Hey guys, so after some consideration I felt like it is time to finally start upgrading my car stereo. I have been "browsing" a lot of stuff online and doing some research but alas I am not very electrically saavy, so this makes everything a bit tricky for me. I want the right stuff for the right price and verified by somebody with experience (but hey don't we all)

My first step I took was to upgrade the stock 6.5's in all 4 of my doors with these
TS-A1674R - 6½" 3-Way Speaker | Pioneer Electronics USA

and the next thing I am after is my HU. I am pretty set on this one for the many features it has and Pioneer's extensive past with HU's....just to say it BIG FAN !

Pioneer DEH-X6500BT CD receiver at Crutchfield.com

My question is about the next step. I am looking for a amp to push my new 6.5's efficiently and flawlessly if possible. Something with more than enough power than minimum requirements for the overhead and distortion to be taken care of. Something with pretty damn good sound quality that doesnt hit above the 225$ ish area.

This amp will be strictly for the doors because I want to add to this in the near future with 2 12" subs in a box, and their own amp to power them, but that is a few months out money wise and I will be all about asking questions when I get to that point.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and I will be taking serious consideration into the responses posted because I trust you all with my money haha.

 

I REALLY hope you didn't pay $100 for each set of those speakers. That's an outrageous price when they can be had almost anywhere for less than half that price.

That aside, those speakers are rated for 35wrms which isn't a whole lot at all and you're not going to find many amplifiers that are rated for that low of power much anymore. The good news is, as long you do a good job of setting the high pass crossover on the HU and are careful with the volume **** and setting the gains you'll be fine with a little extra power on them. As a matter of fact the headroom can help keep distortion from being an issue and make the dynamics of the music more pronounced.

These are the ones I would recommend:

Rockford Fosgate Prime R300-4 - $125

Pioneer GM6500F - $130

Kenwood KAC-2404S - $105


You can get great amp wiring kits from KnuKonceptz as well. I use them for all my amp wiring and car audio needs. The prices are hard to beat and the products are fantastic.

Also make certain that the installation of your speakers is as good as it can possibly be. I've seen example after example of a person with cheaper speakers that took the time and spent a few dollars to make sure the installation was perfect that sounded amazing. On the flip side I've seen very expensive speakers that were just thrown in the vehicle with no care as to how and they sounded like absolute crap. The best recommendations I can make for any speaker installation is to be sure it's mounted to a solid baffle. The plastic rings the factory speakers are mounted to or the sheet metal itself DO NOT fall into that category. Cutting out a couple of rings from wood do a much better job. A good baffle helps eliminate energy losses, cleans up midrange and lowers distortion. Sound deadening is the next step in the process. CLD tiles such as Dynamat, SecondSkin's Damplifier, etc. stop panel resonances and further help to reduce losses and lower distortion. Remember there's no need to cover everything with it, 25% coverage on each panel is sufficient. CCF (closed cell foam) is applied with 100% coverage over each panel, between the sheet metal and plastic trim panels to stop rattles. Lastly MLV (mass loaded vinyl) is used to block unwanted noise outside the vehicle from entering. Using the entire system results in a vehicle that is better than luxury car quiet while driving and give the speakers and the music the best chances at sounding as they were intended to. I would suggest heading over to SoundDeadenerShowdown to check out all the how to's and the much better explanations and examples of how each of the products works and why.

Go ahead and start asking questions about the subs and such now. May as well go into it with a good game plan made up as early as possible.

 

Your my hero ! That needs to be said now.

For the door Pioneers I may have made a couple mistakes, not huge, and can be fixed. First being I shoulda shopped around for better options as far as those 6.5's. I found them onsale for 33 a pair (could'nt find sale again, hence linking pioneers webpage). Also when installing the front right door I broke the blue housing for the speaker and now its wayyyy ghetto, but with your suggestions as far as mounting I think I will take the time and fix each one individually and remount them properly. I plan on replacing two of these with components later on and upgrading them period. Quick buy, not a biggie.

About the amps, I really like the rockford fosgate stats and how they check out with reguards to the proper output of power. I have heard tons of great things about their amps over the years and customer reviews are also great (bonus). Really looking into this one in the near future.

As for the game plan, GREAT IDEA! I just wanted to start with the H/U and amp, but setting up for the rest of this install is definitely the way to go. I have been planning on getting one piece at a time every few weeks because of funds. Slow and steady will win this race if done right !
My plan was on 2 12's with a custom box built to their specifications (cubic air space, ported or non, etc) and a seperate amp just for those. Both of which are yet to be determined. I will start looking into what I may want with plenty of consideration to your responses!

Sound deadening ! I know what you mean about sound interference my blazer rattles in many places and the door panels drive me nuts. I want to dynamat a good portion of all the panels, head liner, tailgate and carpeting. Never heard of the full coverage foam, but I love the sound of a quiet vehicle so I will be researching that with the plenty of other things to look into.

I will be finally able to start this project after this weekend when I finally replace my drivers side door and all of it's problems. Haven't been able to lock my car for over a year (long story) and was no point buying a system that I couldn't protect.

Thanks a ton for the information thus far, might have to start my own build thread with this stuff in there haha, and thanks again for the website find ! Cheaper than crutchfield !

 

Well with the last couple days to sit and think some more things out, I have come to a conclusion on my HU. I didn't think much about the quality of the Pioneer, I was just attracted to the blinky lights and such....amateur me haha. Was thinking about a different one some double din action.

Sony XAV64BT 6.1" LCD Touchscreen Car Receiver with Bluetooth

thoughts? seems like it has more room to adjust sound settings than the Pioneer and much much more features/goodies to be happy with. Always wanted a DVD player in my vehicle, now I can ! Just gotta follow the post about adding a double din, with my 97' I think I just gotta either cut out some back supports and/or find the double din bezel. Current unit is the stock H/U that is 3.75"x8"

 

There's nothing wrong with getting things moving with something temporary, especially for that cheap. Besides that a person should never think the first, second and maybe even third set of speakers they buy is going to be their last, there's always room for improvement. Making a custom wood baffle will help their response and midbass output noticeably. It's well worth the time and effort and if you need any help just ask.

I think you're making a very wise decision there.

Dern skippy. It's always best to have some type of plan. There's no reason not to make changes to the plan as you go, especiallly if it's beneficial to the end result, but a COMPLETE plan to work toward always helps things go smoother in the long run. Start by identifying the goals of the build. Exactly what do you want it to do, sound like, etc. Then the budget you'd like to stick to. Then we can work in suggestions to meet the goals while (hopefully) staying within the budget. Buying one piece at a time is great way to go about it. I helps to keep things open for changes too.

I meant full coverage of foam or CCF. Ideally you want the entire panel covered by the CCF to prevent the hard surfaces from hitting each other which is what causes the rattles. Reading up on the Sound Deadener Showdown website will help answer most questions you'll have about deadening and help your understanding of how they work and why. Then if you still have any questions or concerns I'm here to help. You won't believe the difference a good deadening application can make, especially in these trucks.

Crap, yeah thievery sucks. Glad to hear you're getting that fixed before dropping cash on the system, that's for sure. As for the build log, you should DEFINITELY put one up. It's always great to see the builds evolve and progress.


It's easy to get caught up in the lights, bells and whistles. It's good to see you've put a little more thought into the HU. I'm not certain of the budget you're planning to put toward the HU but there's a few other things to consider. First is the number of RCA's. A HU with front, rear and subwoofer outputs will make it easier to make adjustments and control speaker levels and such for each set of speakers. While a number of bands of EQ adjustment are nice, it's not the most important thing. It's good to have adjustment, but it shouldn't be the one deciding factor. Crossovers and time alignment are great to have as well. Crossovers built into the HU make it much easier to choose the range of frequencies each set of speakers play. Most amps have them built in, but with the dials it's difficult to be certain what frequency it's actually set to. There's no guessing with the numbers on the HU. Time alignment adjusts the time the sound wave plays on each speaker. What that does is allow the user to make it so the sound wave from each speaker reaches them at the exact same time. It improves staging and imaging and basically helps make it sound like the band is performing right in front of you. If you're not dead set on a double din HU yet I would highly suggest the Clarion CZ702. It's a single din unit with every option I mentioned above but it's still easy to use and setup. It's good for simpler setups yet powerful enough for some of the most powerful and complex. Most places that sell it have it for under $200 ($170 at the link I posted above). I love mine.

There's a lot of things to consider with this hobby and when you're actually concerned about what it really sounds like. The more you're concerned the more difficult it becomes to get right, lol. I'm at the point now with my Jimmy that I just keep hearing things that I'm not happy with and I keep spending money to get it perfect. I dropped $200 recently for an amp, wiring, etc. just and only to run the tweeters in the truck, lol.

 

Heya ! Update ! Order placed for the Clarion CZ702 ! Should be here within this upcoming week. Gonna have to start that audio build thread soon.

edit: Also working on my big 3 upgrade as I type, at work tonight. Got my battery positive to alternator done, working on the ground to battery negative. Kinda hard to get that damn terminal onto the neg battery, really don't want to stop this and go get post extensions If/when I work that part out, last wire is from there to the engine block ground...and then voila ! All set for the rest of the build...I think !
Will update further.

 

Big 3 Finished, Deck will be here tomorrow ! So now time to continue on with the game plan.

Been looking around at some subs in the price range I want, and found some things that tickle my fancy.

Thoughts on these particular subs?
Kicker 10CVX124 (10CVX12-4) 12" Dual 4 ohm CompVX Subwoofer
or these ?
Rockford Fosgate T1D212 (T1D2-12) 12" Dual 2 ohm Power T1 Sub

Would take me a month or two to get them ordered one at a time and have them here, which would give me time to start on picking the correct amp/amps and start on the enclosure ahead of time. I'm partial to either, both look amazing, great reviews, and obvious track record of great products across the board. Just want to hear peoples personal preference or experience with Kicker and RF subs.

 

Those are decent subs for sure and they would probably serve you well, but for the money you could pick up a truly fantastic sub that is built right here in the good 'ol USA that will serve you much better. I would highly recommend something from Fi, SSA, or Incriminatory Audio before any other brand. I have a pair of 12" Fi Q series subs in my wife's van. The pure and unadulterated quality they produce at output levels that make your ears, nose and eyelashes tickle just has to be heard to be believed. My sister has a single 12" SSA DCON on about 500 watts gives output that would put a smile on anyone's face while easily keeping its composure maintaining clean tight response.

They're built tougher than you can imagine and are completely rebuildible should an issue ever occur. Check out:
www.ficaraudio.com
www.soundsolutionsaudio.com
www.incriminatoraudio.com

I think you'll REALLY like what you find in each of those companies.

 

I hate typing on my phone. When I get back to my laptop tomorrow I'll elaborate more.

 

Oh wow, never even looked into any of these companies. In just 20 mins of browsing I have decided USA is the way to go haha. So much quality !! Now i'm kinda overwhelmed at the options. Torn already.

GCON-12 Sound Solutions Audio 12" 750W GCON Series Subwoofer - SSA STORE

or

Q12 - Fi Car Audio Store

Also, I know very little about subs, except they produce bass ! So the features and options list for the Q's have me lost. Don't know what to add, whats actually necessary, what the options do.

The DCON's just one option Dual 2ohm or Dual 4ohm which is simple....but I don't know what that means either....feeling dumb. What would be more ideal 2 or 4, what's the difference !? Help

On a side note Alton, you have once again blown my mind, and the educated decisions your helping me make are EXTREMELY appreciated. Thank you for all responses previous and future, your the man !