What type of differences would you be expecting to hear?

 

This is a little different than what everyone else is posting but its my list of what I think is important for a decent system.

Items listed in order of importance.

1. Good Speaker locations decided by one or two seat competition class.
A. For a two seat class: Kick panel speakers with pillar tweeters added for stage height. Dedicated midbass drivers for solid midbass performance.
B. For a one seat install Speakers can go anyplace upfront. Doors, pillars, dash & Kicks are all options.

2. Good speaker installtion.
A. Angles on drivers for best imaging.
B. Correct enclosure sizes
C. Sounddeadener installed to help with rattles or resonance.

3. Good Quality speakers.
A. Buying good quality speakers can have a huge effect on how the system sounds. Spend lots of time listening and researching until you find what fits your taste. Dont be afraid to drop some real cash on high end speakers. Its worth the Money!

3. Processor to meet the system needs.
A. Think about how many channels of crossover you will need to run an all active system.There's no substitue for being able to adjust , crossover frequency,Slope, Phase and Signal delay for every speaker in the system.
B. Dual 30 band equilzer to give the ability to adjust the left channel seperatly from the right.
C. A processor thats user friendly and can be ajusted from the drivers seat.

4. Amplifiers.
A. Good quality amps with low noise floor and no turn on/off problems.
B. Double the power for midbass drivers and double again for the subs.

5. Head unit.
A. Good qualtity CD player from a brand you trust.
B. Look for the options you want for your system.

6. Correct Power wire gauge and connections

7. Speaker wire.
A. Buy from a brand you trust.
Atleast 16 gauge for tweeters.
Atleast 14 gauge for Mids.
Atleast 12 gauge for Subs.

8. Acoustic treatments.
A. Open cell Foam installed on surfaces near speakers or your ears.

 

Which part affects the sound and how?

 

And maybe finally;
What is a good sound?
Do you have a reference?
Is it just taste?

 

After spending tens of thousands of dollars on home hi-fi and about 30 years of practical experience gear, I can sum it up for you like this - As close to the original production as possible.

Taste is always yours to go after, nothing wrong with that. There are some characteristics that will help you 'judge' good sound. Things to consider are depth, placement, dynamics, tonality, and distortion are all VERY easy to identify and gauge. Granted without a reference of what the original looked and sounded like, it really becomes subjective.

If anyone wants to hear a bunch of different audio components (in home, but principals are the same) in order to determine if there is an audible difference let me know. I've done lots of ABX tests. I'd also be glad to demonstrate the different characteristics of sound so that you are forever damaged and will never enjoy home or car audio like you used to

You could even wire up you car amps and bring them into my room. It's acoustically 'good' and we've measure many a component in here.

 

Nice, I bet in that room you can hear all kinds of differences.

It really depends, inside the car with not as efficient speakers (and enclosures) will be more difficult to hear slight changes on the audio, but I agree with the order, speakers first, then the rest. The harmonic distortion coming from a bad speaker can be 20, 30%.

Now you need to be very careful, do a true ABX test, I know lots of "experts" that knows all about audio differences on amps, cables, air density, moon, pff.

 

Amps: IMO no if their the same wattage running same system.

Cables: Im guessing yes, but only if you have horrible stock ones. In my 85' I noticed a very slight differance in the sound/background buzz when I installed monster cable (Found 20ft. for under 10 bucks at a farm store)

Decks: Slightly. I noticed a difference when I bought my newish ken-wood deck over a old jvc

Speakers: Hell yeah!

Box: Yep no questions asked! The box makes or breaks the system.

 

Based on a cost vs rewards I'd put my money first into speakers cause you can have the best of everything else but in the end your speakers (and environment) are usually the limiting factor in obtaining audio extacy, followed by vehicle prep/labour/sound dampening/enclosures. I'm grouping these together as I've pieced together some cheap packages and through sound installation technics eliminating noise from cheap cables,decks and amps, compensated for excessive road noise, rattles and squeeks with sound dampening, and made crap speakers sound good with a proper enclosure and quality x-over.
Next is the head unit. Gotta pay for features and performance within reason. Equalization/ x-over/time alignment are a big factor in determining your choice of amplifier.
As for amplifiers, gotta have enough power to drive your speakers cleanly without melting the voice coil. Distorsion kills speakers. Amp must be able to run any system I have for 8 hrs without cutting out or self destructing. Also for SQ don't load down the amp if you want it to sound good for any length of time. As heat increases so does distorsion. Stay away from classD amps for the best sound quality. Good for subs but a nice class A A/B for me please!

Bottom line is a talented technician can do wonders with mediocre products and miracles with quality product but a hack can make the best product sound like crap.

and thats all I've got to say about that.

Cheers

 

I'd agree with most of that. Welcome to the forum bigk

 

^Yeah but Kev doesn't know what he is talking about anyway though


just kidding