Getting a sound system.

[Tank-Ace]

So I've decided I'm going to get a sound system for my car. Problem is I know virtually nothing about such matters. I have a decent knowledge of how humans percieve sound, and the mechanics of sound, but as for the equipment, about all I know is that an amp increases the strenght of the signal sent to the speakers, a subwoofer is good for very low sound, a tweeter is good for the high sound, and your typical 'speakers' cover everything inbetween, usually with a bit of overlap.


Can anyone help me out here, and direct me to some good sources, brands, and stores?

[icepac]

We need the make and model of the car and type of music to be used.

[jimbo71]

Buy a mini truck

Have mini truck lowered

Install stereo system with  huge amp & kicker box

Grow a sweet mullet

Grow a peach fuzz mustache

Buy some turtleneck shirts a thick herringbone gold chain and some drakkar cologne

Create time machine and set dial to 1988

Collect hotties 

[homersipes]

All depends on what you want out of it.  Should start with a decent deck(reciever or whatever else they are called), I always just used the stock speakers and added my own tweeters, I adjusted the bass on the subwoofers as to not overtake the mids and tweeters, but it would still hit the bass hard.  I always liked pioneer decks, cheap and good quality.  My wife likes JL Audio subs, they are nice but expensive, I liked pioneer subs also.  MTX made good amps, or used to I havent kept up with it for quite some time.  crutchfield.com is a good place to get audio equipment. 

[Dimebag]

Alpine makes the best sounding headunits
MTX makes great everything else

Once you get a system, you'll never have a car without one

and crutchfield is the place to buy for sure 

[RTHolmes]

+1 for Alpine

[homersipes]

My wife had a Clarion and that was a $250 POS

[Tank-Ace]

Car is an '03 Chevy Cavalier, icepac. I play just about everything; Rise Against, flatfoot 56, A7X, James Bond theme, some epic orchestral music, the main theme from Skyrim when I'm going to a game release. But about the heaviest I go as far as bass is Sail by AWOLNATION.




So for guys that have an aftermarket stereo/deck, is the sound quality worth the extra price paied with a higher-end system, or after a certian point, is it all pretty much the same? This is assuming a decent set of speakers.

[ROC]

Sound is subjective.  Although it is nice to get advice from people you are familiar with in here, the single best thing you can do is simply go to several different stereo outlets and hit their sound booths.  Just listen, get the one you like so long as it's backed up by quality.

It's your ears, no other opinion should sway you. 

[Melvin]

Sound is extremely important, but a close second in priority is ease of use.

Nothing is more maddening than a nice stereo that is a total pain-in-the-rear to operate due to tiny buttons or an awful user interface altogether.

[skorpx1]

I found the perfect system for you - This picture explains it all and should be easy to follow.

[JOACH1M]

My last police car had subs in it, 2 12" kicker comp's with a 1600w Volfenhage amp. It was a nice system! I highly recommend kicker or Rockford fosgate.

[Tank-Ace]

Unfortunately I don't have a whole lot of room to work with. I actually use my trunk a fair bit, as well as the back seats, so not a whole lot of room for subs.

How important is the size of the enclosure space? I was thinking about putting some shallow mount subs in the rear deck of my car, but not 100% on that; might use that space for another pair of speakers to go along with the ones in the door.

[phatzo]

Geez, the stock system in my 2002 falcon is loud enough to give me a headache after one CD if I turn it up a bit.

[Motherland]

Everything in the world of audiphilia depends on whether you want a nice musical experience, or to say to your friends 'check out this sweet bass'.
If you want the former, then about 95% of people's advice will be irrelevant to you as they were going for the latter