What got you into car audio?

It was a fasination with electronics and audio that got me started.  Worked in the electronic service business for several years and I got exposed to some very nice and high end equipment.  The coolest thing was buying a dead amp and repairing it.  The nice ones I always sold because I needed money. 

In those days a 30W+30W amp in your car was big power.  Factory radios were still mono with 5w of power.  The first car amp I ever saw was a Pioneer GM120.  A poor excuse for an amp by today's standards  but what a departure from the Kraco "Power Boosters" that most people considered a car amp. 

I just wanted music in my car.....

1000 watts of full range is plenty for me ;)

One day i went to a pawnshop and purchased some real decent JVC 3-way theatre speakers for AU$20. I needed power but from where? I decided to use the amplifier out of my computer speakers (tiny crappy drivers) for the JVC's. This was fun, so i compiled all the computer speakers i could find to rip out the amps. I manually wired 3 sets of amps together (only the input cables, not the internal circuitry) and vala! I had 6 channels of 2W to feed some speakers. Good old P2P and a 56K modem = lots of MP3's back in the day.

Since then I have upgraded to a decent logitech 2.1 for HL2 and DOOM.

I left it at that for quite some time until i obtained my licence and bought my first car. Did some reading on the web and started a cheap install on that. After almost 3 years of fiddling im starting to get a little more serious. I just purchased a Fusion 15inch powerplant subwoofer. The box is going to be 3cu-ft with twin 24" ports. I cant wait till i have the time to build it! Ive had two alpine 12" subs before but they just dont go hard. Ive heard this 15 and it eats both alpines for breakfast, for its size its very punchy when need be also. I guess at the age of 19 i have a little bit of unqualified experience, im a computer technician by trade so this will only ever be a personal hobby.

- Pioneer deck w/ 6cd stacker
- Clarion 5" Splits (off deck)
- Clarion 6" Splits (off deck)
- JVC 6x9's (off 2ch amp)
- 1x pioneer 2ch amp
- 1x 460RMS amp
- 1x Fusion 15" Powerplant Sub
- Large 120A reset fuse, gold connectors, shielded RCA's, 4ga cables, dist block with 8ga output, 6x9 brackets with 30Degree lean etc.

I intend of getting another amp for the splits (4 Channel) so i can tune them and of course feed them more power than the deck.

Without the 6x9's and then amplifying the clarions I have a potential SQ car.
Right now its very loud! Has bass and highs but lacking a little mid range.

My mates love riding in my car, as do I.

i like gardening as a hobby (not cool for a 19 year old guy) so i needed a hobby with more street cred. to kinda balance things out. i LOVE music and i LOVE building things (wood, plastic, fiberglass, whatever) and car audio gives me a chance to build things that let me listen to music and proove im not completely metrosexual. *grunts and scratches crotch* lol. I <3 big speakers. ~Ryan

hello i want to share my story:

im bearly turned 16 ive always liked electronics/computers since i was small i like cars alot and my dad is a mechanic. it all started one day when my dad bought an HU,equalizer, amp, speakers, and subs. he knows that im into electronics so he told me can install the system so he wont have to pay. i told him i did. he left me the car the next day and i got to work. i instaled the whole system the whole day without the help from nobody i only needed the manual and my knowledge.   WOW i cant believe that i actually put a whole system on a car. then there it is when i began to get more into car audio. i have instaled in more than 5 cars and i troubleshooted my friends car.

i like to call myself bassrider because i have a 85firebird that is like the one in knight rider.  so  knight rider+ bass   ==BASSRIDER

PLEASE tell me what u think

There is a powerful phsycological aspect to having a car audio system.  The car is a personal domain for the owner, and all passengers are captive.  The audio is at fingertip reach.  A slight turn and your seat starts to vibrate like a Barcolounger...your favorite music at levels that can be felt as well as heard.  The combination of personal car and great audio approaches the pinnacle of self indulgence.  The guys of age who have not yet gotten their feet wet in this field just don't know what they're missing out on.  We are approaching the day when jumping in your personal car to take a long drive will be a thing of the past...cranking up a great musical masterpiece in our own self-created auditorium....someday will be just a memory that old-timers will be telling their grandkids.  We have to realize that now is the time to relish the freedom and go for all the pleasure we can get with our cars.  I hate to think of myself as one who has to wear headphones while standing on a train......shudder!

It's funny and sad at the same time when you get into somebody's car and he has a crappy factory system and he turns the volume up to hurt, smiling and acting like it's the shiznit.  Makes you want to jump out at 55 mph.  This was mostly like it was while I was growing up, at the age where you want to get into this kind of thing.  There wasn't much available, and what there was nobody knew anything about.  So nowadays at a not-so-young age with kids in college and one already graduated, I rediscoverd the joy of personal car audio at a higher level than "premium" OEM systems.  So it is my and all of us here's destiny to help and lead  others into the light of true car audio.  Don't worry that you may someday be partly responsible for some hearing loss suffered down the line....that hearing loss will come whether they have enjoyed their own great sound system or whether they spent their young lives with AM and Aunt Thelma's chatter.  I know, because I have partial loss in my right ear attributed to a trio of female vocalists in a local nightclub who all hit a high note with gusto while I stood too close to the speaker.  Now, I just have to turn it up a little louder, eh?

russ lund wrote:

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I can't really tell ya!Electronics always came naturally to me.Always have loved music.So why not mix both things I like together.What a kind of mess that has made!

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^^^
hes got the same idea i got..
i just want to drive down the street and cars on the other side of the road shake cuz of the bass coming from my car.. other than that i just love music and electronices..

I was raised in a house full of aspiring musicians, so that sort of set the seed. When I bought my first car in 1983, a 1970 Plymouth Cuda 340, it still had the factory 8-track player which was pretty useless. I replaced it with a cheap cassette deck and some 6x9 with the "big metal plate" that held the tweeters. Ohhh, what memories bring back, if I only knew then what that car would be worth now! That was many cars & many systems ago.

Now I strive for the best, SQ is a priority, but I don't want the sound of a recording studio, I want to feel the "Concert "!

Much like stevdart, I think your car is your personal domain. Similarly, I believe that a car can be a reflection of self, and can really tell you something about the owner. When you are in someone else's car and there are fast-food bags on the floor and only half of the [factory] speakers work, this tells you something about the person IMO. I like to think that when I invite people into my car, it is reflected that I put 110 percent into all work I do. I see no point in doing anything half-ass, or ever having to settle for something when you know you can make it better.

I was always the kid that would be called in when a relative or friend got some new piece of electronic equipment and couldn't figure out how to set it up or work it. By those standards, I was the guy who knew everything, but after joining this forum I realized how much there is to learn, and I'm loving that.

Even before I had a car I was researching audio for one. I figured, if you love music, why not make it better? If you can't make it better, then go to the12volt.com and find out what you're doing wrong!

My friends brother got some kicker boxes for his pickup when I was like 13.  Thing was damn loud for what I'd heard back then.  Kinda got me into it, my first car, I got a 15" mtx terminator in a ported box, and refurbed phoenix gold amp.  Then I moved onto 2 15" eclipses.

I've not seen alot of systems, as none of my friends really have them.  Though one person I knew locally worked at a car/home audio place.  He put 12 12" rockford's with gobs of power into a jimmy.  Loudest thing I'd ever heard, was knocking the windshield loose, and moving metal.  I sat in it for less than a minute and was deaf.  You could hear this thing for a few blocks.

Though I've never wanted anything that loud, I really would like to get a nice 4 way setup in my vehicle sometime, with some quality sound.

Hello Everyone...  I'm new to posting in the forum although i've been reading through it for several weeks now.  I must say that there is a wealth of knowledge compiled together here with everyone and the resources given and I have to give thanks to all you on behalf of all car audio enthusiasts.  Sites and insites such as this are a eutopia for those with a thirst for knowledge for doing things the right way.  With that said, I'll introduce myself.  I'm 25yrs old, from a podunk town in Southern Indiana, and started messing around in stereo's in my early teens like many of you.  Me and a couple friends just had to have our simple, gotty, sorry excuse home stereos getting as loud as possible.  Being from a poor family most of what we compiled was Goodwill giveaways and the like.  Though I still have a pair of Matrix Electronics 12" 3-ways a friend of my dad gave me that are still pumping out some good old school sound.  In high school was when I discovered CAR AUDIO.  My first vehicle was a 1970 Chevy PU and the first system I had (if thats what you want to call it) was a pioneer tape deck, audiovox 6x9 3-ways, and 2 12" Thump's in a box that i weatherproofed and put in the bed of the truck facing the cab, tho firing against the front of the bed (wasn't gonna cut up my baby).  yeah yeah laff all ya want, for a poor kid it worked, just wish I never traded the USAmps A50HC I ran the Thumps with.  Where did I get the money for a badass amp like that you ask while you think to yourself "poor kid??!!!"??  Computers and electronics have always been a big part of my life.  One of the kids I went to school with had an awesome system but his head unit smoked on him.  I physically repaired the unit and he gave the the A50HC for doing the work.  Of course it had a couple problems too, but after a little time I had it rockin'.  Anyways that started me into doing car audio installs and repairs, I now own a small side business designing and installing systems for the financially less fortunate like I was growing up.  I've learned to do alot with a little, and websites such as this one keep idea's flowing fast.  My current system is in my company supplied work truck, so I wasn't looking to spend alot of money on it in the first place in fear it would just get tore up anyways.  The components of the system aren't worth much on anyone's list but it manages to put a smile on customer's faces when they hear it and then see the total price for it.  I'm getting ready to put a system in my wife's van (tax check!!).  I'm looking at putting a Pioneer Deh-P8600mp HU, Alphasonik PMA2300A, PMZ6002A, PMZ3002A amps, Audiobahn ABC6003Q & ABC6002Q component sets, and a pair of MTX T8512-44's.  Not the best stuff in the world by far but it should be right on target for a modest setup, most expensive one I've done for myself yet @ $1500 total.  Well, I'm sure I've bored you all to death by now.  Thanks for reading, keep up the good work and I hope to be a viable part of the website someday too.  Have a good one!!