Ok, I bought my 94 Z28 just last week and it already had a system in it. It sounds great but I know its not the best & it could always be better. Im 30 years old and have not been into systems in about 10 years and im way out of the loop now. I dont know whats good anymore and whats not. Back in the day Lanzar Opti amps were good & now they are crap. It used to be PPI, Liner Power(ear candy), Savard... and now its names I never heard of. Memphis?? Autiobahn??...boy im lost. Well here is what I have. Alpine CD player, Alpine type S "6 1/2 ?" speakers, Infinity Kappa 12.1 perfect subs, Rockford Fosgate 700S amp, lots of dynamat and all wire is monster wire. It sounds good but my rear wing rattles like a big dog. I hate the box because its ugly and im looking into other boxes. I love the looks of the Q form but I hear the subthump boxes are better. I would like to enter in some sound offs so I have a few question, Should I keep any of this stuff or just start from scratch? What would the best box be for what I have now? How do those Milhouse boxes sound when they are firing down in the hole? Anyone have a F-body with a wall? Should I just get some DD's, Brahma's, or XXX's and a JBL 1200 amp?



Car and system pics.

 

www.subthump.com and www.techronics.com that should set you on your way if you start over.

Can't see the pics...

 

Anyone else??

 

OMG!! KEEP THE SUBS! KEEP THE SUBS!!! They are high end, sound quality subs. The specs are better than anything I've checked out. I did my shopping for a whyle before I bought my Purfect 12.1d's...Subthump boxes are supposedly lighter and I bought mine w/ a t-top holder slot. I've heard nothing but good things about those boxes. It's a TRUE custom box, the guy emailed me numerous times about specs of my car. It took a while to make but it was worth it. Those subs will hit 18hz!! LOW end bass!!

Sounds like the previous owner put some work into your car. I'm not a fan of JL, i dunno why, but the components are decent.....Those 12's will handle upto 1200 watts, max. Don't push too much twords the max for very long or your speakers will not last long. If you put in a new box, pay attention to the wiring of the subs. If you are unfamilliar w/ dual voice coils. That amp seems fine for the 12's. If you really want to get crazy, hook an amp upto the component speakers!! NIGHT AND DAY DIFFERENCE!!!

Alpine Head units are good, my buddy has one and it's got some power.

Audiobahn is good, Flame Q series...

EDIT: That setup looks fine I'd leave it...IMO...... Nice and clean!

 

The system that your running in your car is alright. If your planning on going to sound offs, you probably wont win anything. Alpine is a good brand for head units, depends on what model you have. The alpine type s speakers are the low end of alpine's line. The type r I believe is the high end. The infinity perfect subs were good, back in the day. But, as time goes by, engineers make speakers better, more efficiant and handle more power. The fosgate amp isnt enough power to win any competitions. Monster wire is good.

hm..........what's your budget?

For an everyday sound system with a sound off every now and then i would recomend you find component speakers for the fronts and coaxils for the back. I recomend Boston Acoustics, infinity, or ads. As for subs, i recomend two 10" JL W7's, or brahmas, Audiobahn, or Image Dynamics with a big amp. As for amps, maybe go with an Audiobahn. My little brother picked up an 1800 watt Audiobahn amp, that thing slams 3 10's with no problem. I dunno, just depends on your budget.

 

Infinity kappas are nothing to sneeze at. They're pretty hot subs.

I've got an all Audiobahn system, and they kick a little ***. The amp is a monster, it's running at 800W bridged. The subs are really nice, but they wouldn't be considered "high end" nevertheless my hearing has definitely worsened since i've had these, plus people tell me they can hear my car coming from about 1/4 mile away, if not more.

If i were you, i'd set the gain to the highest i could and try to blow the things. If they blow, big deal, get worthy ones. If they don't you've got some quality subs.

The best overall subs right now are Alpine type-S's and R's. Infinity's are great, and the infinity kappa perfects could be considered a rung up from yours, but what you have now is probably very nice. Never heard of Memphis though. MTX is completely mediocre, steer clear unless you go high end. Sony sucks as usual, Kicker is another very, very good brand. Those things are almost indistructable.

So just go with what you think would be best, chances are it will all sound great. I sort of avoided the subthump boxes because they only work really well with a few subs, so i got a custom camaro box and stuck my 12"s in it. I would do the same thing a million times.

 

My buddy's got two Kicker Solo-Barac L5 Square subs and they POUND!!!

Those square's are a work of pure mad genious...

 

Not a fan of those subs( the infinity's perfect 12.1) a guy in my town had one a while ago and it didnt seem to do much, and he was runnin a big amp (over a 1000 watt name brand that I can't remember but is good) Rockford is awesome, of course, but the older amps, from about 3 years ago)are the better ones (the new design with the rockford symbol that lights up, are still pretty good, i though, but I went through the 2 channel, 900 watt ones like they were going outa style...3 in one year...and I wasn't overloading it...it was pushin one Audiobahn 12") I am a big fan of Audiobahn though, and a not talked about but awesome sub is a Cerwin Vega "stroker" I had one of those and they are inpossible to not be inpressed with...I had mine like 6 years ago when they cost 800 dollars for the 12"...and they go up to 18"...not sure if they even still make them, but check out ebay....they have like a 30 lb magnet and are pretty sensative for spl (which is good b.c it will do more on a lesser amp) hope this helps.

 

The Perfects are good subs. Not the best, certainly not the worst. I'd definately take them over any Audiobahn or Kicker subs. If you like how they sound, I wouldn't worry about upgrading. If you don't like them, pitch them.

I think yanking those Alpine coaxes for a good pair of components could definately provide a major improvement, but again, if you like what you've got, keep it.

Being competitive in a sound off is very difficult, unless it's just a low-key local type of event. To really do well in a sanctioned event usually requires a very well installed system with good quality equipment. Unfortunately, most of these events have become high budget events that make it very difficult for an average joe to be competitive.