Dark Ember

Looking to upgrade the sound system of the bird and had a few questions. Before I ask though, I want to say the following:

I am not someone who can hear a $5k system vs a stock late model cars system and hear any noticable difference. In fact just about every car produced today has, IMO, a fantastic sound system and am not asking for anything more than that. Being that I dont have ears trained to hear good sound, I figure most any speaker on the shelf will make me happy. That said, here is what I have planned.

I was thinking that the tweeters up front would be decent highs and mids, wherease the rear 8" would be my lows. Thoughts? Suggestions?

New Deck:

http://www.buy.com/prod/pioneer-deh-...215636708.html

New Dash Speakers:

http://www.buy.com/prod/pioneer-ts-a...203922233.html

New Sail Panel Speakers: Cant decide which 8" to go with, and I know I will have to do some modifications to get them to fit. Leaning towards the pioneer since its a brand I trust and its a thinner woofer.

http://www.buy.com/prod/crunch-8-ohm...217088612.html

OR these:

http://www.buy.com/prod/pioneer-ts-s...203307894.html


Final question: Can I run these 4 speakers and not need an aftermarket amplifier? I would like to just unplug and replace the dash and sail speakers, utilizing factory wiring.

luvofjah

iTrader: (2)

I think your choices are ok... deck has plenty of features....

You don't "need" an aftermarket amp, but it will allow the system to play louder and clearer... the deck only has 1 set of RCA outs, which means if you ran an amp to all 4 speakers, you could not adjust balance front to back from the deck... you could from the amp, by setting the gains, but again, still not from the deck...

I have a pioneer deck (not top of the line) and it's great... I have their top of the line 6.75 speakers and they are like candy to my ears

If you do decide to get an amp, go 4 channel, cuz then then if you go 2 channel, the rears maybe too loud (being they're a foot from your ears and the fronts are 3 or 4...

Raf

camaro87jb

iTrader: (2)

use an amp if you want any bass at all. IMO I put nice alpine 6 x 9's in sail panels, Polk 4 1/2 's in kick panels, CDA 117 alpine deck (nice deck BTW would highly recomend) and used the alpine " power pack" booster which gives me 45 watts RMS x 4 and still had almost no bass before they distorted. Would run you out with highs but..... I ended up having to install a Bazooka powered bass tube to get bass.... which woked well at the end of the day but...

Pug89

looks pretty good most new systems have amped speakers and sub. I would reccomend infinity speakers all the way around their reference series is a good price and great sound quality that is compariable to the stock systems you would find in a new chrysler or jeep. One ten inch sub in the rear would be good. nice clear pretty loud sound that sub you picked is pretty good. If you want to amp your speakers and sub you would have to go with a different headunit that has front rear and sub pre outs. Like a pioneer deho 7800 you can them used on ebay they are great i have had mine for 4 years now and never a problem. you can make so many adjustments with this one and there are many different things you can add to it. Not sure if you have steering wheel controls for the radio if you do make sure what ever deck you get has a wired remote hookup then you can get a part to make the controls still work. If you go with amping the speakers and everything then get a 5 or 6 channel amp it will be able to power everything in one package. more expensive to buy but cheaper and cleaner look than two seperate amps. if you just want to amp your sub a small kicker rockford or mtx mono block amp will power that sub nicely. but you are definitly on the right track you can pm me if you have any questions or need places to find stuff.

87350IROC

iTrader: (2)

I would not use a sub in the rear sail panel. A sub will sound really turdy if given a full range signal. Instead get yourself a full range 8" like in the first link.

Zepher

iTrader: (1)

that Deck only has 22watts continuous and only 2.2V outputs.

Pug89

Yes you can and it will sound good I would run that pioneer and infinity in the front and 6x9 or 5x7 in the rear panel then add a sub later if you want you can do that with that headunit will sound good and be the easiest and quickest way to get some sound in it

BluFBdy

iTrader: (1)

why would you want to split your highs and lows front to rear? Id look into a set of infinity speakers, theres a 6x9 set that ive used plenty of times that can give you a full range of sound and they also have a smaller set (the size is escaping me right now) that have a tweeter and crossover setup so you can run the speakers itself for your bass (acts as a woofer) and the tweeter would fill the rest of the range, being your mid to high, i would HIGHLY suggest an amp with what ever option you choose. You will get more clarity and a better sound range out of any speaker set you use, and its 3 wires plus speaker wiring which technically you could get away with splicing into the factory wiring since youre not looking for an amazing system, just one comparable to newer systems. Personally id run new speaker wires, its really easy and well worth it.

Pretty much id look for an amp setup, you said youre looking for something like a newer system, which most all cars on the road today come with a factory amp installed giving it such good sound, now installing an aftermarket amp will surpass that, but thats youre next step, as a deck and speakers can only go so far and from my experience will not come close to a newer system (prime example i spent about 400 on my stuff a few years ago and my brothers 02 lancer had MUCH better sound) so its either deal with what you can get, or toss an amp in there and be a tad better, it will also give you more control over your system since the amp and deck can both be used for tuning

as for your deck choice....id look for something else. I hate to say it i love pioneer but their stuff isnt as good as it used to be, everyone else is advancing and theyre just coming out with the same stuff (but wait! its red now!) Kenwood is like my least favorite brand BUT thats from my work side theyre a PITA for me, however they do have a good product for reasonable prices and if you can find an alpine deck within your budget id jump on it but thats just my opinion, pioneers big selling point for most of our customers is the aux and usb slots, however my 5 year old pioneer deck has the aux, every manufacturer has those options and they also have better HU's in my opinion, like i said pioneer has been back pedaling the past few years while everyone else moves on, if you really like the aux and usb, look for a deck with those and one with 4 preouts instead of just 2, it will be a lot better for you down the road or if you run that amp

Dark Ember

Thanks for the info. I just need a deck that can play a cd with a few hundred mps's burned on it. I am going to find a deck that can also accept an amp, in the event it turns out not to be good enough. This way bI can go back later and install an amp. I had forgotten that most of todays cars have amps from the factory, but thats a good thing to remember. Its tough to compete with amped systems if I dont have one.

Can that deck I selected actually play mp3's right off the cd?
I couldnt care less about the usb out, I dont even have an IPOD. I will look at some alpine products as well. I am not partial to any brand in partictular at this point.