I'm new to this whole forum thing so please bare with me.Ok so I just bought a 2007 Acura Tl and I must say I am not impressed with its sound system...I was wondering if there is a way to upgrade it but keep the stock radio..I want it to be louder but a nice crisp sound...please help!!!!

 

Of course there is

Need a budget first, though.

 

A few people I spoke to about it told me that it was really complicated...I don't really know much about this stuff I'm a girl lol I just don't want someone who doesn't have a clue what they are doing working on my car. I have stuff that I had from a system I had in another car idk if I can use any of it in this car...

 

What do you have.

 

1. What do you have?
2. What's your budget if you want new/more stuff?
3. What are your goals for this system?
4. Where are you located? ...you might be near someone that can help

 

Is there any way I can just send you pics of what I have cuz like I said before I don't know much bout this stuff lol so that would probably be easier sorry if this is kind of annoying

 

Im not trying to spend thousands lol but I want it to be louder but not that muffled loud where it sounds like crap. I live in Suffolk Long Island. I'm trying to get some info so I can figure out what to do since I'm totally clueless.

 

Pics can help

 

If you going for better sound quality there are many ways you can achieve it but whichever way you decide to go will require a decent amount of work.

Here a few options, however there is really no limit to what you can do to your car haha.

1) you can redo your entire sound system (shit load of work + money) - I wont get into much detail on this beings that you dont know to much about car audio so this would most likely be out of the question.

2) you can replace the factory speakers - this will require a decent amount of work. If you want to upgrade your sub youll probably have to go aftermarket. But the stock amp is very weak i think its around 300w so you wont get the performance you would like from the upgraded speakers and chances are the upgraded speakers will pick up on the stock amps feedback, you dont hear this with the stock speakers because they are too weak to pick it up.

3) You could keep the stock speakers and bypass the stock amp with a processor. However, this will require you to install an aftermarket amp or 2. I bought a processor and am installing it this weekend because i hate the stock amp with a passion. If you choose this route I would suggest the Audio Control LC6i I got mine for ~$120 on amazon. If you install a processor youll notice a big difference in sound quality. The sound will be much louder and crisper.

If you do decided to go all out and bypass the stock amp and install a processor (which is my suggestion) I would say you might as well install new speakers as well since youre already going through the trouble of bypassing the stock amp and installing the necessarry aftermarket amps.

 

I wasn't able to load the pics...idk if any of this helps

Kicker ZX400.1
MTX 704X 420W 4 channel

Kicker CVR 12"

 

The kicker amp and sub are salvageable

 

ok lol any other suggestions as to what I should do?

 

Figure out what you're willing to spend on this

You need

Processor
Front component speakers
2 channel amp to power the speakers
Custom box for that cvr
Sound deadening
Misc wires & interconnects

 

well how much would all of this stuff cost generally speaking and the subs are in a box would I need to get one specifically made or something

 

processor: $100 - $800
Front Components: $50 - $1000
2 channel amp: $100 - $500
Wiring: $100-$200
im not sure about the cost of sound deadening

these are rough estimates but as you can see it really comes down to how much you want to spend...

 

yea I don't want crappy stuff though what would you suggest as far as whats brands I should go with

 

^^

 

what can I do with $1000

 

That's semi workable.

thinking over, i'd ditch the sub, too. Gonna take a hell of a box to get that thing to sound good.

Um, with $1000 you can get speakers, amp, and components.

Gonna need to fork over a lot more for processing and deadening.

 

You could go with the Audio Control LC6i in place of the processor. If wont give you the control of a processor but it will allow you to use the factory head unit with aftermarket amps

 

yikes this is so complicated

 

The subs are simple. You'll need just an amp wiring kit and possibly a line out converter. Maybe $100-$150. Once the amp is wired up, you'll pull the signal from the stock sub's wires which is a short run and will allow you to turn the sub up and down from the factory headunit.

For the highs, you need 5 channels of amplification. The front doors and tweeters share a channel, center, and rears. Many don't run rears or don't amplify them. Many people leave the stock amp powering the center channel since it's hardly used for music, only for navi prompts.

It's really as simple as installing the 4 channel amp and pulling signal from the stock amp. Doing it this way is no different than any other car. The downside to doing it this way is you can get a hiss in the system which comes from the stock amp.

If you get signal from before the stock amp it gets a little more complicated but it's not too bad. You'll have to install a line driver between the signal and aftermarket amp but it will probably sound better this way.

To sum it up you do power, ground, remote, and speaker hookup just like any other car. It's where you get the signal from and whether or not you want to try and run the rears and center speaker that complicate things. If you're ok with losing the center or letting the stock amp power it which is perfectly fine, it simplifies things. If you take your signal from after the stock amp, it's a straight forward normal hookup.

 

Get a $300ish set of speakers, a $200-300 2 channel amp. Use your current amp and sub. Spend the rest getting it installed. Forget the processor and only deaden your doors - the installer will know how to do this. I would forget about the rears and the center.

For Speakers, I might recommend:
Image Dynamics CXS 6.5s for around $310
Hertz ESK 6.5s for around $300
Morel Tempo for around $340
Focal Polyglass for around $300

Amp:
JL Audio 300/4 or 300/2 amp for around $300-320. If you go JL, or other high quality amp, you can avoid buying a processor or line driver (about $80 and up). These go used for half of this on my local Craigslist and are very reliable. ...or, you can start out using the MTX amp. This will require a Audiocontrol Matrix ($160) or a Rockford Fosgate BLD ($80) to make the signal from our car usable without noise.

Dual Amp wiring kit for about $60-80.

You can save money buy getting good-condition used items.

Install with the rest of the budget.

BTW - there are many, many ways to get this done. Only your ears can tell you what the "best" is. Start slow and you can upgrade from there.