The brain to the system
Arright the most important part to your stereo system is obviously your head unit. It is the control center for all sounds great and small. I personally have had 3 Pioneer DEH series recievers and I recommend them greatly for their reliability, ability of fine tuning and banging screen displays. TWO OF THE WORST ONES TO GET IN TERMS OF FINE TUNING CAPABILITY AND RMS POWER ARE THE JVC EL KAMELEON AND THE SONY DUAL FLIP FACE. Those may look very appealing but trust me they are not good for power and fine tuning ability. Another thing is most thieves know what the JVC Kameleon is and its appearance of no radio there isn't fooling anybody, they'll take it.
Most high end recievers out now boast 50 x 4 and even now panasonic gotta 60x 4 mosfet chip joint out. People dont realize that those wattages are for brief musical peaks. the most important spec is the RMS number which is usually between 22 and 28watts for most good recievers, this is the number u are looking for because this is the amount of wattage the reciever constantly spits out. Another thing to look for is RCA preouts which should be at least 4.5 volts, that or anything higher is ideal, the higher voltage means the more clear and crisp the signal being sent to the amp/s.
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Interior and component speakers
ALL FACTORY SPEAKERS SUCK REALLY BAD AND ARE MADE OUT OF PAPER. Even the bose sytems some cars have and the infinity ones still come from the bottom of these companies barrels. The first thing i did when i had my car was replace all the interiors. Most import cars either have, 5 1/4 or 6 1/2 inch in the doors and usually some 6 1/2 or 6 3/4 in the back rear deck. I recommend infinity kappa those are the best, but other companies such as pioneer, kenwood excelon,JBL and of course Rockford Fosgate always come out with some great equipment. Wiring them is very easy although tearing out the rear deck and door panels may be tough. But you must know, all foreign cars use these little pop clips to hold panels in place so if u find the clips and give them a gentle jerk they should loosen and eventually u will have the whole panel out. Email me for any specific questions regarding interior installs, I've installed systems in many different imports and even some whack domestics. i also have color diagrams for reciever installs for all cars.
Wiring Amplifiers and Subs, and which box to Choose
I LOVE AMPS, THEY MAKE MUSIC SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING!! For interior speakers i definitely recommend a 4 way amp usually one with a 50 x 4 rating up to a 75 x 4 is perfect and very powerful. The rockford fosgate 400.4 and 600.4 are one of the best out and best bang for your buck. When tuning the interior amp it should be at around 125hz so only the highs are emitted into your interiors. if you want more mids as well u can tune it to 80hz so all sound frequencies starting from 80 megaherz and going up will be heard. dont worry the bass from the subs makes up for the lack of cabin lows. For the bass in the trunk i again say to throw some rockford 12's in. preferably the new DVC (dual voice coils) these are easy to wire into 2 or 4 ohm loads. 4 ohm is the ideal load because it will be more clearer and not blow out your amp. either the rockford Punch HX2 which kick out a 1000 watts max each and 500 rms or the freakin crazy rock power HX2's which deliver a staggering 2000 watts in max output. i got two punches wired up to an infinity kappa 100.2 and u wouldnt believe how hard and deep those 200 watts feels. trust me im a bass fiend and the punch HX2 are just what u need, throw a 200 by 2 amp and u will definitely be happily DEAF.
WIRING: an amp needs as much power as possible if u have a single amp or even two u need a 4 gauge power wire coming off your battery with at least a 60 gauge fuse no exceptions. and for that steady hard hitting bass at all times get at least a 1.0 farad capacitor and wire it into the system usually before the amp in the series because it acts as a reservoir of juice when the amp is thirsty. Also it lessens the work on the alternator which gets drained with lights power windows and AC which all suck mad juice.
The rca cables come off the reciever and go directly into the amp, these cables send the actual musical sounds into the amp to be amplified to louder extremes, so dont get cheap cables get rockford matrix, or your clarity will suffer.
For speakerwires going from the amp into your subs get at least 16 gauge nothing smaller, i personally have 8 gauge power and ground wires connected directly to my subs. The thicker the wire the easier and stronger the current can run into the speakers which equal more power.
BOXES:there are basically two types of boxes sealed ones and ported. The volume of the box is very important so check your subs sheet to see how much volume they require for full maximization of power. A ported box can turn little subs into beasts and the pressure they create is great, and they look really hot too. Only problem is the bass may hang around a few milliseconds longer because of the ports and bass may sound a little unperfect. Sealed boxes require more volume for greater bass but in terms of precise bass hits this is what u want. The bass in sealed boxes is very hard hitting but precise and u dont have that mixing of previous bass sounds. For the type of wood to have your box made out of, always get at least MDF (medium density fiberboard) because it is not porous and the wood is compacted so no air can escape out the box and lessen bass pressure. these boxes are heavy so if u want to really street race your car take into account how much boxes and subs weigh, my sub system is well over 150 lbs, with the amp mounted. Check out my custom 2 page for more audio info and pics.
Email Me with any import or car audio questions!!
ivillalobosjr@netscape.net
Great audio site links
www.crutchfield.com |
