gqnamja83

i want to get a decent system going in my car without having to pay too much for it. I was thinking 1 or 2 amps from JL and 2 subwoofers from JL. Ill buy the deck dvd system later(i already bought a body kit/rims). I seen alot of 500/1 300/1's,mono, and I have no idea what they mean to be honest.
just plain and simple what is a recommended subwoofer type(name so I can order) and what kind of amp. Thanks alot~

gqnamja83

bump bump bump

LS350Z

Well - the reason probably no response is your question is virtually impossible to answer without knowing what you want to spend. To me not spending a lot is spending $3-4k but I'm use to buying $1k components, $500 in wiring, $2k in amps and so on. Give a price range and I'll work from there.

As far as JL amps go - they are nice - nothing special - nothing great. A good mid priced amp and even though they have a problem with overheating I recommend them in their price range although I'd personally never buy one. The way they name their amps is as follows - power/channels. Therefore a 500/1 is a 500 watt monoblock, a 400/4 is a 400watt 4 channel and so on. If you're going to run an amp for speakers and one for sub then either get a 5 channel or 2 amps, either a 2 channel or 4 channel for the front and a monoblock (single channel) for the rear.

Amps I'd recommend:
Boston, Xtant, Arc Audio, Pheonix Gold, McIntosh, older PPI & Soundstream, Kicker, Memphis, JL Audio (on the lower end)

Subs:
Boston (the new G2 & G5 are amazing), Elemental Designs, Image Dynamics, Memphis, Kicker, Treo,

I could probably think of more but those come to mind pretty quick.

Here's where 50 people jump me and say JL Audio is an awesome brand of amps - lol.

Anyway, post up a price range and I'll give better choices and stuff.

southern_info

iTrader: (3)

go to www.millionbuy.com, you can build your buy your whole system including replacing the factor speakers for a little over 1g.

Dream

I had a Memphis 1000D amp running 2 12" Audiobahns in my old Civic. No complaints there, although the Audiobahns were from '01 so I'm not sure how their subs are now. See responses from this thread for more ideas.

dual5

ok ls350z is going to jump down my throat for this one, but i'll be recommending jl stuff here...
I just installed this system in my car... No pics yet because im using a (GASP!) q-logic box while i finish my sub box
(Head Unit) Kenwood DDX-7015 (with dvd nav)
(Amplifier) JL Audio 300/4
(Speakers) JL Audio Evolution CS 5.25" speakers (you can go 6.5, i had these left over)
(Subwoofer) JL Audio 10w3v2

I would, without a doubt recommend this setup to anyone. Why?
I used to have a ford explorer with 2 12" boston pro series subs running off an alpine MRV-T1507 (the biggest amp they made) This single ten hits harder, louder and quicker than the boston's did. Why? The Z has a tenth the airspace as the explorer did. Unless you're trying to win boom boom contests, a single ten should really do fine.
Don't take my word for it though, find one of those Z meets or any audio meet for that matter, and ask some of the people with aftermarket stereos to have a listen to their cars. (best buy showrooms won't give you an accurate example) You can then base your decision off these encounters. It's a lot better than taking advise from people typing outrageous claims of brand superiority on an internet forum.

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

I've said it before .... and I'll probably have to say it again.

Your subwoofer has to be bought to match the box it's sitting in.

I can take a ONE MILLION DOLLAR subwoofer and make it teh sux by putting it into a cardboard box that is the wrong size for the subwoofer's parameters. I can take a $50 subwoofer and make it sound measurably better by putting it into a well constructed MDF box of the proper size.

Like putting an 800 horse power motor into your Z and running Geo Metro transmission and tires ... the concept is that subwoofer and the box it sits in form a system that has to be matched and balanced.

My subwoofer budget was $900. I looked at pairs of subwoofers than ran from $900 down to $300 and guess what? The speakers that best matched the subwoofer box were at the $300 end and not the $900 end! I wasn't willing to give up another couple of cubic feet (basically my spare tire) to add even more bass.

And I do know bass, I've got a VMPS dual 15" driven with +800 watts in the house

Srivero297

iTrader: (2)

well an easy solution to that is to build the box FOR the sub. Pre-built boxes suck. Its like buying a universal wing for your car.

The way to buy a sub is to judge first by the amount of power you want to run, then the frequency, and lastly the ohm load. After you have decided those three things you look at which subs fall into those categories.

If you are a sound newbie you may have no clue what I am talking about, so you might wanna have a friend that knows what hes talking about help you out.

gqnamja83

paul i think you know alot about music and sound can you tell me what your excat set up is and what kinda box your using?

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

I bought the $99 e-bay box made by Zenclosures - it's a dead nutz tight fit (tight as in the way a 45 year old engineer would use the word, not a 19 year old student). I wouldn't even attempt to put together a box like that with my skills which run more toward the soldier iron and metal cutting.

The Zenclosure box is simple and well made with internal bracing around the edges and a nice heavy glue job. It's made of MDF which is bad for your furniture but excellent for speakers.

I got the dual 10" model which is really a woofer's size area and not a true sub-woofer. I think my home woofer is bigger than the entire car ... and I'm not going to give up my spare tire driving on Southern California roads.

So to match the 0.75 cu.ft. e-bay box I ran the numbers on all of these speakers looking for one with a Qts of about .85-.95 that was efficient.



The Infinity Kappa 10 VQ and Rockford Fosgate P310 D2 hit the Qts (see the graph above for the reponse curve) but the Infinity speakers were a huge 5 dB louder/more efficent. I would have to drive the RF speakers nearly four times as hard to create the same amount of music as the Infinity's. I almost suspect that something is "queer" with the Infinity numbers but they've been in the business for a long long time and make a good mid price range home speaker. I went to the local car stereo place and gave them a listen ... while fighting the guy to not crank them up so loud as to destroy my ears ... with a CD I brought in. Good enough, they'll do - but until I get them into my box and my car I'm just guessing.

So for me the looks and fit of the speaker were primary - critical listening to music in a car is silly at best with the acoustics set up in the worse possible way and the noise of the road and engine destroying (or adding to) the experence.

I own a rather nice size home with a rather nice size (old) music system for when I want to listen to music critically. In the car I listen to something close to music. The $3500 or so I've spent on the car stereo will give me less than great sound. The same money spent on a home system will sound tons and tons better ... but I have one of those already so I'm expanding!

30 years ago I bought my first piece of high-end stereo equipment and learned the lesson that you have to please yourself. It's your music, your ears, your house/car, and your money. What is popular with your friends, better looking, cheaper or more expensive isn't as important as defining your needs, your wants, and your desires and following them to please yourself.

I have a beautiful old Marantz turntable that's 27 year old and a wonderful Studer-Revox one that's 24 years old. They make beautiful music the likes that some have never heard. If you've grown up on CD's or worse, MP3's, then you've missed learning what music can really sound like. Music is art. Accoustics is both an art and a science. You have to be the one who determines the "art" that you enjoy, with your ears, and your music.

There are two things that I always told people to buy themselves - turntable cartridges (needles) and speakers. Those two devices have so much influence on the quality of the music that they have to be picked to match your music and listening habbits. The rest of the audio chain can be pretty much picked out using a budget and looking at the figures.

Can you tell my passion is music

B-Unit

iTrader: (21)

Do you play any instruments paul.



PS, fitting this JL 10w7 into the box i made is rediculous, i dont know how it would even be possible to fit this in one that has .45 airspace!! I literally have to build a fiberglass frotn cuz it wont fit in the box! LOL

gqnamja83

heres the update. someone is giving me a dealer cost for kenwood(he works for them) he said he can give me 2 subs for 50$ each and a 4 channel amp and a mono amp for 200 a piece(roughly). Is this a good deal? how does kenwood compare to jl and alpine and all the other good stufF?

p.s. paul thank you for your help and your wisdom in music

LS350Z

Kenwood subs and amps are blah compared to JL and alpine - their headunits are equal to them though. I'd recommend their amps for someone wanting to save some cash but their subs leave a ton to be desired.

dannichols

Kenwood Excelon series H/U's and Amps aren't so bad. I like the Music Keg option with 20G disk

LS350Z

yeah - the music keg and Excelon HUs are very respectible. Their amps though can be beat by others in their price range.

dannichols

Agreed. I'm using Phoenix Gold with my Kenwood H/U. Kenwood does sort of rope you in to getting more of their product line however, by offering features that will only work with other Kenwood stuff, like Amp control and monitoring. But yeah, I don't think Kenwood amps are much better than say Sony or Alpine Amps.

I was actaually considering getting one of the new line of Clarion H/Us cuz my Kenwood is getting a bit old. Problem is I really like the Music Keg idea and I don't see anything similar that directly plugs and is controlled by either Alpine or Clarion H/Us. CD's for me don't hold enough data, Sirius SQ sucks, and I don't want to just plug my Ipod into an Aux in because of the control issue. ANyone seen another manufacturer who's creating a mass storage device that directly attaches to their units?

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

O'scopes, spectrum analyzers, VOM's ...

dannichols

I had a friend who played the speaker. He could make it sound like anything

THEDUKE

iTrader: (24)

I am the person that works at Kenwood. I was trying to take care of a fellow 350Z member. The question here is not really if Kenwood is better than any other brand out there. It is very comparable. The question is" Do you want to pay retail for another brand or do you want to pay cost for Kenwood? It is like asking do you want to pay retail for a 350Z or do you want to spend half the money and get a S2000. If the price was the same it would be a no brainer get the 350Z but for half the price the S2000 would be the way to go. I know there are going to be the die hard 350Z owners that would chose the 350Z at any price, but I was just trying to make an example. By the way we just received the new DDX7017 and DDX8017.

LS350Z

Well if you work at Kenwood then awesome! Even at half off I still would opt for other amps then Kenwood. I love your HUs (I'd choose Kenwood over Alpine or Clairon low line stuff), some of your speakers are nice (Especially for the price), subs are alright, but your amps kill me.