I am looking to upgrade the stock system that came w/ the TSX. The problem is I am completely illiterate when it comes to audio equipment.

I have read many threads on this site, but most of what I have read has been extremely technical (for me). I don't feel like having to tweak the relays on the flux capaciter to get correct wattage so my car doesn't blow up.

I guess what I am asking for is for some to point me in the direction of a good audio system.

 

OK, well, McFly, let's take a non-technical shot at this - since you are allergic to capacitors. : )

You don't have to know audio equipment at all. You need to decide what you want! Why do you want to upgrade? More volume? More bass? So your favorite song sound right? So you can get XM?

Before you can upgrade and be happy, there needs to be some clarity about a couple of things.

1) What's your budget? You may feel like you aren't qualified to set a budget yet. THat's OK - do it anyway. It's your money, so pick an amount you are confortable with and be ready to revise it. DO NOT feel silly about what number you pick - remember, it's your money. A budget helps anyone make better decisions about what to recommend.

2) What's your reference? Have you had a system you liked before? Have any of your friends? For many younger people, their only personal music systems before have been iPod headphones or PC speakers, and really, both of those suck. The problem is, many systems can be impressive ccompared to those, but it doesn't mean they sound good after a few weeks or months, ad it doesn't mean they sound real. The goal of high fidelity is truth. It's OK no not be about high fidelity (or SP, sound quality), but be clear about it. Many people say "I listen to all kinds of music", but it's often not true - we just don't like to look as if we focus on one genre. If you do, that's cool - just know it! What are your last two favorite CDs?

I think that before anyone buys a car system, they should go listen to a low-power home stereo system with a set of mini-monitor speakers and some good recordings, preferably at a home hi-fi store. Before you spend money on stereo, you should know how good stereo can sound - not how loud or how much bass, but how good.

3) What do you want in your trunk? Some people need the whole trunk free (like my wife: ) and some know they want a sub back there. Decide early. You CAN upgrade the TSX without a sub - it can sound quite good, as a few forum members have testified - so don't assume it's a must - but it may be a must for YOU.

4) Do you cruise with your friends? Many people with cruiser passengers want R speaks, even though they are considered a commie plot by those looking for sound quality. If you don't - maybe it's a commuter car for you a couple hours a day - you can get better-sounding F speakers into your budget by abandoning the R speaks.

5) Are there add-ons you want? some people KNOW they want XM radio, or Sirius, or an iPod, or something like that. Get it into your budget and list soon.

I can design a really good-sounding system for almost any budget for the TSX -and so can a few others here (and many more may try : ) , but without an idea of your budget and your desires and expectations, the likelihood of making your happy is very low...

Finally, since you are not a do-it-yourselfer, apparently, you need to decide who's going to install this system. I would NOT recommend you try - your attitude will screw you over, you need to want to know this stuff to do a good job, even if you don't know it today. Where do you live?

And do you have Nav?

Oh, and did you read this? https://acurazine.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3721144&postcount=1

 

OK, you live in Boston... so we need a good hi-fi shop in Boston. Tweeter is the big local chain, so they might have someone good, but there's probably an independent around... I'd go out to Watertown and see Rich's... http://www.richscartunes.com... been around forever, good stuff, good work, etc.

 

tweeter is good, but WAYYYY overpriced. Try to find a shop that has experience with your car, then they can help better - though that isnt a necessity. Also, learn as much as you can before you go into the shop, so you dont get walked on and end up buying something you dont want/need.

 

Thanks for the input....trust me, its appreciated.

Budget - I don't think I am qualified to answer this yet, but to set number now would be between $500 - $1000.

Reference - I have been other peoples car where the music just sounds clearer and have a nice "boom" if I am playing some hip hop. Does that make sense? That is kinda what I am going after. I do listen to all kinds of music, I don't think I could come up w/ 2 favorite CD's so I'll give you the 6 in my changer now....
Jay Z/Likkin Park - Collision Course
SRV - Live at Mountreaux (sp)
Velvet Revolver
Notorious B.I.G - Ready to Die
A bootleg DMB CD
John Coltrane - Soul Trane

Trunk - I would prefer to stay away from putting anything in my trunk b/c that is where my snowboard goes and I refuse to put roof racks on my car.

Cruise - Mostly driving to work or a moutain. I don't care what other people think of the sound. I just want it to be clear.

Add-ons - I think I would eventually like to get an I-Pod in there, but that is not a deal breaker by any means.

You're absolutely right, I am not do-it-yourselfer. I would never want to try to do this b/c I would never want to screw anything up in the car.

I live in Boston and I have navi.

Yes I did read that article.

Thanks

 

OK, no box, better bass, $1K budget installed.

Note that the budget for install is an estimate.

I would recommend a system that repalces the factory amp - it's the size of a paperback and looks totally cheesy inside - with a 4-channel amp from a decent brand.

I will start with the same speaks I have in my car - the Alpine SPX-F13M. It's a speaker set that was recently discontinued because at $600 or more a pair they didn't sell well. ONline car stereo has them for $229/pr: http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...roductID=11746

It's a 5.25 midwoofer and a 1" tweeter both made in Europe by a very high-end company called Scan-Speak (few stereo companies have their own speaker factories, and most speakers are made in China. Alpine has their top speakers, the F#1 series, made by Scan-Speak.) The crossover is a critical part of any speaker - it's the filter that keeps tweeters ONLY playing highs and the midrange only playing midrange and NOT trying to play highs - and the one that comes with this kit is excellent. It's not small, though... I hid mine under the pass side floorboard up against the firewall, and any installer should be able to duplicate that.

I like the Alpine MRV-F340 amp at $289 on online car stereo: http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...roductID=12087

This amp lets you cut off how low the F mids play, and how high the 6x9s play - which is important.
I do NOT think there's any benefit from going all with one brand, but Alpine is a good brand and it's a good price on the amp. Personally, I selected a JL Audio 300/4 because it could fit under the pass seat of the 2004 model with some slight work and shimming of the R of the seat up 3mm with a couple of washers (the 2005 has power pass seat, so the motors make that impossible, btw...) If you don't do something like this, the amp will have to go in the trunk, either on a board in the corner out of the way, or on brackets suspecnded under the rear deck (it's been done, photos are posted here). Another reason to find a good shop.

THat JL Audio is for sale for $399: http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...roductID=11726

YOu can probably get it cheaper locally.

For the rear, I will suggest doing what I and Vitocorleone did - use the 6x9 woofers out of the MB Quart RCE-269 kit (and sell the tweeters and xovers on eBay). The alternative is find a dealer for MBQuart that will special order the woofers only, but it will probably cost you more, if you can even find someone who will...

These are at onlinecarstereo for $249: http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...roductID=13546

I can find them on eBay for $229 but after shipping it's the same price...

So the Alpine fronts, the Alpine amp, and the MB Quart rears add up to $767 with free shipping. Add $20 for an amp kit.

That leaves $250 to get an amp, tweeters, crossovers for the front speakers, F mids in spacer rings, and R 6x9s installed.

The R 6x9's are the simplest part - takes about 20 minutes.

The F mids take spacers to work - see these pics to see why I say this: https://acurazine.com/forums/audio-video-electronics-navigation-22/step-step-making-spacers-door-speakers-286546/

The amp install is decribed in this thread: https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=286546

You do NOT need any adapters or anything like that for the factory radio to connect to the amplifier. The amplifier has standard outputs, just not with an RCA connector on the wire - the installer needs to put that on himself. The radio has front and rear outputs. I used the F ones to the front and the R ones to the 6x9s, and I used the fader in the radio to control how loud the 6x9 woofers were relative to the mids and highs. Sometimes you want more, sometimes you want less.

You really don't hear the sound as coming from the 6x9s (although it certainly does) - it all seems to come from in front of you. Coltrane's horn will sound like it's out in front of the car.

Now, the rap CD's will require you to lower the level to the subs, and you won't want to dial the bass on the head unit all the way up either - but it will sound as good as it can without abox, and it will sound tons better than it does now.

Your alternative is to go with more speakers, but which aren't as good individually, and will play louder but not sound "better".

 

Oh, and there are tweeters across the country, but since Tweeter bought other chains, I would not assume that if Tweeter is overpriced in OK they are overpriced in MA.

 

So with this setup you would use the stock speaker wire all around? What about the rear speakers? Keep them hooked up stock? I read somewere it is not a good idea to replace those unless your a true audiophile.

Those tweeters from the alpine setup do they fit in stock positions?

Also does someone make a bracket kit to hang an amp from truck? (2005)..

If i did something like this, i would do it myself.

 

This setup uses stock speaker wire. No rear speakers are used, since rear fill is a Communist threat to our American way of life.

Never read anything from that source again. : ) The R speakers are often replaced, but no "audiophile" would do it. Also, there are R door speakers and R deck speakers - I would abandon the R door and use the R deck for the MB Quart 6x9 woofers.

Yes, we have them in our TSX. They are a little small and require a bit of work to keep them from being loose.

You mean "trunk", I'm sure, and no, no one makes a bracket prefabricated for this (because HITH would they know which amp you were using?)

Thanks for noting that... why? Are you experienced? (You don't seem to be a bracket-maker...) Do you want to learn? Have you done it before?

I'll tell you what I recemmend all do-it-yourself shade-tree installers without experience - do what the pros do - practice on other people's cars! Find a friend or acquantance who wants a system and work on their car first - then you'll know whta you want to do much more clearly.

 

I replaced the stock speakers in my old toyota, and built a system in the trunk. Has a JL audio sub 10" and a cadence 200w amp, MTX xover. I believe that i am capable of doing so in this vehicle. Also ive replaced many a HU.

For the brackets, i am in the air force, (work on Planes), i will ask someone in the sheet metal shop to help me out, once i find the perfect amp for the cause.

Also i am aware of the fact that we DO have tweeters, but i wonder do the ones you used (alpine), do they fit in the stock location. instead of the sail panel.

thanks for the help.

Also I suppose if i am running the amp in the trunk i will need to run new wiring from the trunk to the door panels correct? Unless there is some other trick i could use.

what about the rear speakers, do you cut them out completely? (the ones in the doors, not the deck)

 

See, you DID practice on other people's cars! : ) Obviously you're not an install noob - sorry, couldn't tell.

The OEM amp is in the center console - I just grab those wires for my signal from the HU and my amp output to the speakers, and leave the R door wires disconnected at that location,

Sorry if I was unclear - I was saying that we have those exact Alpine tweeters in our TSX and they fit, but are a hair smaller than the stock hole (technically it's my wife's car, so I try not to call it MY TSX). The dash has a recess for the stock grille and then a hole, and the Alpines have a flange and then a deep back enclosure. The flange is barely wider than the hole, but the body fits in the hole no problem. The best solution, which I have NOT done yet, would be to get a piece of aluminum made into a ring, with the OD slightly smaller than the OE tweeter grille OD and the ID a hair bigger than the Alpine tweeter body.

But I haven't worked at it yet...

 

what about getting some sealent tape, and wrapping it around the outside edge of the speaker, then kind of wedging it in the hole?

 

It wedges in the hole now, just kind of loose. If I'm going to make it tighter, I want it to be stern.

If the sealant tape was some kind of metallized tape I guess it could be OK... just sounds like duct tape, but maybe it's some aerospace stuff?

 

also, just outta curiosity..

what about getting the Mb quarts and then just buying an mb quart midrange speaker? like the 130, and adding it in the front w/the crossover and tweeter?

 

acutally thinking of foam tape, something with a little give.. with all the rattles in the tsx, i would think metal would make more rattles.

 

Not sure what you mean. Do you mean getting the MB Quart 6x9 kit and then using the xover and tweeter for the F mids and highs?

If you like the metal tweeters that could work. Technically the xover for the MBQ 6x9 OUGHT to be totally different from the xover for the MBQ 5 or 6, but it's probably not.

BUt I hate the sound of metal tweeters bouncing off of glass in that location. Jigga likes his.

 

Ok, see what you are saying.. i am not too familiar with the different sounding tweeters..

 

dude - you're the man. thanks for your help, even though most of what you wrote was greek to me.

i have a friend of a friend who is an "audiophile" and ran the list by him. he agreed w/ everything for what i wanted. he was trying to talk me into getting bass cannons or something like that. wanted me to break windows rolling down the street.

i've ordered most of the stuff and just looking for a good place to do the install. Sorry to all the DIY out there, i'm just lazy and impatient.

thanks again dude! i'll let you know how it sounds when it's done.

 

Not "dude". El dude. and just for effect, add the rino (sounds good)

You have el-dude-rino = elduderino, our resident SQ expert.

 

Aw shucks,,,

Hey, fonz, you can't post this and then not tell us what you bought! "C'mon!" (Gob, Arrested Development)

 

I don't think that bass cannons are gonna break windows rolling down the street. I just thought that sounded kinda funny.

Congrats on figuring out what parts you want...that's one of the hardest parts!

 

wouldn't you want to keep the xover, so that way you can filter out the high notes from going to the speaker?

....or is that just done with the amp?

 

Done with the amp... passive xover parts that pass low notes and filter high notes are coils, or inductors - they have a high DC resistance because of all that wire, and they have a characteristic called insertion loss - i.e., you lose some watts on the way through.

Your bass is tighter and you have more wattage at the speaker itself if you use an electronic or active low-pass xover rather than a passive one.

Back in the day, when we used to use Rockford 6.6 mH coils for subs, we used to run into that all the time... back when built-in xovers were freakin' rare.

 

I have a couple of questions and forgive my noobness...

Why do I need another amp if I just bought the alpine one?
How come I don't need an actual radio? Is the stock good enough?

Here is what I have ordered...
Alpine SPX-F13M Speakers
Alpine MRV-F340 amp
MB Quart RCE-269 kit

 

Whoa! We have a flux capacitor?? How do I turn it on so I can go back to future?

 

The stock radio is good enough.

You need one channel per speaker, if you want to control fade and balance. I'm not sure what setup you are going for, but one 4-channel amp would work fine. The one you bought is really good.

 

OK, wow, you followed the recommendation!

The stock radio has the same voltage and signal type output as the non-4V Alpine on my test bench - it just needs a set of RCA's grafted onto it, as described elsewhere on this forum, to work just fine. You might need a GLI RCA-level noise filter from Radio Shack - not uncommon - $14.95?

Now, a possible problem. Derrick called onlinecarstereo and was told that even though the website SAID "pair" for the SPX-F13M speakers, and the website said that speakers were sold each unless it said "pair", that the SPX-F13M would be sold at 229 per mid/tweet kit, NOT per pair.

So they may have misadvertised, which would suck. Wait and see what they send you... but if you only get 1 mid and 1 tweet and 1 xover, then they were guilty of false advertising, and they either have to take them back and pay shipping or they have to give you the other side at the same price.

Sorry, I hope you get a pair like the web page said - but let me know if you don't!

 

Thanks for the heads up. This is what the website reads....

Alpine SPX-F13M
Center Channel Speaker Set (Pair)

So I think I am in good shape.

Here is my plan, since I am not a DIY and I don't feel like practicing on my relatively new car, I am going to try to find a reputable shop to the work and I just want to go there w/ the equipment and say "how much?" Is there anything I should be on the look out for....like them trying to sell me something I don't need? Or are they going to need some additional equipment for install?

 

If they try selling you something you don't need, you shouldn't do biz with them.

I would call Rich's Car Tunes in Watertown and ask for a quote. Tell them all your gear is new in the box (it matters). If they've done a TSX before with an amp on the OEM HU, great - but you don't need any Bose adapters or OEM adapters or anything...You may end up buying a line driver... TBD - that's the only thing, other than the wiring, that you should need.

I put pieces of Cascade Audio designs in the door and it wouldn't hurt to do the same in the F door and R deck.

Anyone know any other good Boston shops? Any Tweeters with good senior people?

 

Exactly how much room is under the console where the stock amp is? Is it possible at all to put a diff amp under there? Do you happen to have instructions to get it all apart under there? Also Do you have pics? I have an 05, so my xm module might be under there too. If i could, i would rather put a 4 channel under there, rather than in the trunk.. I am thinking that is probably out of the question, but i might as well ask.. Thanks for all the info elduderino...

 

THere's no room under there...the amp is the size of a Tom Clancy paperback, and there's no room for anything bigger. If you use the instructions from the SHOND install in the FAQ section of the forum, you can get to it OK. That's how I did it - read that thread to see how.

I don't think the XM is there, but it could be. Need an 05 Helm...

 

Bleh... books are for ninny's.. Just start tearing stuff apart..

hehe.

 

could find the shond install.. I know it was there a few days ago.

 

just saw it there... not a sticky. Started by Schalliol.

 

I looked, but couldnt find.. I think may have been messed up in the change over, cause when i click on the link he provides, it just takes me to the homepage..

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...8&page=2&pp=25

last post he gives a link, but click on it and it takes you to the homepage..

 

You say that the alpine amp lets you cut out how high the fronts and the rears play..

what is this option called in the specs menu?

 

crossover. A crossover is a filter. A highpass crossover takes out low notes and lets highs pass thru. Most 4-ch amps nowadays are set up so that you can have 1/2 the amp play bass and 1/2 the amp play mids and highs.

 

So what your saying is I will need one with a high pass and low pass crossover?

 

Honestly, it'sbeen a while and I'm on cold meds, so I don't really remember what you're doing and I'm cleaning house for the Super Bowl, so I'm not gonna go back and look (sorry: (

But if you're doing the F mids and highs/R 6x9 woofer setup, then yeah, that's what you want. Nowadays it's about impossible to buy a 4-channel amp that doesn't have switchable HP/LP xovers on both F and R. Alpine, JL, Kicker, etc., all do.

 

Yes, thats pretty much what i want to do, with the front mids and highs/r 6x9.

I was looking at this clarion amp, I am not too familiar with their amps, but I personnaly think thier hu's are pretty much top of the line.

here is the amp, i am interested in, it is a bit cheaper too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWA:IT