Stereo upgrade for dummies?

[Nok]

Hey everyone, been awhile since I've posted but I've always still been lurking

My tax return was decently healthy, so I'm thinking it's time for and upgrade to the old stock system... For future reference, it's an '06 rex wagon (auto) - The only time I have wired my own system, was in my old 81 chevy citation that was hashed... Needless to say, it ended up sounding like garbage, and looked even worse. With that on my mind, I'm going to take it in to a local shop that I trust and have them go to town.

I've been sitting on a pair of 12" Cerwin Vega's, but apart from my also stereo deficient friends opinions/ideas/experiences, I'm not too sure what I'm looking at needing and was hoping any of you could offer some advice/experiences? I know a reasonable amount, but haven't stayed up-to-date at all and don't want to look like a rookie when I take it into the shop.

I'm not looking to pound the wheels off my rex, but I do want it to be throaty enough that I can drown out my singing - Around here I have seen a couple pics of double DIN decks, and would really like to replace my whole unit with one that could interact with my Sirius and iPod.

I of course know I need an amp, but have never known what a crossover does, or if I'd even need it... Would I need to upgrade my stock speakers? I would really like to be able to play my tunes with my car off, and not kill the battery in 2 seconds flat... I'm mainly just looking for any advice that anyone can offer, so i have an experienced opinion from people with similar rides. Any help is extremely appreciated!

[02_Rex]

Depending on the setup what you want to do, theres alot of different ways you can upgrade your system... replacing your head unit is a good start, afterwards I would do the door speakers, then I would run amps. You can run like one 5 channel amp or two separate amps, I think its best to have two amps instead of one.. I would get a four channel amp to run your door speakers, and on the amp theres things thing called a crossover, and what it does is it filters the audio signal to how you want to deliver it. Generally you would set your four channel to a High-pass so that all the vocals come out of your mids, then for your bass, I would get a 1-channel amp. This is called a class D amp, its used only for bass. If you want good bass but not really chest pounding I would suggest going with a single 12" sub in an open ported box, If you do plan on running one or two amps then I would highly recommend getting at least a 1 farad cap. if not two of them so each amp can have an external power supply.

I hope that gives you some sort of idea

[Nok]

Awesome, thank so very much for your reply, you answered quite a few questions I had!

The headunit will be the first thing on my list and so far I'm looking at something like... http://www.crutchfield.com/S-E99pmBm...00&I=113DPX302
I really like all the options it has, and the look is very sleek and I think it will match my interior very nicely. Anyone have one, experience with one?

One thing I noticed you saying is that I should only put one sub in there... I had thought about that before but I already have the 2 subs, so only putting 1 in would leave me with an extra one that I have no idea what to do with.

And as far as amps go, any recommendations? I thank you for helping me with what channels and such, that helped a lot but I still don't know much about amps to make a justified decision. If I go with a Kenwood deck, would it work better to have Kenwood amps, or maybe looks towards another brand?

And farad caps... I can't find much about them, what's the average price on them? Thanks again for all your help, Any more help is also greatly appreciated!

[02_Rex]

amps can range alot depending on the budget you have to work with them. I would recommend looking into JBL, Rockford Fosgate, Kicker to give you some examples, again its based on how much you want to invest. Alpine also makes good amps, I checked out the deck and it looks good but I noticed that it said nothing about preouts for a sub, its true that most amps have rca outputs to chain another amp but I would look into getting a stereo that has the preouts because then you can also have a bass control on the stereo.

Caps can very alot, there are some as cheap as $60-80 and some that can go up to the $100's... a good cap will cost you about $120, it should be at least 1 farad and its better to have a digital volt readout on the cap.

[Nok]

Just wanted to update with a thanks to 02_rex! I really appreciate the help man, it saved me quite a bit of headache when the shop told me what I was lookin at gettin.

Anywho, little did I know I had an old friend from high school that opened an Audio/Video shop here in town a little while back. I ended up just taking my car down today to see what kind of deal they could swing me and I think I made out pretty damn good.

I ended up just goin for a single din unit, a Pioneer DEH-P4900IB that I really enjoy. It looks really nice, has a butt-load of features, works flawlessly with my iPod, and they even hooked my Sirius up to it so it doesn't have static! Still wanting to use my Cerwin Vega 12" they suggested that a MTX TC3001 should do the trick, and from my experience so far today, they were right.

I didn't want a generic box rolling around in back, and wasn't quite ready to dish out the money for the AI(?) boxes I've heard about, so they offered to customize a box to fit nicely right behind my back seat without taking up hardly any room. They did an amazing job on the box, matched it with the perfect carpet color, mounted the amp to it all amazingly clean...

I wasn't able to score a cam today, but I'll get some pics up possibly tomorrow to give a little better idea. The only gripe I have about the system, which isn't AVP's fault, is that my sub is a little loose. It's not a big deal at all due to how easy it is to adjust the bass, and it's probably just a sign to upgrade the speaker when I get the chance.

Also, just wanted to give the props to the company here in St. George, Utah that did the great job. The company is Audio Video Professionals, they took their time to make sure everything was right, and I would highly recommend them to anyone in the area.

[ERIKBROCKHOFF]

You should have brought your money to me

[Nok]

You should have brought your money to me

Yea! Your avatar looks exactly like what I wanted!

[Nok]

Here's some pics to finalize the post, I waited until night for these for best results, although the non-lit shot ended up blurry. Anywho... Here ya go.




Here's the box they made for me, it's kind of hard to tell but they made a lip for my sub to sit on. I think it makes it looks really nice.


A shot with a little distance.


A close-up, matches the trim really good imo.


A shot to show it at night. A little bright when driving down a dark road, but I just flip it down if needed. And yea, you can manually enter in the text for CD's, that's just a random Bass test CD I made to annoy my neighbors.


Anywho, again props to AVP. I know it's nothing spectacular, probably pretty weak in some eyes, but for my budget, it's amazing! Thanks again for the help!

[02_Rex]

Looks clean man, good choice on the deck... the sub and the amp are nice too.