- Sun Aug 08, 2010 5:36 pm
#207996
Ouch people are recommending Jensen and Dual and then saying "don't get the cheap crap". Jensen, Dual, Insignia... that's the cheap crap.
I've been into car audio for a long time and I even worked in car audio for several years. At first I was an audiophile but then I came down to reality and accepted that IT'S A CAR, it's never going to have home theater sound. It SHOULDN'T anyway, because IT'S A CAR. Especially in our case where it's an 18 year old economical car with a noisy cabin.
On the other hand, buying the cheap crap is just throwing your money away.
The sound quality difference between the cheap crap and the decent crap is huge. However, the sound quality difference between the decent crap and the super expensive equipment (given the compromises inherent in the car) is very small. You can't tell a difference when the engine is running and the car is moving.
So this is what I recommend. Get a Pioneer, Alpine, Eclipse, or Panasonic deck. Look to spend about $300. Each of these brands has $100 offerings but you don't want those. They're crap. Just get a deck with a nice display and with a built-in connection for your mp3 player. Don't bother with HD radio or Satellite.
Next, get some Infinity speakers. There are other great speakers but at this point in time, if you want some high sensitivity speakers (don't require amplification) that sound great, Infinity is on top. Don't go oversized. If you knew how to cleanly install tweeters or you were willing to pay someone who does, then I would recommend components. Or if you had a DC then I would definitely recommend components. But to avoid the headache just get their 2 ways. Dynamat speaker kits are worth the money. The quality of the install has a huge impact on the sound quality.
Remove your rear speakers. They waste power and they degrade sound quality. You have sound waves arriving at your ears at different times which cancels out frequencies and causes weird interactions.
At some point you're going to want some real bass so I recommend getting a ported box. Get a decent box and not some thin, flimsy swap meet box. No dual bandpass crap or anything with plexi. Get some fiberglass resin and coat all the inside edges of the box to seal it up tight forcing all air through the port. Then get a decent sub like Alpine, Kenwood or Infinity. The volume of air and the port size of the box need to match the specs of the sub. Get a decent amp like Alpine or Kenwood. The amp will depend on the RMS of your sub, the number of voice coils and the ohm rating of how you will wire it up. It's best to pay an installer that knows these things.
10inch sub sounds better for fast bass like punk or hardcore, while a 12 pushes more air and at a lower frequency like the artificial bass in Hip Hop.
My favorite sub is a small, square Kicker. They're a bit pricey but they hit hard and sound great for all kinds of music. Their amps are incredible as well.
Avoid Pioneer speakers, Sony anything, Kenwood decks.
Buy.com is pretty cheap but for things you're going to have installed, you should buy it from the installation shop.
