Car Audio Help

Draaxx · Post by **Draaxx** » January 7, 2004, 5:28 pm

Ive got a little 1992 dodge colt hatchback and im going to get a sub and and all that nice stuff and i was wondering if anyone had a little extra knowledge on the subject. Im thinking about <A HREF="http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-bS ... Y">This</A> and <A HREF="http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-bS ... his</A>/<A HREF="http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-bS ... Y">This</A>. So those are basically the ones im looking at now and the question is, for a small (my car looks like a civic hatcback) car should i get a vented or sealed box? Ive been told both brands are good although i kind of favor the MOMO, yet the kicker has an amp that you can add on for relatively cheap. So, if anyone has can spread some light on the subject of what would sound/preform better please fill me in ^ ^.... thanks

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » January 7, 2004, 5:40 pm

Cars should almost always have a Sealed enclosure. The gains created inside the vehicle make for a better sound bandwidth from your sub.

If you don't listen too farken' loud, then any sub will do, don't spend all the money on a brand if you aren't going to put the speaker through its extension limits.

Personally, I would buy a speaker, and build the box to suit. There are plenty of websites out there that can show you how to build a sub box. Fully sealed is the way to go (in your car)!

Draaxx · Post by **Draaxx** » January 7, 2004, 5:44 pm

yeah, for cruising i wouldnt listen to it loud enough to kill small children, but sometimes i would like to be able to say hey.... check this out.... and turn it up and actually kill small children near by. but thx for the info about sealed, saved me $30 i could have spent on the vented one

Pahreyia · Post by **Pahreyia** » January 7, 2004, 5:54 pm

Stick with a sealed box for your car. Ported boxes distort the sound waves and make for a lot of thunder, but a "dirty bass" sound. I'd go with the 10 inch sub instead of the 12. I'm familiar with the Dodge Colt and you just don't have enough airspace in the car to justify getting a 12 inch sub. Make sure you have an aftermarket deck with a decent set of audio outputs. If you've got the Radio Shack $69 deck, don't expect anything fancy. A deck from Pioneer, Sony, Clarion or Kenwood would do you right. Be sure you run twisted pair or braided set audio cables to reduce dound distrotion due to electrical interferance. Get yourself a nice amp, I liked my Pioneer 760W 2 channel bridged to 1 channel 2 Ohm output when I had my truck.

Wire it cleanly and don't be afraid to take out seats/carpet to get the cables placed discreetly and neatly where they won't get wrecked.

Make sure you also get lowpass audio filters to run on the output if you don't have a lowpass/highpass filter on the output already. Makes a huge difference in the sound quality of your bass because it's not trying to push both the low and high end of the sound spectrum through the huge speaker. Leaves it to just process the low tones for cleaner sound.

Last tip: never ever underestimate the value of tweeters to a good car audio system. If you have to, disable the rear speakers and use the leads to wire a set of tweeters on highpass filters from the door panels or door bezel to have some really sharp sounds that won't cost you a ton of money.

Denadeb · Post by **Denadeb** » January 7, 2004, 5:56 pm

Some alternative speakers you might consider.Fosgate 10" or Fosgate 12" both are very good speakers. You really can't go wrong with any good name brand sub these days so all are good choices.

As for what box to use that all depends on what your looking for. Sealed boxes require more power normally to get the most from the sub but it offers a better range of bass responce most of the time. Ported boxes require less power to get the most from the speaker but they are normally tuned for certain freq ranges to sound better at those ranges.

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » January 7, 2004, 6:10 pm

That's why I say build your own box. You need a box that has a volume specifically made for the speaker you are buying. Makes the world of difference between clean and 'dirty' sound from a sub.

Also, I wouldnt worry too much about an amp. If you buy one of those real nice subs, then yes, make sure you get an amp that produces power in the middle of the subs RMS range. Contrary to popular belief, Jensen makes an outstanding, low cost, amplifier line. Just hide it under a seat or something and no one needs to know you didn't spend an extra $100 on a pioneer or sony

It's the sound that counts, not how fricken' shiny your amp is...

Looking at Crutchfield's site, I don't see them selling Jensen. If you are hellbent on buying from one place, I would suggest the MTX amps. Good product, well built. I think the boxes they made for those cheap Visionik units are nice! Bandpass boxes produce the cleanest bass I've ever heard. I'm in the middle of building one for my home theatre...sixth order bandpass (Bose invented this sub box style). Bigger box, but better sound

Pahreyia · Post by **Pahreyia** » January 7, 2004, 6:19 pm

Kluden wrote:Also, I wouldnt worry too much about an amp. If you buy one of those real nice subs, then yes, make sure you get an amp that produces power in the middle of the subs RMS range. Contrary to popular belief, Jensen makes an outstanding, low cost, amplifier line. Just hide it under a seat or something and no one needs to know you didn't spend an extra $100 on a pioneer or sony

It's the sound that counts, not how fricken' shiny your amp is...

You're right about Jensen Amps... I did like them... My pioneers used to hide under the seats in my truck, so it wasn't at all about how shiny they were. I just liked it because it was 760W for $92 when I bought it.

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » January 7, 2004, 6:27 pm

Many, many audiophiles have found Jensen to produce *consistent*, and very clean, power for their bass needs.

When I was younger, I wouldnt touch Jensen products with a 10' stick. Their name was, and still kind of does, carry a note of "cheap shit" for me. But, after hearing some systems in large vehicles where power to the amp is quite irregular, those amps still produced a consistent power band to the subs...where a few other vehicles would have noticeble drops from other systems in the car, or the speakers themselves (which is what you want to avoid obviously).

Check out this model for that Polk sub: Jensen JXP-720
It puts out 372W RMS into a 4ohm single channel. That would thump the poop out of that polk without blowing it up.

Just do a search on that model number and you will find it at a cheap price (probably $125 or so).

God, I could talk about this shit for days...I'm just going to shut up now.

Denadeb · Post by **Denadeb** » January 7, 2004, 6:48 pm

Power acoustic has some outstanding amps also and are normally pretty decently priced. 820 watt

I currently use there 600 watt 4 channel amp in my truck and its one of the best amps I have ever owned.

Pahreyia · Post by **Pahreyia** » January 7, 2004, 7:19 pm

... indeed...

I used to sell/install car stereo systems for Best Buy.

Zamtuk · Post by **Zamtuk** » January 7, 2004, 7:41 pm

i think there is an unwritten rule that says that your system shouldn't cost more than your car

Pahreyia · Post by **Pahreyia** » January 7, 2004, 7:43 pm

That is Anti-Bling Zamtuk.

Clatis · Post by **Clatis** » January 7, 2004, 9:13 pm

In my car I have a Rockford-Fosgate 12" HE2 800watt sub (powered by a Pioneer 760watt amp) .. http://www.ultimate-sounds.com/rockfordfosgate/rfs4.htm

It's perfect for any style of music and hits every level of bass exactly on the money. I've gone through 6 different subs and this one is easily the best out of all of them.

cid · Post by **cid** » January 7, 2004, 9:26 pm

Clatis wrote:In my car I have a Rockford-Fosgate 12" HE2 800watt sub (powered by a Pioneer 760watt amp) .. http://www.ultimate-sounds.com/rockfordfosgate/rfs4.htm

It's perfect for any style of music and hits every level of bass exactly on the money. I've gone through 6 different subs and this one is easily the best out of all of them.

That site has the old shopping cart!! Type in .1 as quanity. Have fun!!

noel · Post by **noel** » January 7, 2004, 10:28 pm

.001 is bettar!

Code: Select all

RFP3212 Rockford Fosgate Sub  109.99 0.01 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
All prices are in US Dollars Subtotal 0.01 
Tax 0.00 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
TOTAL 0.01

Draaxx · Post by **Draaxx** » January 8, 2004, 12:38 am

any links to order the Jensen JXP-720? the link from jensen.com doesnt work

Clatis · Post by **Clatis** » January 8, 2004, 12:46 am

Draaxx wrote:any links to order the Jensen JXP-720? the link from jensen.com doesnt work

http://www.google.com omgawdz ~ http://www.epinions.com/pr-Jensen_JXP72 ... _Amplifier *edit* heh this has more info http://www.caraudiomag.com/testreports/0210cae_jensen/

Ducru · Post by **Ducru** » January 8, 2004, 3:22 am

Zamtuk wrote:i think there is an unwritten rule that says that your system shouldn't cost more than your car

Thanks for not letting me be the one to say it, Zam

http://www.kbb.com

Lists the car (being judicious at worst) at $560 trade in value.

Blame Zamtuk for making me wonder=)

Ducru

emmer · Post by **emmer** » January 8, 2004, 4:36 am

"Tell me about the whistle...."

"The whistle goes WOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » January 8, 2004, 9:12 am

Damn, that site has some nice write ups! (http://www.caraudiomag.com)

Draaxx, for prices, just go with ebay or something. I figure you could garner one for less than a c-note fairly easy. Apparantly it is an out of date model for stores to sell, hence not that many have it. They were replaced by Jensen's new 1 channel amps, and I can offer no opinion on these.

Pah, what pioneers have you had experience with? Draaxx, don't limit yourself to just my suggestions...if it breaks, I would be tempted to feel bad

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » January 8, 2004, 12:03 pm

Ducru wrote:
Zamtuk wrote:i think there is an unwritten rule that says that your system shouldn't cost more than your car
Thanks for not letting me be the one to say it, Zam

http://www.kbb.com

Lists the car (being judicious at worst) at $560 trade in value.

Blame Zamtuk for making me wonder=)

Ducru

KBB has inflated prices too. Edmunds says $532!!

Talelor · Post by **Talelor** » January 8, 2004, 1:37 pm

Personally, In my 02' Mustang GT I run Three(3) JL 10's running on a 760w Pioneer amp. Even lights that car up

Clatis · Post by **Clatis** » January 8, 2004, 7:41 pm

I would personally not go with Jensen just because my friend had one of their suposidly higher end amps in his car, and his warrenty has come in handy i think three times now just because it's messed up or just stopped.

JL audio, Rockford-Fosgate, Pioneer, are all very good car audio companies.

Also, don't be suckered into those 2,000w subs that cost like $120 and sound great in the store. One, their hooked up to a 2000w amp that costs a fuckton, and two, they sound totally different in your car and perform/sound no where near as the quality of even a 400w sub of the same price.

Tale man, do your lights dim when the bass hits? Mine do =( I need to get one of those things you connect between the battery and your sub to prevent that or get a seperate battery or something, who knows.

Denadeb · Post by **Denadeb** » January 8, 2004, 10:41 pm

You need a capacitor. Normally 1 farad for every 500 amps is what you want to stick too. I really recomend the Power Acoustic amps they are well built and have very good performance for a resonable price.

Draaxx · Post by **Draaxx** » January 8, 2004, 11:52 pm

If anything breaks its gonna be my 500 dollar car Kluden.... im just getting this super-i-can-fix/make-anything mexican friend of mine to make me a box and install it for free. I think i might end up getting the 600 watt rockford fosgate amp they have on sale at the audio electronics place near by.

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » January 9, 2004, 12:16 pm

Can't go wrong with Rockford Fosgate. Good products.

Spang · Post by **Spang** » January 9, 2004, 12:41 pm

i'm not quite in the market for car speakers or a car stereo, but if i was i would referance this thread...i learned a lot, thanks.

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » January 9, 2004, 12:53 pm

A good site for products (you probably haven't heard of all of them) with average prices. The best part about this site is the staff. Call them with any question you can think of about home or car audio, and these freaks will know the answer off the top of their head. Sick ass customer relations department!

http://www.partsexpress.com