Newbie to the Car Audio Scene; I Have Some Questions

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

Niko - "very basic" does not include a 15" subwoofer. I think a 15 is too large for the vehicles you have planned anyway. It can be done, but it's difficult and far from basic.

A very basic system would be as follows:

Head Unit to replace factory radio

Component speakers up front

Single 12" sub in a nice box.

Even if you don't heed our advice and just get a sub and amp, Alpine, JL Audio, Kicker are all decent and should be locally available. Don't buy off the internet if you don't know what your doing (unless it's Crutchfield).

Take your $600 into a local shop, and see what they will install for you for that price. Ask about demo models, discontinued models, etc. looking for some discounted prices. Alpine has amps, speakers, and subs in your price range also. You can't really go wrong with Alpine products.

 

[Wattser93 10+ year member]

x1000
i completely agree that speakers and a nice HU and speakers should come before subs. i also think you should just remove rear speakers in the cars you've chosen. the process of adding a new system should go like this:

1. Buy and install a new Head Unit

2. Buy and install the nicest component set you can afford at that time and install it with new speaker wire to the head unit. Take your time on the install.

3. Buy an appropriate amplifier for the component set, get a 4 channel amp and amplifier kit sized for future.

4. Buy a subwoofer and sub amp.

bass should always be the last thing you add... because it makes up so little of what you hear. Be the guy who impresses people with both sound quality and output, not the guy with the distorted music, rattling trunk, bass only system that only ignorant teenagers are impressed with.

make sound quality and music your focus and goal, and everything else will fall into place. your ears, your friends, and the internet will thank you. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

+1 That's the path I've taken except I flipped steps 3 and 4, I had the choice to either amp a Type Arrgh or my coaxs (can't fit comps without some fabricating) and I amp'd the Type Arrgh first. I'm working on the 4 channel amp right now.

A good HU and speakers make a bigger difference for sound quality than a sub does. Making the frequency range of 80hz-20khz sound better is more important than making 20-80hz sound better.

 

[NikoM 10+ year member]

Is there a scale somewhere as to what an amount of watts/sub sounds like?

Like...

10" - Little Bass Booster

Two 10" - Bass Booster

12" - Cheap Massage

Two 12" - Massage

15" - Hits extremely hard, mom knows you're home.

Two 15" - Hello to random car alarms.

Those are completely inaccurate/have no idea if they are close to true, but it's just an example.

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

Depends mostly on the car //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

Just go with one 12" on like 300 watts for now

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

Is there a scale somewhere as to what an amount of watts/sub sounds like?
Like...

10" - Little Bass Booster

Two 10" - Bass Booster

12" - Cheap Massage

Two 12" - Massage

15" - Hits extremely hard, mom knows you're home.

Two 15" - Hello to random car alarms.

Those are completely inaccurate/have no idea if they are close to true, but it's just an example.

depends on the sub and the amp. a JL 10W7 can do more than a JL 15W0 - depending on the power output.

i have been running a single 12" sub with less than 500W RMS for years now. However, i'm doing a build for a friend with 750W RMS (Audison LRx) to a single 10" sub (Hertz ML2500). That single 10 will do wonders, but you can't afford that.

I think you'd be very happy with a single 12" sub, in the right box.

 

[Wattser93 10+ year member]

350-500RMS on a 12 sounds can pretty decent for what it is. It won't rattle your brain but it'll be loud enough to get you a noise violation if you aren't careful.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

more importantly, it's not so loud you can't hear your low power speakers.