under $500 for sure, as far as music goes: Trance, House, Techno, and the occasional rap or rock song.

 

If you have a cd player that you can use for now, do that. Otherwise the balance of the system is going right down le toilet. To find all of that gear new with warranty is going to be some pretty marginal quality of equipment. To me it sounds like you have had your share of problems already.

Use the cd player and channel the balance of the $500.00 towards a good starter system that you can build on in the future. Use a 4 channel amp to power the front speakers and one sub. Use the cd player to power the rear speakers.

Down the road, change the cd player. Down the road, add a larger sub amp (capable of running 2 subs) and use the 4 channel to drive the front and rear speakers. Down the road, add the second sub to the system.

End result, you have not thrown your cash away to buy what you should have done the first time. Invest once and buy the right gear for the long term.

 

I think you should not have a problem getting into some fairly decent gear that includes everything. I PM'ed you.

 

Cool, I got the PM. I'm gonna try to save some $$ too by buidling the box myself, but it won't be much. Only problem is, that this money will flow in over time, so I'm going to unfortunately have to buy piece by piece. Luckily I have all the wiring i need already running throughout the car, so the teedious panel/seat removing is over. I think I'll start with a new deck first, and just leave my rear amp unplugged. then I'll buy an amp to replace it, but leave that unplugged until I buy the subs+box. On top of that a credit-card is on the way, so system (and debt ) here i come!