Sean

the place that did my work is in burlington county and i must say it is first rate, but cost over 1500 for install

Hypnoz

Some pretty basic rules:

Never get your system installed at a Bestbuy/Circuit City/Etc. They are HORRIBLE. Not only that but 95% of all the products they sell are complete crap for the price.

Do NOT buy rear speakers unless you plan on watching DVD's in your car. The idea of a good audio system is something called a "front stage" which is basically the attempt at making the system sound like you are watching the band at a concert. When the sound comes from behind you it sounds horrible.

So: What price-range are you looking for for the entire system, except the install?

What is your system focus? Sound Quality? Loudness? A balanced mix, or what?

Skip the infinity's. They are not worth it. Grab some eDi 6500s, CDT, or Image Dynamic speakers. Much much better for the price. I suggest buying the speaker pods that a vendor sells on this forum for 6.5" speakers. Sound deaden the hell out of the doors, including closed-cell acoustic foam, make sure it is completely sealed.

You could buy some of the best speakers in the car audio business, install it in the stock locations with crap wiring, no deadening, etc and it will sound like absolute crap. The install makes or breaks most systems.

If 16psibrick is only 4-5 hours away DO IT, from what I've seen him post he knows what he is doing. The drive will probably save the constant headaches a "bestbuy" type store would do installing it anyways. Plus they don't even know how to tune a system.

Nazar

iTrader: (18)

I second this... From what I have seen 16psibrick is doing a good job... Nice to see... It is hard to find good people who do good work lately.

If you were around here I would help you, But if you need equipment let me know...

You may also want to attempt it yourself... If you have the patience it is not hard, just need to take your time...

BTW We are the ones who make the speaker pods.

dream724Z

iTrader: (1)

>Never get your system installed at a Bestbuy/Circuit City/Etc. They are HORRIBLE. Not only that but 95% of all the products they sell are complete crap for the price. <

+1
Recently I was shopping for home stereo cables at a nearby CC and was shocked they were marked 25% higher than ripoff retail. I questioned the CC store Manager about the gouging, but they would not research it! I drove an extra hour to pay ripoff retail at a different Big Box store.

Usually the smartest Big Box Installer is the lazy one writing up your work order, then they let the Newbees destroy your car!

16psibrick

iTrader: (10)

thanks guys for the vote of confidence I dont want to press to hard, and by all means, if you can find a truly trust worthy shop in socal, go for it, the only thing is that they may end up charging you more simply because i charge less

it worries me that you are trying to talk yourself into going to CC and best buy type of stores, follow everyones advice, dont do it... think about this, if you need to have surgery done, who would you go to? a seasoned professional surgeon? or some kid with a knife outof high school with the promise that "if i screw up, i will warranty my work and patch you up and work on your more for free" if you care about your car, then you wouldnt do it.

i agree that infinties, are pretty poor speakers for hte money, though i do recommend infinity reference for stock replacement speakres becuase theydo provide a decent amount of volume and output for hte price, but kappas...ewww

i also strongly second door pods or kick panels...for one, it iwll sound much better, for two, the stock location replacement produces horrible door buzzing that may or may not be easy to get rid off...

Z33

What he said:
Here's another opinion: having no rear speakers isn't nearly enough by itself to guarantee a good front soundstage, especially if you use the OEM mounting positions for your fronts.

If you use the OEM door mounts for front components, with high-mounted tweets, the overall effect will probably sound a bit empty without rear fill (which is why the rears are there in the first place, duh). The OEM mount points do get the speakers out of the way, but they suck badly for correct imaging, since they're basically just blasting side to side. You're too close to one, too far away from the other, and enough off axis to both that whatever image you get is more by luck than design. IMHO, and of course it all changes for the worse when you roll down the windows.

You might be able to angle really shallow drivers in the door mounts, and it's worth trying, but your driver choices in that case are pretty limited. Custom kicks with tweets and midrange drivers firing up at you are a lot more likely to image well enough to provide a good enough front stage to work without rear fill, and you might accomplish the same sort of thing with door-mounted pods. Otherwise, expect those nasty rear speakers to help more than they hurt.

dingobiatch

iTrader: (3)

Hmm.. I have no idea what the last poster is talking about. You mean not using the normal front speaker locations in the doors, and instead putting speakers in a different place??

And you think not having rear speakers will be a problem?? Ahhh. So many opinions!

And is sound deadening necessay?

I guess I could try to do the install myself. I don't care if it's time consuming, I just want to know if it's really hard. Is there a ton of splicing and whatnot? Or is it just pulling off panels, routing wires, and plugging stuff in? What tools are necessary? I guess I'm just worried because I have no idea how to do it all. I have taken out my ECU, gotten it reflashed, and put it back in. Thats the limit of my installation knowledge . I know theres lot of tutorials over at 350z tech's wiki... but those seem to assume that people have partial knowledge about this kinda stuff.

JimRHIT

iTrader: (6)

Dingobiatch

I am right down the street from you and I have done a few installs myself. I have references from all the San Diego guys I used to work on before I moved up here to the Valley. We can do the install at my place.

Also, I have installed the D1 in my own personal Z (actually still have it in the box ... could sell it to you if interested, also have the harness and everything). I know this car's interior as well as anyone on here .. and I'm sure we could make you something nice and clean.

Jim

JimRHIT

iTrader: (6)

I also have my custom made fiberglass enclosure for a 10" sub for the rear corner of the Z. I had this installed in my car (with the 10" sub) and I can have a few of the SD guys chime in as well on how good it was.

Well .. looks like I got

Head Unit - D1
Stealth Sub enclosure and sub
All installation wires etc
and I'm nearby

I'll post some pics up in a minute of the stuff ... let me find some

JimRHIT

iTrader: (6)

Here's two of the sub box. It is a stealth box that sits on the drivers side rear corner area. It allows for 100% spare tire access as well.

16psibrick

iTrader: (10)

there you go jim, get him some good speakers upfront in kicks and it will sound amazing

working on an s2k, molded kicks just like ravi's car, man it sounds good, should have pics up soon

Z33

Exactly. I mentioned the options I know about: OEM, OEM with tilted drivers, custom kick panels and door-mounted pods. Custom and pods involves a few hundred more bucks. Eventually, kicks will become a commodity, and I'll buy some, too.
Yup, what he said: you'll go mad!
Not having rears is only a problem if you're expecting the fronts to do the whole job in a simple upgrade. My point was that you shouldn't expect too much from door-panel mounted speakers, since it's simply not an optimal speaker position for good imaging.
Some degree of sound deadening is mandatory, once you start turning up the power, since things start to rattle. Adding mass with mats can help manage this, as can additional layers of various sorts of foam. You want to hear the speakers, not all the other stuff that the speakers set in motion. Killing rattles and killing road noise are different goals, though, so decide what you want before you start.
It's not hard if you take your time and think it through. It's not rocket science, and there are plenty of worked examples. It helps to know why something is being done a certain way, and it's worth taking the time to find out.

You can learn what you need to do it yourself, but if that's not what floats your boat, you're better off leaving aspects of the job (system design, component choices, installation, whatever) to somebody who enjoys it enough to do it right.

dingobiatch

iTrader: (3)

Jim, where do you live? I might take you up on your offer. You sure you wouldn't mind a dumb 18 year old sitting there with no clue about whats happening? :-P

And 16psibrick, my friend is really interested in taking a road trip up to San Jose, I might come up during spring break.

16psibrick

iTrader: (10)

sure, you let me know, though if you want me to sitnall stuff, you gotta book way in advance, i am running a pretty hefty waiting list right now that stretches into early may but for something as simple as yours, its not bad, heck i can mold kicks iwth out the car

b

dingobiatch

iTrader: (3)

Well the only time I would be able to come up is during spring break.. is that not gonna work? No wrries if it won't.

Pep boys, are they as bad as other places like Best Buy and Circuit City and such?

And also, the kick panels you are talking about, do they take away the dead pedal?

dream724Z

iTrader: (1)

Pep Boys for audio!?
You better ask your Father for permission to ruin his car.

16psibrick

iTrader: (10)

hmm kicks and deadpedal...well...the last set i built did, simple becuase the back of hte kick is so close to the dead pedal...

spring break is when for you?

b

16psibrick

iTrader: (10)

yeah..did you say PEPBOYS!!!!???

JimRHIT

iTrader: (6)

I live in Sherman Oaks (101+Woodman area). I'd be glad to help. Dude ... you can totally chill with me .. that is what a lot of guys do when they get the install done...that way you can learn about your car without the fear of breaking anything. If you rather, you are welcome to go chill upstairs in my condo and watch the 110" widescreen hi-def projection setup complete with self-designed and built home theater setup ... bring your own movies if you'd like

If you like your dead pedal, I would consider simply mounting the speakers in the door ... will you get the best sound in the world? ... no
Will it still sound good? Absolutely....this will be a significant upgrade from stock.


Jim

16psibrick

iTrader: (10)

i am going to try to make a set taht still allow the deadpedal to be in place...though its gonnab hard...

the main thing i acutally dont like about door speakres, other than the usual stuff, is that the whole plastic door panel buzzes with midbass...you get that jim?

b