car audio: need recomendations for bass

Mirlyn

Mirlyn

Well-Known Member
This summer I'm going to attack the car and put new speakers in. I'm looking at components for the front (5 1/4"s) and two-ways for the back (6x8"s). I'll probably go Kenwood for door/deck speakers (they look like the best so far).

A few questions:

1) Looking at 4-channel amps for the interior speakers in the car. I probably will wait until after the aftermarket speakers are installed to see if I really need one or not.

2) Subwoofer. I use my trunk for its utility, so I'm thinking one 10". I will not stand for extensive bass, just enough to thump with drums and leave my interior speakers for the rest.

2) Amp for the sub. Again, not too powerful. I don't do the digestive-disrupting bass. However, I'd like something that'll push the sub well enough if a good song comes on.

I currently have a Pioneer DEH-9200R headunit.
deh-p9200r.jpg

Specs: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pioneer/CDA/CarProducts/CarProductDetails/0,1429,523,00.html

Any comments, personal experience, or recommendations are welcome! :headbang:
 
what car do you have?

speaking from experience (mitsubishi lancer evolution VI, vw golf mk3, fiat cinquecento - all mates' cars), if you're looking for tight, clean bass, sometimes a good pair of 6x9s (or even 7x10s) with a small sub (something around 8-inch) can be extremely effective. the guy with the lancer loves his dance and garage, so he's opted for a 12" pioneer in his boot, coupled with some JBL 6x9s in the rear. wobbles like fuck, but it's great :D

the guy with the fiat likes cleaner, well reproduced music with the right mix of bass, treble, and so on, so he's got a pair of pioneer 6x9s in the rear, and a pioneer 6" bass tube in the boot.

the type of music you're going to be listening to will obviously make a difference, so it might be a good idea for you to put together a couple of systems in a car audio store, take along a CD of your music, and compare :)

hope i was of some help!
 
Thanks for the help!!

Car: 99 Mustang

Music: Classic Rock, Techno, a little rap, Pop, New Alternative. (very broad ;) )

I had a 86' F150 with 3-way 6x9's behind the seat, and it was good. Very good. However, with all the extra plastic and airspace in the Mustang's interior as compared to the truck, the same setup doesn't sound that great (factory 6x8s). Given it is the original speaker system, and the doors are already buzzing a bit, particularly the passenger side. I intend on taking the doors apart to hunt down the rattles and pad/glue them up in a month or so.

I think 6x9s would give me more bass, but I'm going to just plan on 6x8s because the factory mounts are for 6x8s and I don't know what kind of modification I'll need to do for 6x9s without tearing the door apart now ;). I also figured components in the front would give me the mids while 2-ways (or less?) on the rear deck would be best for bass.

Unfortunately, there are maybe two radio shops in town--not very many. Most are big retailers where building a custom setup and testing it myself would be somewhat difficult. I could probably arrange it at the store I work (Best Buy) but I don't want to limit myself to the brands we have at the store if I can go elsewhere and get better quality :headbang:
 
I've used Rockford Fosgate Punch DVC subs in the past, they do an awesome job, though they might be too much bass for your desire. Are you using a seperate amp or pure HU power? I've had 2 15" DVC subs wired @ 4ohm @ channel and a 500W/channel MTX blue thunder back in the day :D
 
I've got some Ample Audio 5 1/4" component speakers in the Honda. The mids and highs from them are excellent, but the bass is a bit weak. That's what the cheap-ass Audiovox bass tube is for. The Neon I just got still has the factory stereo, which sounds decent except that I'm too used to the treble response in the Honda.

If you get component speakers, will you have to cut holes to mount the tweeters?

If you're not looking to win any competitions, you might look at a self-contained powered sub from Bazooka or another brand like that. Bazooka even has one out now that looks like a NOS bottle.

As for a four-channel amp... your headunit puts out 45 watts into four channels as it is. Five bucks says that will be plenty, unless the sensitivity on whatever speaker set you get is ludicrously low.
 
A suggestion on the rear deck speakers... look for 6" (or 6.5") rounds (you can find them in 2 and 3-way as well) instead of 6x8's and see if the installer can use an adapter plate. A round cone has much lower odd-order harmonics due to cone non-linearities and is much more symmetric than oval cones (don't tell the people at KEF that though).

The difference in area between a 6" round and 6x8 oval will be minor, especially if you're looking for a 10" sub to take over the bottom octaves.

As for the sub... well, there's a hundred decent 10" subs and amps on the market that would probably make you extremely happy, so I'm not sure where to even start with a suggestion. I guess my only advice would be to stick with a common brand (JL Audio, Rockford Fosgate, Orion, Kicker, Precision Power, etc.) for the sub (not that you can't find good subs from less well known brands, but you're less likely to buy a bad one from a well known brand if you're not heavily versed in the audio world). A smallish amp, say 50x2, should be plenty of power for one 10" sub when bridged. Just make sure it is capable of bridged mono operation (most are nowadays) since it will be driving a single sub (with a single voice coil most likely in the price range you'll probably be looking at).
 
I found Kicker to be fairly crap, though they coulda gotten better since 96 or so. Had a mate with Nippon america subs.. what horror! rated 300W max power and a 45W HU took it out of its misery :rofl:
 
I'd go for round instead of 6x8s/6x9s instead as well. Never been much into car audio (without a car it is tricky) but can recommend a very good 10" long-throw sub unit if you can get it in the States - the Peerless XLS-10 (car). Should be about $140 and is an ugly, no-frills motherfucker.

Be wary of using trunk space as a sub enclosure because you'll be moving stuff in and out and varying the Qtc constantly. I'd go for a sealed cab. 40-50 litres is enough to get good low-20s performance out of most decent 10" sub drivers. Just don't skimp on the mids otherwise your bass will sound very slow.
 
don't know much about car audio but i know that if you want bass you should get some tha punch subs and some Boss equipment.
 
Yes, the Fosgate punch really kicks ass, you did'nt mean bose did you? *holding gun to your head ready to fire if you say yes* :D
 
Yes, I am holding a gun in a similar fashion. I'm guessing he actually meant "Boss".

Instant ban for anybody that says anything good about Bose speaker systems apart from "they're nice to kick around" please. :)
 
There's no aural trickery, they're just shit. A rip-off at half the price and outclassed by anything similarly priced.

It's pure marketing BS. In fact, contrary to popular belief I think "BS" may have come from the word "BoSe".
 
Yeah, Bassless Bose. About the only thing they're good for is filling up the commercial airtime on Paul Harvey.

I thought about the 6.5s instead of 6x8s. Might do it, since the rear deck ought to be easier to modify than the doors themselves.

I've heard that "NAWS" bottle-sub. To be honest, it sounded like shit. :( It buzzed and rattled so bad.

I plan on components in the front for the mids and highs, don't expect bass out of them at all. To me, the rear deck is to pull the mids back into the car, and the sub is for everything else. I'd make a custom plate for the components to fit where the stock 6x8s are or reroute the tweeters to, say, the winglets (area behind the side mirrors).

I think the HU will be plenty for the interior speakers if I have a powered amp for the sub, as it'll only be driving highs/mids, right? The only reason I considered a 4-channel for the interiors was to still give me clean sound at higher volumes (I do a lot of windows-down highway driving :headbang: ) which I do not have now (unless I cut the bass, which defeats the purpose :p ). I want an amp/sub combo that I can turn off with the HU (for listening with the car off, no need for lots of bass then or when listening to talk radio).

I'll look at the 50x2 amps and see what looks good. So far I'm thinking Kenwoods for the interior component and rear deck speakers (seem to have the best freq response), and a Pioneer sub/amp combo. I'll also ask around for the Peerless brand, MuFu.

Still open for opinions, its all interesting, keep it up guys--I appreciate it! :headbang:
 
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