MadMardigain

Hello,

When it comes to car audio I am a complete novice. I've never looked at the stuff and have no clue what make one product better than the other.

I recently purchased a new 2005 For Escape XLS. What I am wanting to do is make some general improvements to the cars audio. I am probably going to keep the factory CD Player Stereo in the car since I run much of my music from my IPOD player via ITunes. So I'm basically looking at improvements on speakers and stuff. I really know nothing about what I would need to purchase as far as Kickers, Sub woofers, Amplifiers if any of them are worth getting in the first place.

I don't need to blow the windows off the car next to me, win any contests, or buy the most expensive stuff availible. All I am looking for is what type of system should I put together to make the cars audio be better than factory. Keep in mind I have no clue what anything really is so the more detail on what it is, what it does, speaker/Subs/Kickers/whatever sizes to look at, the best companies to look at for the price their producrs are would be more than helpful. This doesn't have to be the greatest car audio system in the world I just want to kick it up a little bit. Thanks for any help.

Matt

chris96camaro

What is your budget, and do you want to replace door speakers as well as add a subwoofer or what?

MadMardigain

I really don't know what my budget is since I'm not to up on the cost of decent equiptment. I would like to keep it somewhat inexpensive. I wasn't planning on dropping a few thousand or anything.

As for the door speakers if it will help the over all cost without hurting the over all sound to much I would probably consider keep them in and just adding around them. Again I'm not to up on what all would need to be done (what can stay and what needs to go) to get the best over all picture in place.

chuckd4more

If you go to www.crutchfield.com and click on the 'Learn about audio/video' link in the top right hand corner, there is alot of useful info in there. You could also browse some stuff to get a ballpark on prices. They aren't the cheapest but I can speak great about the cust. service there. Tons of places to buy online with good prices though.
But visit that link, really good stuff to self-educate.
Here, I added the right link to go directly to car audio info
http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/S-...ingcenter/car/

chris96camaro

But if you are going to buy anything, crutchfield is not the place, they think very highly of the stuff they sell(pricewise). I suggest going to ebay and researching sellers before you buy anything off there.

Also go to www.caraudio.com to look around at some of the stuff people are selling. You can put what you want to buy in the classifieds and people will tell you if they have what you are looking for...

MadMardigain

Thanks chris and chuck for your help. I have look a little at what the websites had.

From the research I did it looks like my best bet would be some type of component speakers to replace the four door factory speakers I currently have in the car. Then get some type of amp and sub added to that to complete the system.

I will probably go talk to some of the local car audio dealers tommorrow, but could use some information to bring up to them. Does anyone have any suggestions on what would be good to buy for my buck this if I wanted to stay with a budget of around or under 1000 dollars.

chris96camaro

I would suggest something like some polk 6.5" speakers for your doors, and then something like a kicker comp 12" sub or a JL 12w1v2, both are pretty cheap subs that will provide some bass while sounding good.

chuckd4more

I agree that CRUTCHFIELD is inexpensive by any means. But they do have a lot of useful info. And I have bought from them before even though there are cheaper places. When I did have a problem once, they bent over backwards to make it right. I just thought that the least I could do is mention the good cust. service/satisfaction they offer as well.

I did purchase the bulk of my system from them because I was buying it all in one shot and felt more comfortable then buying used or from many vendors. I did pay more(not too much BTW with deal on complete systems at the time) than I had to but still think it was worth it for me.

chuckd4more

Are you planning on doing all the work yourself? Makes a big dif with your budget is why I ask.
Also, you might want to re-think, or research, whether to keep that HU as alot of times the stock HU's don't perform very well with aftermarket speakers. I believe you may have problems when you put a load on them