silfa718

I'm looking for some help.
I want to upgrade the stereo in the car, but I have no idea what is best for me to do on my limited budget. The stock setup seems to die if i have the windows open. I have about $600 to spend on it. I'm not sure if that is even enough to spend on it since in never did this kind of upgrade before. I'm not looking for anything flashy just something that maximizes the money i spend. The music i listen to is mainly reggae, hiphop, drum&bass, techno..... i want a setup that has alot of bass (but not so much that it would rattle the car) and clarity. Also i want to keep as much trunk space as i can.

Amit

miwa

for 600, you can probably get a 'good' amp and a box with a sub.
Some people on here have only added a sub and kept the stock speakers and are happy. But you sound like you want to replace the stock speakers too. maybe you can look up posts for polk dx-6 speakers and replace all the stockers with those if it sounds 'sufficient' for your needs. mm .. amp/sub/and dx-6s ..

if that's STILL not enough, then you gotta consider getting good component speakers which will up the price severely. and you mentioned you want to save space. so, unless you find a really cheap car audio shop, its pretty hard to get a custom fit box to save space. You'll probably have to deal with a regular box since those run cheaper.

most good brands of car stereo equipment have a more 'economical' line .. you can keep an eye out for that. For example, alpine's have the 'v-12' series which is more expensive and then the v-power series that are cheaper. Kenwood has the more expensive excelon series while you can get the slightly cheaper non-excelon series. They'll probably work out for you since you're more after the bass. I think the higher end series are good for clarity with aftermarket component speakers and so on.

I dont' mean to discourage you but, 600 is a little too little to spend if you want something worth it Maybe you have a hookup at a car stereo shop or maybe you can do the work yourself. 600 in parts is somewhat nice but if you intend to get 600 in parts AND labor to hook your stuff up, labor eats into your budget nicely. you'll spend it .. and if the "upgrading bug" bites you, you'll end up wishing to get something better --that's pretty much what happened to me -- I had no hookup and I didn't have time to do it myself. unless of course, you don't have a car stereo bug .. then it's ok.

and lets not even get into head units ...
good luck man! either way, any change is still fun for a while!

silfa718

thanks for the response in info miwa

but i have some more questions:

what size of a sub should i get and how powerful of an amp to power it.
How much would a custom box cost me?
Also would what else would i need other than speakers if i want to replace the door speakers.
If anyone can recomend exact brand name and models that would help alot since i dont really know where to start and i would take advice from those who know.

miwa

I think I'll leave the 'specifics' up to the people who have a setup close to what you want so I don't pose like I know when I really dont know I'll also leave u with a piece of enigmatic advice. If you want it good, you're gonna have to start scouring this forum, running google searches, reading all sorts of reviews .. and so on. It's gonna take some homework--but personally, I think that part is sort of fun. That way you get to really piece your stuff together. I can only point you into the general direction of good name brands such as kenwood, alpine, pioneer, rockford, mtx (I'm sure I'm accidentally leaving out a lot) for amps and polk audio, focal, alpine, alumapro, rockford for speakers sorry I couldn't be a little more specific.

that being said, I think most people settle for 12 inch subs around here.. sounds like 1 powerful one would be good for you as you're not lookin to rock the block. amp should probably be like 200watts RMS at least. make SURE its RMS rating.. not max power rating. (thats something for you to search out already if you're new to it .. one of the more important things in car audio ratings) sometimes crutchfield.com has some good beginner's reading material on these matters. this has also been useful too for 'deeper reading' http://www.mobileaudio.com/rac-faq/ and this has been a stunningly useful page if you care to connect things up yourself http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/caraudio.htm anyway, I digress. custom box.. hmm.. here in miami, someone wanted at least 150 for it from me. I ended up with one for 100. This would be a standard MDF box. not fiberglassed... those look better and the people were willing to lighten me up by at least 300.

as for door speakers, the two ways people have been going on around here is .. either find a direct drop in replacement like the polk dx-6s that you hear so much about, or they find something bigger and they make a custom "collar" like thing for it. there have been pics of such things in this forum too. With the "bigger speaker" situation, usually its part of a "component speaker system" and it comes with a tweeter too. You'll see people mounting the tweeters on that little black triangle behind where the side mirror is attached, in the door next to the latch handle, or like me, up in the frame directly next to the windshield-- I think they call that an a-arm. what do you need for it? Well, most people would like their replacement speakers powered by an amplifier so that the sound is much louder and cleaner. now you have another predicament. If you want to replace the speakers, you'll have to get a bigger amp or two amps.. which means you'll have to spend more see what I mean?

dnd2984

iTrader: (6)

If space is the issue, go with a single Kicker L5 10", I have a Single L5 12" and its loud and clear and I still have the whole trunk to use.

dnd2984

iTrader: (6)

Just a rough estimate from the world of e-comm. I would say

A L5 10" would be about $140
A good 400-500 watt amp can be from $200 to 400 bucks.
A good sealed box from subzone is about $50 bucks

splitz

You just have to find the DEALS and sometimes take a risk on the warrenty (if you buy from a non-authorized dealer) My setup:

$75 Sony XM-404EQX
$75 Sony XM-1002HX
$155 Infinity Kappa Perfect 12.1d
$165 Audiobahn ABC600Q 6.5" Component Speakers (front and rear)
$50 4 AWG 2 Amp Kit
$40 Building Matierials
$30 50 ft. 10 AWG Braided speaker wire

$560 TOTAL

Everything is BRAND new. I got most of it off Ebay, but check out www.etronics.com, they have a lot of good stuff for CHEAP. Also check out shopping.yahoo.com and enter the model number you are looking for, generally it will come back with a couple of stores that carry it.

silfa718

:wow: thanks for the detailed info guys.....and dont worry i will take me time and do my hw....but doesnt this count as hw!

Im thinking just for now to just add a sub, instead of changing to speakers i dont like now....don't want to waste money on something i dont like...or maybe just change the door speakers up front...i dont know yet, still got lots of reading to do...but thanks for the info again!