What audio set up do you have in your car Veeky Forums?

Do you just have nothing upstairs why does this need to be explained?

It's stupid to spend more than a grand on car audio.

1000 dollars will more than cover what you need, and you could get a professional to install it if you really wanted to.

For 100 dollars you can completely replace a stock audio system that will be worn out and muddy in a few months with something that will last until you sell the car.

>It's stupid to spend more than a grand on car audio.
ah, to be 12 forever, you're living the dream man!

Have you ever heard the phrase, To live and let live?

yeah, but unfortunately you annoying cunts drive on the same streets as the rest of us

You don't know where I intend to use it, how loud I intend to play it, or how often.

Stop making assumptions about anonymous people on the internet, and stop getting so triggered by what you think other people will do. It's embarrassing.

okay junior....I'll just assume and hope you never leave your parent's driveway so those assholes are the only ones being annoyed by their cunt of a child

stay golden ponyboy

I have 2004 Mazda 3.

My HU is a Bose unit from a 2009 Mazda 3. I had to hack the CANBUS to get the unit to work, but work it does! I chose that unit specifically because even though it's a "stock" unit, it has no internal amplification. It's a "dead head", that is, it has 5V RCA preamp outputs *only*.

From there, it goes to my BBE SM-4012 Sonic maximizer. I won't build a stereo without using that piece. It's pure amazing.

The other piece of my puzzle is my PPI PSC-221 Phase Shift Controller. That's another piece I won't build a stereo without. It really gets the bass right up front, and makes the soundstage and center image ROCK-FUCKING-SOLID. That thing is a miracle worker.

All of my Quarts speakers are German made from the 90's, pre-Rockford Fosgate buyout.

Fact is, all of my components and speakers, save the HU, are from the 90's. Back before Chinese made garbage was shoveled onto our shores.

How the world really sees OP

>I spend every day of my life upset because people are younger than me and project that on to every one I meet

You've got some growing up to do bud

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says the 12 year old that wants to go boom down the street

My processors in my glove compartment

>twelve years old
>owns a car
Your logic is retarded

How do you fuck with that while driving tho

the salt

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>>>/facebook/

I doubt you can even drive, posting shit like that. Like jesus man

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This retard is actually having a panic attack lmao

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>fuck with that while driving

You don't. You do your major eq and crossover tuning in the garage. Took me about 2 hours to get it pretty listenable. You set it and forget it.

What I did fuck with while driving was my PSC-221. I made an umbilical back to my hatch, then drove around with it on my lap for 5 days, just making tiny adjustments, playing with the settings. Luckily, there's only two buttons and two knobs to fuck with, so it's not distracting.

I used Jennifer Warnes' "Famous Blue Raincoat" to dial everything in. It's been said that disc is one of the very best recordings that has ever been made, and it is pretty amazing. IASCA used to use "Ain't No Cure For Love" off of that disc in their competitions.

When I finally hit "the spot" with the PSC, I swear, I got fucking goosebumps on my arms. It was almost magical when the soundstage finally came together.

After that, I permanently mounted it in the amp rack in the hatch.

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This is pretty slick man, and yeah there's just some shit you can't notice until you're on the road, wind noise, buffeting, vibrations etc. What's the exterior look like? Done anything else to it?

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stay golden

Rest of the car is stock.

I have my stereo setup that no matter what I play, from AM talk radio to Led Zeppelin,
From Busta Rhymes to Frank Zappa, it plays it perfectly. The only knob I have to adjust is the volume.

Some of my favorite CD's to show off the stereo is Alice in Chains Unplugged, Bachbusters, the aforementioned Jennifer Warnes, and Mazzy Star "So Tonight That I Might See".

okay but how does sunbather sound

okay but what about sunbather

Jesus Christ, you're just as bad as hipsters who swear by vinyl
PPI got bought by the same company that owns Soundstream and there's nothing wrong with them, I had a Sedona series from about ten years ago that I still have and is a great little amp
As far as MB Quart is concerned, you're right, since MAXXSONICS(not Rockford) bought them out they're speaker quality has gone to shit, but they have pretty decent amps considering they use the same shit higher end HiFonics uses
Yes there's a lot of cheap shot out there, but there's some decent companies out there like NVX, RE, MMats is still around as is Earthquake

I have less than $600 in my entire stereo, including all OFC power and speaker wiring (yes I ran new wire to each speaker), sound deadening. the custom interconnects that I made myself. I mostly used DIN plugs, look closely at the pic, you can see them. My processors run off of Phantom Power via the DIN's, not 12vdc.

To get a new amp of the same quality of my PPI's, you're going to be spending BANK.

I know all about the new stuff that's actually worth having, I just can't afford it. Sinfoni, Zuki, Linear Power, Mmats, Mosconi, Milbert, uDimension, Mercury, Genesis, etc. All outstanding stuff that I would love to run for sure.

What would you run if you had the money?

Unlimited funds?
Alpine F#1 Status HU and DSP, Milbert amps to Linear Power mids and tweets, Linear Power amp to Acoustic Elegance subwoofers.

>What audio set up do you have in your car Veeky Forums?
When pricing out the new car, the cost of installing 3rd party over the OEM premium upgrade made buying the option package very tempting. It's just that the sound system options package was bundled with sunroof and some other things that made it another $1900.

So I opted to get the basic sound system which is component fronts and speakers in each rear passenger door. The sound is surprisingly good. The rear dash is missing the two larger oval rear speakers and the subwoofer. It is already drilled for all the parts. From how it looks, it looks like the rear dash was supposed to have an amp box mounted under it to drive the subwoofer.

In the future, I may get a small amp and small lower power subwoofer. I only want something to fill out the very bottom to add a slight "chest thump" feeling from bass drums. I won't swap out the OEM speakers yet because their impreciseness means the sweet spot is large instead of precisely focused in the center. As a driver, my ears are not in the center after all. I do want better speakers though. While they are imprecise, they are also muddy.

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Professional bass bro reporting in.
Insightful TLDR incoming.

Literally a fucking ton of options at a thousand. You could either go full sq will an image dynamics 12 or nearly 150db spl build with a Skar TXL.

Let's see. Before I start, there is a million different combinations. I am only recommending the best of what I know.

I will not be including receiver for two reasons. Most people already have one or two, you can get a $10 amp level rca if you want to keep it stock. Your call.

*For the sq build*

Infinity REF-4555A. $300
Image Dynamics IDQ12 D4 V4. $230
Now I can't give an estimate on speakers because I don't know your size restrictions. Look for anything in component kits from Infinity, Image Dynamics, JL is OK if you like paying twice what they are worth and bragging about it. Crescendo, Focal, Morel all excellent choices. You should have enough money for any of these options left over. Then get a Sky High 4 GA kit. $30

*SPL build* OK, so this is a build that gives the middle finger to your sound quality and goes straight to an utterly insane amount of sound pressure.

XS Power 3400 battery. $260
Skar TXL 12. $320
Sky High Car Audio Big 3 kit. $40
Skar RP-2000.1D $230
Sky high car audio 1/0 cca kit. $60. (since you aren't going above 3000 watts CCA is fine).
Then take the rest of your money and do some research on building a 3.6-4 cubic foot box with a port tune. After that enjoy rattling every single car next to you at every intersection. This is a very, very loud build. Especially for starting out.

*SQ, SPL balanced build* A build that's balanced in SQ and power output.

RE Audio SXXv2 12 $200
Soundstream TN.1200D $150
JBL GX-A604 $150
XS Power D1200 battery $200
Sky High Car Audio 4 gauge amp kit $40
Belva 8 gauge amp kit $12
Then get components or speakers from either JBL, Image Dynamics, Skar, Infinity, Polk, NVX, Alpine, Mclaren, Crescendo or CT Sounds, your call. All of the above are fine to great.

rockford fosgate p300 12 inch powered sub in the trunk. its alright, hit nice and vibrates the car, think of upgrading but im not a nigger

C5s have a god awful Bose stock system. Literally worse than a $30 boom box. With $300 I replaced the door speakers with Kicker 6.5s and installed a 12" in the back. Pic related. Make sure to add a capacitor. It's cheap and will help in the long run

I'm looking for a setup for my integra gsr Coupe because every speaker (two front two rear plus two tweeters) are fucking blown. 6.5 inch.
Is installing these things hard? My main worry is having to spend 1k at a shop for the speakers plus installation

Professional bass bro here.

Sound quality, spl, or balanced?

>current set up
Sony CDX-GT50UI
Alpine SXE-1350S
Alpine SXE-1750S
Reactor RA-302
Sony XS-LB12S

>honourable mentions
sony CDX GT 200
Sony XE-90MKII
sony xs gt1627a
sony sx gtf6937

sony apm 66es mk2
EAS-16P33GG

>Kancolle in your trunk

Yeeaaap. that's me. this is also me.

Probably the best place to ask, my door speakers will change balance randomly, for a while it will be fine then one will stop then itll swap to the other.
Is it the wiring causing this or is it the head unit?

professional bass bro here.

Probably the receiver. Is it stock? When wires are bad they either phase out or don't work at all. I suppose by extreme luck one speaker keeps phasing out when the other is phasing in... Again, very unlikely. Just change both. Wiring is immensely cheap. Receiver, eh... If you you don't want the typical receiver that Veeky Forums hates then I guess go get a crappy stock one again.

Balanced I guess

fucking hell this is kind of overwhelming
Will I have to rewire the entire system? Or are the stock wires in the car enough?

Is crutchfield a good source of info?

Is there even a point to replacing the head unit in the 2017 mazda 3? That thing is so expensive to begin with. Is it shit?

fuck this is such a big help

Pro bass bro here to answer questions.
Since your budget is the same as OP, look at the bottom of postIt's always a good idea to rewire. If you are asking if you don't have to, no not really. If you are asking if your sound quality will take a hit, depends greatly on stock vehicle system. If you are Mazda 3 guy I would suggest you change the wires. Now amps, obviously. You will be setting up wires from scratch. No big deal, it's not hard. YouTube tutorials will show you how easy it really is.

Not sure, never installed in a Mazda 3. Chances are it's atleast good enough. Usually they are solid, honestly. You could do better but you could also do a hell of slot worse.

Rock on.

>JL is OK if you like paying twice what they are worth and bragging about it.
JL is also good if you want to support American business. I've walked through their factory and watched them make speakers. All this other shit is made in China. Might sound just as good, or even better, but I think if I was going to negro up my car I'd stick with Made in Burgerland.

lay off the Doritos fatass

No. Absolutely not true. JL makes the W3, W6 and W7 woofers in the U.S. The W0, WXv2, W1 and most amps in China.

Also, not a winning argument at all. Still hugely paying for a name considering the Image Dynamics IDMAX 15 is almost 1/3 as expensive as the W7 13, sounds just a good, is a stronger, more powerful driver and is made in the U.S.

Further more, both FI and RE Audio absolutely obliterate JL for how much you get per cost of driver. RE XXX is a $700(half of JL's best) sub that produces 2000 RMS of SQ and is also made in the U.S. and that's before the FI Q NEO Shits all over the W7 in SQ and is made to order in Las Vegas.

If you REALLY want to support an American name in car audio go RE Audio or FI where ALL of their business is in America, they sound good to excellent and is competitively priced. JL is the IPhone of car audio, the Bose of car audio. They are a meme. Casuals think JL is the only pure SQ option, just like casuals in home audio think Bose is their only option.

Well I feel like a dumbass. Thanks for the info bassbro!

Is JL good for marine audio?

Why is JL falling behind? Did their ownership change the last decade or are they just slow to come up with new products?

They became Bose, unfortunately. They got lucky, built solid equipment and word of mouth propelled them to super stardom. JL is now sought after ONLY because of lack of people having knowledge of better brands and doing research in a massively saturated market.

I will say this, they make a solid product and the W6 and W7 sound phenomenal. But while JL has been using the same technology for the past decade a few other companies have become more ambitious and focused on building woofers specifically to out power and sound better than what was once the pinnacle of an SQ driver. Now the pinnacle is either the XXXv2 or the Q neo and both of which cost a massive margin less and output considerably more power while sounding as good and being made in the U.S.

But it really doesn't matter to JL because nobody knows those names. JL is still the most known in SQ and that's why the W3-W7 still goes for such a massive premium.

Sad. Looks like in 1996 it had an ownership change:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JL_Audio
Is that when things started downhill? Or was it later?

The RE XXX was a popular driver when I was in college in the mid-late 00s.

I have to imagine car audio in general has taken a big hit as an industry. I see less and less people modifying their cars. It used to be stock audio systems in cars were garbage, now they are good enough where most people don't feel the need to upgrade. My Meridian system in my Range Rover isn't like a high end aftermarket system, but it sounds good enough.

Used to be I'd walk into Best Buy and see a huge car audio section, now it's just some sad isle in the back corner. There are still some car audio shops in my city (Miami) but not like there used to be.

The RE XXX was popular in the SPL competition crowd. Problem was it wasn't built for them. RE built subs specifically for output while sounding as good as possible and bass addicts loved that. Then the XXX came out, was advertised as an SQ driver but the SPL crowd expected an SPL sub so it flopped in its own fan base based on ignorance and false expectations.

Things went down for JL the second they realized the massive gold mine they were sitting on. And started selling their name more than their products. Probably around 2009, really.

Not really sure car audio has taken a big hit or not. I know competition based car audio is growing. Sundown is arguably bigger than JL now!!!

>Used to be I'd walk into Best Buy and see a huge car audio section, now it's just some sad isle in the back corner. There are still some car audio shops in my city (Miami) but not like there used to be.
I think is has more to do with online retailers selling for so cheap and most serious brands either selling at extremely specific shops or online only. Shit, I've never even seen a T2 at Best Buy or circuit city.

>fucking hell this is kind of overwhelming
If a connector has a "bad connection" that can also happen. As the car vibrates or the wires vibrate, the loose connection makes connection again and your audio reappears. Bad connections can also happen with dirty connectors.

I'm lost. You said the XXX was popular with the SPL crowd, then they came out with the XXX and it was a SQ driver? Are you talking about different versions or something?

Yeah the XXX when I was in college was the big basshead driver.

There used to be this website where people posted videos of esoteric subwoofers running and doing crazy shit, you know the one I'm talking about? Maybe it is still around even, I just forget the name. Imagine now people just do that on youtube.

Stock non-bose w202 setup with woofer and tweeter up front. Two woofer in the back door plus two high-filtered woofer in the back.
All hooked on the Excelon KDC-X592

Integrafag with blown speakers here. Is it worth it to pay a shop to install them or should I do it myself? I'm worried about fucking something up cause I'm a monkey with a wrench when it comes to wiring

>ow they are good enough where most people don't feel the need to upgrade.

That's not the main factor. All the new non-economy models of most car companies no longer use a simple rectangular DIN or DIN2 shape on the console. The buttons may be custom shaped and located on curved fronts sculpted to fit the console aethetics. Or the radio is integrated with the car's touchscreen controls. If you yank the radio, then the touchscreen might have errors on it or not work at all because it is getting its LAN connection via the radio box.

In my car, the radio controls are mixed with other controls and the big pushbutton on/off is off to the left side far away from the other controls. It's sculpted and curved across the whole front set of control button surfaces. And behind the buttons there is not enough room for a DIN or DIN2 headunit box. No aftermarket radio will fit in the dash. It would have to be installed in the trunk and the factory radio kept in the front to handle the touchscreen too.

The manufacturers have found the way to get you to only upgrade to their premium system by legally integrating controls on the console. If you yank out the factory unit from its LAN, the other controls will also go dead. In my case, customizations for door locks, air, heat, headlight response, etc, all those are gone. A 3rd party unit won't have the license permissions to communicate on the LAN. So it is stand alone.

>Is it worth it to pay a shop to install them or should I do it myself?
Speakers you can always do yourself. But you'll need to understand how to remove your trim to access the speakers. See the archived dynamat thread for door trim tool examples.

What a shame, you are absolutely right.

underage b&

no, it was getting hyped in the basshead community. The RE MT got people's hopes up that it would be a louder, more powerful version of the MT but it wasn't. XXX came out, alot of people tried to like it. It was nearly $1000 when it came out too. Keep in mind the Holees was around at that time and stomped the xxx flat in spl. Even the HCCA was keeping up with the XXX and that was half the cost. Again, people tried to get the XXX to get loud and we're underwhelmed, completely oblivious to the fact it was an SQ driver, not an spl driver. What I'm saying is it was popular by hype for a little bit but never really loved... If that makes sense... Then U.S. amps aquired RE in early 2010 and Scott made FI... And that's where the NEO Q comes in. So the two best SQ drivers around are made by the same team. Kind of funny.

>Peerless D5.25 in the front
>Rainbow DLX6 in the back
>Magnat XTC 15"'s in the trunk
>4-way 100wrms GZ for speakers
>2-way 1600wrms GZ for subs
Exterior-wise it looks completely stock, stock grills on top of speakers everywhere, just a bigass box in the trunk. Only thing that actually looks different about the audio when you sit in the car is the HU. Wiring is professionally done by myself.

So speaker-wise, you have a lot to work with.
Because as long as you dont wire things together like shit, $20 pairs have potential to sound better than a lot of these fags out there who buy $200 pairs and get their gay uncle with poor eyesight to put them in.

Aftermarket head units are simple. You just need the bracket, wiring harness, antenna adapter, and the unit (and steering wheel controls adapter if you NEED it). Each of those smaller parts will cost around $20 from Metra and you can get a headunit with bt, aux, and usb for about $100. Just make sure you get a headunit that doesn't look like its from Tron. Theres a couple out there that look better than others.

Subs are the hardest part so I'm going to divide it into two.
>If your trunk is connected to the cabin or you have a spot to put the box under the seats
One 10 inch sub should be fine for quality in this case. $75 for a Kicker from Best Buy and about $70 for a shallow enclosure.
>If your trunk is closed off from the cabin
I could only get enough bass from two 10 inch subs. So $150 for two subs, $120 for a double enclosure.

You will also need about $60 for a wiring kit and the remainder of your budget (if not more) for an amp that doesnt sound like shit.
And when buying amps remember that more peak watts =/= better quality.

I'm running 4 pioneer 6in (I think), 4 2.5in tweeters, and 2 10in subs with a $700 amp I dug out a boat.

That is just so, so fucking wrong...

Mazda/Ford takes 6x8, faggot (source: I had a '07 Mazda 3 with upgraded speakers)

Here's how you into car audio without falling for Jewish tricks. The world of car audio is full of overpriced ripoffs out the ass that you can avoid if you know what you're doing (electrical engineering student here). Since I don't know what you do/don't know about car audio so I'm just going to assume you know nothing at this point.

I'd do JBL GTO8608C 6x8 components (might be discontinued but I'm sure you can find it somewhere) in the front and JBL GTO 8628 6x8 coaxials in the rear. I honestly don't think you need to amp those speakers, these things are highly efficient at half the resistance of your typical 4 ohm speaker. Believe me, the stock head unit gets plenty loud on my '07 with 4 ohm speakers as is. $140.

You'll want to high-pass the speakers if you're going to have a sub handling below ~90Hz. To do so, you'll need a 880uF capacitor (4x220uF nonpolar capacitors in parallel) for each of your 4 speakers: 16 in total which is only $12 on Digikey: digikey.com/product-detail/en/nichicon/UES1E221MHM1TO/493-10828-1-ND/4317802

For the sub, I'd get the Pioneer GM-D8601 ($107). Alpine Type R dual 2 ohm 10" 1000W (that amp is capable of 800W RMS with a 1ohm load) and buy a sealed enclosure for it. You'll need to run 4 gauge power cables to the subwoofer amplifier. I believe the stock radio has a remote turn-on wire you. You'll have to look at a wiring diagram.

To get the signal from the factory radio to the sub, run a set of speaker wires from the speaker level inputs on the amp and tap into the signal going to either the front or rear set of speakers. Splice the positive and negative leads at some point before the crossover capacitor to give it the full-range signal. Set the low-pass crossover dial on the sub to ~90Hz.

Total cost: should be ~$425.

Stores still sell lots of those and I don't mean big box stores like Fry's, but dedicated quality car audio shops. I asked one salesperson at Car Toys why do people buy those, and he said they are easily removable and free up space in the trunk. A permanent installation would lose a lot of trunk space and some people find that unacceptable.

is it a waste to run speakers at Root Mean Square ?
just that amp are mesured in PMPO
and the speakers respond in RMS

>head unit
52 PMPO X4
?? RMS

>front speakers
280 PMPO
45 RMS

>rear speakers
400 PMPO
50 RMS

>amp
150 PMPO X2
150 RMS (bridged)

>sub
1500 PMPO
380 RMS

here is a plan of my sub box made to fit in the back of a lift back type of car

Define PMPO.

Oh, you can't? Because it's a bullshit number. It literally means anything the manufacturer wants it to mean. Personally, I would avoid buying a product from any manufacture that advertises "Max Power" or "PMPO", because they are liars, and I don't abide liars, and I *especially* won't give my hard earned money to a proven liar.

>half the resistance of your typical 4 ohm speaker
>electrical engineering student here

You're an extremely shitty EE if you don't know the difference between resistance and impedance.

I was talking about mixing different types of speakers.

Can it be done? Sure. BUT, using the Thiele-Small Parameters and some careful calculations, you have to do it extremely carefully, and make sure there won't be any phase issues through the frequency response of the drivers. I feel certain that the owner of that shitty careless didn't do that.

I got $20 that says that owner of that monstrosity probably doesn't even know what TSP's are.

in my 91 ef hatch

>6x9 infinity KAPPA 3 way in large sealed
>doors 5.25 infinity kappa coaxial with butyl rubber door install
>RE Audio 4 channel 100 RMS x4 @ 4 ohm 4 channel amp
>SKAR audio monoblock 1000w RMS x 1 @ 1, 600w RMS @ 2 ohm
>upgraded alternator from stock 60A to 130A
>single 15" Sundown E-15 V.3 dv2 subwoofer
>3.25 ft^3 vented @ 32 hz
>SSL 2/3 way active crossover
>sony headunit (next to change)
>mediabridge 12 AWG OFC in-wall speaker cable
>4 AWG OFC copper welding cable for power distribution
>big 3 upgrade from stock 8 awg to 4 awg

probably one of the better systems on Veeky Forums

Get a diamondboxx

youtube.com/watch?v=xAzenl3feLY

>high pass with caps instead of a cheap active x-over/pre-amp with tuning capabilities

electrical engineer with autism maybe

>Keep it stock faggot. Use that 1k to pay your loan down faster like a responsible adult.
Paying for a car on credit, LOL

it is normally the peak of a the amplifier output wave
and only measured over a short period of time and over a narrow rage .eg 20 khz only
it's the max wattage that can be put into the speakers before they fail completely

older speakers have it listed differently
technics sb 2450
120 watt input
60 watt music

in effect the speaker looses 60 watts in the form of heat and being unable to respond to the peak of the amps output

>Personally, I would avoid buying a product from any manufacture that advertises "Max Power" or "PMPO"
enjoy not buying anything

Stock (ish it's a dealer option) head unit with Focal K2 speakers in the stock door & dash pods.

I don't really want to replace the head unit. It's a touch screen that costs about 600 dollars. Surely its good enough for whatever I put in the car?

Should I pay a professional to install all of this? Or should I do it myself? I REALLY don't want to fuck things up. I'm sure I could learn, I'm just not sure its such a good idea to do it with this car. I've already watched a few tutorials and it seems doable, but about a day of work (for me at least). I have a buddy that may be able to help

So one thing to keep in mind, I don't want to cut or screw in to ANY of the trim or body anywhere. Is this possible at all?

A little more information. It is a 2017, Mazda 3 5 door (hatchback), with 6-1/2" component speakers for front and rear.

Lastly, will changing the battery, alternator and capacitors void the electronics/bumper to bumper warranty? I can ask my dealer that but they're not open at the moment.

"Watts" are pretty much only somewhat valid when a speaker has a linear impedance curve - which they never do. Check out the impedance curve of the speakers you mention.. being ported, they are guaranteed to fluctuate a lot.
At certain frequencies, this means that you will reach xmax (voice coil travel) long before you reach the thermal limits/"watts".

"Watts" are equally useless for describing amplifier power for the same reason; different amps perform differently outside their preferred impedance area even though they will have the same "1000 watts @ 2 ohm < 0.010 THD".

I just want to say thanks to everyone that's commented in this thread. You guys have been a big help