Newbie system building ?'s

i have a 1996 Jeep Cherokee Sport and want to have a nice audio system in it. I have a 800 spending limit and can't drive yet so i have some time. What i what is a nice headeck with just cd player and radio with remote and a internal amp. I want to change all of the stock speakers. Also i need info on box building, is it ok to have a ported box with all wood casing but have the top and front fiberglass? I want to have 4 sony pentagonal 10" subs with 2 amps (don't know what watts). Can you guys tell me all the info i need to know because i'm a newbie and tell me what other things i need to buy like dash kit or wiring and tips.

T has this one pretty well nailed down, but i'll throw in my four or five cents.  For the HU, I vote either Pioneer, Kenwood, or Alpine.  If you spend about $180 you should be pretty well set with remote, preouts, all the bells and whistles.  Before you buy, play with it and see if you like the interface, that type of thing.  Also, try to get rms wattage per channel.  Most of them will advertise like 50x4 or 45x4, but the real numbers can range between about 20x4 to 30x4.  When I bought mine, it's only 180w, but it puts out 24x4 rms which isn't bad for $140 deck.Moving on to speakers, your jeep has 3.5's in the dash, then 5.25's in the doors and back.  3 pairs rather than two is going to hurt your wallet, but just shop around and you'll be ok.  Again, Pioneer and Kenwood make some good ones for a decent price.  Infinity is another of my favs, but that might get expensive.  I recomend 2 ways all around, you don't need any 3 ways since you have 6 speakers and that'll save you money.Regarding subs, you've got lots of options here.  The pentagonal sony's, i have heard a pair of them and was not too impressed.  They might sound ok if you have 4, but you can find better with a little looking.  I've heard good things about Alpines and MTX, avoid Bazooka.  I was a fan of Infinity subs, but then someone on this board told me he kept blowing them up at moderately high volumes, and that recently happened to a friend of mine.Now for the important part - amplifiers.  Like T said, this will eat up your money.  And also like T said, avoid Legacy and Boss Audio.  You're going to be looking at 150-200w rms per channel depending on the subs, and it'll be either 4 channels or two 2 channel amps.  Alpine puts out some nice ones, but you're going to pay since you need that much power.  I recomend Lanzar.  I own a Vibe 420, which is 100x4 rms, and retails $140.  Check out http://shop.store.yahoo.com/mobile-emotions/lanzarvibe.html and take a look, you could get a 125x4 or maybe a pair of 200x2.  When you're looking at amps, make sure you're looking at rms wattages, not peak.  Companies advertise peak numbers because they're higher, but the peak value is just about worthless.  Whatever subs you get will have a recomended rms rating, and you'll want to match that as close as possible.To finish up, let me do a run through of how well I spent your money.  Let's be generous and say you get a $200 HU.  Let's say you get $40 Infinities for the dash, then two pairs of Kenwoods at $60 each.  For your subs, you could get a pair of MTX RoadThunder 10's for about $140, you want two pairs so that's $280.  Then for power you could get a couple of Vibe240's at 200x2 for $240.  If you go to WalMart, they have wiring kits for $25.  Grand Total of $930, not too far over budget.  Shop around and you could probably nail a setup like that close to $800.  Good luck.I refuse to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death.

Hey you don't have to have a brand name Amp Kit, i say its just a name. I got a 4 guage kti at the flee market and its fine. ($20) wire is wire, and since your not running comp subs or amp, you really shouldn't have to worry about the types of wire you are running. Some may disagree, but like io said i have been running this kit for like 8 months, to an Audiobahn Class D amp and a pair of 12" (which suck, so if anyone wants to give me a sub that will do around 800 at 1 ohm that would be greatly appreciated.) So like i said brand names or just that, they have OFC wiring, and yes thats nice, but you really don't need it. Hope this helps

Whoops, forgot to mention that.  K's right, save money by getting no name wiring - you won't be able to tell the difference.If you decide to but the wiring separately, there are three particular pieces you'll be looking for.  You will want power & ground cabling, for an application like this I'd say 4 guage.  You'll want RCA cables, which are pretty self explanatory.  And you will want a smaller guage wire for your remote, which is connected to your deck and tells your amps when to turn on or off.  You could just use extra speaker wire for that.I refuse to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death.

Well if you can make it with only spending $800 let me know.  I had a base system in my first car and I spent over $1000.  The amp is where you will be spending some dough.  You can get a good HU for about $200(pioneer deh-4500mp would be good), forget about the 3.5 speakers in the dash, go with a the two sets of 5.25"s.  You could probably spend about $200-$300 on these(Rockford Fosgate HPC1205<2-60 watts RMS for $50 at crutchfield).  I would go with one sub in your Cherokee(maybe try a rockford HE 10" sub right around $100).  The amp I would go get if I was you would be a profile Clarus CL300(75 watts x2, and 225 watts RMS x 1 bridged  about $110).   this would be a good start until you can throw a few more bucks into it.  Then an amp kit would run about $75 or less, depends on what brand you get.  i think i all this will all run a little under $800.  I hope this helps a little.  If I were you I would go check out Crutchfield.com and check into this for yourself or check out one of your local stores.  See what you like then go shopping for deals.  Sometimes you can get a package deal if you buy this all in one place.  Check online too, there alot of deals out there if you just go looking for them.1 plus 1 equals 2