R33 Gtr - Speaker/amp Wiring - Audio Gear Recommendation's Advice Needed

[Booki]

Hey everyone,

I recently installed a Pioneer headunit, but i am wanting more out of my current audio setup.

I believe the speakers i currently have are just stock, the reason i believe they are stock is because, In my opinion, they are terrible.

They lack bass, clarity and volume (though im sure running them just off the headunit is not going to help) Sure they go loud, but distort at very low volume levels. (Note i always have my equilizers settings "flat" with none of the headunit's "enhancement" features turned on, prefer to hear the track the way it was made)

So here comes my questions.

In short:

1. What coaxial's would give me better/equivilent sound to alpine type r component's?

2. Should i bother amping just speakers? Will i get some decent bass, volume and clarity from new speakers just running from the head unit?

3. Should i buy a sub or 6x9's for bass?

4. is there any preference on which side to run power leads/rca's? I assume speaker wires are OK to run along side RCA's, but the "remote" wire from the headunit should not be run along side them?

I will say this, replacing my speakers is a must. A sub, ehhhh i am totally not sold on putting one in yet.

Now I really don't want component speakers, I don't want to mold a custom A pillar mount for them, or have them visiable on the dash/console somewhere ( i think it looks pox), or cut into my door trims (I like to keep things looking factory, pedantic i know). In my previous ride, i had some Alpine Type R components. Will i be able to get similar sound (pref better!) out of a set of good quality coaxial speakers? If so can anybody recommend me some? the bloke down at JB reckens JL audio coaxial's are the go.

Reason being i am not sold on a sub is i have heard some people use "bassy" 6x9's in the rear to get some bass. I am sure its not sub like quality, but would this be a proper alternative? or are the people suggesting 6x9's are decent just crazy?

Should i bother amping my new speakers? Or will be headunit be powerful enough to handle them?

If I choose to go down the amp path, i have heard some people use the existing factory speaker wiring, are there any negatives about using the factory speaker wire while installing a amp? I would only consider this option, if i did not have to strip everything out of the car (ie front and rear seats).

Also to confirm, my battery is in the boot (Believe this is the case for all GTR's), is there any preference on which side to run power leads/rca's? I assume speaker wires are OK to run along side RCA's, but the "remote" wire from the headunit should not be run along side them?

Any advice, input would be much appreciated before i go splashing cash on a audio gear

[Carbon 34]

Pull off a door panel and look most stock speakers arent in skylines but could be alpine or pioneer ( carozza) or panasonic from japan

If there stock still ditch them anything is a huge improvement even cheapos are better

Did you hook them up in phase ? One out of phase cancels the bass from the other one and distortion is easy? Both need positive to positive , neg to neg

Take your fav tunes mix on cd with you to listen to speakers ?

Use your ears i cant tell you what is the best for your ears or wallet ?

Like all companys they make cheap, mid, expensive models type R are mid range models

You might find silk tweeters sound the smoothest but some people like titanium for the cymbals with brushes sound?

Or poly dome for cost ??

watch for depth on speakers magnets

Dont overlook kenwood or pioneer stuff they top line models sound great !!

Budget wise you can spend 20 bucks to 20,000 a pair lol

Amp will always sound better then deck power no exceptions

Run rca away from computers and factory wiring harness if possible ? The trigger lead can be run with rca just dont wind it around the rca !! Some rca have triggers built into them

Power wire goes down other side same deal steer clear of factory wires and computers /relays as best you can , tape the wire down and use the grooves in the floor pan cross factory wires at 90 degrees across not parallel touching them

Ground the amp near the amp dont extend it , dont ground right to battery on gtr models it can cause service issues

If you go big the factory gtr power wire will need upgraded too!! (expensive )

The battery needs to be decent not a add water model or jap tiny connections ( pay now or pay later twice ) water batteries are a defect in the boot anyhow and not wise near amps that switch on and off ( car go boom!!)

you must run wires properly which in most cases the seats all need to come out !! Plus you find all the things dropped over the years coins, coke spills, crud, sometimes things from japan you name it , makes a good time for a serious clean up of the carpets ?

Runnning speak wires in your case to the back of the radio and splice in there , its twice the work to get them into the doors and if your just doing it basic you wont know the difference they can run with rca area but try to seperate them a bit , best choice rca one side , amp power other side

Speaker wires middle of the car to deck or down each side to doors apart from other wires they dont pick up noise as easy

Dont use 6x9s ever !!! they suck and only made because Gm had that size space available in a rear deck no other reason , most car companies came up with nonstandard sizes at one point or another just like decks

Buy a sub even a small one under 100 bucks sounds way better then 6x9's ever will plus on track days you can remove it if you desire ?

Yes you can get better speakers in coax then alpine type R

Have a look at jaycar try the vifa models decent for the cost

Lots of coax options just make sure they dont run them thru a lot of power on the demo boards unless you plan on the same setup ? Yes deck power can be used but limited to about 17-20 watts clean before distortion sets in on a 50-60w deck and it gets worse as the deck heats up !!!

Set. Budget get test music in hand and go listen to some speakers then decide

Skylines are loud so remember amp on the speakers to overcome noise and sounddeaden at least the front doors

Think that covers it for the second time now

[Booki]

When you say did you hook them up in Phase, I am not sure what you are referring too?

So you are recommending me to run with the original factory speaker wires, splice at the rear of the head unit then run down to the boot?

This might sound silly, but can you still get decent bass from coaxial speakers?

Can you recommend me some models? I am sure if type r splits are classified as mid range, anything that is higher end coaxial's would sound better.

[Carbon 34]

Speaker phase ,= when you run the right front positive wire to the right front speaker positive, same for neg wire

And same for other front speaker

And if you have back ones they should be in phase or 180 out of phase depending on the car acoustics and decks settings on reverb etc.

If you hook one front or rear with neg to pos and the other just the opposite the bass wave cancels out about 80% of the bass ( depending on distance and freq. speed of sound at that temp and humidity and reflections in the cabin) if you hooked up one side front and rear wrong it would sound shocking bad , or if you have one front hooked up to a rear and one on the opposite front you would have a phase delay and cancellation again but more of an echo delay

its easy to check without tools in most cases

fade the radio to the fronts them all the way right them to left a mid volume cd not radio does one side sound a lot more bass ?? if so more them likely a out of phase speaker or bad one

If you have back speakers fade alll the way to back repeat process shouldnt have a dramatic bass increase from one side to the other they should sound even then in middle position it should get louder bass not lower bass output

Decent bass from coax ? not enough for me. Unless its am talk radio only ... Lol

And coax limits you so much already to a mid range setup not very many really good coax exist

then the real good ones get to deep to fit the door without some fabrication

like before i can recommend any because you need a budget and to listen to some different tweeter types , a poly cone woofer will sound deeper and not so muffled as well , carbon, kevlar and other super stiff cones are fine for amp systems but deck power the poly cone models have a higher db @1watt at 4 ohms rating and still plays pretty low

So they work well and dont cost a mint

You could do custom and buy the parts to do a nice set of splits that rock hard and sound sweet and still use factory grills etc , then you could build a crossover and use a real woofer not a mid acting like a woofer , the parts would be top range and used in many thousand dollar home speakers

but you have to use a dynmat type product no exceptions to get deeper bass and lower the noise from the car ( jaycar dynamat stuff not recommended for doors if falls off in the heat )

And just because some speakers cost a mint doesnt mean they sound better !!! i know many brands that mark up to the moon but you can buy same raw drivers retail and build better crossovers for a fraction of the cost , you dont get fancy grills or packaging and you get the real companies name not a rebranded one?

Depends on how skilled you are or $$

just buy a cheap powered sub and some coax , get type R outta your head haha

Alpine has a few new types now !! And alpines models changed over the years a lot so a new type R isnt the same as old ones , not even made in the same country as before on the subs

Dont get me wrong i love alpine but so many other and better choices now and money is tighter? so you might look around

[Booki]

Budget would be around $300-$400 on a set of front coaxial's.

Edited March 23, 2012 by Booki

[drgtr7]

Excellent advice there carbon!