Need Car Audio advice

thrasherfox

BUSA
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So I am finally getting around to working on (and finishing within the next few months) my project car for my waife (1970 Camaro).

One of the upgrades is the audio system.


I purchased a Kenwood KVT-514 ( Kenwood KVT-514 DVD receiver at Crutchfield.com )

I just really liked the unit.


I have not messed around with car audio systems in a long time. I know when i was yound, dumb and full of... err well you know. I had a radio, power amp, two 10 inch woofers and 4 speakers and four seperate tweaters with a crossover for each.



But I dont know what is currently a good setup. what kind of speakers, how many etc.



Can any of you car audio buffs hook me up with a basic shopping list.

I am thinking of

one power amp
two 6x9's in the rear window
two 6 1/2's (one in each door)
and one 10 or 15 inch sub woofer in the trunk,

does this sound like a good setup?

and what kind of power amp and speakers should I go with?
 
You will need two amps. One for the sub and the other for the other speakers. For a clean look just replace the speakers that you have in the car. Any after market speakers would work better than stock. As for me I have MB Quarts Speakers, Alpine head unit, two MTX Amps, MTX Subs and all the goodies that goes with it. If I had to do it over again it would be plain and simple.
 
What kind of music do you primarily listen to? Depending on what you listen to, there's a LOT of options for subs out there...and personally, id avoid 15"s anymore - you can get SO much sound out of the 10"s or 12"s today that those are hardly necessary, and the Q for those subs is outrageous.

Also, what kind of music you listen to, as well as how much trunk space you are willing to give up, and your budget, should help you determine what brand you want to go with, as well as what type of enclosure. For subs, anything anyone has mentioned so far brand wise is good stuff. Personally, for subs, I like the alpine, JL, image dynamics, MTX, and Kicker.

As for box design: you have three basic options:

Sealed: a box with no vent, and as air tight as possible. very good accuracy, not so "boomy" and going to be on the smaller end of size for your enclosure. Not going to go as low in the frequencies as a ported box.

Ported: has a hole in it which lets air move in and out of it freely. The good: they tend to be louder that their sealed cousins for the same amount of power applied. they also let the sub be louder on lower frequencies. The bad: not as accurate, and the box takes more space. the REALLY bad: for them to sound right, you need to know what you are doing for your box build. The port should be tuned, and by "tuned" I mean that for every given sub, there's a spec sheet which is going to tell you all the specs for a ported box. Vas, Q, port dimensions, port depth, etc.

Last option: bandpass box. KInda the best of both worlds because you are utilizing both the "push" AND "pull" cycles of the sub more fully. You essentially have a box where the sub is in the middle, with a sealed enclosure on one side of the sub, and a ported enclosure on the other. The good: they will friggin POUND for a given sub....you'll get more volume AND better accuracy out of this style enclosure than you will the other two.
The bed: the boxes are usually about twice the size of the other 2 enclosures. Also, designing them is not for amateurs. Hell, lots of guys who are pretty good professional installers dont like building them...

Hope thats helped you out a little bit. In case you're wondering, I used to be pretty heavy into the IASCA stuff (international auto sound challenge association) and dealt with this stuff all the time. FWIW, i almost ALWAYS went with standard sealed enclosures too. Easiest to design and build, and get you the "tightest" sound and IMO the best bang for your buck. Need to head to work now, but will post more later...PM me if you want more info.
 
I have run both sealed and ported boxes also. I even "tunneled" a ford f-150 and ran six 12" woofers through the bed. I was younger then and even had a seperate alternator installed just to run the stereo equipment. Oh the money I spent... I digress. Now I have a similar setup as you mentioned in a 2000 chevy ext. p/up. Mb quart components 6.5 front and 5.25 rear. Dvd fold out head unit with 2 amps and 2 10" woofers in a thunderform enclosure. It is crisp and clear but a far cry from my obsessive days. any way. I agree it is all in what type of music you mostly listen to. In my opinion the sealed enclosure has a cleaner sound as long as it has enough power to push it. Technically you don't need two amps. You can buy a 4 or 5 channel and get by, but most of the good ones are pricey and you could probably get two seperate ones just as cheap. The only thing would be power draw and room to install. A 15" woofer is not necessary. One 12" or 10" or even a pair of 10's or 12's will give you good sound if properly installed and will take up way less room especially if you decide to go with a ported box. as far as brands go, it will be just your preference but stay away from the cheap brands. They often sound alright initially but don't often hold up well. Sounds like ibified has some knowledge and can probably help on wich products to buy for what you are after. Good luck.
 
I install systems on the side as a hobby to make some side cash, tend to get alot of young guys that like to pound the crap out of there cars 1)what type of music do like? 2)how loud you going to play your system? or how loud do you what to get? 3) how much do you want to spend? 4)how much space do you want to give up?.....70 camaro you have alot of options, I have a bunch of car audio in my garage some nib some used or if you just need some info pm me whith your phone# and Ill call you and help you out as much as i can:thumbsup:
 
I have a clairion head unit with 2 mb quarts 10 in subs and a mb quart amp in my silverado! they sound great and they didnt kill my wallet
 
What I did in my 99 grand am is I went all Infinity minus the head unit. I have 2 10 inch Infinity subs (reference series) powered by an Infinity 1600A mono channel amp, 2 6x9 Infinity speakers in the rear deck and 2 Infinity 6 1/2's in the front doors all powered by an Infinity 475A amp. The sound that comes from these speakers is amazing and the best part about it is that the ENTIRE system was only about $1000. Kicker and Rockford Fosgate and all that are really good too but expensive. Infinity can give you a great sounding system for not a whole lot of green. JMO
 
A few people asked the same questions so instead of quoting I will add additional info here.


The car will be primarily my wifes. She is pretty much like me as in we listen to just about all kinds of music.

Mainly however Rock, Christian Rock. that type of music.

There is no desire to be able to crank it up so loud that we can break windows. But a nice clear, crisp sound with some good deep base where you can turn it up loud enough to feel it in your teeth on ocasion would be nice.

Would like to take up as little space as possible. would like to be able to pack for weekend getaways once in awhile.

I guess to summarize, I just want to put in an above average system but I am not looking to be able to blow windows out.
 
I would go w/ 2 8" subs ported . or 2 10" ported/seald or 1 12" sealed for sub stage. then a pair of good 2way or component 6x9's for the rear deck for some mid fill and a hint of highs, for the doors a good set of boston's 2way or components a bit pricey but wourth every penny. good active cross over w/bass control in case the bass amp does not have one ....every thing depends on your buget and dont forget to up grade your charging system low voltage kills your audio system and the cars performance
 
I currently running Eclipse DVD/NAV Double-Din Deck, Focal 165K2P 6 1/2 Components in front, 3 JL Audio 10W6v2 Subs sealed in trunk and JL Audio 300/2 and 1000/1 amps. For a simple set-up you can also look for a 5-Channel Amp so seperate channels for front, rear and Sub. Don't turn my system up like I use to but love having the extra power cause a lower volumes sounds so clean.
 
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i like tens and twelves much better than a 15in sub(sounds better to me
). also i would go with smaller speakers up front, i used to have mbquart 3 1/4 and they screamed, very clear. I would power all four highs with a small 4 channel amp. also spend the extra dough and get the best rca's, power wire for amps, and speaker wire. it's not hard just give her a nice clean set up

crutchfield is a rip off
 
Id definitely run a sealed box: go with a single 10 or single 12. You'll get PLENTY of sound that way, and wont wipe out your trunk space.
 
I currently running Eclipse DVD/NAV Double-Din Deck, Focal 165K2P 6 1/2 Components in front, 3 JL Audio 10W6v2 Subs sealed in trunk and JL Audio 300/2 and 1000/1 amps. For a simple set-up you can also look for a 5-Channel Amp so seperate channels for front, rear and Sub. Don't turn my system up like I use to but love having the extra power cause a lower volumes sounds so clean.

Nice setup :thumbsup:
 
I sell audio/video part time. I have one of the eclipse doubledin nav units in stock now. Some Polk Audio, PowerBass, MB Quart and MA Audio. I also like hiphonics,autotek(maxonics products) All are real good just depends on your budget.

I really like the power bass and hiphonics amplifiers(clean power) you can get a 5ch to run the whole system, or a 4ch for highs and 1ch mono for bass.

I have installed all of them in my vehicles and they all are of excellent quality. Cant go wrong with either one.
 
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I'm running two 12inch W6's with a 1800 watt fosgate that was converted to 2400 watts. I have a 2 farad cap and the speakers in the doors are factory infinties. I didn't need a second amp cause my jeep came with a factory amp that's under the seat in the back. I want to switch out my 12's for 15's but the 15inch W6's are like $700 a piece.
Just remember that you get what you pay for.
 
I'm running two 12inch W6's with a 1800 watt fosgate that was converted to 2400 watts. I have a 2 farad cap and the speakers in the doors are factory infinties. I didn't need a second amp cause my jeep came with a factory amp that's under the seat in the back. I want to switch out my 12's for 15's but the 15inch W6's are like $700 a piece.
Just remember that you get what you pay for.


I blow those guys away that spend the $$$ on that high $$$ stuff. In my 2003 Suburban I had 2-15" Crunch Groundpounder series subs on a hiphonics 1500watt mono amp in a custom ported enclosure. Powerbass 6 1/2" 3way,4"2way and tweeters in front doors and 6 1/2" 3way and tweeters in rear doors on a 4ch Hiphonics 440watt amp. 4 sattelite tweeters(one on each post) a Alpine deck and pre-amp with an Autozone deep cycle battery in rear. It hit so hard my rear ac controls broke and fell down, my 15" flip down monitor cracked and my rear tail lights broke the mounts and fell off. I pumped them for a year and sold them. Not bad for a $240 set of subs:laugh::whistle::bowdown:

Its not how much you pay for it sometimes, you just have to know what to get and how to make it perform:thumbsup:
 
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