E46 audio with stereo

she might scratch it with her pointy elbows

For $600 it's going to be some pretty mediocre shit

I built this stereo for under $600. Precision Power amps and processors, BBE processor, German made MB Quart mids and tweets, JL Audio Subwoofer, OFC wiring.

These are the processors installed in my glove box. A crossover, a preamp eq, and a BBE sonic maximizer. Again, total outlay, including wiring, under $600.

>would berry

>i don't have enough speaker slots
Don't know what you mean by speaker slots? That's because speakers are nested in each other so that multiple openings are not needed. For car audio, you have the following speaker concepts:
a. Component Speakers - separate holes for tweeter and midrange/woofer at each location.
b. Nested Speakers - typical approach of using one hole with tweeter nested within the cone space of the midrange/woofer.

As speakers locations go, in the better sounding systems, there are usually components up front (tweeter and midrange/woofer) and nested speakers in the rear doors and rear dash. The subwoofer may also be in the rear dash in such a nine speaker system.

As car speakers go, year after year, Pioneer gives consistently good performance for the money. Of particular note is that the Pioneer has excellent minimum performance so that even their "worst" one still sounds pretty good. That's a lot better than many other famous brands whose worst ones are actually poor sounding.

It has been many years since all cars had nice rectangular double-DIN holes in the dash for a standard head unit to fit. Because of that, many cars need custom faceplates in the dash now.

Ok so lets say ill stick with pioneer i will have to buy 4 6,5" speakers 2 tweeters and 1 subwoofer. Can u recommend any particular model and i really dont know which amp i need and what exact changes i will have to do to my dashboard?

See

Ok ok but im not into amps and with 2 comp 6,5" speakers, 2 coax 6,5", 2 tweeters and 1 subw what amp do i need? how many channels etc?

Get any old American made amp for your mids and tweets. Orion 275 or 280, Punch 100 or 200, Precision Power A300 or PC2150, whatever. As long as it's at least 75 per channel you're golden. You don't specifically need a 4 channel.

For sub, any bridgeable 2 channel or a mono amp will do. Hell, you could get a pair of Orion XTR 275's for a clean looking install.

There are various online audio shops you can use to crosscheck speakers being able to fit. Just because a hole has a big enough diameter doesn't mean the speaker can fit. That's because inside the hole may be physical support bars or the edge of the hole may coincide with a support beam. Or the depth of the hole varies due to other objects and thus the speaker is too thick to wholly fit in the whole flush. Some of these audio shops have measured out hole sizes since they either get the data from the manufacturer, dealers, car rentals, or service shops.

So, you don't have to buy from them but just use any tools they have at their website to see if the speaker fits. One of the better sites for this is Crutchfield. They get a hold of cars and physically measure the holes themselves so they can tell if a speaker with all of its protruding parts will fit inside the hole. Go to their site and see which pioneer speakers fit.

Your local SPECIALTY car audio shops can also perform checks to see. I don't mean best buy or frys which are generic places. But specialty shops are dedicated to car audio. On the west coast, one of the good ones is Car Toys.

>Can u recommend any particular model
You can also visit various audio stores to get an idea of how speakers sound and also see various head units for ideas as to how they fit into the dash. That's because after you see head units (you're not buying them), you will build up some "visual experience" which helps you think about what you want it to look like in your dash.

I can not find a polar map for this
but high frequencies are more directorial and human hearing only picks them up from the front

another thing to consider is that most systems do not have very good mid range woofers
and put all the effort into satellite speakers and a small sub

but if you do install a sub woofer make sure it is tuned to a frequency who's wave length can be perceived within the car
for example 80 hz at 68 degrees F has a wave length of 14 feet

Go CT sounds Meso's. You can actually do a lot with $600 far as speakers go. Go with the Meso set and a CT sounds AT125.4. It's truly underated. It'll about 200RMS easily per channel at 4 ohms on dynamic power. And the Meso's will take it. Been doing this for awhile. If I were ONLY doing speakers I wouldn't do ANY other set... Well, maybe Morel. But they have no power.

And don't believe the JL Audio meme. You pay more for the JL name than the actual product.

Used Shit doesn't count...

jesus FUCK we need to help this guy

Why not? More value for your money.

CT Sound? You mean Copy That Sound? Where their cheap shit Chinese made amps blow up left and right, they're so poorly made? May was well buy the Vibe he was looking at.

For the exact same money, he can get something American made of proven quality that will last a lifetime.

Maybe an audiofag here can be of help to me.

Looking to spend ~800-1000 total all said and done.

I've got an old single cab pickup, looking to do something in the 5-5.5" range in the doors, something in the cab corners, and a woofer/tweeter combo in the dash (no bigger than 4") with a shallow mount sub behind the seat.

I can't make heads or tails if I should do matching speakers from the doors in the cab corners (the spots off to the sides of the back of the seat, where stock speakers are already) or go slightly bigger with 6-6.5", or would 6x9's be better?
As for the sub, I want shallow so I can keep the box small and not move the seat forward, I've looked into the JL TW1 and TW3 line, I'm also eyeing the Alpine Type R, all 12".

My goal is 2 things, sound quality above all else, and I want the ability to have bone rattling bass, I listen to just about all genres so a good thump for most things is great, but I want to be able to rattle the rust out of the truck sometimes too.

Any input on speaker sets, subs, and amps especially? Do I go mono and a 4 channel, or a 5 channel? Either way, how do I go about powering 6 speakers correctly, wire in the doors/dash into one channel, leave rears on their own, and obviously sub with it's dedicated line? I have a general understanding of things, but far from an audio or electronics wizard.

The easiest way to get great sound without a lot of custom fab stuff is install a set of Q Logic Q-Forms kick panels. They already have properly aimed speaker cutouts in either 5¼ or 6½ sizes.

With $1000, you can do miracles.

The kick panels are $200, a good Alpine HU is $200, OFC wiring is going to be $100. That leaves $500 for amp and speakers. Doable.

Find a Memphis Belle 5 channel amp. You should be able to score one for $150 if you look hard enough. Now get a set of Dayton Audio DC160's for your kick panels($50 per pair), and some Dayton AMT tweeters ($50 per pair). That leaves $250 for a sub and box. A box is usually $100, maybe less. I got a high quality dual 10" box that fits behind the seat of a regular cab F150 for only $40 shipped, already carpeted with gold plated banana jacks from onlinecarstereo.com. get a pair of Dayton DC200 subs.

Done and done. AMAZING SQ, with decent imaging because of the kick panels, along with a super clean and trick factory looking install right on your budget.

Oops, meant to say DC250. The DC200's are 8".

With all this shit will i have to change this radio?

No, you don't specifically have to. Depending on the type of signal that stereo puts out, you could be just fine. Perusing car model specific message boards, I'm sure someone has done some research on the type of signal your factory HU puts out.

For example, I drive an 04 Mazda 3. In the cars that have the Bose factory option, it turns out that the factory HU outputs an RCA level signal! There is no internal amp in those units! I got one off of eBay, fitted it in my car, hooked up my amp, and I was off to the races.

I know for certain the McIntosh stereos in Subarus and the Alpine stereos in certain Kias do the same thing.

You just have to do your research for your specific car.

If it turns out you need to use a line out converter, DO NOT buy the cheapest thing out there. You seriously get what you pay for in that arena. The only two affordable ones that I can recommend are from either Navone Engineering or AudioControl. The Navone Engineering is super affordable. Not as cheap as the Chinese garbage from Amazon or Sonic, but still very affordable. The AC ones are about $90, and go up from there.

The ones that are built into DSP's work as well, but they can start getting super expensive

Guys i was thinking and i came to a conclusion that i really like alpine but type R is too expensive so i think type G will be good. But now i dont know what about amp. I want amp also from alpine but i dont know which. 5chan or Veeky Forums and mono. I want 2 6.5" comp, 2 6.5" coax and woofer 12" everything type G