Hi Everyone, Im new here, just became a member last week or the week before, came on here to get some help doing an engine swap in my 84 firebird, but i found it all without making a post, so i thought id make one here. the reason i am posting this in here is because my car is basically all car audio related and i was just looking for opinions/recomendations for the stereo. so here it is, and if i was suposed to put this somewhere else, sorry...

1984 Pontiac Firebird - Mat's Pontiac "The Bird"

lol, got the stereo spelling fixed, thnx

 

Welcome!

P.S. it's spelt "stereo".

 

I've got a few comments/suggestions as well as questions.

You said the primary focus of the car is audio. Is this a show car (flashy) or is this a daily driver/personal car (emphasis on sound)? What are you trying to achieve (lots of bass or a nice sounding system) and what do you listen to?

I'm not a big fan of the way you have your subs mounted, especially the second bandpass box. If you ever get into an accident then anything that's not bolted down will turn into a flying projectile aimed straight at your head.

Are you running any fuses? An isolator between the two batteries? The isolator will prevent your two batteries from draining each other and will let you start after blasting it for a while parked and fuses prevent fires.

I think the equipment you own already has a good amount of potential. Running a sealed (or ported, can't tell) box and a bandpass box probably sounds pretty bad although I'm willing to bet that it gives you a decent amount of output. For the number of subs you want to run you're either looking at a building monster MDF box or a nice fiberglass box. A 4 woofer fiberglass box would look pretty sweet IMO. If you’re interested in glass I can give you a ton of links. Stay away from prefab - they’re the root of all evil

Ditch the 4x6’s and 6x9’s and buy/make a set of kick panels. They will sound 1,000 times better.

Welcome to the board and good luck with the swap We will be more than happy to toss ideas your way when it comes to audio.

 

"You said the primary focus of the car is audio. Is this a show car (flashy) or is this a daily driver/personal car (emphasis on sound)? What are you trying to achieve (lots of bass or a nice sounding system) and what do you listen to?"

the car is a daily driver, those subs and mounting and what not is very very temporary, its just to have tunes and bass until me and my crew get time to glass the back up. i just came from driving my suburban that had 8-12's in it, so i wanted something in there until we got time. i belive were doing 1-2 15's at 2500+ watts rms. it will look a lot nicer, not show quality, but a lot nicer wen its done, we wired this entire car in a few hours so its just so that its functional for know. and i listen to pretty much anything, country, rap, pretty much anything catchy or that has bass.


"I'm not a big fan of the way you have your subs mounted, especially the second bandpass box. If you ever get into an accident then anything that's not bolted down will turn into a flying projectile aimed straight at your head."

I Agree 110%, very unsafe i know, but the one box is kind of wedged in there...to get the bandpass out u have to take out the ported box in the back seat, which is pressed right agaist the box and the back of my seat, im a pretty big guy so i sit with the seat all the way back and leaned back a bit to.


"Are you running any fuses?"
yes, 1 300 amp anl at the front battery and one anl 300 at the back batteries

"An isolator between the two batteries?" no, to much money and i havnt had a problem yet.

"The isolator will prevent your two batteries from draining each other and will let you start after blasting it for a while parked and fuses prevent fires."

i didnt realise that an isolator was used for that reason, i was told they were used to help get strain off your alternator, but regardless i havnt had any start problems ever, except wen my starter f-d off, but it was standard, so it wasnt a big problem..lol


"I think the equipment you own already has a good amount of potential. Running a sealed (or ported, can't tell) box and a bandpass box probably sounds pretty bad although I'm willing to bet that it gives you a decent amount of output. For the number of subs you want to run you're either looking at a building monster MDF box or a nice fiberglass box. A 4 woofer fiberglass box would look pretty sweet IMO. If you’re interested in glass I can give you a ton of links. Stay away from prefab - they’re the root of all evil "

the reason for the prefabs is cuz i had them kicking around my garage, a freind of mine gave me a bunch of boxes a while ago wen he was getting them out of his store.
the bass right know sounds ok, not great compared to my burban but pretty good, right know were still trying to figure out what subs to run, where to run em(behind the wheels or a backseat wall) also were trying to figure out a speaker placement because the kick panels for these cars are a little big and i need all the leg room i can take, so were still figuring that out, powers no isue in any case, i have over 2500+ watts rms that could go to the subs, and i have 800+ rms for my incars, so if its just gonna take building soemthing on the bash mabey or w/e, im sure well figure it out and ill keep u guys updated with all that progress.

thnx for the feedback tho, i apreciate it, keep it commin, this board seems awsoem already..

Mat

 

NP on feedback

Here's a ton of info on battery isolators: Battery Isolators. Ignition key on they link the two batteries so both can charge. Key off the batteries get seperated so that you can drain one and still be able to start your car. You can pick them up relativly cheaply and are defantly worth it if you play boom box with your car.

Please realize that I don't know how much knowledge you have so I may say some things that you might want to smack me for but bear with me.

If you're planning on buying new equipment for this install might I suggest internet companies like Elemental Designs, RE Audio, SoundSplinter, etc. You will generally get much better products from these companies than you will from MTX, Alpine, etc for a pretty good price.

Don’t build a wall. Someone attempted it before and ended up giving up. Walls mean a lot of permanent modification and would be pretty hard to pull off because you would have to cut/pull out the plastic trim in order to actually seal off the rear end of the car. Walls are not meant for sports cars or people that listen to music IMHO. They’re better suited for dB racers.

I vote for a kickass fiberglass box. Not many people have them but those that take the time to build them are generally happy with the results. Here’s my build thread. You might also want to check out the Fiberglass FAQ at the top of the board for a ton of links and info. Firetrud350’s article is a really good read. He achieved some huge volume with his box (around 7 cubes if I remember right). There is an article in the tech pages off the main page of this site but it’s not that good IMO.

The best spot to build a box in any car is as close to one end of the car as possible (the hatch in our case). This will limit the effects of cancelation, gives you a bump in output, etc.

Are you looking for advice on equipment, install, etc or are you just posting info? I can rattle off a ton of stuff that's awsome but I need to know thigns like pricerange, etc. This stuff can get expensive fast

 

yea, i am very fluent in car audio, mtx was never an option for me for new bigger subs, they as far as im concerned dont offer anything for my needs...the reason i have the 4 mtx 5500's is cuz i bought 8 for my suburban... i could go with 3 12" 9500's, but thats really expensive and a waste IMO..jl as well dosnt offer anyhting, the sales reps keep telling me that i could run 2 13 w7's and just turn my amp down and be fine, but there like 900+ a driver and the point of these new subs is to use all the power of my amp, i have had it for like 2 years and have never pushed more then 2000 watts out of it, and i want to.. re audio offers the xxx and sx, i was looking at both, the xxx is way out of my price range for 2, but i could probably get away with 1, do i want to or not, im not sure yet...like i said i just blew the 4cyl in my car(thank god) and know im putting in my 350, so moneys kind of tight right know, but hopefully in a month or 2 ill be lookign for the new subs, box will be built very soon tho...im still debating 15's or 12's...the other 2 companys u mentioned, ed dosnt offer any high powered subs do they?..and the other one im not sure about, where i live(oshawa, ontario,canada) there isnt much options so ordering online is probably gonna be what i end up doing...i was also looking into the Digital Designs 9515, but i dont know where ill end up...what would u recomend? my budget would be around 1000 canadian, so i mean i could do from 1-6 subs of wat size and wat kind...and i meant a wall as in take out the back seats and build an enclosure, not completely seal the back off, way to much work in that...also i havnt seen or heard any loud 3rd gen cars, the main thing ive seen is the 2 subs sealed in the back part from q-logic(see a lot of that, want to be diffrent and louder).. thnx again man

 

I'm not sure what you would consider loud. I know that quite a few of us are above 140. I haven’t finished my install but I would be surprised if I don't break 140.

ED's Ov.2 series of sub are supposed to pack a petty good amount of punch but they're not classified as 'high power'. They have a pretty good amount of throw and get loud (search ICIX – you will find high 140 scores for pairs). You might be interested in their Av.2, which should be out this fall. They just opened up a Canadian distributor so that will give you a feel for pricing.

SoundSplinter is a company oriented around sound quality while having the ability to output a pretty good amount of sound. 1meanGTA built a ported box for his set of RL-p 12's and is feed them 2700 watts. The RL-s is a very impressive woofer but because of price/power requirements you would probably only be able to run one of them.

The Braham comes to mind as does Dimond's D9. DD's could defiantly stand up to that level of power.