Marc 85Z28

iTrader: (3)

I'm looking to enhance my car's audio system. I've currently got a 2-3 year old Pioneer head unit, don't know exact model number off hand but it is 45x4, CD player... nothing too fancy. That helped a good bit over stock, but the speakers were definately holding me back. So about 6 months ago I purchased 2 6x9 and 2 4x6 Infiniti Kappa speakers for $200 (Infiniti had a buy one pair get second half off deal). I was told by the salesman these were excellent speakers, and were a steal at the price. They cleaned up the sound a lot, but the volume is still lacking. I want my system to be a little louder, WITHOUT distortion. I think I'm going to need an amp. With my head unit and speakers, what amp would you recommend? Any particular units? I'm not looking to spend a whole lot. Thanks.

StevenK

iTrader: (1)

get a 4 channel amp, something around 75x4, make sure it has a low signal to noise ratio and your good. We could all argue all day about who makes the best amp, but I suggest you check out some of the audio places and listen to them to find what suites your music style best. Don't forget to bring your favorite cd with you to test the sound.

blaze1

Dosent all he need is a good HU???

curtis84ta

Head units don't make to much of a difference, ALthough my system is a lil better than my bros, He has 2*infinity 6*9's and 2 4'' plus 2 10'' subs. He was running it off stock head unit. bout a week ago he went out and bough a cheap jensen deck 97 bucks and it plays mp3... you can't go wrong. 180 watts nothing to special, and damn his sound quality shot right up there with mine. The main diff was the remote that he was using was off stock deck which had a filter on it. But now with rca's sent back his compares with my system to a point. he hits a lil harder than i do but my sound quality is much better. So the head unit really doesn't matter what type you get prefferable something 180-220watts, just so you have something to power mids tweeters. if your looking to ad subs, or more mids get a 4 channel amp, Personally i like the 4244 MTX amp, i power 2-10'' subs and 2-six and a half inch mids and it sounds great. but thats my personal opinion, if you looking for More power than just 400 watts look at the 8000 series of amp from MTX.

lykan

You know I got advice, it's like all others heh take it for what it is worth.

If you buy a cheap deck, your not going to like how it sounds. Pioneer is an all around good stereo at a decent price.

If you do any cd burning or mp3 listening on your computer, get a MP3 player for sure.

PLEASE keep this in mind. A cheap deck will skip, it might not after a month, or 6 months, but that's about the limit. They loose their alighnment, and they skip like mad.

If you don't mind paying for a really good deck, for what you listen too, without a subwoofer, I would definetaly recomend Alpine, I dont think too many can dispute that Alpine is one of the best out there.

If your buying local, you'll be hard pressed to find a decent Alpine that's affordable. If you're buyign on Ebay, LOOKOUT! you can find Alpines for the vost of a JVC online, from people with good feedback..Also, the pirce is near half of what you pay retail in a shop

I was reading about this one today, it plays MP3's does just about everything, and has a kick butt internal amp for the type of speakers you're running, so this way, you can spend a little more and get an awesome deck, without having to buy an amp. I threw some links in for you.

Did I mention you can go online, set in the distance you speakers are apart, customize and EQ talored for your car, burn it to disk and upload it to your deck!..wow heh.

Affordable Alpine (decent features) CDA-9807

A even better Alpine (better amp more feautures) Alpine CDA-9813

And one of the best they make ) ALPINE CDA-9815


And last, to where you can read about what features they haveCrutchfield link

Good Luck!

blaze1

Dang that was a good post i think im gonna get one of those alpines instead.

camarodude91

Buy the Alpine 9813. It Fing rocks. I love mine best $314.36 i ever spent. Get Infinity speakers to thats my next purchase.

blackgold84

iTrader: (1)

as much as a new deck would help, if your current one works fine (no skip no distortion) go and get a 4 channel amp, those kappas need more than just a deck to sound great, alpine makes an amp for you, eclipse has one thats even beter 50 watts per channel is plenty but more wont hurt itll just sound better 75 x4 would rock hard!

junkyarddog

I agree that your current HU is probably good enough. I've seen many systems wich start out with a HU and sound great, it sounds like it's got power and it will hold you over for awhile. Some Alpines, Clarions, Pioneers have plenty of power from the deck. I've been impressed with these stereos, but I would always run a seperate amp as long as I could afford it.

buying another deck just to get a mild gain in power makes no sense! For roughly the same amount you can spend on a nice HU, you can get an Alpine V12 75x4 rms amp, they have some other high end ones too. JBL makes some nice solid amps, I like the Alpines myself. An amp is likely to straiten out most sound quality issues as long as the HU is decent and you use the RCA outputs.

There is no HU in existence that can come close to 75 watts rms per channel. it will never happen with a 12v system! an amp takes the stress of the HU, allowing it to run cooler, possibly extending it's life. An amp can filter the distortion causing lows from your speakers. Bass is cool, but without a sub you shouldn't expect to rock to anything less than 80-100Hz. setting the High Pass crossover actually improves the bass response of the smaller speakers. it's best to tune it by ear yourself, I wouldn't expect an installer to take much time with that part. Setting the gain is critical too, because you can prevent the peakers from ever being clipped and have full use of the volume dial....or you can have a system where your volume never gets turned louder than 1 or 2......

since your deck is 2-3 years old, it may be on it's way out soon or it may last the rest of your life. Get your money's worth from it so if you do have to replace it someday, you can at least hook it up to an amp instead of the speakers.

be sure it's all wired properly with good wiring and it will sound better than you imagined it could.