building a system

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04-08-2005, 02:23 PM

submission47

0 Watt CAFz'r

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Join Date: Apr 2005

Posts: 3

I'm looking to spend anywhere from $1200-$1800 on a system for when I buy my car, I'm probably going to get a friend to help me to install this so I don't have to worry about paying out instalation but what would be the best amp, subs, and deck for that price range? I don't know much about what makes a good system but I love music and I like my music to sound good so any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

04-08-2005, 02:38 PM

Dereck Waller

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I am not going to suggest brands, but depending on what vehicle you have here is what I would do. If the car has a cd player that does what you want feature wise I would use the factory one. Otherwise get yourself a good quality head unit with sub woofer level control. From there I would recomend a quality 4 or 5 channel amp. If you get a 4 channel bridge the rear channels to run your subs, and use the decks speaker outputs to run your rear speakers. Then get 1 or 2 10 or twelve inch subs depending on how much bass you want and how much space you are willing to lose. Take the rest of the money and invest it in your front speakers and sound deadening. Of course you will need wire etc for the amp.

04-08-2005, 04:59 PM

Brandon

4000 Watt CAFz'r

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Join Date: Jan 2001

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Great suggestion by Dereck.

I however would do the following:

buy a quality deck with a sub output, buy decent amps (Rockford are great amps to start out with) grab a 4 channel with relatively big output or a 4 channel and a 2 channel if money allows. When it comes to power ground and speaker wire, don't waste alot of money on the expensive stuff, Radioshack 14AWG is MORE than sufficent for speakers and Welding cable is quite cheap for power and works as well as any high priced cable, I have FAR too much money worth of wire and RCA in my car, don't follow my example. But spend a bit and get a good quality set of RCA's.....buy the 30-40 dollar set and you'll have it forever...or be like me and get the 100 dollar stuff, I'll have that stuff for as long as I live...excellent RCA's.....back on topic.

There is probably a hundred or more AWESOME sets of speakers out there that are fairly in-expensive, and the same goes with subs. Don't be afraid to ask people on this forum about different kinds of speakers as many people have experience with lots of different speakers and subs. And ALWAYS go listen to as many sets of speakers you can...only you can decide what's best for you.

As you're just starting out, replace your stock speakers with something better that will still fit in the stock locations....a single 12 is ideal in any situation, a 12 is the favoured size among many competitors.....most new subs don't need a lot of box so it won't take up much room.

Anyway, good luck, and don't be afraid to ask lots of questions, there are a TON of very knowledgeable people on this forum, some even own,have built or have helped build world class competition cars.

04-08-2005, 11:48 PM

submission47

0 Watt CAFz'r

Thread Starter

Join Date: Apr 2005

Posts: 3

thanks for the advice, just reading a few of these threads I can tell you guys know what you're talking about. That's why I came here, originally I was looking at the futureshop website reading reviews trying to figure out what to buy.

04-09-2005, 09:39 AM

maltesechicken

2000 Watt CAFz'r

Join Date: Jan 2001

Posts: 2,026

I agree with DWVW too; however I differ on one point. If you are bridging channels 3 & 4 for the subs, be careful of the load you present the amp. You will need a 4 ohm final load. That means 1 4ohm SVC sub, or 1 2ohm DVC sub, or 2 4ohm DVC subs. Don't get 2 4ohm SVC subs because that will give the amp a 2 ohm mono load which most amps cannot handle (Rockford Power series can handle that but Rockford Punch series cannot).

FYI:
SVC = single voice coil
DVC = Dual voice coil