Further beginner car audio questions

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

Soldato
Joined
26 Aug 2003
Posts
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Ok. So I like my music, I have started to improve what's in my car. Budget is the less the better but obviously I know good things cost money. This is really a little selection of questions that have cropped up since I started looking into it all. I've been browsing around on Talk Audio and such but to be honest they seem a bit too enthusiast for me, most of it is just way over my head.

What I have got currently and what I have done:

An Alpine CDE-111RM head unit with iPod/iPhone lead and whatnot.

Alpine SPG-17CS components in the doors, mounted on 6mm MDF rings because the baskets were just a shade too wide for the holes.

I've ordered soundproofing and will be redoing the factory stuff in the doors in the next few days as while I was trying to suss out the first door I pulled half of it out and it's rattling so I'll do both doors while I'm at it.

So it sounds pretty good, rattles aside, and is a considerable improvement over the stock fronts which were in fairness a lot less awful than a lot of OEM stuff, imo. The tweeters are mounted in the mirror covers, when I have a day off I'm going to get the ones from pug that actually have tweeter pods in so it looks more like original.

I want to finish it off and see these as my options, really (and I may be completely wrong, please correct me if I am)

1) 4 channel amp, two channels bridged to power a sub that I'd buy and put in a box that I'd buy or build (buy most likely). Or a pre-boxed passive sub. Disconnect parcel shelf speakers.

2) 2 channel amp in the front with a passthrough. 2 channel amp powering the fronts, passthrough going to active sub's amp in the boot. Again, disconnect parcel shelf speakers.

3) 4 channel amp, no sub, coax speakers in parcel shelf (or possibly just mid-bass speakers in the shelf (17cm) - but these seem a bit specialist and there are none in the price range I would be looking at). This option is much cheaper, a little easier, doesn't invade on my boot and would look bang on factory.

Would option 3 be total crap?

And am I right in thinking that yes I can get a 4 channel amp, bridge two channels to power the sub? I'm sure I can but I don't know. I am an idiot at this.

All I'm looking to do is get together a reasonable setup that is partly or wholly transferrable to any car I get in the future. HU Amp and sub, anyway, transferring the comps is obviously depended on what car I got next but regardless, you get the gist.

I can go to £250 to finish it off, I will depending on what I decide to do want an active sub and a 2 channel amp, or an passive sub and a 4 channel amp, or new rear speakers and a 4 channel amp.

I just don't know enough to know which is best for my needs/budget/abilities. I'm reasonably handy, don't mind learning and I'm not averse to dismantling things.

Post turned out much longer than I anticipated but any advice and/or recommendations for amps, subs, and so on would be much appreciated. From what I gather a few people here aim or have in the past done a pretty similar thing - a simple ish, transferrable setup that doesn't require complete butchery of the car. If all the options would give me the same end result I would go for amped speakers in the back but I get a strong feeling a sub would be considerably better. I listen to all sorts of music but leaning towards rock/punk/folk/metal, bit of hip hop and a smattering of drum'n'bass.

Thanks :)
 
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Active subs suck.

Many 4 channel amps are indeed bridgeable, though the cheaper ones can only run relatively low rms and only into 4 ohms. 4 channel gives you the option of upgrading later setups by adding a set of rears and buying a mono amp.

Of the options, I'd get the 4 chan.

Remember with subwoofers the enclosure is important, real important. Consider the tuned frequency of the box, how that matches to the sub, and what you want in terms of SQ, type of bass delivery and preferred genres of music.

Ant :cool:
 
I'd go with a simple 4 channel amp setup.

2 channels for your fronts (left and right) and then bridge the rear channels to run a nice single 12" sub, in a sealed enclosure if space is tight and you don't wanna spend forever calculating whats best for the subwoofer you choose.

I'd aim for something pushing around 80w RMS up front and 250w RMS bridged for your sub. It'll be quite loud.

If you want more bass for your sub (as 80w on front speakers is actually a fair bit), maybe 2 x 2 channels, 80w RMS for fronts and a decent mono amp or 400ish watts RMS for your sub depending on what you buy of course and it's power ratings...

But if you aren't in an extreme chase for bass I think a good 4 channel will do fine :)

Sounds like you've researched it well and done a good job thus far.
 
As a reference, when finished mine be 100wrms up front, 90wrms in the rears, and 500wrms in the boot. Ported Enclosure tuned to 35ish. I once read that your sub should be a little over the combined rms of all your speakers, and have stuck to that for some reason.

If you aren't a bass head, 250wrms from a decent sub enclosed will indeed be more than enough. Choose quality over bang for buck.

Ant :cool:
 
Right, starting to make sense. I don't know if my budget will be enough for an ideal setup though, looking at the power of amps and stuff I was looking at, money wise, it might be a bit of a stretch. Can anyone suggest specific products so I can get a gist?

Thanks guys :)
 
JBL and Vibe Slick amps are potent (generally speaking) and good for the money, or at least used to be. Not looked at whats about for a while now :(
 
Stormster said:
JBL and Vibe Slick amps are potent (generally speaking) and good for the money, or at least used to be. Not looked at whats about for a while now :(
Click to expand...

The vibes from what I can gather are indeed potent, but based around a broad range of bass production, and heavy hitting rather than any finesse.

I'm using a very old JBL GT4 12" sub which for the money (£20 notes) is absolutely excellent. It'll be replaced with an AA Arsenal 12.

I'm loving the new SPL Dynamics ICE range. 180 notes got me a mono sub that'll drive 800wrms into 1ohm.

The Ice 150.4 for £180 will get you 4 x 140wrms. With the option of driving 360wrms bridged. I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to run three channels; 2 x 140wrms and 1 x 360wrms which should meet your needs well.
SPLY Dynamics 150.4

I'd go Ascendant Audio, Focal or Hertz in your price range. That said, I'm a bit of an SPL dynamics fanboy, not heard it but their V300S4 at £70 would match the bridged channels of the 150.4 very well. There's a 10" similiar if you wanted more punch and less boom : v250s4

You'd need an enclosure mind:

10 inch Sealed
SPL Dynamics 12" Ported

the 250wrms with the sealed would be punchy and tight.
the 300wrms with the port would be a bigger hit with less finesse.

The suggestions I've made would result in a total outlay of £270ish.

At this price point, don't expect your world to be rocked. To be honest second hand is the way to go :)

Ant :cool:
 
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Matching speakers with slightly overpowered amps is ok isn't it? As long as you don't just crank it right up and murder your speakers?

The Alpines I've got up front are 70wRMS at 4ohms, the SPL amp is 140wRMS at 4 ohms - that's a big difference though.

I think the thing that's tripping me up is that the four channel amps when run with two channels bridged all seem to err on the side of being either quite overpowered for my comps, or not really all that powerful for the sub.

I looked at an all Alpine setup last night that was these:

SWE-1043E 10" Sub http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/alpine-swe-1043e.html
PMX-640 amp: http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/alpine-pmx-f640.html

with these comps that I already have: http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/alpine-spg-17cs.html

Only looking at Alpine stuff because not being a big car audio bod it's a brand that I know are half decent, I'm not set on having everything match or anything.

Thing is though although those wattages all pretty much match up with each other, I have no idea what it'll actually sound like. They're much lower for example than the wattages of the kit you've posted. I think those bits including an enclosure for the sub and a wiring kit came to about £220 or so but if a setup like you suggested is going to be a lot better I don't mind spending extra, the main object is to get a halfway decent setup that I can hang onto for a few years so £50 or so either way is a non-issue.

Thanks for your patience, I'm well aware I'm an eedjit at this! :)
 
I've just gone and bought 2 seperate amps, tried to match the power as much as I could as I don't want to eff up my speakers. Have gone for a JBL 752 2 channel amp for my front components, 75w rms from the amp into 80w rms focal components. Then I have a JBL 7001 mono block amp which provides 700w rms to my 500w JL audio 12" however i'm going to turn the gain down.

You can get much better flexibility going down the two amp route.
 
gurdas said:
I've just gone and bought 2 seperate amps, tried to match the power as much as I could as I don't want to eff up my speakers. Have gone for a JBL 752 2 channel amp for my front components, 75w rms from the amp into 80w rms focal components. Then I have a JBL 7001 mono block amp which provides 700w rms to my 500w JL audio 12" however i'm going to turn the gain down.

You can get much better flexibility going down the two amp route.
Click to expand...

I've considered it but I think it's going to just bring it too far outside what I want to spend - I'll have a closer look though, maybe the difference won't be as much as I expected. Cheers :)
 
You drive a 306 don't you ? If so the tweeter cover part numbers are:

Part No: 9015P4 and 9015P5
:)
 
Nomisf said:
You drive a 306 don't you ? If so the tweeter cover part numbers are:

Part No: 9015P4 and 9015P5
:)
Click to expand...

Cheers, already got them written down, I'm working straight for ages but when I get a day off I'll get them to get me some in. Look cleanish at the moment, I hacked up the plain ones, but the proper ones will look better.
 
I've seen them on the pugnet forums, I've been intending to get some since I saw them, just need to get to the stealership to pick them up and someone at work walked out and someone's on holiday so I'm working a million days in a row at the moment :D. Something like £1.80 each aren't they? They do look cleaner than how it is at the moment definitely.

Thanks anyway mate :)
 
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