IgorT.455/406

Hey guys.

I got the stock deck ripped out of the car, as well as my nitrous install almost complete. My side panels in the back are off, as are most interior panels around the carpet. So now is a good time to install a stereo.

I am looking at getting a decent head unit. I want USB and good pre-outs, and a quality setup, but I don't need a dvd or anything. I do want it to play cd text and all the popular formats.

I also want something that will fit the interior of the car the best. I do not want to spend more then $500 bux. Any suggestions on what head unit?

I also want a good set of front door spks, component. Would these be good, and if not, what others. JBL 6 1/2" 2-Way Component System Car Speaker (P650C)

Now, what should I run in the side panels in the back? Another component 6.5"? Or would front/rear components be a bad idea?

The spks. in the hatch, I thought about removing them. I don't think they have much use, and, I doubt I can wire them properly to the new system, plus they might not be compatible.

I see there is a factory amp under the carpet near the rear seats, should I just unplug and remove those, and run a new wire from amp to spks?

I was thinking about running one amp for the spks., but I am not sure if I can/should run both front and rear spks. off an amp, or, if I should try to run anything off the deck?

I already have a box, 12" sub and amp for it that was in my old 94.

Thanks for the help guys, sorry about a long post.

megahyperion

For the HU I have always been partial to alpine but bang for the buck I choose sony.
Heres my HU
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-Xplod-CD-MP...QQcmdZViewItem

I just got the cable that allows me to control my ipod through the radio and just put the ipod in the glovebox or wherever. I would give up my hu for nuthing atm.

My buddy has this kenwood
http://cgi.ebay.com/Kenwood-KDC-MP73...QQcmdZViewItem
Or something to that effect which has the ipod interface with usb and all that.

Ive heard some nice jbls but not the ones you mentioned so cant comment on them, I say go to a store and see what you like. I do recomend some sort of tweeter for the front to help lift the sound stage.

The rear I would go with some nice 3 ways, theres no need to lift any sound stage in the rear so components arent necessary.

If your adding your own sub to the rear then yeah obvious remove anything that back there ( duh )

I would go with a 10" in the stealth enclosure over a 12, well I dont even think a 12 would fit in the stealth and if it did it would be incredibly to small of an enclosure for a 12" sub.

So if your going 12" or u just want that much boom then go 2 and buy the camaro box, otherwise buy the box from subthump.com and throw a nice 10 in it.

No matter what you do I suggest running a seperate amp and sub because I dont care what music you listen to, your small 6.5" will be working way way WAAAAAAAYYYYY to hard trying to reproduce any bass and unless you like listening to highs all day I suggest adding an amp and turning on the internal crossover in the radio for the highs (thats if you buy a decent radio like the ones linked).

Which brings me to the last thing , NO you shouldnt need an amp for you highs unless
A: You bought a really crappy head unit
B: You didnt run an amp and sub like I suggested and now your trying to get your 6.5's to somehow bang
C: You didnt realize your head unit has a built in crossover and now you see you can turn up your high's twice as loud as before without distortion
D: You just installed 4 15's with 4 2000watt mono blocks in the back and can no longer hear your highs

In other words buy a good head unit, mount some tweeters in your sail panels, buy some good 6.5's, and buy at least a 10" sub with a small amp

There you go

fredmr39

for example:


seems kinda hypocritical there...

.....please stay away from the Sony-Xplod HUs.... Sony's older stuff seems decent, but as far as Xplod HU's go.................


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Best price/performance ration IMO is Pioneer's Premier line around $200 ($200 from discount online retailers that is).

PentaVolvo

Kenwood or Eclipse for a QUALITY radio with usb and nice preouts, eclipse if its in your budget. I would put a components or quality coaxial in the door (polk, ed, cdt, focal, etc). Polks DB 6500s, CDT CL-61s, EDI 6000s, can all be had for a good price and will sound great. I would put a coaxial in the back, but nothing in the hatch. Do a little sound deadening behind each speakers. And IMO you totally want to run a 4 channel amp, I dont care what headunit you have an amp will alow you to get louder and cleaner. And i can only assume ur TA is loud to begin with. Amps can be had for under 200 dollars that work, I just recently put a pioneer 4 channel in a car 65x4 rms cost us a little over 100 brand new and it sounds a million times better and you can really crank the speakers and make em work.

IgorT.455/406

I've ran good head units in the past with and without an amp, and I think with an amp it sounds better. I even have an alpine 4ch amp kicking around that i have used in the past with great results.

By "sound deadening", what do you mean? What material should I use and how much?

I also have a set of Visionik V650CS comp. spks. They are brand new in the box, i've had them for a while, sold the truck i was gonna use them in. I know they are not the greatest, but, i was thinking about possibly using them in the rear to save money, and buying a NICE set of front, door compnents. The only thing is the Visionik spks. have a weird hookup. Their crossover has a separate High and Low input as well as output. I'm just not sure how to hook up the input side for these. It looks to me like I would have to use a 4ch amp just for those to make them work. This is OK as I do have a spare 4ch amp I could run, and then get another 4ch for the fronts. I can fab my own amp rack in the rear to package all this, quick disconnect so I can yank the amp rack and sub when I want to go to the track.

I really want to get a stealth 10" box and a nice 10" sub, but for now I have this 12 and the box I can use, so, I want to use it.

I also forgot, need to get an adapter to make my steering wheel controls work with the new deck.

PentaVolvo

Ok for steering wheel controls PIE makes an adapter im sure someone will chime in with a model number otherwise I can probally find it for you. Do you have the owners manual for those speakers im sure there is a way to make em work with only 2 channels, i agree put those in back and somehting a bit nicer in front. For deadening you can use anything from EDEAD, to rammat, to dynamat. I prefer EDEAD beacuse its a quality product at a good price. I would say maybe 10-15 sq feet per door just in the area around the speaker and where the speaker baffle mounts to the door then use a little bit behind each speaker in the rear, its gonna help with midbass response

fredmr39

Yea, steering controls can be retained by using the PAC SWI-X -- this can be used as long as your new HU can be controlled by an infrared signal (remote control).