Car audio

[sjgYFZ200]

Hi, i have a 91 eclipse gs turbo. I have about 7-800 dollars to spend on car audio. I want to try to get best of the best stuff. Are there any companies just coming out with good audio that maybe has lower prices? Im thinking all four speakers, a deck, and a sub, possibly two. I already have a Jl e1200 amp.

 

[nutshot]

I recomend that you spend a weekend listening to different speakers in a showroom, with a CD that has a good sampling of the music you listen to. Remember that companies rarely make good speakers and head units and amplifiers. Try to pick each component according to your personal preferance, not whether it will match any other, or whether it will impress your friends.

Remember that your sub amp needs a capacitor, regardless of size.

If you find a set of subs, speakers, amps and head units that sound good and fit your car, consider shopping on the internet for prices. www.cmttrading.com has a lot of last year's models at low prices.

Take the internet prices to stores in your area and attempt to negotiate price for an entire system, often stores like Circuit City and Best Buy have open box items that are negotiable in price.

I personally prefer Polk speakers to all other brands, but I also like Infinity. I am amazed by Kicker's L5 12's, and by MTX's older 8000 series (purely for volume, not clarity). Head units are hard to nail down, but I was very unhappy with the 2 Sony's that I bought, and the 2 Alpines that I owned were pretty fussy. Amplifiers for highs and mids should have low THD's. Amps for subs can have a little more flex in THD in my experience, but need lots of power and the largest gauge wire you can run.

 

[evanspears1]

try ebay, mainly the stores, you can get really good deals, i got 2 mtx t6158 15 inch subs for 139.95 shipped o my door, i got alpine 6.5 front speakers for 47 shipped, rear 6x9 for 55 shippes, an audiobahn a8002t amp for 184.99 shipped and all the stuff is brand new FOR REAL!! and i could suggest clarion head units,best imo i believe the people i bought the stuff was called scala1 or summin like that

 

[Attack Eagle]

an older 7575z or the 755dz are great head and very nice. they don't have the EQ features of a lot of alpine and pioneer heads now.


A new brand that I have been pleased with as far as components go is Total. 179 for a set of 6.5 components and thats retail price.


JBL GTO amps are nice amps for the money (again talking retail)

just remember that 90% of what you buy new or used on the net has no warranty unless the manufacturer licenses that specific company to sell on the internet. (like kicker allows tweeter to sell on the net but not alpine.

 

[biddybengbeng]

Remember that your sub amp needs a capacitor, regardless of size.
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this is just untrue. i can get you the mathmatics behind it if you would like, but caps are just a band aid for a weak electrical system... if you are pulling enough current to dim your headlights you need to fix the problem correctly at the source... the alternator not a hack fix.

i have a good quality subwoofer and amp if you are interested, pm me it will destroy w7's, and you can take my word on this one. i install jl subs regularly

as far as the rest, if you are on a budget the boston FS components are a great bang for the buck. about 200ish for the set. great sounding even off deck power, then you can add an amp later to really bring them to life

as far as decks go, i have owned alpines, nakamichi's, sony, pioneer, jvc, clarion, and several eclipse decks. i keep going back to eclipse because they have outstanding SQ, extremely reliable, very very easy to use, and you can literally kick a cd down the street on its face, put it in, and it will play without skipping a beat. i've owned a half dozen eclipse decks, and absolutely loved every one of them. never had a single problem. i'd take my 8062 over anything alpine, clarion, or those other companies make. the nakamichi's are also great decks, however if you have a lot of burned cd's like i do, this is not the option for you. they don't like them. otherwise, they have absolutely wonderful SQ.

for amps, a good budget amp would be alpine, or directed. solid little amps. reliable, good sound, and relatively strong. or a step up from that while maintaining a good budget is the boston acoustics amplifiers. awesome sound, great power. good strong CLEAN amp. i own 2 of them and absolutely love 'em

 

[Theb95tsi]

id say alpine subs i have the type r's they sound pretty damn good for speakers kenwoods my friend has them but i have pioneer really stereo is preference and what the owner likes and i have a pioneer head unit also

 

[Mack]

Planet Audio or Fusion amps, inexpensive and put out rated power
Image Dynamics ID V3, Infinity Perfects or Alptine Type R's (120-150 apiece)
Find a nice set of Crystal Comps on sale (120)
Any HU will pretty much do, just look for the features you want (MP3 adjustability expansion......whatever)

 

[nutshot]

this is just untrue. i can get you the mathmatics behind it if you would like, but caps are just a band aid for a weak electrical system... if you are pulling enough current to dim your headlights you need to fix the problem correctly at the source... the alternator not a hack fix.

I want to see proof. Everything that I have ever read says that alternators only work when the car is running. I have also read that car battery's dislike power spikes over a long period, and will stop functioning if they are subjected to that too often. If I am wrong, let me know.

 

[SoilentGreen98]

For my system the head unit is a Clarion VRX935VD which I love, the front speakers are Clarion components, the rear is Eclipse 3-ways, and are both powered at 75x4 by an Audiobahn amp, also I have a aw1206Q Audiobahn sub also powered in mono by an Audiobahn amp.


As far as head units go, make sure to stay away from Sony. The best ones I'd say are Clarion, Eclipse, and Pioneer. JVC is pretty good too.

For speakers I again say stay away from Sony. Stay away from Sony when it comes to car audio in general. If you want good but affordable then go with Visonik or Power Akoustik.

 

[biddybengbeng]

If you wish, you can check my rough approximations for errors.

Lets consider the "rule" of "1 farad for every 1,000 watts." You know what a farad is? (farad=one amp second.) Let's assume with the car running you are at 14 volts. Lets assume the battery sits at 12.6 volts, which it should. Take that 14 volts in your 1 farad cap and convert to joules. Lets see, you know the formula for figuring joules from farads here right? ((Cap value farads/2)(charge volts^2)) So ((.5)(14^2))=98 joules. Cool huh? Seems like alot? Wait a minute, with a cap in an audio system, you only care about the power it can produce before it drops to 12.6 volts, then your battery takes over. ((.5)(12.6^2))=79.38. That means between 14 and 12.6v you only have 98-79.38=18.62 joules correct? Doesn't seem like alot does it? Well let's see how much it really is.

I just went out to my kitchen and found an old Radio Shack rechargable AA battery in my junk drawer. Right on the side of it it states "1.2v, 700mah." You know what that means correct? That means it can supply 700 milliamps for one hour at 1.2 volts. (1.2)(.7)=.84. (3600)(.84)=3024. Holy shit, that means that AA battery has got 3024 joules in it right? Man, a AA battery has 3024 joules in it, but the 1 farad cap has only 18.62 avalible? That can't be right. It is right. That old crusty AA rechargable battery has 162+ times more "juice" avalible than the 1 farad cap does.

Now, lets just touch on the internal resistance of the cap. We can go ahead and avoid math here though. If you want detials I can go through it, but now I am tired. Lets just say this: You are playing your stereo hard, your cap gets warm does it not? That heat the cap is making is energy wasted as heat. That is energy that your alternator went to the trouble of making, but you didn't get a chance to listen to through your stereo. Wasted energy. The series resistance of the cap, albiet small, is what is actually making your stereo worse off than it would be without the cap.

But why does the cap seem to "fix" your dimming lights? True, if your lights dim with the bass adding a cap may fix the DIMMING, but it will not fix the root problem of your alternator's inability to maintain line voltage. Like said, caps smooth ripple. Pretend you are building a power supply. You are rectifing an ac supply with a bridge rectifier. You know that the DC voltage will be 1.414 times the RMS AC voltage correct? (of course subtract .7v loss in the rectifier diodes in most cases.) Measure that at Vcc+ of the rectifier with and without the first filter cap in place. Without the first filter cap in place, you will measure the same voltage as AC before the rectifier. With that first filter cap, you will measure ((AC)(1.414))-.7. Do you know why? Read up! There is the reason your dimming problem is "solved" with a cap. Problem is, your line voltage is just lower on average now, even though it is smoother DC. So it appears to fix the dimming, but does nothing for the low line voltage and therfore nothing for your stereo. Actually it makes it worse.

Bottom line, you are dimming because you don't have the juice to run your shit. You need more juice. The cap will not give you more. A better alternator will. Minimizing loss will.

Now I am really really tired and it is really really late. I may have made a math error and if so please let me know. Other than that you get the idea.