Car Audio HELP!! (1000 Dollars)

[1995 GSX]

Ok basically heres what I want to know. I want something that sounds GOOD. I have 1000 dollars to spend on an Audio System.. Going in my 1995 Eclipse GSX.. Right now I just have a simple Panasonic CD Player.. Including speakers wiring etc. for 1000 bucks what do you all recommend/what should i do??? I want something that sounds really good rolling down the highway with my windows down and nice and clear, and possibly have some good bass if i played a techno or rap song... So 1000 bucks... What do you do???

 

[Tuff02Ranger]

You don't put more weight in a car that's supposed to be fast. Stick that thousand bucks towards some good aftermarket performance parts. IMO, the results would be much more fun.

 

[Johnny5]

To keep things somewhat lightweight, I would look into maybe one good subwoofer that doesn't require too big of a box. Maybe a 10 or 12" Kicker L7 and a 1000 watt amplifier. I would expect a setup like that to cost you around $600, which leaves you enough leftover for some nice front speakers and an amplifier for them also.

 

[1995 GSX]

Originally posted by Tuff02Ranger
You don't put more weight in a car that's supposed to be fast. Stick that thousand bucks towards some good aftermarket performance parts. IMO, the results would be much more fun.

.... hey thanks for the great reply ... i've already got upgraded turbo.. front mount... nitrous... susension... body kit ... and candy apple paint..etc. etc. so i figured it about time to do some budgeted audio.. so i think the results would be more fun there as well

 

[Blue97GST]

Go to http://www.crutchfield.com/ and look around for stuff. I too recommend weight be kept at a minimum, but hey lets be honest, bass is fun and feels cool. I'd probably search for the most efficient way to get the most output from the least space. I'm thinking single 10" sub in a small sealed box with a powerful amp for you. Kicker, Audiobahn, Rockford Fosgate-- these are all subs that will work well in sealed enclosures and handle a lot of power.

 

[RuBiCaNT5X]

Get an amp an some Bazooka tube sub. 10" passive sub for like 140 or get two and really thump. They have peak RMS of 200W I believe which is not bad at all. You can get a decent tier 1 2 channel small amp that can be bridged and get a phat sound. Or, get two 8" passive subs and wire them in parallel, which will dump the load on the amp to 2ohms and get you some more RMS power. I've only had my DSM for about 2 months so I don't know if you can piggyback the speaker outs from the head unit under the passenger seat to the additional amp and convert them to RCA inputs for the additional amp. If you dump moola into a Kicker 12" or 10", you are gonna have to go with a huge amp to drive them with. The last time I looked at Kicker subs, they had a small (87 - 91) spl rating and need more power. The bazooka tubes have an spl of 104. 1 or 2 of those will fit really nicely in a DSM trunk. My $0.02..

http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-QkMhTiX18BD/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=10&g=510&I=204EL104&o=m&a=0

http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-QkMhTiX18BD/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=3&g=110&I=235USX208B&o=m&a=0

carmedia1.com has them a ton cheaper and no tax if you live outside of NY.

 

[Johnny5]

From personal experience, those Bazooka tube subs are a sad story. If you honestly believe Bazooka products are anything but low-end car audio, either 1. you're deaf, or 2. you're deaf. If you're willing to spend $1k then you obviously are looking into a somewhat "quality" sound system.

The SPL rating that RuBiCaNT99GSX is referring to is only a measurement of a subwoofer's efficiency. Meaning, how effieiently a sub uses the power provided to reach it's full potential. It does not mean one sub is necessarily going to be louder than another.

Go look around these places:

www.thezeb.com
www.sounddomain.com
www.woofersetc.com

A good thing about SoundDomain is that if you find the same product cheaper anywhere on the net, they'll beat the price by 5%. So start searching! They also have a very informative forum that might be able to help you out a little bit better.

 

[nutshot]

Do you paln on doing the install yourself? Are you happy with the highs you have now? Does your deck have RCA outs? Do you want bass or mids or highs, or even care? I personally recomend, considering the music you referred to, good Tweeters (Kicker makes really bright speakers with a passive x-over) and a 10" sub that handles 250-500 watts RMS. Try an Aluminum cone, it will hit hard, and make throbbing bass shake your girlfriend's boobs . Look into cmttrading.com or audiobahninc.com, they may answer more Q's for ya. Oh, and stay with a sealed box, ported and bandpass boxes inflate one frequency and make the rest sound flat, especially with quick hitting techno.

 

[Johnny5]

I've got a 15" Audiobahn subwoofer for sale. If you're interested PM me. Thanks.

 

[Blue97GST]

Originally posted by nutshot
Oh, and stay with a sealed box, ported and bandpass boxes inflate one frequency and make the rest sound flat, especially with quick hitting techno.

I think any speed-addicted DSM owner should stay with a small sealed box for weight savings, but I disagree that all ported boxes will make your music flat. I believe if you observe the right volume and port size specified for any given sub, then ported boxes will give a more natural sound that blends into the highs better than the mechanical, sythetic sound of a sealed enclosure. It's hard for me to explain, but what I'm trying to say is that different boxes have their virtues, and its more about personal preference in how you want it to sound and how much you want it to weigh.