First system for my 2001 impala

I just got a 2001 impala, my first car, and i want to put in a sound system and i want to spend around 700$, I dont care about how much room it takes up as long as it sounds good. i dont know alot about car audio and i need advice, suggestions or basic car audio guide links.

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smoke                      NOW

What are you looking to get out of a system (ie: good imaging, clarity, loud bass, hard hitting bass, lots of volume)?

What sort of music do you listen to most?

Include the answers to these ?'s then I'm sure I can help you out...

-mike

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94 Crown Vic LX
Pioneer DEH-P6700MP
Kicker IQ900
Alpine MRD-M605
Lightning Audio B2.300.4
Alpine SPS-571A
Sony XS-V1630A
JL Audio 15wo x2

I am going towards loud hard hitting bass,    and i listen to hip hop techno and metal    

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smoke                      NOW

well, I'd suggest a better HU, some nice coaxials in the front, a single 12" sub in a large sealed enclosure for all around listening, and enough clean amp power to make it loud enough to suit your taste....for head units check into pioneer, alpine, and eclipse, for speakers Jl Audio, MTX, and JBL all make nice stuff and good value, and look for Hifonics for nice quality stuff at good prices in the amp department...

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94 Crown Vic LX
Pioneer DEH-P6700MP
Kicker IQ900
Alpine MRD-M605
Lightning Audio B2.300.4
Alpine SPS-571A
Sony XS-V1630A
JL Audio 15wo x2

I've got a nice panasonic head unit, some one suggested i get 2 15'2 and a 2000w amp      could you help me find god deals on the net for the rightr equipment?


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smoke                      NOW

Here's  good deal for a Hifonics Brutus BX1605D 1100 RMS watts at 2ohm PLUS the bass control remote and a wire kit (more then enough power yet suitable with stock alternator): https://cgi.ebay.com/dll?ViewItem&category=18797&item=5782377757&tc=photo

In your budget a single good DVC sub will benefit you more then 2 cheapo's I forgot to list alpine subs they are nice looking and get LOUD (personal expierience): https://cgi.ebay.com/dll?ViewItem&category=18804&item=5783117951&tc=photo this sub will handle the load of rap/metal/techno without trouble and the extra power from the hifonics amp above won't blow it if anything slight overpowering will give you more clean volume since you won't have to crank the gain to get the volume you need...

I have 2 JL 15wO's and I only run 600 RMS from my alpine amp the 15wo's are rated to 150 rms they are getting 2x ther recommended power so i have PLENTY of headroom my gain is low I don't need to use bass boost and at 57 out of 62 on my HU I get that kicked in the chest feeling when I breathe... the sub I recommended has a 750 RMS rating and is 3x as beefy as my JL's so it should not have much trouble getting you lound clean hard hitting bass...

If you have a decent HU (if your happy w/ it) stick with it use the rest of you budget on a GOOD large sealed enclosure (cheaper to buy local as shipping on encl. are outrageous) and at LEAST upgrade you from soundstage w/ some GOOD co/tri-ax's like these: https://cgi.ebay.com/dll?ViewItem&category=18799&item=5781771181&rd=1

hope this helps these are just examples for a wel rounded system with some SQ and good Bass response feel free to mix/match look for better deals and what not.... WHAT EVER YOU DO RESIST THE URGE TO BUY: Sony, AudioBURP (bahn), Pyramid, Pyle, Verge, Dual, or any amp that claims 2000watts witha 20 amp fuse an 30 dollaer price tag, you get the idea... if it sounds to good to be true 99.998% of the time it is DONT get burned by cheap impersonators...

-mike

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94 Crown Vic LX
Pioneer DEH-P6700MP
Kicker IQ900
Alpine MRD-M605
Lightning Audio B2.300.4
Alpine SPS-571A
Sony XS-V1630A
JL Audio 15wo x2

THanks alot those look like the parts for me, i have 1 more question, should i get a 2 channel amp and bridge them until i get another sub?
Thanks again 4 the help


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smoke                      NOW

For a subwoofer application you should go with a mono amp since you don't need different channels for each sub, you want all your subs playing the same music. Plus, mono amps are available in higher wattages.  1 misconception about a mono amp is that you can only hook up 1 sub, but really you can hook up a bazillion subs as long as you wire it properly to not go below the reccomended load such as 1 ohm, 2 ohm and so forth.

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2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

Ya that Hifonics AMp I suggested would be safe with that DVC alpine 15 I was talkin about wired at 2 ohm then when you get your #2 sub you could wire it for 2ohm and run both for a 1ohm mono load and still be safe with a nice power gain... Definatly go mono there not as elusive anymore 2 channel amp pretty much are in the past for subs...

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94 Crown Vic LX
Pioneer DEH-P6700MP
Kicker IQ900
Alpine MRD-M605
Lightning Audio B2.300.4
Alpine SPS-571A
Sony XS-V1630A
JL Audio 15wo x2

JL audio or Kicker is good

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JL Audio Is WAY better then kicker with SQ And SPL on the lower models but kicker also makes some good stuff when you go higher end overall JL is better IMHO

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94 Crown Vic LX
Pioneer DEH-P6700MP
Kicker IQ900
Alpine MRD-M605
Lightning Audio B2.300.4
Alpine SPS-571A
Sony XS-V1630A
JL Audio 15wo x2

Ok, i talked to the people at best buy and he said that amp would blow those speakers in a month, he said 1100 watts ryunning to 750 rms subs would be too much power thru 2 ohms

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smoke                      NOW

That is incorrect. You can power any sub with any amp and not blow it, no matter what the differance in wattage is between subs and amp. As long as you set the gain correctly and the subs are not distorting you will not blow the subs. it is usually easier to get subs that are matched to your amps RMS wattage, but you can use any amp on any subs.

I would recommend you get a set of componet speakers rather then the coaxials, you can get pheonix gold 6.5" componets sets for like $85 on sounddomain and they will sound much better then coaxials.

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The difference between a store's "Product Specialist" and someone giving you advice is that I want to help you, he wants to help you buy there gear, in all seriousness he probably doesn't have much product knowledge outside of the training the store gave him to sell you stuff... I used to work at circuit city as a "product specialt/salesman/rip off artist" and all they wanted was a sale and unless you know for a fact this dude knows his shhh DONT trust him as pimpincavy stated it all depends on gain. 99.99998 % of the time a speaker is not blown from overpowering but overdriving the amp into clipping from either

A.) Too low of HU Preamp Voltage and the gain cranked too high to compensate it. ( the classic using the gain as a volume knob)

B.) Cranking the HU volume to max and ignoring the fact peak voltage occurs in the 90% volume range without line level distortion. ( turning the volume all the way up on the HU doesn't mean that you're getting the highest signal, it's when you have all your equipment tuned to it's peak performance range BEFORE gettin the distortion that you get the desired effect)

C.) using eq, bass boost, and bass controls to compensate for poor tuning road noise, poor quality/inadequite equipment

All these umong other things cause distortion and ultimately clipping which heats up the voice coil to the point it melts and the speaker is then considered "blown", a good simile for clipping; picture jumping on a trampoline.... A fluid up/down motion, right?  Now picture jumping on a trampoline with a six foot ceiling above you and trying to jump to 8 feet. It's not the jump that hurts it's the sudden abrupt stop at the end...the time between when you hit and when you plummet back down is the clipping when a speaker is forced to reproduce a signal that it's not capable of either from the distortion, or overdriving the signal, it causes the speaker to violently hit peak excursion and it just waits there trying to produce more while  the music catches up and it drops to signal it can handle... all the bouncing around and current transfers to heat which in turn fries the voice coil.

I'm not trying to overload you with technical BS but just stressing why you gotta be careful to set all controls right and just cuz' a store told you something doesn't mean it's true... not necesarily a ALL out lie but just store usually give advice from a saleman POV ... Hope I'm helping

      -Mike

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94 Crown Vic LX
Pioneer DEH-P6700MP
Kicker IQ900
Alpine MRD-M605
Lightning Audio B2.300.4
Alpine SPS-571A
Sony XS-V1630A
JL Audio 15wo x2

I most aspects comp's are better then coax's I agree but a better quality co ax will do a lil better at volume and or SQ with HU power and why create a weak link with cheap comp's if an external amp with enough clean power to drive comp's that are at least as of the same quality as your bass is not in your budget...

My Alpine Type S comp's sounded like MUCHO ass on my HU at 22 watts RMS the built in amp wasn't abe to take advantage of the comp's ability just  as an anorexic ( spelling ??? lol) wouln't get into Professional Boxing, a HU amp shouldn't drive comp's, in all aspects a external amp and even lower end(still decent ie. none of the brands previously listed as bad, fake, to good to be true, etc... lol) would do better but in your case, and for your taste's within your budget I say start slow for a begining listener Coax's won't sound bad if they are of good quality...

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94 Crown Vic LX
Pioneer DEH-P6700MP
Kicker IQ900
Alpine MRD-M605
Lightning Audio B2.300.4
Alpine SPS-571A
Sony XS-V1630A
JL Audio 15wo x2

pimpincavy wrote:

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You can power any sub with any amp and not blow it, no matter what the differance in wattage is between subs and amp. As long as you set the gain correctly and the subs are not distorting you will not blow the subs. it is usually easier to get subs that are matched to your amps RMS wattage, but you can use any amp on any subs.

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Probably a little too generous to say "any" in the above statement.  If an amplifier produces more power than a sub is able to handle, great care must be taken (using equipment other than your ears) to ensure that the sub is receiving only its RMS rating.  And, it's not always possible.  The amp gain is just to match the deck voltage output...when set at the proper level, the amp will produce the power it's capable of making.  That is "correct gain setting" and doesn't include the capabilities of the subwoofer when it's being set.  Actually, if you were to try to set the amp gain to a higher expected voltage input than what there is (turning the gain down), you are incorrectly setting the gain.

Now, sometimes this type of incorrect gain setting can be used if the amp is more powerful than the subs, but not always.  It's easy to find such a great mismatch between amp/subwoofer to see that even with the gain at minimum setting, the power would be far too great for the driver.  Overpowering will kill the sub when this happens.

The driver's continuous capability should exceed the amplifier's power output in every case.  If you want to try to reverse this and go the overpower route, you're asking for a load of trouble and added expense down the road.  You'd better know exactly what you're doing....and what your equipment is doing.  The Best Buy clerk was correct in trying to help you match your gear properly.

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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

Within reason RMS power isn't a brick wall, it's more like a staircase. You can safely climb to a certain point then damage will occur. In this case the 750 Watts RMS power handling can safely be driven a decent amount higher. Usually I go by the formula I heard from Polk:

RMS power of the speaker divided by .75. In our case the sub is rated to withstand 750 RMS watts (the amp produces 1100 RMS watts) so...

750/.75 = 1000, sooo... in our case with the gain at the "proper" lever the speaker would be safe

I see things this way... the point in this extra power isn't to turn it up louder then if  the speaker weren't overpowered, but to drive enough clean power to get sufficient  volume w/o taxing the components... out of ALL the speakers I have owned home and automobile I have blown (unintentionally): a set of tweeters (x-over issues), and  one subwoofer it was an audiobahn 15" in a small sealed enclosure and it was UNDERPOWERED by its RMS rating, my amp wasn't clipping.... audiobahn is overated... any wise person will learn that lesson though....

                            -Mike

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94 Crown Vic LX
Pioneer DEH-P6700MP
Kicker IQ900
Alpine MRD-M605
Lightning Audio B2.300.4
Alpine SPS-571A
Sony XS-V1630A
JL Audio 15wo x2

ii think im going to get 2 alpine 12's SWR-1242D
TYPE R

12" 4 Ohms DVC SUBWOOFER
Peak Power 1500W

RMS Power 500W

what amp should i get?
should i reconsider?
will i have trouble hooking up a HU 2 a 2001 impala


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smoke                      NOW

the 12" type R's are good subs  if you want to go with alpine go with it the best thing to do is demo products before you buy i f thats not possable ask people about what you are looking at and if they have had the same products before and if they have had good luck with them a friend of mine had two 15" type R's and they were great they were running off a alpine amp  as far as the sub amp combo try to match the RMS output of your amp to the RMS power handling of your subs and for the H/U if there is an aftermarket H/U in the car now and it was install correctly it will be a simple install to change the H/U   if you are on a limited budget for your system you may want to look at other product lines also i think JL is very over priced my personal thought is that soundstreams new product line is great for the money and the quality check out www.ikesound.com some good deals on alpine stuff  and about the books to read about car audio there is alist of recommended books on this site and there is help with the basic stuff also

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1974 ford pinto 4 15" punch Z power punch bd 1001 pioneer DEH-6700

well for someone who thinks soundstream is nice stuff JL is overpiced as nothing soundstream makes would be able to match anything  jl makes imho, but im not flamin you its cool maybe you had a bad expierience but personally I have the Lowest model 15 they make and they are MUCH better then 75% of 15s ive demo'd offcourse my amp is of as good or better quality, i wouldnt put soundstream in my car.... but,.... to each his own.....but there is truth in the statement; go with what you like to hear as its your $, and work going into what YOU have to listen to...that hifonics amp wouls suit those type rs nicely tho 2001impala

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94 Crown Vic LX
Pioneer DEH-P6700MP
Kicker IQ900
Alpine MRD-M605
Lightning Audio B2.300.4
Alpine SPS-571A
Sony XS-V1630A
JL Audio 15wo x2