Hi guys,
I want to get some better sound out of my car. So far, I've got a decent JVC cd deck in, and some old pioneer 6X9's. The 4X6's in the dash are stock. Well, I'm sick of not having good sound in my car. It's all top end, no bass. I'm not looking to shake the neighbor's house when I drive by, just have a good balance and sound. I don't want to spend millions of dollars in all that competition sub stuff and things like that. What kind of stuff should I get? I saw some people with some kick panels on here. How much does that help your overall sound? I was thinking of a self powered bass tube for the back. I guess I'm just audio electronics challenged. What do you all recommend?

 

dont get a bass tube. i have heard that they all basically sound bad. personally i would grab two alpine type r 12" and a jbl600.1 amp and go to town. not to expensive and it will definitely shake your car. mine shakes like a **** with two crappy sony amps.

you can get an alpine type r from these guysikesound for only 100 bucks. that is a good deal.

 

I wouldn't get any of the self powered subs on the market, such as the bass tubes and the Infinity basslink. Both sound pretty bad in my opinion. Best thing to do in my opinion is to grab some decent 6x9's and 4x6's and just some decent 12's one DVC 12 or two 4 ohm 12's. This will give you good sound with decent bass. I have run a set of Infinity ref. 12's in my car with 220 alpine watts and it sounds very clean and full with rock music and easily gets it done with rap if that's your thing. You can get the ref. 12's for like $120 or less on the street.

 

Forget the tube and all the powered subs on the market are over priced, id get a 10" audiobahn sub. One of these 10's sound better than alot of other companies 12's . That sub and a set of alpine 4x6's and 6x9's, a good amp and it should sound pretty good. Also, whatever sub you get pay attention to the air space the sub needs. The best sub in the world will sound like crap in the wrong box.

 

Especially if the box is a ported or bandpass design. Size is especially critical.

 

i have 2 10" pheonix gold subs powered off of a kenwood 250 watt amp. last years model. They hammer and it wasnt expensive at all. they were on sale but still.

 

if your looking to replace the mids/highs, id go with infinity's for the price/simplicity..as for subs..it really depends on what kind of music you listen to and how much youre willing to spend. I would check out elemental designs and stryke audio for good equipment at a great price...also parts express sells dayton woofers which are a great value too

 

If you want some decent 4x6's or 6x9's take a look at the Memphis line. They have several different types. I have the Power Refrence series from them right now (cheapest line) they have a lifetime warranty though! The 4x6's sound better than what my 4x6 alpines did.

My alpines eventually sun rotted and ate up the cones! I replaced with memphis and I'm very happy.

 

heres what you should do in order depending how far you can go now start at 1.

1- get 2 new 10's or 12's (just not really really cheap ones like 40bucks a peice is junk) $100+ each is good. Buy or build a box with enoght air volume,,buying them is better if you dont know what you are doing. The only boxes that work for our cars are the ones made specially for 82-92 fierbirds and camaros. Then buy a 300W to 700W amp,,,new or used (make sure it works before you buy used).

2- get a set of nice 4x6's or plate speakers or (if you have the money) get a set of components tweeters and crossovers and put them in a set of kick panels(they can be expenceive tho IMO.

3- get a smaller amp to run your 6x9s maybe 200w or so.

4- get a new set of good 6x9s bont skimp on these, or youll have the same thing you got now.

everyones right you do get what you pay for...but youll get good results with just #1 for now untill you want to move up.
Just stay away from walmart subs and pyrimid subs. I dont really like sony stuff but thats just me.

 

ok since we're putting more effort into this...heres my idea

good cd player- crap in= crap out, so start with a good solid bass, the HU is the most important factor of your system...to an extent

mids/highs- go with components if you want to do it right, you can get a good set of CDT's from www.thezeb.com

sub- depending on how much bass you want and what you have to power your sub...it really depends. www.edesignaudio.com just released there Kx series of woofers, there most affordable, and they require less power than there other woofers.

amps- get a good solid brand amp for you fronts, either a lil 2 channel...since you'd only be running 1 set of components...or bridge a 4 channel
as for you sub amp, match it to which every sub you decide one

as for affordable amps..look into avionixx,tsunami, orions cobalt series is very affordable, some of the smaller rockford and kicker amps are very affordable...mtx

theres plenty of brands to look into, if you give us a budget, and or decide on equipment and need other equipment to compliment it let us know. the more we know the more we can help