I need help from audio gurus here

I want to upgrade my sound system this summer and i need help picking out some parts. My car right now has bose and i wanna take it off!

I also wanna get a HU w/ nav, Im looking at either an alpine w505/P1 or a kenwood DNX 8120.

In regards to the speakers i read some guys just run the front and the rear deck. Im planning to do the same so its somewhat balanced. No sub box for now. I just need speakers for the rear deck that produces reasonable amount of bass.

im on a budget so please post the best bang for the buck.

thanks guys!

 

I'd ditch the rear speakers in the front honestly. People in the rear will still hear it just fine. Wish I had my previous car to demo it to you. The thing with having speakers in the front only, it's best to have time alignment done so that your sound stage is eye level and in the center of the vehicle.

If you want rear speakers, I'd leave the stock and run off the stock amp. I'd upgrade the front speakers and definitely put an amp on them, the gains will be much better. What is your budget for speakers?

As for the 505 or kenwood, the kenwood is nice since it has a bunch of bells and whistles whereas the alpine you have to buy addons. IIRC, the kenwood comes with navi and the alpine does not. If you want all in one, the Kenwood is a better route to go.

 

what speaker do you recommend for the fronts that can be mounted on the doors? can the stock tweeter be used? or just disconnect it?

Also can the stock amp and rear speaker be used in the new HU?

Yeah im going towards the kenwood right now but im still looking for a good deal on the alpine w/ nav add on.

I saw some guy selling a DLS Ultimate A4 Audiophile car amplifier. is this any good?

Budget for speakers is around $400-800

 

If you were to do front speakers only, the Zapco CK-16.2's are bad @ss. I miss mine, ended up selling for around 500. The Hertz HSK (Hi-Energy line) are nice. Image Dynamics makes a really nice set as well.

I owned the A4 but didn't use it, only the A6 I used and traded to a friend. It wasn't the type of sound I was going for. DLS products are known to be warm sounding. Going for more of an SQ setup they would be great. I wish I had used mine to let you know how the A4 is, but the quality is really good on those amps.

I actually know of a dealer (www.mobilesq.com), well, he's half owner of the site and is located in Rowland Heights. If you choose to go the DLS route, you can get pretty good deals from him and it will be warrantied. I paid about $800 for my A6 and A4, though I can't remember if one was a display model or both were, but they were in mint condition. You'll notice the A4 itself is selling for around 900 on the site so I got a pretty good deal now that I realize it, lol.

As for using the stock tweeter, I wouldn't use it, I'd go with aftermarket since they would more than likely be much better. You could use it if you wanted though, I wouldn't recommend though.

I'm not sure if the stock speakers and stock amp would work with the deck. Worst comes to worst, run the wires from the rear speakers to an amplifier, nothing expensive, something off craigslist for like 50 bucks or less would be just fine.

The thing I like about the Alpine is that you can use the H701 processor, so if you wanna get crazy with tuning, all you need is an optical cable for it, though for the 505 it's different than the w200 and w205, so right now I think Panasonic makes one, but its like 80 bucks. Much more tuning capabilities though.

Some other good speakers would be Rainbow, I thing SLC's, can't quite remember. PG RSD's are known to be a great bang for the buck setup, mainly because of the midbass. I owned the DLS Iridiums and they were nice, but lacked midbass for tastes.

I like some of the Focal products, like the P2K's. I think the Alpine Type X pro's are supposed to be good, I know the European version is supposed to be really good (mids are ScanSpeak Revelators and wow, they are amazing!). Seas makes some great speakers as well, but they can be pretty deep so there might be an issue using them in factory locations. I don't know exactly what the depth is for the factory locations.

I know of a shop in Pico Rivera that can get you some good deals as well, fully authorized for numerous products and has a butt load of equpiment, from oldschool to newschool, all brand new in box. He got me a good deal on my Zapco's. If you can get those, man, you'll love em. Every person I know that has owned them has regretted selling them, including myself, but I needed the money so I had to sell.

I can't think of any others at the moment and my post is all over the place cos I'm tired as fawk, so if anything doesn't make sense let me know and I'll clear things up in the morning.

 

^^^Nice! thats a lot of choices. i want the speakers to have a little bit of bass in them coz right now im not planning on getting a sub

in regards to the front speakers where can i mount the tweeters? can the x-over fit on the doors?

What speakers are you running right now?

 

I'm running all stock unfortunately. I sold all my equipment except for my 15. I'm gonna go with the DIY route probably and get some Peerless SLS 8's or 10's in the doors and haven't decided on which 6.5's or 7's to use. I'll be using kickpods for the tweeters and midranges.

I haven't taken a look where the x-overs will fit, but a better place might be the trunk to avoid humidity and them possibly getting wet from rain.

Bing from Simplicity Sound prefers the tweeters in the A pillar. I know a guy in LA or OC, forgot which, that does fiberglassing for a good deal. You can possibly use the stock locations depending on how much depth there is or you can modify it to allow a tweeter that is deeper.

 

^^^damn 15"? is your trunk all speakers?

yeah i want to mount the tweeters on the stock locations as much as possible so i can get a clean look.
Have you seen a tweeter mounted on the bottom corners where the foot-rest is at? what do you think the sound quality on those? coz im thinking i can mount the tweeters there and the midrange on the stock locations

 

Yep, 15". I had an 18" when I had my Accord, haha. Plus that took up the entire trunk. The 15 I'm using doesn't require much space at all, about 1.25 cu. f. but I wanna get as close to 2 cu. ft. as possible out of the box. My main goal is to maintain trunk space and have access to the spare tire without moving the box.

The tweeter mounted on the bottom of the corner where the foot rest are called kickpods, and that's what I plan to do with mine. Sound quality has a lot to do with placement and tuning as well.

If doing in the kicks, then the tweeter would be on axis, speaker facing you. Off axis is when the speaker is not facing you. With off axis you may not need as much power. You can test that out yourself. You can maybe use headphones but if you have some speakers you can hold in your hand, hold them away from you to the side. Now moving it so it is directly facing you. It brings out the sound and it appears to have gotten louder. Drawback is that at times it can overpower the mids or get harsh, so tweeter choice would be crucial.

For off axis like tweeter locations you dont have to deal with the harshness but you can still get great sound quality. Many people go the off axis route and prefer it as well. If I wasn't doing kick pods, I was going to do the tweeters in the A pillars.

Only thing about the stock locations I don't like, and this may not pertain to you, is that the steering wheel column is in the way of the path of the soundwaves, which would reflect the soundwaves.

I guess you can say there are 2 definitions when people mention SQ. SQ = sound quality and SQ as in sounding good. SQ means reproducing the recorded track the way it was in the studio in your vehicle. Everything from the tweeters, to mids, to sub(s) should blend and not overpower one another. It is generally flat. The soundstage (think of a concert and you being in the front stage and smack dab in the middle) should be centered to vehicle (not the driver although some people like it like that), and it should be eye level. Having a wide and deep stage is nice because it brings out depth and you can notice vocals and instruments more spaced out rather than being crunch right next to each other. You can do this with an external processor or with a head unit that has some "active" crossover capabilities.

If you're not going hardcore, then the stock locations will be just fine. Sorry for such a long response. I tend to get carried away only because I like to help out and teach haha

 

How about the amp for SQ, Are there class D amps that sound very good .??

 

for subs yes. for general speakers no

 

^^^

What he said, but there are people that are really into sq and prefer class A/B amps, so it's all personal preference. Class D for subs is just fine.

 

in regards to the speaker wires can the stock ones be used for the doors? coz i dont want colored wires sticking out.

Also what AMPs do you guys recommend. reasonable prices please

 

I wouldn't use factory wires as they are too thin. Using too thin gauge of wire is limiting the speaker. 12 - 16 gauge is sufficient. Plus if you're worried about the color, use black techflex around them for a clean look. You can also wire it through the boot on the door.

As for the amp? What's your budget? Easier to determine which would be out of your range.

 

oh ok! if it can be wired up through the boot then thats cool
for amp budget around $500 or so. I only need a 4 channel one right? or does the tweeter and midrange have seperate channels?

Coz before i had Alpine type X's and it took all 4 channels of my JL 300/4 .

 

Yep, that's correct. Each mid and each tweeter goes on its own channel. It's a lil difficult to say which amp to go with because you gotta determine which speakers to get first, but there's plenty to choose from.

This amp would work.

http://www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/z...&products_id=5

Usually 100w is plenty for most speakers, unless they are the Boston Z series. Those things need a lot of power, like at minimum 200w for each mid. One of the Boston Acoustics tech guys told me he had 390w going to each mid. Although it sounds cool, it's inefficient because you have to pay a hefty price for an amp like that, but I'm sure he has hookups working for the company.

The RF amps are great too, but they are kinda big, very lovely though. Once you're set on speakers, choosing an amp will be much easier.