Audio Upgrade

Im keeping my stock HU for now, but I want to upgrade everything else. I prefer to have everything one brand. Thinking of gettin the front, rear, amp, and probs 2 10's. Any suggestions would be great. Links and prices would be awsome too.

i would suggest you the type S series from alpine,really good upgrade at affordable price,many models,6x8 size for front speakers so you dont have to make a spacer for 6.5,good price/quality,and more...

www.alpine1.com

or another company that i really like for theyre prices,jbl,many models,and you would be amazed by the sound quality in that range of prices....

www.jbl.com.....

there is a lot of company that you can choose from,its up to your taste,and budget..so,shop,listen,compare and have fun choosing.....you can go to crutchfield.com to,they have about all the company and really nice prices....

I've got type S coaxal 5x7's for 50 bucks shipped that will fit your car. Only used them for three months. (click my sig)

I rarely recommend sticking with one brand for all your components. The brands that make the best speakers often don't even make amplifiers. But if I were to recommend an all-around brand that is good (not great) at everything I would suggest JL Audio, Alpine, or Eclipse.

I'd be happy to make some further suggestions but you need to give me a budget first. If your budget is under $1000 or under $500 I suggest reading through the 500 and 1000 $ audio challenge threads.

I rarely recommend sticking with one brand for all your components. The brands that make the best speakers often don't even make amplifiers. But if I were to recommend an all-around brand that is good (not great) at everything I would suggest JL Audio, Alpine, or Eclipse.

I'd be happy to make some further suggestions but you need to give me a budget first. If your budget is under $1000 or under $500 I suggest reading through the 500 and 1000 $ audio challenge threads.

I'm going with Boston Acoustic Pro series for my speakers and using one Precision Power Pro650 to power everything. I haven't decided on any subs yet but I might go for JL audio or some Bazooka tubes. Anyone have any experience with Bazooka? Do they sound good in the trunk? Just looking at that as an option as I don't want to use up the whole trunk with a speaker box.

BA pros are power hungry. They were all the rage a few years back but most people who had them have moved on. I wouldn't recommend bazooka tubes. They are a great way to add some bass to your pickup truck's stock system but they don't belong in a quality install.

Chuyler and I disagree on this but I loved my tubes when I had them. But bazooka makes a quality sub too which demands much less of an enclosure than most subs. I loved my tubes so much I got two 10" sas subs when I switched over. I have tried to destroy those things and they sound as good as the day I bought them 4 years ago. unreal.

If you aren't looking to do a lot of work and you want some trunk space then I think the tubes are a good idea. Subs are certainly better but it depends on how much you care.

The bazooka tubes are not smaller, they are simply shaped differently. The average 8" tube is about .7 cuft. That is alot of space for an 8", primarily because they are a ported design. You can get a smoother response and better low end with a .4 cuft sealed enclosure for a single 8" subwoofer such as the Image Dynamics ID8v3. I would take the ID8 over the tube any day.

Furthermore, the bazooka tubes can't handle much power (150w RMS tops). They are very efficient with that power but they just create a muddy tone that I personally think is cheap sounding. Send 200+w to a real 8" sub in a sealed enclosure and you'll hear what bass should really sound like.

I would stay away from the Alpine Type S speakers. I've auditioned them, and find them lacking in the midrange. I compared the Type R and the Type S speakers at Best Buy, and found the Type R speakers to be less harsh and have a more even frequency response. I would also recommend the Type-X components though. If you are on a budget, I think the Type R SPR-17LP is one of the best value speakers on the market. It's a time coherent alignment between the woofer and a tweeter, thus creating a fairly symmetrical radiation pattern for the entire sound spectrum. Try to stay away from any oval shaped speaker (5x7, 6x8). Oval shaped speakers have less cone rigidity than round speakers, meaning that oval shaped speakers exhibit higher levels of distortion (also uneven sound radiation).

If you don't want to cut out baffles for circle speakers though, I've personally auditioned these 5x7's: Polk DB570, Boston S75, Boston SL80, and Infinity REF6812CF. These were all auditioned at the same store (Sound Advice in Sarasota). I preferred the Boston SL80 first and Polk DB570 second out of the bunch. Boston SL80's are smooth sounding speakers. The Polk DB570's are a little heavy in the midrange, but otherwise sounded better than the rest. The other two speakers sounded harsh in the treble region and lacked in the midrange. To be honest most budget speakers will lack midrange because cheap speakers usually have cheap crossovers.

Add a set of super tweeters (10khz or so up) in the front pillars, and you've got a nice budget setup. I'm using the SPR-17LP's right now with the P5 stock tweeters. People complain that the stock P5 tweeters suck, but little do they know they are actually a super tweeter setup that are made in Japan.

Also, if you are keeping the stock HU, keep in mind that it is designed to bass heavy. I posted a while back some graphs on the response curve of the stock HU.

Tube designed subs are very good speakers, look around audio forums for sonotube built subs. Problem is the bazooka sub design uses plastic as the enclosure. This makes for the "cheap sounding" comments that I hear from a lot of people. I've heard bazooka subs, and I agree that there are better values for your money. They are the classic auto sub: good SPL, bad sound quality. I haven't heard many auto subs, but Vifa, Seas, and Peerless have some pretty decent subs (unsure of box volume requirements though).

Car amps are a total crapshoot in the budget range. You get what you pay for in the amp category moreso than any other car audio component. Stick to reputable brand names and you will be fine. MTX, Zapco, J/L, JBL, etc. Whatever amp you choose, make sure it has a CEA-2006 rating. This helps ensure you get the power you paid for. I know J/L does not use the CEA standard, but that's the only exception I can think of off the top of my head.

If you wanted to stay with just ONE brand, I would say Aurasound. Some of their stuff is hard to come by, but they had good sounding stuff: from tweeters to subwoofers to amplifiers. Hope this helps.

Try to stay away from any oval shaped speaker (5x7, 6x8). Oval shaped speakers have less cone rigidity than round speakers, meaning that oval shaped speakers exhibit higher levels of distortion (also uneven sound radiation).

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If this is in fact true, the affect is inaudible. If you were to audition an identical oval and round speaker, for example a 6.5" and a 5x7" if you had a perfect ear, the oval speaker would produce a little more bass due to added cone area but that is about it.

Add a set of super tweeters (10khz or so up) in the front pillars

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I would not recommend this in any budget setup. It screams ghetto fabulous. Buy a set of components if you plan to mount tweeters up high.

Also, if you are keeping the stock HU, keep in mind that it is designed to bass heavy.

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More like, it is designed midbass heavy. The response drops off dramatically below 70Hz and for a good reason...the stock speakers wouldn't be able to play those frequencies anyway. The highs are also emphasized again to make up for the short comings of the stock speakers. The result on a good set of speakers is that there will be a drop off in bass and a dip in the midrange. But does it sound bad? Not really...it sounds decent if you add 3db of boost around 40Hz (your typical amplifier bass-boost) and use the -3db setting on your crossovers (if you have components). However, it will most likely be the weakest link in the overall SQ of your system and once you get the rest of your gear installed you may find that replacing it is a good idea.

chuyler1 said:

If this is in fact true, the affect is inaudible. If you were to audition an identical oval and round speaker, for example a 6.5" and a 5x7" if you had a perfect ear, the oval speaker would produce a little more bass due to added cone area but that is about it.

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I agree most people would not notice the extra distortion, but it is there. The human ear is sensitive to about .5-.7% non-linear harmonic distortion (Harry Olson, 1940), from 40hz to 14khz. Common distortion levels for round speakers are .1 to 1%, and oval shaped speakers are more than that. So it would be possible to tell the difference, however, you would need to be in a controlled environment. There's a reason all high end speakers are round. If you want an SQ setup, the idea is to keep low levels of distortion, from source to speaker. There's nothing wrong using oval speakers, they make installation very easy. However, I think people should understand what they are giving up by going with an easy install.

I would not recommend this in any budget setup. It screams ghetto fabulous. Buy a set of components if you plan to mount tweeters up high.

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Lol...ok maybe I should have been more specific. I meant mount the super tweeters in the front pillars, -5 to -10db lower than your other speakers, like CDT shows here:

http://www.cdtaudio.com/cdt_new_0705/DRT-26-A-pil[4[2].gif

Then mount your tweeters right next to your woofer, not in the sail panels. But I guess I do agree, it is not a budget setup.

Also, if you are buying a component set, and want to mount the tweeters far away from the woofers, make sure the crossover features some type of distance correction. This is because it is generally a bad idea to place the tweeter farther away from the woofer. Doing so will create sound seperation in the human voice range. The real issue though is that by placing tweeters in the sail panels (or some other high location) you get phase interference. This means that the sound from the tweeter reaches your ear first, and cancels out the bass from your woofer. That can be corrected by adding time delay to your tweeter. The Alpine Type X components feature this in their crossover, and it is referenced in their owner's manual. Most budget component sets do not feature this adjustment, so it is best to keep the tweeters close (12 inches or so) to the woofer. Hope this helps.