Car Audio Anyone?

[6]

Since I was a kid I have loved me some loud cars, loud exhaust and a stereo loud enough to drown it out.

I'm no audiophile by any means, but I love my music. Used to be that really, more bass more better. These days I need a little more balance.

The truck had an explode 12 with a amp I bought on market place that I new NOTHING about (ice brand maybe? It was very large and actually did really well) $59 Pioneers from Walmart in the doors and a 4 channel Walmart amp on them (louder than the deck amp, yes, better.... Um) .

Dog was under a seat, idk wtf, everything blew up... It happens.

I still have the speakers in the doors, wired direct now. I just bought a Skar 2000 sub amp, that will be here soon so I can put the sub back in. In the vids I saw it Dyno'ed at 500 watt at 4 ohm which is where I'll run it. So it's fine for that sub. If I throw a second on and run @ 2 ohm it will do 800.. so future proof as well.

I'm trying to decide if I put a better amp on the same door speakers, replace the door speakers and run them off the deck, or of I'm feeling fancy (probably not), maybe replace them and put an amp on new ones if I find something affordable.

This is BUDGET stuff here. Even 16 year old me would call this a starter setup at best, but hey. If I can crank it up on the highway and hear only music, no truck/wind/road noise, I'm cool (as long as I have some sub control because it makes my folk punk sound like polka with the sub turned up)

Any of you guys into car audio? Any recommendations on budget interior speaker/amp setups? Anything you've used and liked... or hated..

But more so, please feel free to tell me about the fantastic stuff you have/had in your cars so I can live vicariously.

[ParcNHawk]

Just hook up a random orbital palm sander to your license plate bracket and save yourself a bunch of money.

And your hearing.

Headrest speakers for the mids and highs with the highs clipped to save that hearing and put a subwoofer under your seat so you can "feel" it more than hear it and you'll be happy.

[6]

Oh yeah...

Android head units.... They look awesome. And cheap. Not a Pioneer that has android auto, like the ones that run Android os.

All the head unit is for me is a conduit from my phone to speakers... everything I listen to comes from an app. If I can just out that on the dash, skip the middle man, sign me up.

Anyone have one, tried one, want one?

[6]

Just hook up a random orbital palm sander to your license plate bracket and save yourself a bunch of money.

And your hearing.

Headrest speakers for the mids and highs with the highs clipped to save that hearing and put a subwoofer under your seat so you can "feel" it more than hear it and you'll be happy.

Haha. No. Thanks tho.

If my car is rights it shouldn't rattle.. that said, I wouldn't know cause I don't won't hear it inside.

[wildwhl]

Car Audio? Don't get me started, please...right now I have a pair of Toro MR2 stashed to drive a winter project in the C7/A6...stealth sub enclosure and I'll be using 4x small subs (6.75" most likely)...and, well, I need to finish some other stuff first.

WW/R

[honda coaster]

I was semi hard into it back in days and still have it for back burner future projects... Had truck with boston pro 2--10 inch box hitting, while 5.25 boston pro components...all by ads 4 channel, subs by carver amp... head was sony.
before that was rockford fosgate truck box that hits hard...8inch with horns...driven by proton amps....all stolen.
still have focal components and 12inch image dynamics subs....ready for future projects.. along with fuse box, 1-4 gauge wirings...dynamats and what not.....but all that takes time and planning..

I would get a amp dedicated to front speakers only... then another one only for the subs... head units amps suck for speakers.
back is days,,, amps were good...and so was the speakers....nowadays I hear most are crap china stuff...That's why there is a market for used older USA made amps...... Although I am very impressed by these small digital amps and the digital amps in the head units put out some pounding....maybe they have gotten better now..

[edubGT]

Yo 6, im into car audio stuff since i was 16 like you Car audio has sure come a long way since I was 16 (42 now)! Anyways, depending on your budget, you can get very reliable components cheap now a days. I usually try not to skimp on amps and wiring, but I also do not spent a ton of money on them also. Right now I have my suv running a Pioneer head unit (cheap double din dvd player no navi) to an Alpine 5-ch class D amp 4x50 + 1x250. This amp is like having 2 separate amps in 1. It is running 2 6x9's, 2 6.5's, and 1 12" svc kenwood sub in a ported box. Most of this setup I bought off my brother who had it in his 4runner for years. I had a bunch of car stereo stuff sitting around my mom's house and my house, so I took what I had and put it in my commuter. I basically ran all the door speakers (4 old 6.5" kickers) off a Kenwood deck that was already in my car. I bought a kenwood 1 channel sub amp from best buy for 99 bucks on black friday to run a shallow 10" sealed sub (Pioneer) that I found on ebay for also 99 bucks. Sounds great for me. Sometimes too much bass, but thats all adjustable anyway. Class D amps are the sh*t. More compact and wayy less heat generated that class A amps. Good to see more car stereo heads around!

[rpcraft]

I've been impressed with the android head units from Atoto. They look like they can do it all and have price points for the features you may or may not want accordingly but I am still on the fence just because I don't want to have buyers remorse. I want something that has the freedom of android but can also still do the carplay or android auto as well. I was looking at the Atoto A6 and it seems like it has it all so might spring for the @ 200 unit after the first of the year. I just like the easy use of the maps with the carplay stuff but I use Waze primarily so long as I can use my phone as the hotspot and keep that automated for that and various music apps I'm not so sure why I was so hung up on Carplay. I guess it's just the habit of being in rental cars and knowing that is the option that works best with the iphones. I think the other thing I've been spazzing out about was wanting an actual volume knob instead of buttons but I think on most of them now days have a pause button on whatever app is playing and they are pretty easy to program with your steering wheel controls as well so I figure I'll keep the rest of the system simple as possible. Planning on a single sub, probably a shallow mount 10 inch in a small sealed box from Rockford or JL, and then already have 6 1/2 components to go in the doors. Going with mids only in the rear doors just for a little backfill and then up front my truck has the tweeters in the dash with the mid in the lower door so I'll just copy that and wire them direct off the RF crossover and pull the signal through a 5 channel amp, just to help keep the install small and hidden. I'm not looking to rattle parts off the truck, just a good clean full range of sound that I can turn up louder than the current system without distortion.

[6]

Car Audio? Don't get me started, please...right now I have a pair of Toro MR2 stashed to drive a winter project in the C7/A6...stealth sub enclosure and I'll be using 4x small subs (6.75" most likely)...and, well, I need to finish some other stuff first.

WW/R

Man. You always need to finish some other stuff first. That's why we never get do do the things we want to do haha. Some times it doesn't hurt to carve out some fun time.

4 small subs for the speed, or 4 small subs for the space?

Space can be hard. no one makes a decent sub box to mount a 12" (or two) in my truck. That's un-fun. Someone makes a nice box for a pair of tens.. which I do not have. More smaller seems more easier to mount speakers.

Thought about making one, a woodworker I am not.

C7 Vette??

[wildwhl]

Man. You always need to finish some other stuff first. That's why we never get do do the things we want to do haha. Some times it doesn't hurt to carve out some fun time.

4 small subs for the speed, or 4 small subs for the space?

Space can be hard. no one makes a decent sub box to mount a 12" (or two) in my truck. That's un-fun. Someone makes a nice box for a pair of tens.. which I do not have. More smaller seems more easier to mount speakers.

Thought about making one, a woodworker I am not.

C7 Vette??

6 -

I am fortunate that nearly all the things I do I find fun these days, so I'm in no real rush to finish any of it. The goal is to design a box that fits around the spare tire, chop it up on the CNC router table, glue/glass/sand etc. and maybe make more than one if there is interest. C7 A6 (Audi). It's my fun little project with 3.0T engine - just flashed ECU and TCU with stage 1 tunes. Stage 2 dual pulley will go on at some point over the winter.

I can fit larger subs - but I've always preferred the speed and accuracy of smaller drivers (6.5" and 8" drivers with decent X-max can still dig deep and produce enough SPL for me). One of my previous sub projects house a single 8" driver, stealth style (hidden away). Everyone would swear their were a pair of 12's in the trunk and I'd pup the truck and show them - NOTHING! Ha!

WW/R

[6]

I was semi hard into it back in days and still have it for back burner future projects... Had truck with boston pro 2--10 inch box hitting, while 5.25 boston pro components...all by ads 4 channel, subs by carver amp... head was sony.
before that was rockford fosgate truck box that hits hard...8inch with horns...driven by proton amps....all stolen.
still have focal components and 12inch image dynamics subs....ready for future projects.. along with fuse box, 1-4 gauge wirings...dynamats and what not.....but all that takes time and planning..

8" behind or under seat truck box? Finding space is hard. How did that sound?

Luckily when my amps blew up the wiring was fine, and I left it in. So it takes very little time and planning to do this again. It's already wired in 4 gauge, with a fuse and cap, everything is back there under the seat. I just need to buy the amps and plug in. With the exception of the door speakers, the wires still run from the amp locations to them, but they are currently plugged into the head unit.

I would get a amp dedicated to front speakers only... then another one only for the subs... head units amps suck for speakers.
back is days,,, amps were good...and so was the speakers....nowadays I hear most are crap china stuff...That's why there is a market for used older USA made amps...... Although I am very impressed by these small digital amps and the digital amps in the head units put out some pounding....maybe they have gotten better now..

That's the plan. I have a dedicated sub amp in the mail. I need to choose/buy an amp for the interiors. Probably a 4 channel that can bridge to 2 to give me some options...


I have had none of the china amps yet (one in the mail). But like anything else, some review great, some not as great, some terrible. And there are always the "my brother has this in his mustang and that shit bangs man" reviews to sort through.

It's hard trying to sort through all the data.

Luckily studio level sound quality and competition level volume is not what I'm reaching for. So good enough is good enough. As long as it's loud enough to drown out everything else, and clear enough to not distort to all hell while doing it... Good by me..

[6]

Yo 6, im into car audio stuff since i was 16 like you Car audio has sure come a long way since I was 16 (42 now)! Anyways, depending on your budget, you can get very reliable components cheap now a days. I usually try not to skimp on amps and wiring, but I also do not spent a ton of money on them also. Right now I have my suv running a Pioneer head unit (cheap double din dvd player no navi) to an Alpine 5-ch class D amp 4x50 + 1x250. This amp is like having 2 separate amps in 1. It is running 2 6x9's, 2 6.5's, and 1 12" svc kenwood sub in a ported box. Most of this setup I bought off my brother who had it in his 4runner for years. I had a bunch of car stereo stuff sitting around my mom's house and my house, so I took what I had and put it in my commuter. I basically ran all the door speakers (4 old 6.5" kickers) off a Kenwood deck that was already in my car. I bought a kenwood 1 channel sub amp from best buy for 99 bucks on black friday to run a shallow 10" sealed sub (Pioneer) that I found on ebay for also 99 bucks. Sounds great for me. Sometimes too much bass, but thats all adjustable anyway. Class D amps are the sh*t. More compact and wayy less heat generated that class A amps. Good to see more car stereo heads around!

Funny. I thought long and hard about a 5 ch amp. Was looking at similar spec amps too. My big decider was expandability in the future. With the amp I have coming it can run at 1 ohm. I'll be running at 4 to start, 500w to one sub, but if I get a second sub and wire down to 2 ohm, I can get 800w, so if for some reason I find I want more, expansion is an opton. But the all in one simplicity (and over all cost rs 2 amps) of a decent 5 ch was very appealing.

Now trying to find a 4 channel at like 75w RMS of decent quality has me rethinking that, but too late.

[6]

6 -

I am fortunate that nearly all the things I do I find fun these days, so I'm in no real rush to finish any of it. The goal is to design a box that fits around the spare tire, chop it up on the CNC router table, glue/glass/sand etc. and maybe make more than one if there is interest. C7 A6 (Audi). It's my fun little project with 3.0T engine - just flashed ECU and TCU with stage 1 tunes. Stage 2 dual pulley will go on at some point over the winter.

I can fit larger subs - but I've always preferred the speed and accuracy of smaller drivers (6.5" and 8" drivers with decent X-max can still dig deep and produce enough SPL for me). One of my previous sub projects house a single 8" driver, stealth style (hidden away). Everyone would swear their were a pair of 12's in the trunk and I'd pup the truck and show them - NOTHING! Ha!

WW/R

I believe it! There was a car radio shop on route 1 on the way into Boston.. well there were a bunch of them. But this guy was the only one willing to b******* with 17 year olds. We thought he was the car audio god. He would far, far, far, prefer more smaller subs than less larger ones. Had me and Dan sold forever that the move was mount as many 8's as you could and that was the best way to get the best system.

That said, a good 8' doesn't cost all that much less than a good 10 or 12, so when it came down to it, way out of our budget and skill levels to ever do it. Plus's we used mostly best buy and Sears audio stuff. Jensen at first graduate to mtx or Rockford Fosgate. None of the real deal shit they sold at those shops on rt1.
We where there one day when he was testing a system he installed in a "show van" for a dude. Plopped a large chunk of Bondo right out the side of the van when they started hitting... (Van must have been from Lowell)

Gotta be careful with all that bass.

[wildwhl]

I believe it! There was a car radio shop on route 1 on the way into Boston.. well there were a bunch of them. But this guy was the only one willing to b******* with 17 year olds. We thought he was the car audio god. He would far, far, far, prefer more smaller subs than less larger ones. Had me and Dan sold forever that the move was mount as many 8's as you could and that was the best way to get the best system.

That said, a good 8' doesn't cost all that much less than a good 10 or 12, so when it came down to it, way out of our budget and skill levels to ever do it. Plus's we used mostly best buy and Sears audio stuff. Jensen at first graduate to mtx or Rockford Fosgate. None of the real deal shit they sold at those shops on rt1.
We where there one day when he was testing a system he installed in a "show van" for a dude. Plopped a large chunk of Bondo right out the side of the van when they started hitting...

Gotta be careful with all that bass.

When it comes to subs - It's all about the box (there's a dual meaning in there if you squint and think hard enough)

[6]

6 -

I am fortunate that nearly all the things I do I find fun these days,

Some day... I'll get there some day. Right now tho, I need to go figure out why the girls have the rtv900 burried in the shit pit, and figure out what "the front locked up" means.