Well, here is my problem. I haven't had a system for about a year and a half (and it was pretty crappy anyway). Well, i just bought my new daily driver (96 Dodge Avenger.. love the car and gets 35mpg) and it came with a system.. Really crappy head unit, decent amp, and two crappy pioneer subs. Well, a week into owning it, the subs go... and now i have the system crave again.. ah!

I was planning on building system for my camaro in the spring or the summer, but i figure this will do for a good time. I currently have the crappy head unit, a dual 12" bandpass box (bleh), and a power acoutic amp.. the amp has the following specs:

# 2 CHANNEL 1,200 WATT AMPLIFIER
# 1,200 watts peak output
# 250 x 2 watts RMS @ 4 ohm
# 300 x 2 watts RMS @ 2 ohms
# 600 x 1 watts RMS bridged mono
# Full Mosfet Power Supply
# PWM Circuitry
# Full Selectable Crossover Hi/Full/Low
# Three Way Protection Circuit
# Tri-Mode Capable
# Variable Low Pass 40Hz-120Hz
# Variable Hi Pass 150Hz-1.5Khz
# 18dB Bass Boost @ 40Hz.
# Frequency Response: 10Hz to 30Khz
# S/N Ratio:97 db
# THD: 0.02%
# 2 ohm Stable Stereo
# System Distress Indicator
# High/Low Level inputs With Floating Ground

Is this somewhat decent? For a few months? And what amp(s) would you suggest for about 500-1000RMS per sub?

I need to get some new subs.. what would you guys suggest? I want to have at least 500RMS per sub if not 1000RMS per sub (at one point).. I was looking at Infinity Kappa Perfects but they only go to about 375RMS..

I am hoping to be able to use the bandpass box and the power acoustic amp for the winter and upgrade next year.. but i want to get some good subs that will last me and will work fine with bandpass (not optimal, but good on roughly on 300RMS each) and then still be fine when I upgrade to more a couple of stompers. Is this possible?

One last question.. what brand of head units would be a good choice.. I like the design of some of the Xplod head units, but it seems that no one here seems to like them...

Educate me guys.. been out of the system scene for quite some time and i forgot most of what i knew..

600 watts should do you fine. You don't want to run your subs in stereo anyway. Why do you want 500-1000 watts RMS? Unless you're going for a very loud system, there's no reason to set your sights so high.

Sub: jl's xw3v2's are good all around subs. If you're looking for decent thump for the buck look into kickers/alpines. Do a search and you will come up with tons of answers. Your best bet is to buy the sub(s) you're going to end up with now and underpower them with your current amp until you're ready to upgrade it.

meh, i just thought i'd aim high so i can have the adjustability.. so do you think this amp would do me fine for two subs then?

thats the plan

In general, it is safe to stay away from sony
H/Us:
Pioneer
Eclipse
Alpine

All three are great, and fairly common to local audio shops, go and try all of them out, Alpine and Pioneer probably have the most range (ie have some cheaper but still good stuff- to really good and expensive stuff) whereas eclipse is generally higher priced

alrighty then.. i'll look those up in a little bit, but if i could ask.. do any of those have a small button amount to high feature ratio? as in, lots of features that require the remote to access? I actually like that (IE, i dont like my head unit cluttered up with buttons like 1-6 presets and every other little feature u could just go into a menu to access)

where abouts are you in wisconsin, not familiar with that town

One thing some people like about Alpine, some really dont like however, is that nearly ALL their headunits looks the same, here is a picture of one:
Eclipse headunits tend to be very similar as well, you will find the widest aesthetic variety in Pioneer

I think that Pioneer usually looks the most cluttered because of multiple presets and *****, also many eclipse h/us have dual ***** as well. As you can see from the picture (and from other Alpine products) I think the layout is fairly evenly distributed, I dislike the dual ***** and thus I appreciate Alpine using the single "menu" **** to control most things. Here is a pic of an Alpine that is usully around $350-400

Eclipse dual *****:

and just for fun...pioneer:

i like the eclipse one.. not a big fan of the Alpine uniformity.. I have liked some of the pioneer head units.. they just have so many buttons.. too cluttered.. same with the alpine, i find them too cluttered..

my old sony deck had a source button, an off button, up and down volume.... and thats it, and u could almost not tell they were there.. otherwise, it was all remote, including track changes... but, alas, i dont see that in other brand than sony, so i guess i'll give up on that ideal.. lol

any other brands to stay away from?

Alpine actually... I love my cda9831 but it's from about a year and a half ago, before glide touch took over their model line. If you've ever tried it, you know that glide touch is a major PITA to use. Their head units are also more prone to failure because of stupid things (no guard for the ribbon cable for the face, etc). Do a search for NEEDAZ's posts on alpine and you will find more than enough info.

Older alpines are still amazing units. How can you say that they look cluttered as compared to the eclipse pictured in this thread? They have a much more simplistic/non flashy design in that they choose a color scheme and stick to it. Nothing sharply contrasts or really stands out. red white blue black = ugh (IMO ). I am by no means saying that Eclipse makes a bad product; I am just saying that the model pictured in this thread doesn't look all that appealing. Actaully, after going through all of their models, I don't find any very appealing

/quote/ Is this somewhat decent? For a few months? And what amp(s) would you suggest for about 500-1000RMS per sub?

I need to get some new subs.. what would you guys suggest? I want to have at least 500RMS per sub if not 1000RMS per sub (at one point).. I was looking at Infinity Kappa Perfects but they only go to about 375RMS..
/-quote/

That amp is just fine for the car you got, will make your ears hurt at loud levels, and if you dont plan on doing comps, your set.

New subs, stay away from sony, pioneer, and ANY best buy or circut city brand, there ALL ****, regardless of the brands. Those companys give them very low end models so BB and CC can sell them cheap.

Go online, www.thezeb.com is a very good site, and look for 2 400watt max, 250rms subs, it will match your amp. if you get 2 500 watt subs, it will be seriously underpowered, and you will end up unsatisfied.

If you get 2 250watt rms 12 inch subs, it will be bout 15% louder then 2 250watt rms 10 inchers, being that it has that much more surface area, and same for the 15's. The 15's are going to be a bitch in these birds though.

i meant i like the button layout on the eclipse, the colors on that one are horrible.. tho some of thier others (colorwise) arent so bad.. I really like the color of that particular alpine deck, tho.. anyone have any opinions on Kenwood decks?

wouldnt it be better to buy 500w subs if i want 500w per channel next year and get better amps?

also, what do u think of Power Acoustik amps and capacitors

I personally dont like PA amps, though they are rated good. if you have the cash, go for i.

Dont get too big of subs if you dont have the amp to back it up, if you want a bigger amp, save up and buy another of the same exact amp, run them bridged. thatll work out nicely and wont be as expensive as replacing that 600w amp with a 1000 watt one.

oh, and 2 ohm, 4 ohm.. what determines this? what the sub is?

depends on the subs coil, and how its wired.

if you wire 2 4ohm in series, i beleive it makes it a total of 2 ohm.

if you wire 2 2ohm subs in parallel, it makes it a total of 4 ohm.

^ i may have that backwards, not lookin it up right now

series? paralell?

sushh, i know i cant spell...lol.

lmao, i didnt even notice the spelling, i was asking what the hell u were talking about... the was me being a goof, not in the know... lol

oh, its the way you wire up the terminals.

series would be from the + on the amp, to the - on the first sub, the + on the first sub to the - on the second sub, and the + on the second sub to the - on the amp.

parallel would be from the + on the amp, to the + on the first sub to the + on the second sub, then, the - on the amp, to the - on the first sub, to the - on the second sub.

have fun with that info

You got it backwards...

Series is additive
4ohm + 4ohm in S= 8ohm

Parallel is fractional (correct me if I'm wrong)
4ohm + 4ohm in P = 1/4 +1/4 = 2ohm

So I don't see how adding another amp of the same type will help. Seeing that most amps give double the 4ohm rating at 2 ohm adding another amp will double the watts but also double the load.

So instead of one amp pushing 600 watts into a 2ohm you will have 2 amps pushing 300 watts into 2 seperate 4ohm loads. I know you said bridge them but I didn't think you could bridge just any old amp that way.

hmm, thought i had it backwards...

sayin to get the same amp, and run one sub per amp, it will be an easier install, and cheaper. if it dont have the option for parallel, you can split the rca wires so their getting the same feed.

ouch.. have u seen how big these gothic series power acoustik amps are? two would be insane

lets say i wanna push 500w rms per sub for two subs.. would a single 5farad cap do me?

or, how about this cap? http://cgi.ebay.com/POWER-ACOUSTIK-P...QQcmdZViewItem
20 farad for 150

i just checked out power acoustik decks... eeeew

hmm, i say stay away from caps, they are just a bandaid to power problems. Your better off spending 150 bucks on a bigger altinator, an extra battery, and an isolater

really? so a 140a alternator and an extra battery would be better (supply a more constant power band hopefully near 14.4 or best that i can get) than that cap?

your power will prob be around 13.6ish, and yes, its better to have more amps behind you then a storage container.

The cap is bad, because once you discharge it with one low bass hit, it still needs the power from the battery, which you were trying to advoid doing, therefore putting an extra load on the batt and alt, and lowering your amps and volts

makes sense..

what would be a desirable frequency response range and S/N ratio? i dont really know too much about what those numbers represent.. anyone care to educate?

i mean, if the amp i have will work more than fine for a single amp bridged, then i may just buy a second one and get the two subs i decide on

Freq response would be if you built a ported box, and a good range is from 36-32 htz. But, sence you know nothing about it, and it is a PITA to calculate and for a new person to build correctly, you should build a sealed one. they have better rounded out performance too. Lacks in a few freq;s, but overall, its rounded out pretty good.

S/N ratio?

"S/N Ratio:97 db" is one of the specs for my amp..

i guess i will read up good on all of these different specs

also, what is the use of a bandpass box?

Ok, i reconise that, the lower the s/n ratio, the better it is. If its 86db, its better then 94db, so on.

Bandpass box's sucks major ***, dont even think about them. get a good sealed box or make one.

so lower the better for bass? higher the better for highs? or am i getting that mixed up?

dont bandpass boxes make more (but ****ty) bass with ****ty subs? isnt that their purpose?

Wrong, you got that backwards. Higher is better.