Upgrading stereo system

[Grayle]

Ok guys, I know next to nothing about car audio. My girlfriends 2001 convertible didn't come with the mach 460, and she wants to have a louder, more bassy system. She likes the way the mach 460 sounds. Any advice??

[95mustanggt]

Not sure what you are after here. If you jsut want a louber system then go to your local sound shop (Even Best Buy) and get your self a new deck, a couple component speakers, an amp and a 10" sub. Have it professionally installed.

[tireburner163]

First of all get a new deck....I like the Pioneer units.

Second, replace your factory speakers with aftermarket units...I like the Alpine Type-R's. I'd suggest 3-way units. Stay away from Jensen and other crappy brands.

If she's not satified then, add a 10" sub in a sealed box and a 300 or so rms watt amp....I would suggest a Kicker Comp VR or a Alpine type-R. for subs I would use a JBL BP300x1 for a amp.

[SMoKEDya95Stang]

alpine deck, woofers, and kenwood 1000 amo...like me its the ****/.

[Grayle]

I was looking at just adding a JL Audio Stealthbox and a good 300 watt rms amp. How does that sound? For all you car audio guys, It says the JL speaker has 3 ohms resistance, how do you match that up with an amp that has 2 or 4 ohms resistance? I don't understand how all this works?? Thanks, Grayle

[LxMustangRacer]

The stealthbox will be a very easy way to add some bass to the stereo. It's engineered specifically for the trunk of a mustang, like getting a custom box but much cheaper. It looks like the sub is a dual voice coils at 6 Ohms wired to run at 3 Ohms. Amps are set up to run at certain Ohms. So if the amp specs say it can run at 4 ohm it's not recommended to run subs with under 4 Ohms. If you run an amp that's rated at 250 watts at 4 Ohms, and you run it at 2 Ohms, you would have 500 watts approximately. Lowering Ohms gives you more power, but creates a higher strain on the amp. An amp rated at 2 Ohms would be good for the stealthbox. Check to see that it's rated that low when bridged(if it's a two channel amp) as that's how you'd be running the amp. If it's a mono sub amp you don't need to worry about this. If any of this doesn't make sense just ask and I'll try to better explain it.

[Grayle]

So, If I get an amp (Kicker KX400.1) that has 400 watts at 2 ohms, and 200 watts at 4 ohms, then at 3 ohms will it have 300 watts? Would this amp be a good one to use? How much do the stealth boxes cost anyway, I haven't found a price on the internet? Thanks, Grayle

[MidNiteBlu 5.0]

I dont know much about wiring but dont buy a Kenwood amp. i have had many friends who bought a Kenwood amp and they were crap. a Kicker would be an awesome choice if youve got the cash. i would suggest a JBL BP 300.1 or 600.1 if you want to save some money. You can find them cheap under scala1 on ebay or his onlinbe store www.ikesound.com

[Big-T]

The easiest way to upgrade the sound of most factory sound systems is to add bass. You'll be amazed at how much better the entire system appears to sound just by adding bass. That's the VERY first item you should ever consider before thinking about anything else. For most people that will be sufficient to satisfy any urges for quality sound.

I'm not familiar with the Mustang system, but I'd say you just tap into the rear speakers with an LOC to an aftermarket amp and subwoofer in a box.

T.

[LARRY711]

Big T...what does LOC stand for??

How do I tap into the rears?

Sorry...not an audio guy.

[Big-T]

An LOC is a Line Output Converter, which basically 'converts' the speaker-level signal to a line-level signal so you can use it as an input to your RCA inputs on the amp. They are available at any car audio shop or many online places. Check our www.davidnavone.com for example (under 'adapters'), but there are many others.

You can tap into the speaker signal anywhere you can access the wires and identify them. Depending on the location you can splice your way in at the speaker, at the factory amp, or anywhere on the wire. In either case, you need some way to identify which wires connect to what. Just take any regular speaker output and connect to that, and if you're adding bass just get an amp with a built in low-pass filter.

Hope that helps, let me know if I can clarify.

T.

[COBRA66]

personally i would do away with the entire stock system. New deck, either Kenwood or Pioneer. I would go with Infinity speakers (individual components for the front) and correct size for the rear, preferably the kappa series (although their pricey.) I would do that before i added the sub, just because the quality of sound is going to be so much better. If she still isn't satisfied than put a kicker L series sub in the back (thats the square ones) they require much less space than most of their competitors, plus they handle an ungodly amount of power. And when it comes to amps unfortunatly you get what u pay for (kenwoods do suck) so u'd want to stick to high end brands (kicker or Rockford). Personally i like the Rockford amps simply because they are alot smaller than the Kickers but both are extremely good quality.
There is one draw back though, her system is going to pound much harder than ur little mach system. Your a bigger man then I.

Oh and with stereo equipment everything is negotiable. So don't pay full price especially if you are going to buy all this at once.

[Grayle]

Originally posted by COBRA66


Oh and with stereo equipment everything is negotiable. So don't pay full price especially if you are going to buy all this at once.

Where is this stuff negotiable? At Best Buy, or on the internet, or at car audio shops?? Thanks, Grayle

[ChunkFunky]

I'll just add, that I saw a LOC converter that went INLINE with the factory harness... pretty clean install, you dont need to cut any wires, or even tap into them and it gives you full fade and balance, wich is a nice feature to have..you just need to get the male and female ends of your particular car's harness and you're good to go... granted if you want to go aftermarket on the head unit, none of this will matter, cause all aftermarket units have LINE OUTS... some ONLY have LINE outs...
-as

[COBRA66]

You are going to get the best prices from car audio places, and that is where it's negotiable. BestBuy might have really low prices on stuff like CD's, but not on stereo stuff. In fact i was just in there last night and wasn't inpressed, for example they had a kenwood 729 (600w amp) for 199.99 I bought the next model up the 829 which is the same wattage but with a few more bells and whistles for 129.00 about a yr ago (thats how i know kenwood amps suck).

[COBRA66]

oh i forgot to mention, u might wanna stay away from JL subs. They hit hard really hard, but require alot of air space. This means a bigger box, which will take up trunk room. I might be just closed minded but Kicker seems to be the best bang for the buck, very little air space needed and they hit hard. Either the L series or the comp vr's will do, I've ran them both.

[ChunkFunky]

one more thing to add... if you find an amp or whatever you're looking for, go to the store and check it out.. see if you like the looks and the inputs are in the right places, etc... then check out www.etronics.com they have AWSOME prices on car audio stuff... I dunno if this is "fell off the back of a truck" type stuff.. check this out

KAC-959 5 Channel Amp - Etronics $234.99

Crutchfield - $399

Granted crutchfield has neve been know for good prices, but they do have EXCELLENT customer service...

I bought that amp from them and an SAS 10" Bazooka tube (wich I'll add is a nice all in one solution, doesnt require boxes or anything and is a very efficient sub) in anycase... just compare prices on anything you're looking for and I'll bet you can get them from etronics for less..
-as

[Grayle]

Originally posted by COBRA66
oh i forgot to mention, u might wanna stay away from JL subs. They hit hard really hard, but require alot of air space. This means a bigger box, which will take up trunk room.

I was thinking about the JL stealthbox for her convertible. The trunks are very small and we really can't afford to lose room to speakers, so I thought the stealthbox would be the way to go epecially if it's made for 94-03 convertible mustangs. I think it will have about 80% of trunk space left.

[LARRY711]

I know this is a dumd question, but the bargain hunter in me won't let me rest until I ask:

Chunky:
I see a lotta low priced stuff on electronics.com...brand names like: Legacy, Pyramid, etc.....this stuff IS a waste of time...right?

You get what you pay for with this stuf......right?

ie:
$39.99 Pyramid PW1255-US 12" Subwoofer 45oz Magnet, 300W

$39.99 Rockwood XR-2212 12" 550 Watts Chrome Series Woofer

$49.99 Lighting Audio B1.12.4 12" Subwoofer


$49.99 Legacy LA290 High Performance 400 Watt 4 Channel Amplifier

$54.99 Pyramid PB446X 600W 2-Channel MOSFET Amplifier

[ChunkFunky]

There's low priced (inexpensive) and there's cheap...

most people will tell you to avoid brands like jensen and pyramid.

Etronics just has really good prices on EVRYTHING... but some stuff is still cheap... and not to say it wont work... but there's certain things you need to know about stereos....actulay one word: RMS

RMS is a good standard to work with. They'll sell you an amp that's 50 thousand watts.. but that's PEAK power.... and peak is fine... that's what gives you hard punches... but you need an amp that can give you good power all the time. and thats where the RMS comes in... I think it's ROOT MEAN SQUARED... it's a way of measureing WATTAGE.. I wont pretend to understand all that fancy crap, but I DO know this... you're going to want to run a good amp without maxing it out... you're much better running a high powered amp at half power then a lower powered amp at FULL power...


I wont tell you NOT to buy a cheaper amp, I've used RADIO SHACK amps and they'd worked fine. I've also used no name amps and they've worked fine. There's lots of specs on an amp though...

for example (this is for a profile amp)

Channel separation: 85dB
Maximum output: 100 watts x 4
RMS output at 4 ohms: 50 watts x 4
RMS output at 2 ohms: 75 watts x 4
Bridged output : 150 x 2 at 4 ohms


There's a difference between PEAK and RMS... allways use the RMS as a basis for comarison... another to worry about is signal to noise ratio.... basiclay the amount of distortion that amp lets through at higher volumes... bla bla bla... you can go ON ON ON about this stuff.. I'm no expert.... I would advise to do some searches on car stereo installtion and read... and read more then one page.. cause different people will tell you different things... but I figure if you read 10 different pages and 8 of them say one thing and 2 say something else, you can use the law of averages to figure out whats the best way to go.

one last thing... OHMS... if you notice the amp can put out more power with lower OHMs, wich is resistance... its how hard the amp has to push the power through the speaker... it makes sense.. if it's a path of less resistance you dont have to push so hard... so you need to buy the amp and the speaks to work together... most amps now are stable to 2 OHMS... though i'd say most speakers still run at 4... but things change..
-as