Car sounds

so Im thinking of putting some sounds in the car.

Already have the mp3 headdeck. Not really after a sub, just some crisp, clear speakers with enough bass to please.

My headdeck is 50w x 4. If I got some components for the front and some 6"s for the back passenger doors, would an amp be neccessary?

I no it says 4x50w but actual output is probably nowhere near that....
Do yourself a favour and invest in some high quality components which can handle moderate amounts of power and a small 4-channel amp.
Then ul hav more than enough power, and a clear music even when theyr cranked up

Any recommendations for componets and 6"s?

I hear Clarion are good.

Boston acoustics, MB Quartz, Infinity (kappa series), Alpine DDDrive series are all awesome ranges that will give you very good sound. And yeah a small high qaulity 4 channel amp will do wonders for your sound.

I'm not to much of a fan of the lower / mid range speakers as they have all been designed to get loudness with out the qaulity. but then again i'm pretty anal about my sound

Or Alpine Type X speakers but be prepared to fork out the huge dollars for any of these brands mentioned.

Yes you need an amp, running speakers directly off a head unit is cruel and injust and not good for your speakers especially if you want sound quality and remember SOUND DEADENING IS YOUR FRIEND, doesn't matter what brand you buy if you don't sound-deaden your car it will sound like ass!

wtf is sound deadening

I agree, Infinity kappa series r delish!
(or those sexy type x's)

Sound deadening is a kind of sticky covered matting that you put inside cavaties in the body shell (eg doors, boot lining). It helps reduce rattles and that crappy low echoey boom u get from an empty door cavity. Much needed if ur anal about ur sound quality, or u hav subs and the rattle is louder than the bass

ahh right, as in half of those queen street boy racers with the rattle sounds.

While Im at it, any good recommendations for a 4 channel amp? Wouldnt really want to spend over $300..

I used to think sound deadening was only needed if your anal about sound quality, then I tried it....


Sound deadening in short is the most awesome thing you can do for your car audio install, it makes everything sound sooooo much better not to mention you get rid of rattles so you don't sound like a right ignorant twat who doesn't know how to install audio.

I got such a huge differnce out of the type R's in my doors from before and after I sound deadened them I can't believe I never did it before and sound deadening is a piece of piss to do. heat gun and a flat bit of metal like a butter knife is all you need.

Hey hey ...
Well i have a just a head unit 6inch in the front alpine type r and 6x9 jbl in the back ! very very good crisp loud basey sound.
One of the better quailty set ups ive heard for no sub and amp ..

ok now go and get an amp and sound deaden shit, I bet you a million dollars you wont believe the difference for f@#k all cash outlay

yeh a sub and a amp are next on the list ... they are on there way ...

But this guy asked for a basic set up with speakers with a fairly good output so i just said what i have

but then i just trust my mates who work for some of the best car audio shops in nz so my sounds are there jobs!

so they wacked everything in with no preparation?? sounds like most 'tradesman' when their not working on their own cars

lol hell no !!
my real good mate spent enough time on it so it it was a good install !!!
ands hes perfectionist

besides im happy with it so thats all that matters right

righto

definately the Boston Acoustics or Alpine

Sound deadening is definately the way to go if you care about sound clarity, helps to deaden ambient noise through the whole car, not just from the echo of the speakers but also from road noises, last time checked was about $15 a sheet? You can just stick it in yourself with an industrial hair dryer

If you are not a fan of bright (harsh) tweeters do not I repeat NOT buy Boston Acoustics!

I had some in my car for a while and no matter what i did they were too bright.

I highly recommend the Alpines mentioned DDDrive and X-Type. I loved the sound of these before going with Soundstream Exact Series 6.0 components. They don't make those ones anymore and I love them to bits. They are very similar to the Alpines just dance a little bit more with percussion sounds (hence my purchase of them).

My advice listen to lots of different speakers with lots of different types of music, move around the speakers as unless you do a lot of install work they will not be facing you and you want to make sure that they still carry the sound off axis.

And at the end of the day if you want good front speakers don't let people push a product on you, it is all subjective, and you should pick the ones that YOU like the sound of.

So it appears we may have some other car audio enthusiasts on biggie do we?

Ph and if you want bass from your front speakers sound deadening is a must, or you will be wasting so much of the sound through your doors.

The crazy thing is I can hear my standard back speakers through the doors on a very low power setting and highpassed, but can barely hear my front speakers with 150wrms available to them from outside thanks to sound deadening!

I run TSD160R pioneer 6.5's front & rear (Drive a Levin)

The quality is outstanding, helped along by a Hyundai 1f Capacitor (MASSIVE Improvements, definately worth throwing one of these in, $99 from parallelimported.co.nz)

I agree with Peroxides advice for sound deadening (after some dynamat myself!) & would go further to say, GET GOOD CABLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The number of people that get awesome sound gear, only to hook it up with crapastic wiring is seriously worrying!

http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.filereader?434c3ffb0ca85f44273fc0a87f9906fc+EN/catalogs/CTG0000447

I use the first on the list & the difference was HUGE when I first hooked it up! Not to mention, use decent shielded RCA's to & from your components; head deck, DVD, stacker & amps, or else it's all just a waste of time.

Werd, sound deadening made the Alpine Type R's in my doors sound like the bloody stupid price they cost me

Rockford Fosgate or Boston Acoustics are really good.
anything from USA is good quility.....fusion is good a huge seller here in oz at the moe.

I wouldn't put Fusion in the same category at all.... cheap and cheerful....

although from memory its not cheap and their gear is improving but it was absolute ass

If you wanna look at nice American stuff look no further than Phoenix Gold.

*goes weak at the knee's*

In my view fusion filled a hole in the market for reasonable cheap stuff, god knows it was better than sony/panasonic etc.

A few years ago for one of my first car stereo setups i bought a fusion amp and sub.

Sub still going strong in my dads car, amp still going strong in my brothers car, both 5 years on.

Can't complain at that for a few hundred bucks.

*not saying fusion would have any place in my system now, bar my capacitor (electronics so simple even they couldn't make it sound average)*

Couldn't agree more, except I rate Sony so far over Fusion it ain't funy, Sony has come a long way, and so they should with the amount of money floating around that company's R n D department. The majority of my system is Sony except my head unit is Clarion and my components are Alpine, I still run 2 Sony Amps, Sony 6"'s in the parcel tray and a Sony sub. Sony are highly recommended by Rapid Radio (guys who did my install as well as all High Octane's audio gear) They are the best in the business.

My capacitor is Fusion and so is the under car LED kit I've got, I wasn't bagging them, just saying...

Ah k, well I haven't looked into Sony gear for quite a few years so if they have come far good on them for sure.

And my personal pick as number one store in Auckland would have to be PK Audio, then Rapid, guys down rapid are very very good, PK however are amazing.

Never tried PK so fair enuff

I just walked into Rapid and Rob was ultra helpful, especially with pricing so I'll stick with them not that I'll ever probably buy that amount of audio again but ya never know

Yeah Rob down there is all good, helped me out with my amp and front speakers.

Really good price on the amp, but I think that was more under duress on the sale they had the other weekend claiming to beat any other advertised price.

Heheh, $400 off marked price and $200 off reduced sale price.

Sweet Rob's a businessman/salesman, he's good to deal with because he plays with margins all the time, pretty similar to what I do for a job sales wise so I see where he is comming from, Bugger all dudes especially mechanics and panel beaters wont go anywhere near dropping pricing to get the sale, Rob does it and his customers come back

this came a long way from a guy that wanted to install just a headunit with some speakers

Id also recommend if you are considering installing anything in the back you run power down one side of the car and all the sound cables down the other side. Also try and avoid the sound cables from twisting around eachother, just have them bunched together with some electrical tape about every 50cm or so, run them down the side under the seat mounts. Any wires running into the doors should be fed through the gromit and sheath, easiest is to grab a flexible coathanger and hook the wire onto it, sort of like needle and thread.
It's also a good idea if your even thinking of installing anything later, install the wiring now, from experience it saves so much effort of pulling everything in and out all the time. Any additional rca's & wires you can just cap off.
If your thinking of installing an amp, install a fuse, best place to mount it is under the bonnet, fusion sell some decent ones for a few dollars.

Do it once, do it right.

An easy way to run decent wires through a grommet on a car with lots of functions on the driver door.

Please, please tell me how.

This has got to be the single most frustrating task when installing car audio.

Additional wire, coat hangers, string, crc, tried everything multiple times, doesn't get any easier though

The easiest way I ever found was using an old wire coathanger, taping the cable to the end then pushing/pulling the fucker through.

Grrr, thought was much, still never is easy in a jam packed grommet is it!

Just as long as your battery is in the engine bay