Sub & Amp Recommendation for a 2011 Camaro

[Duper]

Hello,

I have a 2011 Camaro with the Boston Acoustics sound system and I'm planning on getting a JBL MS-8 and an amp + sub. My stock BA system includes the following:

• 245-watt
  
• "9" Speakers
  
• 6.5-inch woofers in each door
  
• 1-inch tweeters in each A-pillar
  
• 1-3.5-inch center channel speaker (in the upper instrument panel)
  
• "7-channel sub-woofer" on rear shelf - This is actually 2 speakers on the rear deck that are bi-amped (Chevy count these as 4 speakers). I wouldn't call them a 'sub-woofer' although they handle the low-end in the car today... Nonetheless, there's no dedicated sub in the car right now.
  

I'm looking for recommendations on a good amp/sub combo and the exact location and direction the sub should point (e.g. in the trunk right behind the rear seats pointing towards the driver, or above the rear right wheel well pointed left or angled slightly up and towards the drivers seat, etc...)

As far as personal preferences go, here's what I'm trying to accomplish:

• Between my wife and I, we listen to a wide variety of music (from Dave Matthews to Lady Gaga to Zac Brown)
  
• I don't want to go deaf, I just want really clean and tight live-performance quality bass in the car.
  
• Between the MS-8 (~$600), amp, sub, custom enclosure and install, I'm hoping to stay under $2K.
  
• I'm fine with a 1 or 2 sub system but was thinking 1 sub would probably be enough unless there's a big upside to 'cleanliness' of the bass if I went with 2.
  

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

Lastly, I received one quote from an installer already who recommended an Alpine Type-R sub + matching amp (don't remember if he said which one or the size of the sub, 10" or 12"). He quoted me $800 for the custom enclosure, install, amp, and sub btw... Not sure if that's a solid recommendation for what I want to do, would be interested in hearing opinions on that as well...

Money shot: //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif

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[Sweet'n Low 10+ year member]

Grab a JL 10 inch W6, build yourself a ported box and direct it to the back of your turn. Run a jl 500/1 to power it all. you could prob get more bang for your buck but that's the first thing that came to mind after scanning that essay of a post of yours.

Paying for install is unnecessary and highly overpriced //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[Duper]

Grab a JL 10 inch W6, build yourself a ported box and direct it to the back of your turn. Run a jl 500/1 to power it all. you could prob get more bang for your buck but that's the first thing that came to mind after scanning that essay of a post of yours.

Paying for install is unnecessary and highly overpriced //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

Thanks for the feedback and sorry for the length of my original post...

I was trying to address all the variables you might ask about in my original post. (e.g. what do you have today, what type of music do you like, what's your budget, etc...) I also bolded the essence of my post so you only had to read one thing if you had to. But you can't please everyone in this A.D.D. society! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

And //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif I'll gladly pay for a pro install to make sure it looks like it belongs there (e.g. like a stock setup). Buying a pre-built enclosure or building my own will make it look like I just threw some equipment in there. I don't have the time (or skills) to spend on doing it all myself and try to make it look perfect. I'd rather let an expert do it.

 

[Wingman0121 10+ year member]

You're keeping the stock premium system while adding just the sub and amp right? The Alpine Type-Rs are decent but nowhere near the greatest and personally I think you need something better for the friggin 2011 Camaro than something that you can buy at Bestbuy.

However you have another bigger problem... because your car is so new no one makes any sort of wiring interface for your particular vehicle, especially ones with a stock premium audio system. What the installer will have to do is tap into the high-level speaker output signal from your stock system(my guess is he'll have to tap into the wires going to your stock subwoofer) to the amp using a high-to-low level converter, but those converters don't handle high-power stock amp too well and can go faulty, potentially sending high voltage to your amp and fry the preamp stage. The installer will also have to run a remote turn-on wire from either your fusebox or the steering column for the amp to turn on and off with the stock stereo, the problem with this is if the stock stereo shuts off even a few milliseconds before the sub amp then you'll experience a turn-off thump, it's not bad but it'll get annoying.

If that installer knows what he's doing then I would go buy the amp and sub yourself then have it installed. You can go with a dual-4 ohm Boston Acoustics SPG555 with the SPG-TR passive radiator powered by a Boston Acoustics GT-2200 or GT-2300... they're class AB, 1 ohm stereo stable amps and are really nice. This way everything in your car is Boston Acoustics.

 

[Wingman0121 10+ year member]

sorry double post

 

[Duper]

Thanks for the reply, Wingman.

You're keeping the stock premium system while adding just the sub and amp right?

To be exact, the Stock BA system with an MS-8 and an amp + sub.

However you have another bigger problem... because your car is so new no one makes any sort of wiring interface for your particular vehicle, especially ones with a stock premium audio system. What the installer will have to do is tap into the high-level speaker output signal from your stock system(my guess is he'll have to tap into the wires going to your stock subwoofer) to the amp using a high-to-low level converter, but those converters don't handle high-power stock amp too well and can go faulty, potentially sending high voltage to your amp and fry the preamp stage. The installer will also have to run a remote turn-on wire from either your fusebox or the steering column for the amp to turn on and off with the stock stereo, the problem with this is if the stock stereo shuts off even a few milliseconds before the sub amp then you'll experience a turn-off thump, it's not bad but it'll get annoying.

If that installer knows what he's doing then I would go buy the amp and sub yourself then have it installed. You can go with a dual-4 ohm Boston Acoustics SPG555 with the SPG-TR passive radiator powered by a Boston Acoustics GT-2200 or GT-2300... they're class AB, 1 ohm stereo stable amps and are really nice. This way everything in your car is Boston Acoustics.

OK, thanks for the heads up on that.

I want to call out again that I don't want to wake the dead with this system, I'm mostly concerned with having very tight, clean hitting bass with no distortion at moderate volumes. Will this equipment do that or is it overkill? Dual subs of this type just sound like a lot...?

Thanks again!