How to get the most outta your system

[Badger3114]

Just wanted to start a forum to see what people's systems are like and how loud they are if you got a Decibel rating! Suggestions can only help

Plus post good ways for others to set up their systems if you can!

[Suzuka323]

First let me say that decibel ratings mean nothing to me, I enjoy a good clean sound from my system, which is exactly what I got after some tweaking. I don't care how loud my Bass is as long as I can hear it and it's not distorted. I will say that my system has the ability to hit as hard as my friends system who has 2 12" MTX 9500's(?) in his trunk, but I rarely have it up that loud. So many people in today's market seem to care only about bass, so much so that they negate the fact they're missing all the fine details artists put into their music, if your bass is too high you might be missing that high hat that was thrown in to compliment the rest of the music or you might miss that low mellow snare because your bass is so damn loud it's all you hear. What I see most of is people loading their trunk with 4 12's and replacing the speakers with some $40 no-namers and thinking it's the ****, but you can't hear the music and those people don't know what it's truly like to enjoy the sound.

My recommendation, focus on sound quality, not just bass.
Check my Sig for my system setup.

Thanks,
Matt.

[1967cutlass]

My friends and I had an old van with two adire tempest 15's walled, and about 700 watts and we (they) hit 155db iirc.

[Badger3114]

Chilled with a guy who owns a purple Astro van. We call him Taz. He's got 2 18's that will make ears bleed! He's got about 1000 watts RMS to each speaker. Think it would hit that hard in a car?

[Jho]

First let me say that decibel ratings mean nothing to me, I enjoy a good clean sound from my system, which is exactly what I got after some tweaking. I don't care how loud my Bass is as long as I can hear it and it's not distorted. I will say that my system has the ability to hit as hard as my friends system who has 2 12" MTX 9500's(?) in his trunk, but I rarely have it up that loud. So many people in today's market seem to care only about bass, so much so that they negate the fact they're missing all the fine details artists put into their music, if your bass is too high you might be missing that high hat that was thrown in to compliment the rest of the music or you might miss that low mellow snare because your bass is so damn loud it's all you hear. What I see most of is people loading their trunk with 4 12's and replacing the speakers with some $40 no-namers and thinking it's the ****, but you can't hear the music and those people don't know what it's truly like to enjoy the sound.

My recommendation, focus on sound quality, not just bass.
Check my Sig for my system setup.

Thanks,
Matt.

Wow, I couldn't have said it better. I went through the "bass stage", but I could care less about turning people's heads now.

My setup:

-Alpine head unit
-Kicker 5.25" front speakers
-Pioneer tweeters
-JBL Loud & Clear 100x2 amp powering the front speakers and tweeters
-Sony rear speakers
-Phoenix Gold Tantrum series 500.2 amp
-12" Kicker solo baric L7 subwoofer
-Phoenix Gold 4 guage wiring kit

[Suzuka323]

Wow, I couldn't have said it better. I went through the "bass stage", but I could care less about turning people's heads now.

My setup:

-Alpine head unit
-Kicker 5.25" front speakers
-Pioneer tweeters
-JBL Loud & Clear 100x2 amp powering the front speakers and tweeters
-Sony rear speakers
-Phoenix Gold Tantrum series 500.2 amp
-12" Kicker solo baric L7 subwoofer
-Phoenix Gold 4 guage wiring kit

Thanks Jho, I may not know much about car stereo, but I understand frequencies and electronics, but most of all appreciate sound.

I guess I'll go ahead and post up my setup even though it's listed in my sig(it's a lot of crap to read through!).

Sony CDX-805 Head Unit (Love the adjustable sound field!)
Polk 6500 Component Set in the Front
Polk 6550 2 Channel Speakers in the Rear
MTX 10" 7500 Super Woofer
Kenwood KAC-7251 AMP (Sub)
Audiobahn A2002T AMP (Front Component Set)
Full Monster Cable 4awg AMP Kit (Kenwood)
Full Monster Cable 8awg AMP Kit (Audiobahn)
Monster Cable Speaker Wires throughout

[Badger3114]

Thanks Jho, I may not know much about car stereo, but I understand frequencies and electronics, but most of all appreciate sound.

I guess I'll go ahead and post up my setup even though it's listed in my sig(it's a lot of crap to read through!).

Sony CDX-805 Head Unit (Love the adjustable sound field!)
Polk 6500 Component Set in the Front
Polk 6550 2 Channel Speakers in the Rear
MTX 10" 7500 Super Woofer
Kenwood KAC-7251 AMP (Sub)
Audiobahn A2002T AMP (Front Component Set)
Full Monster Cable 4awg AMP Kit (Kenwood)
Full Monster Cable 8awg AMP Kit (Audiobahn)
Monster Cable Speaker Wires throughout

Thanks for posting even though its long! I like bass but I def try not to crap out on components though. Does anyone enjoy JBL's products?

[1967cutlass]

Thanks for posting even though its long! I like bass but I def try not to crap out on components though. Does anyone enjoy JBL's products?

JBL components vary in quality between product lines. Most of them seem to be mediocre IMHO.

[Jho]

Yeah, I wouldn't buy anything major from JBL, like subwoofers. Like I said above, I've got a little JBL amp just for highs. It doesn't have a demanding job, but it does the job. I got it used, from a friend, over 5 years ago, and it has always worked well for me.

[Badger3114]

What are a some of the higher line of components out there?

[Suzuka323]

What are a some of the higher line of components out there?

That's a really generalized statement as every company has what they refer to as a higher line, but the guys that did the full custom jobs where I used to work liked Phoenix Gold's higher end, MTX's Upper Price Braket(that's how I ended up with my sub and AMP), Kenwood makes some great amps and subs in the Excelon lineup, JL makes some hard hitting and fast subs plus some strong amps, this list can go on and on. Have you checked Crutchfield.com or Cnet.com to see what buyers of all these products have to say or check out forum.carstereos.org and talk to the professionals, there are people on here that know about car stereos, but these sites will give you much more and detailed information.

[95Protege]

Well its nothing fancy but it sounds damn good but here it goes...

-Pioneer 7200 Headunit
-2 Pair Audiobahn Tweets
-Bostons 6.5" 2 Way Speakers (in doors)
-Pioneer 6x9" (Rear Deck)
-Thunder 202 Amp (Pushing doors and Rears)
-1 MTX Thunder 7500 10" Sub
-Sony 480w Amp (for the MTX)

Its not the loudest boom but like everyone else has said i really like to hear the words in the song not just BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. It has the right amount of bass and tweets so the music is loud and clear.

[tehstocker99]

dynomat the holy crap out of your car haha. tighten everything that might rattle, make sure your air capacity is correct (alot of people just slap in a woofer and crank it up and it just rattles and flops around like pamelas vagina) get proper power deliverance (is that a word?) to speakers/subs and make sure to not do anything half way, go all out if you want it to sound good.

but i dunno haha i got a simple setup and i love it

alpine headunit, 2 MTX 10", 1500watt MTX amp.
shakes houses, so i'm happy

[Tazman2]

Remember. The bigger the vehicle the less db's you will get per said components because you have more air space to fill. Ie why my hatch back in my highschool days was pretty loud with just a 300w lanzar amp and two $30 Walmart special 12 inch subs!

[Jho]

(alot of people just slap in a woofer and crank it up and it just rattles and flops around like pamelas vagina)

Bwahaha! That's sig material right therrr.