The car sound system thread a.k.a I GOT KING KONG IN THE TRUNK!

General Discussion
1

So…I finally bought myself a sweet whip and listed some additions to make it that more…tight.

  1. Dark Tints(makes a white car look nicer): CHECK!!!
  2. Rims( some twentys no less): CHECK!!!
  3. Sound System(gotta make those car alarms go off):CHE…nope.

You see I’m a complete newb when it comes to sound systems. All the people I know with systems either sound weak or just rattle their trunks making it sound really, really horrible. I dont want to be them.

What are the specific parts and accesories I need? Brands to look out for and brands to avoid. I am not looking to shatter windows just want a good loud pronounced sound bursting from my trunk. Out of all the installers of systems ie,…Best buy, circuit city I think pep boys and so forth, is it recommended to go there to get my shit installed? I’m thinking if I go to a local shop around the hood they’ll probably charge me more. I’m working with a stack as my budget limit maybe a little more to 1500 max willing to spend.

2

Why do you need it? Isn’t the car stereo enough? Bear with here, but I have no idea why people want to play their music loud enough to hurt their ears and annoy people around them. Maybe you can enlighten me about this seemingly selfish behavior…

3

So I’m trying to install a sub in my trunk… Is there any way I can dampen trunk rattle? I’ve heard of Dynamat but people have been telling me it just enhances bass and doesn’t minimize rattle?

4
  1. cause he wants it
  2. guess not if he is upgrading it
  3. Same reason why you turn up the radio during your favorite song…its no different. I want to here my music and only my music, no road noise, no wind with the windows down and no one in the passenger seat.

When doing a system you are upgrading your sound, besides BOSE, your normal car speakers aren’t great by no means. Can’t handle what music puts out.

Now, I do have a system will detail later and I dont consider it anything massive, I do argee with you when fools do get systems and blast louder and at bad times. Like, when in an apartment complex or near homes.

5

Someone recommend an touchscreen system for me - no double din, has to be single din. I’m looking to upgrade my Pioneer P80.

6

Touchscreen single din??? I havent seen one of those before…Well, if you talking about a single din flip out screen, I would go with Alpine.

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=IVA-D310

7

JVC makes a single-DIN video headunit. The KD-AVX33 is one of them. Although it isn’t touchscreen. hehe http://mobile.jvc.com/product.jsp?productId=PRD3201400&pathId=133

Ace, you still pushin’ that tC?

I’ve still got mine. Have a small system in mine with an 8" sub, an amp and upgraded component speakers up front. Also lined the whole interior with paint-on sound dampening material from Elemental Designs – same brand that all my audio pieces are from. Just wanted something better sounding than stock, wasn’t looking to win an SPL competition or anything like that.

http://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=125958 if anyone wants to take a look.

8

my king kong is on steroids… cant wait till it OFFICIALLY turns summer…

9

I’m not good enough for an answer or nobody knows?

10

I never understood this shit. I guess I never will.

11

Touch screen is to make it prettier right? if you’ve already gone all out on woofers and rims why not pay a little extra cash to get a touch screen with a nice interface?

I had a friend that dished out 380 for that same one right there, and the screens look to nasty to even wanna touch it. You’re trying to be flashy, because we can all agree its unnecessary, so why not be classy too?

this isn’t me calling you out, but more like food for thought.

I’ve always wanted to say this outloud to potential buyers but I’ve never really done it.

12

Tatio - Yes, Dynamat (or some other element of sound damping) will reduce your rattle, but you need to put it in places where rattle happens. Trunk, side walls, license plate, doors. Its not just throw some stuff up there and hope it works out.

Dander - What are you talking about? He asked for a nice touchscreen single din and I showed him one…don’t know where you post is going. If you put a link up to what your talking about then it work make some sense.

Mastermind - Whats up man, yea, still bumpin the tC. She is getting old, 50k almost on her already. One of my boys from back home bought some ED stuff for his car, he got a 15’ sub! Joint was crazy. Later today I will post some video’s of mine.

Koop - We need to get your King Kong on youtube!!!

13

So yeah…not many car audio heads around here, huh? Well I tried. Talking to my fellow peeps my plan is as follows…

1.Mat the fuck out of my ride, cause I want the least amount of rattle. Supposedly could be about 200 smackers to outfit my car.

  1. My highs(which are the speakers inside) will stay the bose shit they came with. They sound tight already, so yeah…

  2. Im gonna get me either some two '15s L7s or one '15 kicker. Supposedly, a kicker is better because since there made more competition, they can handle the bass without blowing out. true???

  3. I’ll need a pretty good amp to handle the above, but I still dont know how many watts ill need…help

5.Whats better one channel, two channel. mono…???

  1. Also I’ll probably pick up a capacitator to protect my battery and alternator…

  2. What king of box is recommended open vent or enclosed, ill probably want one with a cool light to show off to folks as well?

So yeah understanding a little more about the car audio world. What you guys think? Am I missing something?

14

::sticks head in thread::

Clarion makes the touch screen single-din unit. JVC has something similar as well. I don’t endorce JVC in the slightest - even if they gave me free shit I coudln’t do it. It sounds good at first, but their componenets get weaker over time, dying out often at the two year mark - its just not worth it. Clarion…same company as Orion, and Viper. Big name, decent products. I’d look at them for the single din touch screen

Dynamat works several ways.

  1. Weighs down material so it doesn’t move as easily
  2. Prevents metal from flexing as hard less rattle
  3. Dampens the sound of anything hitting it less rattle
  4. Reflects sound back towards the source meaning the noise stays IN the car - translating to an actual louder sound experience

Before you spend any money on dynamat though - it aint cheap - noen of the brands are - find ‘where’ the rattle is. Take your time doing this - you’ll save money. Hoild down your license plate to see how much rattle comes from that - if you have a substantial amount there, buy a tennis bawl, slice it horizontally to make a ring, and stick it behidn the licensne plate, then screww down the plate in all four holes. That will stop most of that noise. Then systematically put pressure at different parts of your car to see where your getting alot of rattle from. Figure out how you can dynamat those areas effectively. For those with a ton of money and looking for the best “I want only my song no outside noises” - sound systems, you have to remove the front dash, the seats, and all the upholsetery and dynamat the entire bottom/front typical practice for convertables - this blocks out a susbantial amount of engine and road noise, but I’ve never done this myself.

All stock systems suck outside pf the 06+ Acura TLs, and the flagship Lexus 400. If it has BOSE, Infinity, or Monsoon in it - avoid it like the plague. They have no lows, no highs as they cheat average speaker is a 4 ohm speaker, they use 1/2 ohm which is virtually unstable - which is why only theier amps seem to work - the ohms basically state how accurate you can make the woofer move - higher the ohms - higher the accuracies, but the more power is needed - ohm’s law Voltage=Current x Resistance - double the resistance, double the voltage needed to achieve the same current blah blah blah and the half-ohm speakers are very succestable to popping and can only be replaced by half-ohm speakers - something NO one makes because of the instability. Those manufactureers use them because they are (1) proprieteary, and (b) they can double the volume for less power - smaller amp in other words. So yeah - stock shit STANK. The speakers are typicallpy single engine powered - meaning those 6.5s in the front of that Camry is a singel speaker pretending to be two - so your highs will suck whenever the lows kick and vice versa. If you enjoy music you will notice this - and its not pleasant in comparison.

And you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone. I had a sweet rockford setup in the front and rear - got my new car with stock system, it sounds ‘oh kai’, but I listen to songs I used to like, and even with my old sub installed - the high-lows and other frequenceies just sound off, and thus lower the ‘feeling’ of the music.

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15

Take my advice - just find the problem spots - dynam,ating a whole car even if you do it yourself will cost more than that, especially in the long run

Becareful - your adding a sub, this will make you want to turn your shit up louder - this will kill BOSE typically as they are unstable - hte bust more than any other speaker setup I saw when selling car audio.

Don’t believe the hype. And a sub thats been properly amped will not blow unless you do something stupid. Be aware that adding two 15’ subs not only is overkill, but wil lcompletley whipe out your highs coming from a stock BOSE system. If you want this much power in the rear you need more power up front. I’ve had too many people not listen to me then come back sayin they needed to upgrade their speakers. So if you want 2 15s overkill in the first place - what kind of car is this?, I HIGHLY recommend dumping somethign up front to make the front stage stronger to compensate for the on rush of pressurte from the rear.

To get the right amp, find the sub you want, figure out how many you want. Find out what the RMS value of both subs is iat 2 ohms and at 4 ohms. Add it up for the total power usage - a 2 ohm value and a 4 ohm value. Decide which way you want to go - briding down to 2-ohms or keeping it at 4 ohms 2-ohms cheaper power, but the quality isn’t as good - going with something from Kicker you might as well go 2 ohm sicne they arne’t high sound quality subs then you might as wel lstick with the same brand - and match an amp with an RMS value equal to or less than that of the sub. You can go over teh RMS value of the sub, but yoiu do risk blowing. Typicall the manufacturer will have an amp perfectly matched though hence sticking with the brand

For subs it doesn’t matter too much. Two channel is a bit more flexible in terms of wiring options, but your fine with a mono/single-channel. Bass is omni-directional - so ‘stereo’-imaging is null and void.

Half a farad for every 500Watts is the typical math.

Depends entirely on the sub design and the sound you want out of it. sealed/enclosed is the most accurate, but requires the right sizing for the subs, and is the ‘quietest’ of the box types. Vented/ported boxes create the most noise - but it only works at certain frequencies - sometimes making a sub sound flat. Most folks fo with ported cause they are just looking fopr bass, but morethan likely you’ll need a custom box for 2 15s - so make sure they make the right size port for the subs or it will ‘whistle’

Get good power wires (1) If you don’t change your head unit if you aren’t changing your speakers you cna’t change the head unit with BOSE, then you’ll need to pony/split some signal wires from the signal going to the BOSE amp for the subs. Will require some tuning, might want to look at an equilizer to throw in right there so that you can clean the bass up (2) Make sure the sound you are putting in works for your car *Ace’s TC only has one sub in - good move - its a hatchback, the bass doens’t have to run thru any material to get to your ears - 2 12s would have been overkill even with his upgraded front - he has great balance in his ride(3)

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16

an thats why your my brother an you n my other brother ace will be helpin with the ride later this summer… yaaay…

in fact next time i come through there or ambers need ya to spot check my rattle sections anyway… my memphis mojo twelve blows up the block (literally) but the rattle is gettin on my fuccin nerves now…

17

In the tC? I got some ideas on where the rattle would be coming from, Ace already did his though, so he should be ab le to spill it quicker than I can find it. I took time off yesterday so I could try and finish my ride, but the fucking weather killed my plans. I’m trying to get my car finished before I move, Cap install, refabricate my center console do it right this time with bondo and shit - Amber got a Dremel w00t muthafucka…w00t, install my screen, and run wires for my lighting. Then I just need the funds for my speakers and amps. Ace has my four channel amp still >_<, but until I get my new speakers I’m not sweating it - I’m thinking of going Memphis’s up front, JL in the rear, and I still want JBL WGTi 12 for my woofer, already got my amps picked out and everything, but its some serious bread for those JBL joints, but damn those are the sweetest sounding lows I’ve ever heard. Found a shop in Manassas with all my JBL needs not Safe & sound - its one of those mexican spots that has a cool white dude who does the audio shit. I really do want this car done this summer. Rims will just wait till next spring, I’m having trouble ‘settling’ on rims that look good on my ride - I don’t want too much chrome - I’m not trying to be flashy, but dammit my car has a chrome nose, chrome handles, and I’m getting the chrome side bars, so it just looks better. I also aint trynna get shit that I see everyone else with :sigh:. One step closer to competition though. Just run my signal wires in conduit and I’l lbe gold with that setup…get my damn trophy.

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18

Koop - Name a weekend (before the wedding if need be) I know EXACTLY where you need to dynamat to stop your rattling (since summer is here, I turned up my amp…I didn’t know my sub was that loud…LOL)

Unreal - Take a weekend to come down and get your stuff done HERE! Much cheaper.

I agree with most of what Unreal said, minus some things.

Cap - Waste of time IMO, upgrading “The Big 3” is more cost efficient then copping a Cap. Depending widely on what you bump (guessing rap) a Cap will discharge within a few beats from Lil John and will never be able to charge up to handle any other notes. Caps are more of a patch work fix to a bigger problem drawing a ton of power from your electrical system Google “Car audio big 3” and you will see what I am talking about

Dynamat (or sound damping) - Don’t buy “Dynamat”, you paying for name. There are companies that sell sound damping material for a cheaper price with a thicker material. I think it cost ~ 175 to do my whole tC. and when I say whole, I mean from top to bottom every sq. inch

Bose - I wouldnt say that Bose sucks, Pops Impala system is great for the car, and most Bose systems now come with a sub in the trunk somewhere (I know Pops has one). True, it has nothing on mine, but for him its Bose (TOP DA LINE!)

Just realized that my dad has a hood car…weird…

I agree that if you are going to do a system, DO IT RIGHT! Don’t upgrade one thing and think your done, Unreal is right that you will blow your shit very quick if you do. Honestly, your sub should be the last thing you throw in there, since its adding/enhancing your music where your speakers are contributing to the sounds. I can tell you right now, 2 15’ L7 is overkill. You will be deaf. I have 1 10’ L7 and its more than enough for me IMO.

Kickers - If you want THUMP, don’t get Solo-barics. (!!!) Get the CompVR’s if you want to thump the ground, get the Solo’s if you want clean SQL and adequate thump. L7’s are LOUD not BANGING. BIG difference in the two. You will hear the L7 yards away but not “feel” it. Comps you will feel that shit from blocks away.

Example - Kool and the Gang - Summer Madness; click here You can hear the song from yards away, but you will not feel it. Not only that but the song has minimum lows and VERY high hi’s.

Example - Pastor Troy - Tha City [media=youtube]5_Q3cBz_63E"]**click here[/B[/media]

Song has very deep bass, not saying that I am disappointed in the output, but I have had/heard deeper with different subs.

19

probably after … got a lot to handle before an durin ya weddin… so after the ol honeymoon with the misses we can get to it durin that ‘free time’. ill drive down an we can make it happen… unless free time occurs before then ill will still make the trip… hit me up an let me know what i need to buy so i can put the funds to the side now…

20

Sounds good, we are looking to have everything done in June, so we don’t have to be scrambling at the last minute. What do you need done? I dont know exactly what you have done with the ride, I know your sub is in, but what are you planning on doing so far?

I know this summer I am going to sound damp the ride, so I am already putting money aside for that, also going to cop a new headunit…that might be in 2 weeks. I will have 2 for sale with extra components (if you got people who looking, on the real, let me know). I want to return Unreal’s amp this summer as well, its been good to me, but I dont want to hog it. Also, I am cleaning up my 2+ year install when I give it back, it will give me more trunk space. (using that compartment under the trunk mat)

DJ - What ride do you have? Bose…I assume a GM???