What to buy?

[Fhrx]

you have to get the doors deadened siddr

only $150 and some elbow grease.

Amen bro!

Edited July 7, 2006 by Fhrx

[RANDY]

Ergh... I have to get around to doing this too! I'm not looking forward to touching that window-sealant black gunk. =-[

[wolverine]

regarding the black window goop, solvent strips it easily (ie whatever doesn't peel off) and you get a lovely buzz off the solvent but that is another topic.

[RANDY]

Ermm... what kind of solvent? If you know of one that will take the goo off but not eat my paint or damage the rubber door-seal, i'm all ears!

Cheers!

[wolverine]

prepsol or equivalent should look like this before and after

Edited July 8, 2006 by wolverine

[siddr20]

I know i know!!

thats on my 'To do list', so will get it done soon!!

Just chasing a bit of power for the car first..

but slowly getting there!!

[raz0r$harP.UK]

Decided to create a consolidated thread for everyone to voice their opinions and ideas here. From now on any one posting about opinions on the following items will have their threads merged into this one:

- what headunit to buy

- what speakers to get

- alarms

etc

Any other questions (eg problems, technical advice) will remain as they are.

Cheers,

Vijay

[raz0r$harP.UK]

Spare post. RESERVED.

[raz0r$harP.UK]

Spare post. RESERVED.

[Kinks]

Ermm... what kind of solvent? If you know of one that will take the goo off but not eat my paint or damage the rubber door-seal, i'm all ears!

Cheers!

wax and grease remover..

http://www.caraudioaustralia.com/content.php?contentID=19

[Marlboro Reds]

hi guys,

i have a jvc headunit atm

running 2 150watt 6.5" mtx tdx6502 2 way speakers

with NO speakers in the front atm

got a 2 ch cadence amp in the boot

which combination would you guys reccommend?:

1.put new 6x9s in the rear and chuck the 6.5"s in the front,

which is going to need alot of customising with mdf ( after reading a few threads in the forum)

and get a new subs later

2.just leave the 6.5"s in the rear and buy new subs?

buy front splits later

i normally jam up rnb and techno (which needs ALOT of bass)

any help will be appreciated

thanks in advance guys

ryan

[Chris Rogers]

where are you out of curiosity.

what do you want to spend on it?

tell me that and I'll make a few suggestions.

[Marlboro Reds]

hi chris!

i'm from melbourne,

willing to spend around 500 for speakers and sub, that is when i start saving up!

[Betz]

I have to get a few things on my car fixed and am going to upgrade the stereo at the same time so I was after some advise...

the car is a r32 GTR and what I've been quoted on is this:

Clarion mp3/usb headunit $310

Clarion 5" splits for the front $110

Clarion 6.5" 3 way rears $100

Clarion 12" Sub $190

Clarion monoblock amp $220

Fitting + cables etc $250

now origonally I was going to have 2 or 3way in the front and 6.5" splits in the rear with a 4 chan amp with 2 chanels bridged to drive the sub...

the salesman talked me out of this and sugested the option I listed.

so whats the go? or do you have a better suggestion for me?

brilliant idea.

lock my thread and ask me to ask my Q here for sweet fruck all response

Edited August 22, 2006 by Betz

[R34 Sedan]

Ah yeah, I run a newer amp now... the JayCar 100wrms unit, which seems to drive them just as well as my old (large) amp. I have the balance faded to the front (+7), and the JBL's still flop around like crazy. I'm running the higher end crossover, so they are hardly getting any lower frequencies. This has stopped them from throwing the coils, but now have ZERO bass.

I might get another pair of Clarion splits, as I had suggested... $200 new, I can find them for $100ish nowdays... the new models have brought the older ones down.

Hey, if you really want to install a proper system you MUST have the same brand and series of speakers in the front and rear. They don't necessarily have to be the splits but they must be a Clarion speaker from the same series. As you don't need split's in the rear, a clarion 2 way coaxial 6.5" speaker (from the same series) would probably be a good choice.

The reason they must be the same front and rear is they must be made of the same material (to really sound good), and have the same crossovers or you can end up with phase issues.

The sub can be a different make of speaker but the front and rears must be the same. If you want any real bass or volume you definately need a seperate power amp. Contrary to popular belief your amp should always be rated higher than you speakers.

[R34 Sedan]

I have to get a few things on my car fixed and am going to upgrade the stereo at the same time so I was after some advise...

the car is a r32 GTR and what I've been quoted on is this:

Clarion mp3/usb headunit $310

Clarion 5" splits for the front $110

Clarion 6.5" 3 way rears $100

Clarion 12" Sub $190

Clarion monoblock amp $220

Fitting + cables etc $250

now origonally I was going to have 2 or 3way in the front and 6.5" splits in the rear with a 4 chan amp with 2 chanels bridged to drive the sub...

the salesman talked me out of this and sugested the option I listed.

so whats the go? or do you have a better suggestion for me?

brilliant idea.

lock my thread and ask me to ask my Q here for sweet fruck all response

Yeah I see what the sales man is saying, you want your splits in the front with the treaters mounted on the dash board (facing you), as this is where all your high end comes from. Split's in the rear are a complete waste of time, the rear is really only used for fill. You want most of your sound (especially the high end) comming from the front.

I'd go the 5" split's (or 6" if they fit) in the front, and either 2 or 3 way 6.5" coaxials in the rear.

The clarion mono block amp sounds fine, but I would also definately get an amp for the front and rears as well.

[nemz]

if you want equipment stuff i would suggest

decks -

alpine

kenwood

jvc

coax's/splits

mtx

kicker

earthquake

bostons

alpine

subs

audiobahn

mtx

alpine

earthquake

kicker

amps

earthquake

alpine

kenwood

soundstorm

jbl

stuff i have had problems with

- rockford fosgate power series 6.5 " coax, there top of the range coax's 2 sets

- pioneer deck + pioneer speakers + pioneer mono block

- sony.. only thing that compares to pioneer for cheaply made china crap at overly expensive prices.. but her it looks pretty

- fusion subs 1 tore a surround and another just stopped working

- pyle mono block (was great while it worked but shorted out very easy)

- cadence rca cables, they are crap, look awsome but really poor workmanship, friend also had problems with his cadence amp cutting out

- boss audio subs, haha what a laugh u buy them to blow them up just for something to do

any way i hope i helped some people with there descisions

[nemz]

also what to look out when purchasing equipment

power ratings can be very descieving as companies like pioneer sony etc throw on brandings like 400 watts or 350 watts which is peak power, all these ratings are false, as they cant run on peak power for more then about a second or 2 before they will blow, same as amps subs etc

generaly with the most common brand name stuff like sony kenwood pioneer etc they speakers are usually about a quarter or less of what the peak is, so how can you make sure how powerful they really are? check for nominal power rating or continious power rating aka rms this is the best indicator of how much power they can handle, generally for an average system about 50watt rms will be more then enough for your 6"s and about 60+ should be nice for 6x9's, subs you want to have at least 300 watt rms or more to have enough kick

with amps you need to be very careful as underpowering your speakers will cause sound clipping and damage you speakers, how do you know if you have sound clipping? you will hear when you crank up the volume, distortion and loss of certain sounds or a jerky inconsistant sound.

how to make sure your amp can run your speakers? as mentioned before look at rms ratings not peak power, so if you have 2 sets of 60 watt rms speakers you will need a 4 channel amp which around 70 watt rms x 4 and just leave the gain down a little, with subs same again if you have a sub which is 400 watt rms you will need an amp which is say 350-500 watt rms to power it properly, you also need to keep an eye out for a thing called Ohms too, i beleive it is a rating of ristance/current, so how does this work? well most rms ratings are at 4Ohms for car speakers some times may be rated at 2 or 1 or even 8, basically easiest way to work this out is say something @ 4 Ohms is 500 watt rms, 2 Ohms will be double the value so will go upto 1000 watt rms @ 2Ohm, and 2000 watt at 1Ohm and if it went upto 8Ohms would be 250 watt rms

BE CAREFUL!! not everything can run @ any ohms some amps may only be able to do 4Ohm and some may be able to do anything you want safely so make sure the ohms rating and power ratings all match up before you purchase your product as poor product selection will resualt in bad sound and possibly speaker damage

as for wiring, always make sure you rca's and speaker wires are not near your power cable, your ground wires always need to be either same size or larger then your power wire

for general systems your single 8awg wire will be enough to run 1 or 2 amps under about 300 watt rms each, as you start getting bigger you need to look at 4awg to 0awg which is the fattest, and remember make sure you ground is bigger then the power!! example if you have 8guage wire from engine to amp you will need at least 8 guage as a ground to the amp, or even better 4 guage!

if any one has any questions or did not quite understand please feel free to ask, and if any one disagree's on what i have said, i am not a professional, just what i have learnt in the last few years wasting on money on audio equip and installing

thanks for reading hope i helped

[R34 Sedan]

Yeah I agree with what your saying, esecially with regards to power ratings.

As you said only ever look at RMS ratings (peak is a crock), and make sure your amps are rated at least a little higher than your speakers.

Only thing I would disagree with is some of your brand preferences (although I guess it partly comes down to personal preference):

Highy end decks

I don't like kenwood

JVC and Clarion are good

My preference would be alpine

coax's/splits

mtx (don't know)

kicker (Good)

earthquake (Good)

bostons (Excellent)

alpine (Good)

My preference for speakers would DEFINATELY be Focal

subs

audiobahn (Don't know)

mtx (Don't know)

alpine (Good)

earthquake (Good)

kicker (Good)

My preference for subs would DEFINATELY be Focal

amps

earthquake (Good)

alpine (Good to high end)

kenwood (Don't like)

soundstorm (Don't know)

jbl (Good)

JL also make some of the best amps around and would be well worth considering

[understated]

I've got around $600 to spend on a security system in my skyline. What would you guys recommend? Its a series 2 R33 2 door gts-t.

Edited October 18, 2006 by understated