VERY Basic Questions

hey guys

first of all im pretty much a noob to this stuff and i dont know much at all about car audio, but i want to learn ALOT, i am gettin a car in afew months so i want to put a stereo in it and i want to elarn as much as i can before i get it so i can put in stereo stuff and know what im doing

so i basically just wanna know some basic design's, wiring and such, amps, very basic questions, what wires to where, good companies, what diff channels on amps are, what exactly are ohms, whats good setting etc etc

i was directed here from another forum they said u guys were really good

please dont flame me

we were all noobs once

if someone really wants to be nice they can add me to msn, and talk to me there chris_brimson@hotmail.com and i can ask them more questions there

thanx in advance

apologies to admins if i did something wrong

 
I'll help you out here as much as I can since I'm very bored =P

Ohms-Basically the resistance power faces when it's trying to get from one place to another. More ohms=more resistance. So say you've got an amp rated at 100 rms at 4 ohms and 200 rms at 2 ohms. You get more power because you have less resistance. Not totally sure what RMS stands for but it's the actual constant rate at which your amp puts out power. This number should be the power number you look at when considering an amp to buy.

Now I'm not totally sure on the reason behind the next part, you'd have to ask a physics major, but the way you send current can either increase or decrease the ohm load. If you have a sub with a 4 ohm dual voice coil (dvc) that means you can run that sub at either 2 ohms or 8 ohms resistance to the amp. This all depends on how you run the wire to the voice coils. You can see diagrams for all the different wiring options here.

Channels on the amp are just for the left or right speaker/sub outputs. If you want to be able to control balance to the left or right of your car you would have to set this part up correctly on the amp (right speaker to right speaker channel, left speaker to left speaker channel).

SQ=Sound quality

SPL=Sound Pressure Level (loudness)

Some helpful links to products you will probably be suggested:

Focal

Magnum d2 website

Avionixx amps

Elemental Design (eD)

Resonant Engineering (RE)

On-line stores are usually very cheap to shop at but often are not authorized by the company and therefor do not come with the company warranty. Some good on-line stores:

The Zeb

Sound Domain

I've heard a lot of complaints about these guys but they have a really wide selection of products.

On-line Car Stereo

A full list of online stores can be found here.

Big box stores such as Circuit City and Best Buy can sometimes have good deals but their sales staff *NORMALLY* isn't as knowledgeable as you would find at a more specialized dealer.

When looking to purchase new equipment check out all the local car audio shops and listen to things, often times what sounds good to me doesn't sound so good to you.

People on this board are very willing to help, but before you post a new thread do these things first:

-Use the search function, a lot of the time your question will have been answered before.

If the search function doesn't turn up anything:

-Ask yourself how much are you willing to spend?

-Do you want SPL or SQ or both?

-What kind of music do you listen to?

-What other information do you think may be relevant?

Once you've got that all figured out post all that information plus your question and people will be very willing to help you out.

While still under heated debate, it is generally accepted that wire is wire and amps are amps. No reason to buy the fancy wire and as long as your amp is putting out a good rms and you don't need the extra features you don't need to spend the extra money.

Lanzar, Sony, Pyle and Audiobahn are not generally considered good brands. They CAN produce good products but all in all people aren't very happy with them.

There is no real way to tell how loud your system will get without measuring it.

Ported boxes are normally louder but with less sound quality.

Sealed boxes are normally a little less SPL a little more SQ.

Bandpass boxes can be good but they must be made very specifically to the sub you put in them.

Rear fill (speakers in the back of your car to fill the air) are generally accepted as a bad idea, your money is better spent on a good set of components for the front.

Kick panels are great for providing a little extra sound quality. Details on constructing your own kick panels can be found here.

That's about all I can think of right now. I hope this helps a little bit.

 
first of all thanx alot guys, bookmarked all of the sites posted

just afew questions though

so having more ohms/resistance is a bad thing?

Channels on the amp are just for the left or right speaker/sub outputs. If you want to be able to control balance to the left or right of your car you would have to set this part up correctly on the amp (right speaker to right speaker channel, left speaker to left speaker channel).

so will there always be 2 channels on a speaker? or will there be alot more? also will the amount of chanells always be an even number?

While still under heated debate, it is generally accepted that wire is wire and amps are amps. No reason to buy the fancy wire and as long as your amp is putting out a good rms and you don't need the extra features you don't need to spend the extra money.

so a wire isnt gonna effect the quality, it all relies on your equipment and different wires wont add to anything?

Lanzar, Sony, Pyle and Audiobahn are not generally considered good brands. They CAN produce good products but all in all people aren't very happy with them.

whats soom good sorta low end makes, nothing TOO expensive, but nothing to cheap either?

Ported boxes are normally louder but with less sound quality.

Sealed boxes are normally a little less SPL a little more SQ.

Bandpass boxes can be good but they must be made very specifically to the sub you put in them.

ported means itll have little holes in the box?

Rear fill (speakers in the back of your car to fill the air) are generally accepted as a bad idea, your money is better spent on a good set of components for the front.

are subs in the back of your car a good idea?

Kick panels are great for providing a little extra sound quality. Details on constructing your own kick panels can be found here.

wahts a kick panel?what benefits does it have?

now heres a question, my friend got an 81 camaro and whats to put some sort of system in it.........

is this a good idea?

what is the best idea for doing this?

thanx again guys
[/QUOTE]
 
RMS= Root Means Square

Having more resistence isn't a bad thing, but obviously it does decrease the power going to the speakers. I know a lot of home theatre speakers are at 8ohm, but most car audio is 4. As far as the system in the camaro, sure its a good idea haha, but like shuggura said, you need to tell us what your friend wants in it. Does he want it to be extremely loud? sound extremely good? or be inthe middle. Also what kind of a budget does he have, and type of music. good luck

 
okay he wants it kinda in middle so it sounds good but he also wants it loud, so yeah in the middle i guess

he has an alright budget, nothing too steep though, kinda mediokre stuff

any ideas?

tahnx guys, you guys are helping me alot

its appreciated

 
dont have aim guys

in canada, i only really use MSN, uysed to have aim, got mad at it one day and uninstalled it

ummmmm he wants to progressively work up to something, so buy amp(s) then subs then speakers, etc, etc

not necessarily that order, but progressivley buy

i dunno

1000-2000 CAD

 
Im assuming you need a Head Unit, look into basically any pioneer or alpine, many people also recomend eclipse. As far as speakers go, you really need to decide if you would like to modify the door panels and install component speakers (separate tweeter and midrange) or just have your basic coaxial speaker in the door so you don't need to make anything permanent. Soundstream are supposed to be very good amps, so here is on that should power your sub nicely http://www.millionbuy.com/sosrub5002.html. So if you'd let us know what type of speakers you'd like i could help ya out with that amp also.

 
by head unit i take it you mean deck right?

yeah he was lookin into alpine stuff

i mentioned to him about installing tweeters and more speekers, we may put some speakers in the door, and i have a website that tells me how to do it, so ithink i should be fine with that

but we were thinking, of putting tweeters in teh front dash, one on either side, then a couple of speakers on either door (what size?) and then a couple in the back, then we want afew more speakers, just not sure what are goood places to put them, any suggestions?

also he said he wanted to run a pair of 12s in his trunk, i said that they might not fit, i took a look at his trunk and there really isnt all that much room for a box, so i suggested 10's, so he said maybe 3, which i think would fit, because its wide, its just not tall or deep in his trunk

whats a ported box? and pictures?

tahnx again guys

 
Ok well if you want tweeters, i would reccomend a component set, having high frequencies shot at your knees really doesn't too you too much good. Also i dont think you will even need more than one set of speakers. The camaro is only a two seater right? If you ask most peopel around here they prefer only the sound to come from the front, i was skeptical at first, but i have it in my car and love it, just my opinion though. As far as the subs go, i would still reccomend a 12, but you can get 10s if you'd like. A ported enclosure uses a specially constructed port that is tuned to a certain frequency. Theoretically it will yield a +3db gain in output, so twice the output. The higher you tune it the more SPL you will get, but hte lower the more SQ you will get, so its up to you as far as that. In all honesty if you get the edK that was mentioned earlier, with a sufficient amp, in a good ported enclosure it could be louder than 3 10's since im assuming you would get cheaper subs. Also 3 tens will still take up quite a bit of room, what kind of dimensions does this trunk have, a picture would be nice as well, oh and yes, the head unit is the deck.

 
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