the best stereo equipment?

SON240sx Automotive
1

I’ve had a few different subs in my 240. when i bought it, it came with two 12" clarion pro series 2 DVC 600w each, in a sealed box powered buy a 550w scoche(sp?? wall mart amp). it sounded alright, that amp never got very hot even after hours of pounding those 2 12’s!! the one sub started to come apart, the rubber was peeling off the cone.

so i tossed that sub and got a ported box and put the other one in it. It sounded way better then the two in the sealed box! i took my shit out for the winter, left for holiday’s, came back my house got robbed, my shit was gone.

my buddy sold me 2 10" kenwoods in a ported box, i don’t know the number’s, never took the subs out, but I’m told they are only 300 a piece. came with a 300w amp, no wonder y! but they sounded ok, but gave no real thump, just sounded like it did b/c of the hatch… not bad for 60$ tho!

a store recently had a sale on Rockford fosgate 10" p2’s. i had a 12" in a van(grad gift!!) and it sounded good and took everything i gave it a very good sub. under rated as far as I’m concerned. 400w(peak) SVC. 48$ each. they are regular about 180 each after tax and i got two for half the price of one @ reg price!! i figure they should sound good with RF’s 975w mono amp.

my head unit is a Sony cdx-f7705x. I’ve had it for 3-4 years now, it was a 400$ deck in it’s day! it has visual display, nothing like today’s decks, but it looks aight. mono sub out put, full sub control (-10db to +10db), mp3, 3 pre 4v, I’ve never had a problem with it in the 3 years I’ve had it.

i got a stinger amp kit from vision’s(were i got the p2’s!) they installed it for a clean look.

what do you guys run and what are the best subs in your opinion?

i hear the RF t2 is a monster! anyone have some?

2

i run two 12" alpine type R’s, ported box of course, and a 1000watt RMS amp. Better then 80% of the systems I’ve herd…
Subs are cheap you can always change to ones that you like, its the quality of the amp that makes the difference

3

The RF T2 is a nice sub but WAY over priced.
NoSkillz is right in the fact that the amp has a lot to do with the quality sounds but the sub also has a lot to do with it. There are only a few company,s I would put into my cars at the moment. Due to me working for one of them that is all I have but if you want the most reliable and by far the best sounding for the $$ you should check out some MTX stuff. I am not going to go into anything here but you can always shoot me on MSN about any audio stuff. Now if you are looking for a good dset of subs first is first. What amp are you planning on running it off of? That can be a very important question.

I am going to stop here but remember it is hard to actually say what is the best because music is all on the ear of the listener. you can determen the more efficient, best cooling, most responsive, the least return’s …

4

I used to run just 1 Credence 12" Square sub in a custom made ported box along with a Rockford 800.1 amp or something like that. The amp could handle 777watts rms and the sub could handle 850 watts RMS. I also have a panasonic deck that does 3.5 volts pre out or something like that.

Anyways, the sub really pounded. The bass was amazing and I loved it. However, it was just a lot of extra weight and the box always moved around when I took a corner a little quicker than usual. So I got rid of it.

The bass was awesome though. Everyone who has been in my car with that sub were all impressed. Most people thought I had 2 or 3 subs.

Btw, the credence 12" square sub is equivalent to a Kicker L5 12" square sub.

5

hehe Hey mark the circle sub I am putting in the 240 is equal to a L7, cheaper and has a FQ response that beats the hell out of any square sub.

6

There is sooooo much stuff out there for car audio it isnt even funny.

Better still is that anything that is not incredibly awesome will depreciate faster than a mid 90’s cadillac. You can pick up most car audio second hand for next to nothing and build a stereo that will kick the poo out of anything the box box stores offer.

IMHO if you are a bit of an aficianado you cant go wrong with the brick-shit-house amps from a decade or more ago. Soundstream (before they got bought-out), PPI (before they got bought-out), Rodek (before they got bought-out), A.D.S power plates, RF (before they sold out).

I used to buy car audio for fun and for work and i always got a tingle when this stuff came in. Some of the older stuff like i mentioned above and even some older Alpine gear are basically collector’s items now. I have an old Rodek that kicks some serious ass, i have had collectors from all over Canada try to buy it from me in year’s past when i was posting on forums that i was trying to find a matching amp for it.

These amps also hold their value, ie. the old soundstream stuff still fetches hundreds of dollars each even though they are 10 years old or more. Your typical RF amp from FS will be worth less than half of retail next year. PPI Art series, A.D.S stuff… it’s all worth just as much today as it was when it came out even.

If you have a Sony piece and it isnt from their disconntinued Mobile ES line up then you can chuck in the garbage. They made two decks back in like 92-94 that you will still find in use in IASCA competition cars. I think they were the C90 and something else.

Everyone and their mother makes subwoofers. JL is pretty timeless, you just cant go wrong and every wigger and their ugly girlfriend will give you some $$$ for them when you’re ready to move on.

Basically the rule is if you can buy it around the corner it isnt worth having.

Newer stuff that is kicking ass is Audison, Focal, ARC, Treo, DLS, Rainbow, Image Dynamics etc.

Rainbow had some component speakers that came in a bullet proof suitcase and cost like $10k… ungh…

check out www.canadiancaraudio.com

i havent had my stereo hooked up in years, but it used to be pretty nice. Boston Pro 5.5 components, Nakamichi MB-75 music bank (in dash 6), PPI PC-450, Memphis studio class 16-st500d, ARC dvc 10’s.

If i put it back in i gotta find a way to incorporate that Rodek in there somewhere.

7

when i was into the stuff i dealt a fair bit with www.kankar.ca

Tom Kliem is an IASCA judge and distributes some incredible gear. I picked up a few things from him.

Basically, every single year all the guys who compete in IASCA or whatever get new gear from their sponsors etc. and they part out their incredible systems regularly as well as their secondary systems in their DD’s and theiur wive’s cars…lol

8

Benson, nope. It’s also cheaper cause you get cost. I paid $275 for that one sub with the box included which was a fairly decent price.

Are you going to put it in a ported box? Cause they will both need to be in a ported box in order to be fair, otherwise, my sub would have definitely beat yours in terms of bass. :stuck_out_tongue:

And you of all people should know that a lot of this has to do with the deck, the amount of pre-outs voltage that it can put out. The type of cables used. Whether or not you have a cap (might help a little maybe, im a newb), and the last thing is the amp. It’s not how big your sub is, it’s how you use it.

EDIT: I guess you are talking about Sub vs Sub, not system vs System.

Just to let everyone out there know though, it’s not just about how great the sub is. You gotta make sure you have a good amp and a decent deck to back it up.

9

i used to have two 12’ audiobahn in a ported box with a fusion amp and power cap and it pounded, except i wanted more so i bought a hyfonics hurcuies amp with two 10’ visonik 1000wrms 2000wpeak subs and it pounds it sounds amazing, i am running a eclise deck, with fusion components and 6x9. it sounds great and pounds so hard. my suggestion would to stay away from best buy and future shop. go to a local dealer, and see what he suggests. whatever you put in a hatch will sound amazing, if i were to get something that sounds great for a good price i would go with alpine type r’s they are an amazing sub, or i would get uens fusions. ether are great. anyways good luck…

skinny

10

Here’s a shameless plug for Benson in the form of a question:
I’m told that MTX makes amps that accept high level inputs. Now this is relevant to my interests because I want to keep the factory deck in my Solara. Why? The factory stereo sounds REALLY damn good as it is (just needs more bass), and it’s a weird Toyota double din and I’d have to do a handstand and a barrel roll to make an aftermarket deck look nice and clean in there. The only thing I would use from an aftermarket deck would be the AUX in, so I’ll just buy an AUX in adapter for the CD changer in my stock deck.
Anyway, back on topic, these high level input amps, can you tell me a bit more about them? I’m assuming I would lose the use of my rear speakers in order to provide the input to the amp for a sub. I’m assuming that since I most likely want a monoblock for the sub, or a 2ch that I’ll bridge anyway to give it more balls. Either way, I don’t know much about car audio, so appreciate any feedback anyone (but especially Benson) has.

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my favorite sub is the steakhouse dip @ quizno’s

12

LOLERSKATES
Is it that good? I had a Mesquite chicken today, but the guy infront of me got that one.

13

Mike’s statement is not really legit because it’s only good if I make it. I’m pretty sure that if mike were to go to another quizno’s, he’d get a shitty sub. Guaranteed.

14

trade subs for car parts?

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I am Running Currently Two 12 inch Clif Design Subwoofers, there european brand not many people have heard of them but they pound pretty hard and im currently looking for a nice 15’’ subwoofer so if anyone has one pm me with specs and such, i mean JL such a nice brand u usually cant go wrong with them but who knows. i like RE Audio XXX series there sooo nice they huge and pound huge to. if you check out Steve Meade Designs he’s got some serious car audio 4 18’s in the back of his danali it flexs that thing huge, and can shake windows on the outside like crazy.

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Whoa! You work at Quiznos? Which one? I’m dropping by lol!

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there are allot of factors to make a good sounding stereo. the thing i like about the Sony deck i have is it has full sub control so i don’t need the volume control for the amp. it’s already in my deck. the visuals are not that great, 3 4v pre outs, mp3, it’s solid gives me good sound with good control over the freq, and a mono output so i don’t HAVE to spend the extra on a mono amp. I’m gonna take a picture of my box, it’s damn heavy and add’s allot of weight, the port is in between the two 10’s. i have alway s love Rockford’s sub’s. i want a t2, but like u say, way over priced, but HAMMER hard!! i have to settle with some P2’s. i don’t want no 2000w’s, everything in the car will rattle and fall apart. i want good quality bass, and to be heard when cruising!! i figure p2’s will give me the sound i want. i had 1 12" in a dual ported box in a van and it pounded pretty good!! so two in a hatch should sound really good!

i was wondering if a cap is actually worth the money, does it really do what it is suppose to. i bought a cheap one from wal-mart, just to see if it would actually do anything. I’m running a 300w amp and this cap is .5 F. it really didn’t seem to do anything, my lights still dim. my battery is a new optima so i know it’s not that.

also, if there a bigger alternator for a ka24e? i need more juice to keep up with the stereo. i plan on getting a new one for when i get my car back, but if there is a high amp alternator i will defiantly put it up.

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Fist thing First, Mark… I was going sub to sub and you are right about that but It is not as much about the pre-out voltage as it is about the pre-out voltage and the pre-out resistance. One of those little things never really brought to the attention of the people. I do not care if you have a 8v out, if it was tested under lower then normal resistance then you are never going to get that signal.

ok now about caps,a power cap to is a low resistance fast charging and discharging cell. It help’s supply the amp with immediate power when it is required, because conventional batteries do not have a discharge rate fast enough to always keep up with the requirements of
an amplifier. It gets charged from the alternator when the vehicle is on and from the battery when the vehicle is off. It can only offer the amp the voltage that is being offered to charge it’s self (Meaning that is it not a solution to getting around upgrading your alternator or battery).

No about the high line levels, Ya they actually have a really nice setup for the high lines, The TA series amps can input anything from .25Volts to 30volts and even at one ohm from a boss. Also they all have smart engage which means that it has a soft turn on, no big thump when you start the car and turn it of because the amp is not turning on with the ignition it is turning on when signal is being sent down the speaker lines. Now to be honest what you really want is something called the RE-Q, one problem that you are going to have no matter what amp you attach to your factory audio system is that you are going to have bass roll off. The OEM head unit will put out lots of bass at low V levels and will actually decrease the volume as you turn it up, This is so the OEM speakers will not blow. The RE-q will correct for this and give you a linear bass movement with the volume of the OEM head unit. just go to www.reqsound.com for more info. This piece is not even very expensive.

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Trafalgar and Dundas

lawl

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One more thing, how would I go about limiting the bass output on the stock speakers? Because I believe that if I turn down bass on the deck, it’ll also turn it down for the sub. Is it too much of a hassle to keep factory deck?