alpine Duo-b 4ch 3550 old school.5.25 Infinity Kappas components /6.5 all speakers.I think that will sond great and be a fine example for utilyzing the stock electrical, and doing the big three.In my opinion/example as a decent set up.

There's terms here that I have seen and heard, and even read about what they mean, but knowing the definition of something doesn't help me understand exactly what it is. I'm more of a hands on person, so without actually having an example or comparison, or technical experience, telling me that this or that with X amount of watts will be good, or as you stated "600rms, at a 2ohm load in a 1.6 cu ft ported box", you're basically speaking french to me! lol

I don't understand what an RMS is, or what the ohms mean. Remember, I'm new to all of this.

Also, when naming a list of parts, could you possibly link them to where you'd buy them from? I don't mean to sound pushy or rude, but none of this really means anything to me at the moment.

 

Thank you all so far for your replies.

I've been reading guides on Crutchfield, still looking around on here for some..

1k is plenty of money man my system cost about that altogether and I'm very happy with it and it's very loud but the difference is I used experience and intuition to make my setup the loudest that it can be so sometimes knowledge is what makes it sound the way it does and not budget. Personally if you want to run anything less than 2,000watts total (4 channel and monoblock included.) then you shouldn't need any real electrical upgrades other than Big III and 0 Gauge (look up big III you WILL want to do it.) One of us can design an enclosure based on your vehicle and what equipment you choose a good start would be telling us:
What type of vehicle (measure the trunk and give us H x W x D dimensions so we can design a box.)

What size Alternator

What type of battery

One we figure all of this out we can start to recommend products based on your description. 1K is a fine budget and you should find everything you need for that price and/or want. Personally I'd grab the Wire, Terminals and Connectors and start there getting your big III done and getting your wire ran. Don't cheap out on your headunit a good headunit (cdplayer) can go a LONG ways.

I can't find any info on said "Big III", also, I don't really have any personal understanding of how powerful any amount of wattage is.

Where could I go to see the difference between X amount of wattages?

I'll get around to measuring that in the near future, I've got a lot going on right now.

How do I find out the size of the alternator?

What specifically do you want to know about the battery?

I'm not a very "vehicle-savvy" person, so bare with me!

 

Is there any kind of glossary or wiki page explaining terms and whatnot when it comes to car audio?

When you say this about the HU, are you implying that I should switch from what I currently have?

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

amp wiring kits. some 0/1 for the big three. that kinda stuff.

check knukonceptz i like their kits. kolossus flex is what i have but thats kinda spendy. and i got 10ft of 2/0 welding cable for my big 3.

 

[CHEMMINS 10+ year member]

Ok before you even start thinking of sizes and products have a read through here - Basic Car Audio Electronics

Once you have the "basic" understanding of how audio systems work and what is required, search forums for "clipping", "setting gains", "voltage drop", "big 3".

Then you should be able to start shopping with a basic idea of why you are looking for. We can help guide you from there.

 

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

rms is basically how much your sub can take at a normal all the time rate. some subs are underrated so they can take a lot more than what they say. also amps r sometimes underrated. look at how many amp fuses it has. multiply it by 10 and that should give u the true power of the amp. I'm not good at explaining ohms so ill let someone else do that. and cu is basically the volume/ size of the box u should put ur sub in. different subs like different sized boxes. and ported vs sealed boxes.

 

[Fi_ 10+ year member]

Ok before you even start thinking of sizes and products have a read through here - Basic Car Audio Electronics
Once you have the "basic" understanding of how audio systems work and what is required, search forums for "clipping", "setting gains", "voltage drop", "big 3".

Then you should be able to start shopping with a basic idea of why you are looking for. We can help guide you from there.

Exactly car audio is not so easy to do trial and error with most of the time it ends up with expensive paperweights instead read through some suggested places and figure things out a bit first. Once you have a general idea of how things work it becomes easy to identify good product from bad product. I sent your a friends request I'm not the most knowledgeable people on the site but I can fill you in on a few things to get you started in the right direction, plus I'm bored D:

 

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

^^^^^ same lol

 

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

doesn't sound like he has to do much behind the deck so i don't think it should be too bad. maybe try to figure out places you can run ur 12v through ur firewall or how u wanna hide ur wires going back to ur trunk. think of where u would put ur new tweeters like drilling those holes or if they will fit where ur stock speakers r.

 

[CHEMMINS 10+ year member]

You are getting too far ahead Meyhem. He shouldn't even be thinking about things like that yet.

 

[PwnFx 10+ year member]

Ok before you even start thinking of sizes and products have a read through here - Basic Car Audio Electronics
Once you have the "basic" understanding of how audio systems work and what is required, search forums for "clipping", "setting gains", "voltage drop", "big 3".

Then you should be able to start shopping with a basic idea of why you are looking for. We can help guide you from there.

Thanks, bookmarked it, I'm headed to bed soon, will give it a good read over in the morning..

 

Just wanted to show you guys how far facebook got me, and the reason why I came here...

Same person here:

"2x Sony xploid 10's, 1800 watt 2 channel amp, Box, Sony xpolid dash, and your wires. best best for the money that is."

"Thats just bass though, In order too have a clear treb and bass youll need to buy 2x sony 6/9 speakers. run them too a low watt amp and cut the treb up some on it. should put them a little higher then your tens. plus the tens ore 4omz i think, will work on a 2/4omz amp"

"I have had this setup, Ratteled the earth and could hear vocals clear as pindrops. roughly costed 650.00$ I had a 1997Ford Contour"

" I have had everything listed before in A car. The only car I personally found that hit harder was A honda Civic with 4 Rockford Fosgate 10" P2 punches. I had my 2 10'' Sonys. And four six by nines. they were run off an Hifonic amp. Its your first stero, take if from someone who's had 5,000 First ones. Once your tired of the subs you can change them. The Amp is all around Great easily bridged too more then two speakers. when your going comp? worrie about capacitors and ****, your hitting 50dcbs? not 300... XD!"

 

I don't know if this guy has any clue what he's talking about, but he told me to buy my audio system from walmart, that right there made me stop talking to him.

 

Anywho, I'm headed to bed now, thanks so far for the help.

I'm really glad I joined this forum, it has a great community!

I'll be checking back here tomorrow.

Goodnight!

 

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

true true. my bad. i just know that would have saved me a lot of time on my install. plus there is no way i could have ran 1/0 but yeah just try to get some knowledge off some of the pro's on here. pro rabbit knows a lot!!! um just ask questions and we"ll try to help out i guess.

 

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

^^^^^^^^^^ CRAP!!!!!!!!!! sony xplods. no sq. id fart in a can and mail it to u for 20 and it would sound better. lol

 

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

hifonics has good amps tho. i like the brutus 2400 lol

 

[accuab 10+ year member]

Good for you for wanting to do it all yourself. If you haven't dealt with this kind of stuff before, you've got a road ahead of you. It isn't hard, but it takes some getting used to.

All of these options are great examples of what you can do. First of all, listen to what has been said and read up on the site listed and learn as much as you can. Learn first, then buy. It will save you a lot of heartache later.