Zed is right about the small space you are working with.. Also if you run all speakers off of an amp you will get much better sound quality.

I run my speakers off of the head unit (it doesn't sound too bad) I have the junk factory speakers in the rear so what I do is fade my deck to front (about 90%) because I have decent door speakers and then dial my sub in with the deck (get a deck that allows lots of settings). I really enjoy some bass so this setup works well for that.

If I were just running the 4 in car speakers I would invest in a really good set of rear speakers (that have some bass output) and a quality head unit. JVC is decent they also make kenwood I run a kenwood ddx271 (with an aux for phone input) Make sure your deck has an easy to access volume knob (many new decks are going to buttons instead of control knob)

If you want to look into something I am changing to later look at Pumpkin audio decks that run full android. Then buy an ELM327 Bluetooth OBD2 reader and download Torque on the deck. Setup custom gauges on the deck or your phone via Torque and you can monitor all sorts of cool stuff without buying a ton of gauges and keep your car looking clean.

I have 17 speakers in my eclipse and it sounds great and the SQ is great. Ive had SQ judges listen to my car at competitions and they had no remarks on distortion. I use 8 6.75" midrange speakers and 8 1" tweeters and then one 15" inch sub. Total system power is 2500 watts. Any system no matter the setup can sound good with proper tune, set the gains right and crossover points and and everything will sound golden even with over the shelf stuff from walmart. A good cheap system will sound better than a poorly tuned high end system

Zero6391 said:

I have 17 speakers in my eclipse and it sounds great and the SQ is great. Ive had SQ judges listen to my car at competitions and they had no remarks on distortion. I use 8 6.75" midrange speakers and 8 1" tweeters and then one 15" inch sub. Total system power is 2500 watts. Any system no matter the setup can sound good with proper tune, set the gains right and crossover points and and everything will sound golden even with over the shelf stuff from walmart. A good cheap system will sound better than a poorly tuned high end system

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but why spend the money on 17 speakers (and all that weight, MOST DSMs are for sport driving) when i would hazard a guess that my 3 speaker system with a custom 8" sub is not for off of yours.

now if it is a show car, fine go bonkers, but i actually specialized (back in the day, boi) in doing custom installs that were hidden. that meant no extra speaker grills and no huge kick panels, or cutouts in anything. i even color matched a fiberglass box to a lexus paint code. all that meant that i had to use as few items as possible and make it sound as good as the kid that just tossed in 17 speakers and tuned it to the moon.

and i would take a system with a few quality components over an endless wal-mart rig and all the tuning in the world.

EVERYTHING will need a base tune, why not make it as easy as possible?

Not saying ur system sounds bad but that having multple speakers wont degrade sound quality. Sure it adding more speakers add weight but most wont be messing with 60 pound subwoofers like us most walmart subs or even entry and mid level reputable companies weigh around 20 lbs. And sure quality over quantity is my approach as well as far the subwoofer goes, but i was just saying most speakers can sound good not just reputable stuff but if u want the most go for the good quality stuff. By the way all my speakers, subs and amps are Rockford Fosgate power series but i started out with sony and pioneer and can vouch for them too

Zero6391 said:

i started out with sony and pioneer and can vouch for them too

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For sure, Its personal taste really as far sound goes. I have heard decent sound from budget stuff. You develop personal taste for specific stuff once you use some of it. Ive had older sony decks that outperform newer high end stuff, but I have also heard some god awful sound from cheap sony subs. I think the best mid range stuff I have worked with is kicker. I really like the sound of JL subs, but I refuse to spend the asking price of those. No complaints about Rockford fosgate stuff they make pretty solid amps.

If anything go into some shops and listen to their display setups you can usually find what sounds good to your ear between speakers pretty quickly. Some of the cleanest sound I have heard was HERTZ, but the price of most of that stuff will make you cringe. We setup my buddys car with HERTZ front and rear speakers and a 4ch amp and it sounded like he had a sub.

Solid advice, zedicus. The best part about your system is the efficiency. Only one amp to deal with, and a small sub box. Proper box design (considering both the sub and the vehicle cabin) is more important than the size, quantity, or dollar value of your subs. An 8" sub with a properly tuned port can play louder and more linear with less wattage than two expensive 12's poorly tuned.

i plan to run the mtx terminator kit

Well, I just rewired my Kenwood deck to run through the factory amp, powering a component system, then the fosgate 6x9's ran off the factory amp as well. I must say.... it sounds great. I am going to run an amp and a 12 and call it a day for as long as that factory amp holds out

Hope you guys don't have any more issues with installing subwoofers cause next week my new audio system will be shipped. And I mean 4 speakers, a subwoofer, a new HU... all of it.

No way. In these tiny cars, with my six speaker set up, 2 6.5 2 6x9 2 10 inch dvc infinities wired to 1 ohm on a jl audio 500/1, the sound stage is off. It sound like it's coming from like straight above me. I removed to 6x9's and i'm terrible at tuning it, but I know walmart wont sell you six car speakers and an amp that sounds as good as mine right now, even with perfect pitch and the ability to notice light distortion. I'm about to amplify my two door speakers also, although I would like to upgrade to components. I'm running all pioneer except my subs and amp.