contest with the neighbor

I figured if I am going to truly get the upper hand this is the place that might help. So my neighbor talks about this system he had in his JEEP SUV like it the greatest system on the planet. He talks about bouncing cell phones off his dash... how guys that dropped 5-10K couldn't touch him... yeah yeah yeah. So, he still has most of his equipt and will be installing it in his 2002 Grand Am. I can across a little Nissan pick-up and am convinced I can destroy him. The contest is about loudness, yes... the system has to be loud, not earth shattering. I need to as loud, but need to beat him on quality. He's pretty old school... like late to mid 90's and so am I. So I'm looking for recommendations of products and installs that I can go with to send off with his tail tucked. Keep in mind, I will likely get used stuff on eBay so I'm looking for best bang for the buck and install suggestions.

Power, displacement and a vented wall...

Here's his set-up... (at least what's in process) I have not heard it yet: 2002 Grand Am Pioneer Mid Level CD Deck * 2 Flame Q 12" Audiobahn Woofers Ported box * 2 Pioneer 280watt old school amps, one bridged to each sub * 1 Kenwood 400 watt amp (black waffle iron 10 years old) running fr/rr * Fronts: punch 6.5 components (glowing red x-overs) * Rears: Pioneer 3-Way 6X9's * He has a pair of 8 inch pioneer full range truck box speakers he will bolt to the top of the box in back (not sure if he's integrating it or adding another amp * And finally the x-facter is he might add some cheap 8" subs in the rear doors ****Sub note... he is not into front staging, looks (at all) but actually has a very good ear for tuning low end, mid-bas vocal and highs.... uses the deck's eq to do so. ******And yes, the trunk looks like a bird nest

So, I'm an installer from back in those days and use to compete. I'm an eclipse, soundstream, boston guy My buddy feel my system will just be pretty. My next post will outline what my plan is so far:

sdh0001 wrote: Here's his set-up... (at least what's in process) I have not heard it yet: 2002 Grand Am Pioneer Mid Level CD Deck * 2 Flame Q 12" Audiobahn Woofers Ported box * 2 Pioneer 280watt old school amps, one bridged to each sub * 1 Kenwood 400 watt amp (black waffle iron 10 years old) running fr/rr * Fronts: punch 6.5 components (glowing red x-overs) * Rears: Pioneer 3-Way 6X9's * He has a pair of 8 inch pioneer full range truck box speakers he will bolt to the top of the box in back (not sure if he's integrating it or adding another amp * And finally the x-facter is he might add some cheap 8" subs in the rear doors ****Sub note... he is not into front staging, looks (at all) but actually has a very good ear for tuning low end, mid-bas vocal and highs.... uses the deck's eq to do so. ******And yes, the trunk looks like a bird nest

You could probably go to best buy and get some pakage deal for $400 and "beat" him however you define that, cell phone jumping higher on your dash?

Audiobahn? Pioneer gutless amps? Glowing red crossovers...... Come on, get real. 

I'm a little slow these days but still have it in me... especially to take down my neighbor buddy! 1990 Nissan p/u * Eclipse 8053 (i think) * Pioneer Class A premier 4 channel 50X4 (purple) * Door panels: 2 paris of Eclipse 8062 woofers * Power Bass Compression Horn Tweeters That's about all I have to start with. I also have laying around: two 50X2 lighning audio amps. 1 Brutus 1501 mono amp. Two alpine type R woofers. One mb quart 10" woofer, a pair of eclipse 3.5 inch coax spks and a boston pro 12.5 I don;t mind cutting out the back deck... already planning to add bucket seats to add room in the counsel Thanks for any tips... product wise or install wise!!!

dwarren wrote: sdh0001 wrote: Here's his set-up... (at least what's in process) I have not heard it yet: 2002 Grand Am Pioneer Mid Level CD Deck * 2 Flame Q 12" Audiobahn Woofers Ported box * 2 Pioneer 280watt old school amps, one bridged to each sub * 1 Kenwood 400 watt amp (black waffle iron 10 years old) running fr/rr * Fronts: punch 6.5 components (glowing red x-overs) * Rears: Pioneer 3-Way 6X9's * He has a pair of 8 inch pioneer full range truck box speakers he will bolt to the top of the box in back (not sure if he's integrating it or adding another amp * And finally the x-facter is he might add some cheap 8" subs in the rear doors ****Sub note... he is not into front staging, looks (at all) but actually has a very good ear for tuning low end, mid-bas vocal and highs.... uses the deck's eq to do so. ******And yes, the trunk looks like a bird nest You could probably go to best buy and get some pakage deal for $400 and "beat" him however you define that, cell phone jumping higher on your dash? Audiobahn? Pioneer gutless amps? Glowing red crossovers...... Come on, get real.

HA HA HA!!! I know! It's classic... The joke is he can beat any system "WITH JUNK" as he puts it!!!

Ok, so take your two type R's, put them in a ported box and power them with that brutus. You just beat him in the low end. I am not a big alpine fan but your kick the living snot outta the audiobling with them. As for the rest, Just do a nice set of mid woofers and tweeters running off that pioneer amp and your done, the head unit you selected will be fine. If you really wanna get loud and go for broke, pioneer woofers are cheap as hell, but dont sound so bad they are unbarable, do 4 in a wall and call it a day. I used to use them for competion and have a shelf of first place trophies that said they were fine for getting louddouble-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer

Thanks for the advice! So you think the 10R's will out-perform the Audiobahn Flame Q's? I think he said they are 5 years old, and he paid about $250 a piece at the time. I'm running the two pairs of Eclipse 8062 6.5 components in some custom door panels I finished up, and only running 2 channel stereo, my front stage is crisp, clean and tight. I plan to add some compression horn tweeters, but have to make a modification in the kick panels for those. So I think I agree that the Pioneer class A amp will send him packing. I heard his speakers running off that old Kenwood I spoke about and I know I have him crushed on highs and mid range. (not to mention staging... but that's way over anyone's head I know around here). Next I need to make the woofers hard hitting... deep clean bass that take your breath out. I used to run the old JL 10W6 woofers... VERY clean, but definately lack SPL compared to the new W7's. If I should go with the 10R's, could I use a box bigger than spec and tune it? I have a box that I can fully pass through the bed that's 5 cubic feet. If I used the 10R's, what kind of porting is required for a box that size or should I reduce it down to spec? Thanks

2.5 cubic feet is to much space for most 10's, what are the specs on the subs and what do they recomend. You can use a bigger box than recomended, I almost always have, but how much bigger is a big question mark at this point. My general rule of thumb has always been to not exceed by more than 25% but I dont have any math to back up why I say this, its just a personal experience thing.double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer