Thinking of getting a proper audio install

DezUk said:
This may be a load of pap but the guy at the audio shop said a car was a great environment to reproduce sound as there are hardly any flat edges in acar unlike a room in a house. he was adament (sp?) that once he was finished the sound would be ubber class
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Just consider the chaps motivations. He's hardly going to tell you it'll sound rubbish is he?
Cars are simply not good audio environments. Lots of background noise (unless you have a Lexus), plenty of variables of things in the way in the car, and also variable vibrations from the car itself. e.g. listen to you car stereo when stationary, then on the move, the vibrations from the car actually reduce bass performance. Add all that to head units that are often no great shakes and have lots of RF noise added from the electronics around it, and it's not good news.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you should have no car stereo, that's ridiculous, as I also listen to my stereo in the car. It's simply my opinion that you'll get more for your money with an OK car system, then a great home system.
 
DezUk said:
Well the RE sub i did have blew on me so thats that idea out the window :(

As for the other bits and bobs i will sell them on and put it towards the install. Reason i am getting a nice install in the car is i love listening to music when driving and its where i do most of my listening, gives me a chance to crank it up properly.

This may be a load of pap but the guy at the audio shop said a car was a great environment to reproduce sound as there are hardly any flat edges in acar unlike a room in a house. he was adament (sp?) that once he was finished the sound would be ubber class :D.

The kit was roughly this....

Alpine 9853 HU (already have this)
JL XR 6.5 components
2x JL 12" subs
2x JL amps
Phoenix Gold 32 band EQ
Subtle custom boot build
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Nice kit, but why two subs, no need if it is SQ. Save the money and get one sub I'd just get one 12" JL W7 sub.

For all that above i'd expect to pay around £2000 inc base install. More if boot build.....
 
Why would you need a 32 band EQ - thought these were only really worth while for multiple speaker installs?

As for reproducing sounds in a car, I friend of mine who is very much into his high-end audio seemed to think that the car was a rubbish place for sound reproduction.
 
EddScott said:
I friend of mine who is very much into his high-end audio seemed to think that the car was a rubbish place for sound reproduction.
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Thats because it is, the guy in the shop was having the OP on. Also, 2 subs? wtf's the point in that? Buy a better single sub and amp for it instead of wasting your money and boot space.
 
Gain up, crossover down :)

I'm running a cheap 10" RM Audio sub which I bought from the bay for £10. Got the box for £20 and am using a cheap £50 Mutant 80w RMS amp (bridged) to power it.

I need to set the gain properly, but it's crossing over at around 60/70Hz and is so punchy :cool: None of that nasty boomy crap. I'd never have believed you could get a cheap sub sounding this good.

Just need to get another amp, some Dynamat and then I can install my Infinity comps.

Talk about audio on a budget :D
 
Also noticed there's no farad capacitor?.
Seems like quite a heavy system to just be relying on the feed straight from the battery.
 
needmorespeed said:
lol hasn't that been done to death on talkaudio :)
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I'd say, camp is still very split tbh.

Split charging with a good quality battery would be the way forward if you need lots of power, not sure he does tbh.
 
needmorespeed, heh, I just had a quick search on TalkAudio to find out what all the fuss was about.

Funny how I've never suffered from dimming headlights with my system. I guess using 4 gauge helps. :rolleyes: at my n00b mates who buy a 10 gauge kit from Halfrauds and then proceed to wire 2 or 3 amps up to it :eek:

Come the summer I'm going to upgrade the earth straps in my engine bay... Even if it's overkill, it can't do any harm.

Ohh, just out of interest, a friend of mine has a single amp with a 12" sub running on 4 gauge cable. He also has a volt gauge in his car... I was quite impressed to see that the volt gauge didn't even flutter when the sub was hitting hard.

I'm guessing if he was running 8 or 10 gauge cable, the voltage would drop quite a bit with the sub playing.
 
car audio? hmm


'quality' car audio is very affordable. Despite what people would like you to believe (those people being the people charging you for the kit). kit geared towards sound quality only need the bear minimum to operate:

components in the front
1x 10" or 12" sub in either a sealed box or a ported one (depending on taste)
1x multi channel amp to drive the sub and component OR 1x for the componenents and 1x for the sub (can be eaiser to set up, though usually more expensive)

1x quality source to drive the amps (that would be your headunit).

Me and my dad put a 12" boss sub in a sealed box in the back of his astra. Next to his mates astra running all rockford gear (with 2x 12" rocky subs in the boot), people prefered the single boss. Not as loud obviously, but more 'musical'. Not bad for a £15 sub, an oldskool alpine amplifier and a pioneer headunit.
 
agw_01 said:
needmorespeed, heh, I just had a quick search on TalkAudio to find out what all the fuss was about.

Funny how I've never suffered from dimming headlights with my system. I guess using 4 gauge helps. :rolleyes: at my n00b mates who buy a 10 gauge kit from Halfrauds and then proceed to wire 2 or 3 amps up to it :eek:

Come the summer I'm going to upgrade the earth straps in my engine bay... Even if it's overkill, it can't do any harm.
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some of the discussions got quite heated on there about power caps.

use thicker wiring helps reduce voltage drop which makes you lights dim. Upgrading the earth straps will improve it even more if you are using 4 guage to your amps i would go with 4 guage to do the earth straps you may even find the engine runs better. :)
 
My Scoob is booked in for friday for 4 sets of components and a subbox with amp, along with a bluetooth car kit for my Jasjar...

Gonna run me about £600 all in all... the Alpine and Ipod should sound a lot better afterwards...

:D
 
needmorespeed said:
use thicker wiring helps reduce voltage drop which makes you lights dim. Upgrading the earth straps will improve it even more if you are using 4 guage to your amps i would go with 4 guage to do the earth straps you may even find the engine runs better. :)
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Cool :) I know someone with an Evo who replaced the earth straps. He said that his engine started a lot quicker afterwards.

AFAIK, my car has two earth straps under the bonnet. One to the slam panel and one to the gearbox/engine block.

There's no way I'll be able to fit several 4 AWG cables to the one negative terminal on the battery... so would it be possible to run the seperate earths to a distribution block and then run either a 4 or 0 AWG cable to the terminal on the battery?
 
agw_01 said:
Cool :) I know someone with an Evo who replaced the earth straps. He said that his engine started a lot quicker afterwards.

AFAIK, my car has two earth straps under the bonnet. One to the slam panel and one to the gearbox/engine block.

There's no way I'll be able to fit several 4 AWG cables to the one negative terminal on the battery... so would it be possible to run the seperate earths to a distribution block and then run either a 4 or 0 AWG cable to the terminal on the battery?
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you could do that I would replace the battery terminal with one of those big gold plated ones as it would be much better going straight to the battery :)
 
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