BLACK ICE

I am looking to get the kind of sound in my camaro that makes me wana sit in the car instead of the house but I have a limited budget what can I do?

Here is what I have right now......

Sony Explod head unit (i know it sucks but thats why im asking)

Power Acoustic PEQ-70 equlizer

Pioneer TS-P462 4x6 2 way plate dash speakers

stock Bose speakers in stock kick panels from 89 IROC-Z

Pioneer 6x9 sail panel speakers

Pioneer 760 watt amp

Infinity 1242 reference series 12" subs

and a crappy plate for my subs

I am not attached to any of this stuff and do not need to use any of it if it will not contribute to a good sound.

Gummie

Bolded for easy skimming

When outlining an open ended project like this it's always good to state what kind of budget you have in mind. By utilizing some of the equipment you already have you could have a pretty decent system for well under $500.

Also, how much fabrication are you looking to do for this? Bare minimum is a decent sub box. Next step would be a sub box and kick panels. You can either make the kicks yourself (not that hard) or you can pay someone else to make them for you. Note that the later option cost me $240 all said and done.

Your first step before you buy anything should be this: choose a set of front speakers to use, either 4x6 or the bose kicks. Using both = bad for image and probably doesn’t sound that great either. It reminds me of my friend’s x that had all kinds of random old computer speakers wired to her minisystem in parallel with her normal speakers for a total of about 8 speakers on a two channel system. I would love to have found out what her final impendence was. Your next step should be building a real sub box, but that’s something you’re going to want to put off until you decide if you’re going to purchase new/additional subs.

Head unit
I’m going to suggest something that’s contrary to your post. Keep what you have for now. It will serve you well until it eventually brakes and at that point buy a new one. Assuming it already has a set of preouts (2 or 3 would be more preferable) it’s all you really need.

EQ
If I were you I would keep that EQ as it would be fun to play with. Defiantly not the most powerful/flexible thing out there but it would still provide me with amusement/gratification. If you do end up upgrading your HU, odds are that it will have a build in EQ that’s equal/superior to what you have now but the PEQ-70 will be a lot easier to adjust. Note that you can use it to tune the sound to your wants, not to make it “perfect” (like **** retentive I compete perfect).

Speakers
As I said before, your best bet is to build kicks and run components (separate round woofer and tweeter paired with a crossover). Components are infantly better than their coax counterparts as more money goes into developing them. Some higher end companies (MB Quart, JL, CDT, Rainbow, etc) only make component speakers. This eliminates the need for rear speakers and also allows you to put money into one good set of speakers instead of two ‘eh’ ones. If you’re looking at keeping stock speaker sizes run 4x6 plates (round woofer and a tweeter on a sheet of metal/plastic). Both Infinity and Polk make them off the top of my head and I’m sure others do too. Whatever you run up front will put out basically no bass and will rattle to all hell if you try to make it. Bass blockers here are your friends.

As for the rear, I would stick a pair of round drivers where the 6x9s went as dedicated midbass drivers if you’re going for stock locations. This will help fill out your sound without destroying the sound stage that much and will also provide much better output/sound than any 6x9 will.

No matter what you do don’t run dash speakers and kicks. It sounds pooie (great word). After you make your speaker upgrade either ditch your old bose kicks or ditch the 4x6s.

Subs
Even though they only produce a teeny portion of what we hear these are the things most obsessed over in most installs.

I had two 12” references in the back of my car a while ago. There’s defiantly better out there but those are not bad at all for what they cost you. There are two things you want to consider here: volume vs quality and number of drivers.

In terms of output it’s all about piston area. Piston area is the surface area of the cone times the distance the cone is capable of traveling. Simply put, whatever speaker (or combination there of) will move the most air will be the loudest.

Adding additional speakers of the same size/type will only give you a 3 dB gain in output per speaker. This means if you were to add a third 12” of the same model to what you have now you would only gain 3 dBs in output. At this point you have to consider buying one good sub vs two ‘eh’ subs (see a pattern ). The one good sub will probably cost less than the two ‘eh’ subs combined and will probably put out more sound. Of course, I’m bent on running two subs because I like the look of two personally.

You wouldn’t be that bad off running what you have now.

Amps
Two trains of thought here: get really **** or realize that speakers create plenty of distortion on their own so don’t worry about it that much. Don’t buy junk but at the same time most of us will be happy running ‘normal’ amps from ‘normal’ companies like Kicker, Rockford, Alpine, JBL, etc.

Post any and all questions/comments.

BLACK ICE

Wow! I expected to get told my stuff was complete junk and I would need to replace it all thank you for not doing that my budget is in the neiborhood of $350. I am under the impression that I can keep the following items for now.........

sony head unit

power acoustik eq

infinity subs

I am also under the impression I should get rid of .......

stock bose kicks

pioneer 6x9s

pioneer amp

Iam wondering if these items will be of any use to me......

pioneer plates TS-P462 for the dash

small pioneer amp GM-62 to power them

pioneer 6'' coaxials to replace 6x9s TS-G67OM (i know you said no coaxials but I got em layin around)

small set of tweeters (not sure of brand but they sound very good)

I am not against building my own boxes and kicks and plan to do so this summer however I will be running dash speakers and the plate untill then.

I also have a question about the PEQ-70 .....
does it need amps to power the speakers? I do not know how to hook it up! Can anybody give me some help with that?

Thank you very much for your help! As I said before I am new to all this so If I sound ignorant im not trying too!

Gummie

Keep the amp and the 6x9s for now. You need the amp to power your subs anyway.

No idea on the PEQ-70. PM NEEDAZ, he will probably be able to help you if he hasn't read this thread.

As for running coaxes in the sails because you already have them, go for it I guess. Just cross them over fairly low so they won't be playing any higher frequency sound (ie functioning as just a woofer).

My advice: save up some money. You don't want to do it now anyway so you have some time to do this. $350 isn't going to cut it if you're going to try to build kick panels and a sub box as you're going to have to buy materials, speakers for the kick panels, and preferably another amp to power the components. At least if you want to buy new equpiment. You could probably pull it off used.

$800 or so will build you a pretty nice system using some of what you already have.

NEEDAZ

Don’t have an owner’s manual for the EQ? If I remember right that EQ can take low and high level (RCA and speaker level) inputs, and only has low level outs.

My (and everyone’s is going to be different). Look at replacing the HU when you can, no rush but when you can. Level the EQ on the bench. Run the 4x6s until you can build you own kick panels and drop some comps in them. I would not give those 4x6s much power at all. Sell the Bose kicks, use that money for junk yards kicks to build from. What’s the model# on that “760 watt” Pioneer amp (note the quotations), it may not be bad for powering you 6x9 until you get kicks and comps up front, then put it on them. That amp probably puts out much less power, but it should be clean. Keep the subs and build a box, the right way. Get a better amp for them though.
In short I would, Start with a box amp now amp for the subs. Put the “760 watt” Pioneer amp on the 6x9s. Then, as time and $ permits, build some kicks and get comps for them, then put the Pioneer amp on them (watch the gain) and run the 6x9 off of the deck (cut some/most of the highs to them). As time and money permit, save for a better HU.