Upgrade Path

Paradise said:

Hi everybody! I drive an 09 Nissan Altima Coupe. It has two speakers in the front, two in the door, and two rear deck speakers. My current main complaint is the rear speakers. They are extremely quiet and muffled compared to the front speakers and the right rear speaker has an extremely annoying buzz. I would like to upgrade the head unit, replace the rear deck speakers, add an amplifer and add at least one sub in the future. I'm not looking for a crazy setup, just something I can casually bump some music on. I don't want to have to upgrade my battery or alternator or anything like that. Say I have ~$150 to spend right now. What would you recommend I add/upgrade first?

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best head unit under 150$ right now. 105 includes wiring harness and dash kit.

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-4i5L1Ki7yUR/p_130MS512BS/Pioneer-MVH-S512BS.html

and a roll of speaker wire , some crimp caps or butt connectors, a crimper, wire strippers, speaker female spade terminal connectors. Why do you need all this? because its necessary for the install and from what you are saying, there's a good chance of your stock wiring messed up somewhere and somehow and when you install new speakers, you'll need to run newer wire that can handle a bigger amp as well.  This also helps with your head unit install which will fix a majority of the sound issues as well as provide a huge audio boost to your system. This is just install gear foundations that will help with the rest of your installs in the future, its actually core, you'll spend money on it sooner or later... might as well get it now.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/100-feet-TRUE-16-Gauge-AWG-BL-BK-Speaker-Wire-Car-Home-Sky-High-Car-Audio-ft/272627220820?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20160908110712%26meid%3Da2f63f202a954e65ae8173c9187dd29e%26pid%3D100677%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D30%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D252484543121%26itm%3D272627220820&_trksid=p2385738.c100677.m4598

When you do upgrade speakers, forget about upgrading the rears completely, put all the amplifier power to the front midrange and tweeter and buy more quality midrange and tweeter, anything in the rear will damage the sound stage and is a waste of power, leave it stock on head unit power.  Altimas have a pretty decent stock alt so you wont have to worry too much. 

If the rear speakers **** that bad just disconnect them.  Start with good front speakers (dozens of options at $50-100) as they are the centerpiece of every good sounding car set up.  You don't NEED to spend money on replacing the stock HU if it is functional unless you just want features it doesn't have - like aux input, streaming etc.  Sound quality gains from just replacing the HU aren't great -- especially in a low cost set up.

After front speakers I'd add the amp.  That will bring your speakers to life and put in place the power you need to run a decent sub (get a 4 ch, 2 ch's for the fronts, two bridged for the sub)

The Pioneer GM-D8604 or 8704 would be a great option.

good bang for the buck over time?  id get this....

good deck ($300 Alpine)

good front speakers $150-200

good sub $200 or so

good sub amp $120 or so

i highly recommend a better deck than $150.  opens more doors down the line

id forget rear speakers too.  save that money for better gear overall

i have a 99 Accord, running the gear below off stock car

n2audio said:

If the rear speakers **** that bad just disconnect them.  Start with good front speakers (dozens of options at $50-100) as they are the centerpiece of every good sounding car set up.  You don't NEED to spend money on replacing the stock HU if it is functional unless you just want features it doesn't have - like aux input, streaming etc.  Sound quality gains from just replacing the HU aren't great -- especially in a low cost set up.

After front speakers I'd add the amp.  That will bring your speakers to life and put in place the power you need to run a decent sub (get a 4 ch, 2 ch's for the fronts, two bridged for the sub)

The Pioneer GM-D8604 or 8704 would be a great option.

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i'd disagree on the stock head unit replacement. Even without an amp its a massive difference in any install. Besides the slight extra power, you have a quality dac, flat signal and EQ/time alignment control as well, even without it tune it sounds way better out the box, with a tune the difference is huge compared to stock.

I'm not sure how you can say a head unit makes no difference.. especially when adding an amp...   The whole order of upgrades is completely out of whack and he'll be relegated to using a shitty LOC only to change the head unit later when he finds out the whole system still sounds like sh*t. I'm sure the bass, mid and treble function will solve everything or the shitty low resolution stock dac will save em.

Speakers/power = meat and potatoes.

Dacs/eq's = green beans and dinner rolls.