hey guys, i dont know much about car audio and i was hoping i could get some help from other members. I have a 1992 pathfinder and i am looking to get a deck and some speakers at the upcoming Car audio gone wild, but i have no clue as to what i should be looking for. I read a few articles on various websites but i am completely lost. I was wondering if all decks would work with the pathfinder or do i need to look for ones with specific specifications, and for speakers how do i know which will fit in the original locations without need for custom work. Thanks in advanced from a guy who is confused beyond belief haha
For the deck you might have to buy a dash kit. Just go to Futureshop or Best Buy or something and ask what kind of adapter you’d need. You also might need a antenna harness for the radio to work. Just go to one of those places and ask. They should have both for you if you do end up buying a deck at car audio gone wild. Also, don’t buy high wattage speakers if you’re just running off of deck outputs. Decks usually are something like 45W by 4 channels max which is around 20-25W RMS by 4 channels. The RMS rating is the one that matters as that is what is a safe level for your speakers to run at.
ie. Don’t buy 150W Max Speakers and put 150W to em. They’ll blow. If the RMS rating is 80W run em at 50-80W RMS.
For fitment issues. It’ll be pretty standard if you’re replacing 6.5" speakers with 6.5" speaker then you should be alright. The speakers will come with mounting hardware and adapter rings if there’s an issue with screw holes.
I can tell you now though if you’re thinking of buying speakers they’ll sound ALOT better with a proper amp to em. I went from a Coustics old crappy amp on my speakers to a quality JL Audio amp and the difference was night and day. It’ll be even more exaggerated going from deck powered to amp powered.
Anyways I could go on all day about decks/amps/speakers. This is just basic shit if you wanna know more about car audio go to www.caraudiocentral.net. Very good knowledge base there.
cool thanks for the help. i am not looking for a system that will have crazy bass or anything like that, i just want to replace the old oem speakers with something new and have decent audio quality. if i were to buy the deck and speakers, what are some reputable shops that could bring the parts in to be installed? i dont have any free time at all and i wouldnt trust myself to install it haha
I’ve heard good things about Adrenalin Car Audio on Calgary Trail. But I think they are alil pricey. I do all my own car audio so I’m not too sure about shops or anything. It’s not as bad as you’d think. Especially if it’s just deck/speakers. But I dunno. Unless you want crazy stuff like fiberglassed kick pods or custom sub boxes… I’d think Best Buy/Futureshop/AB Sound would be able to handle what you’d need for a decent price.
really appreciate your help, i tried making sense of this stuff by reading magazines but for some reason nothing would register. Now here comes the stupid question haha, in your other post you were saying how decks would be something like 50W x 4 channels, what kind of power output would that deck be able to handle in terms of speakers?
Probs around 20W RMS across 4 Channels. For example my subs are 300W Max. But only 175W RMS. Should say in the deck specs somewhere, the RMS rating that is.
yeah the deck that i was thinking about is http://www.pioneerelectronics.ca/pna/product/detail/0,,32171715_32249681_424028124_tab=B,00.html?compName=PNA_ProductDetailComponent#
and if im reading this correctly its 24w rms? im guessing it wouldnt be safe to run a set of speakers with a 35 w rms? thanks again for the help, your making the process alot easier haha
Continuous Power Output 22W x 4 (Continuous is same as RMS)
Well 22W. But eh close enough. Yea those’ll power your speakers just fine. Pioneer Premiers are solid decks also!
Question though. What speakers are you thinking of going with?
i was think with something along the lines of http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/product/details/0,,2076_310069908_291219678_tab=B,00.html?compName=PNA_V3_ProductDetailsComponent
dont know for sure yet. i really like that deck because of its usb port so i can just use my jump drive, but i was wondering what is the difference between the one i linked and this onehttp://www.pioneerelectronics.ca/pna/product/detail/0,32171715_32249679_424028142,00.html
the only difference that i could see is the warrenty
Cool cool. Yea you should good to go then. If you were planning on getting Components or 4x6 speakers you’d prob want an amp but the deck should power those well enough.
cool, i was wondering whats the difference between 2 way and 3 way speakers?
Just think of each “way” being a seperate speaker. 2 Way would be something like a tweeter (high range) and a mid driver (mid range). 3 way would have both those plus a woofer (for the low range) built in. Obviously a woofer in a 3 way won’t be as bassy as an independant subwoofer as those are 8"-15" (for the subwoofer) compared to the woofer in a normal speaker being only like 5-6". Sometimes the tweeter is mounted on the speaker itself or on it’s own like in a component setup.\
2 way in Component form
http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=SPR-17S
2 way in Coaxial form
http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=SPR-17C
3 way in Component form
http://www.dls.se/en/car/prod.html?produkt=en_75
3 way in Coaxial form
http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=SPS-69C3
what do you think would be the highest speaker rms i could go for that deck?
I’d stick to the 22W rms recommended by the manufacturer. If you go over that it won’t hurt anything. You start running into problems when you try to put too much wattage on the speakers. Underpowering your speakers alil won’t hurt anything. If you find that the wattage from the deck alone isn’t enough, your deck has 3 RCA preouts which will make it easier for you to add an amp later on down the road if you want.
alright, i think I’ll just stick with those speakers i linked before if they have them. i was looking on the panasonic website and they categorize the speakers into front and rear doors, do they actually matter whether they go in the front or rear doors? oh an another stupid question, are the speakers sold in pairs?
The front/rear door kinda does matter but not really… The front door ones might be angled differently or something cuz where they are located they’d prob angle up towards the head more as opposed to your ankles. Really though, anyone can fix that by making their own rings that angles em. Sounds kinda gimicky to me but eh… And yea speakers are always sold as the pair, right and left always always.
Something to think about too man. You’re buying a deck that’s quite abit better in comparison to the speakers you’ve picked. You might find that you will have this deck and speakers and not having what you really it would be after spending a good chunk of cash. Though honestly in a 1992 vehicles even just picking up an aftermarket deck will be a pretty large improvement over the stock one. Likewise with the speakers. Just something to think about though that maybe you’ll wanna try to match some nicer speakers or half way with both? Lil cheaper deck and lil more expensive speaker?
yeah haha i was just wondering about that, what kind of speakers would you recommend? just that i dont want to have an amp. main reason why i chose this deck was because of its usb port, but i was only going to get it if the price was reasonable. Ive heard many good things about the alpine type r speakers but i think the deck wouldnt be able to power them by itself, not too sure about that ahah
I had a set of Alpine Type-S Speakers in my car just power by the deck for awhile.They sounded pretty good. 40W Rms 2 way.
The prices from these websites are US, without shipping. Trust me I got an extra shipping payment from these guys and was very surprised… If you order from here the shipping quote they give is to the border… Border to my house for an amp and speakers was an extra 60$…
Anyways… rant over…
These are the Alpine Type-S (Type-R will sound just the same being powered solely by deck) The type-s shown here are an older speaker… I think they’re from 2004 or something.
Here are your speakers for comparison sake.
i wonder if car audio gone wild will have any alpine speakers, if they dont have them i guess i’ll just buy them from somewhere else. any other speakers? Clarion, panasonic, pioneer? dont think i should be considering jl since this isnt a crazy system
I’d think they’d have Alpine. All those companies you named make decent car audio. Just look for a set of speakers with 30-50w RMS and you should be good to go with that deck man. Any higher and it’ll really need amping to get em to sound good. And dont go too cheap. Dont get the best but dont just look at the cheapest either.