What should I look at buying?

[Vindicate]

I have a super shitty car stereo system atm, and am looking desperately to upgrade. The problem is, as it was when I initially but my crap, is that I have a low budget. I'm looking to spend about 1200-1300$ Canadian... so.. around 900-1100$ American. Here's what I have so far.

Kenwood Deck Model KDC-205
500 Watt "Thump!" Amp Model T1006
4x Sony Xplod Speaker 6" (I know.. but they were cheapest I could find to put in at the time lol..)
2x Tweeter Speakers
Dual 10" Sub I believe its a 250 Watt... But couldnt find the Manual on it..
Capacitor of some sort... hmm... I gotta look into that too.. I'll edit what I missed when I find it.

There you have it. In a nutshell.. I have SHIT and want better.. but can't pay that much rofl... Oi... all that I have there is roughly 500-600$ Canadian worth of equipment.

P.S. If you hadn't noticed... I'm new to this Car Audio stuff.. so sorry if I missed some specs. I will try and get them if u guys need more info.

Oh... almost forgot.. I'm driving an '89 Honda Civic, and I have Pioneer 6"x9" Speakers but they dont fit in the back or the doors

[lotas]

I have a super shitty car stereo system atm, and am looking desperately to upgrade. The problem is, as it was when I initially but my crap, is that I have a low budget. I'm looking to spend about 1200-1300$ Canadian... so.. around 900-1100$ American. Here's what I have so far.

Kenwood Deck Model KDC-205
500 Watt "Thump!" Amp Model T1006
4x Sony Xplod Speaker 6" (I know.. but they were cheapest I could find to put in at the time lol..)
2x Tweeter Speakers
Dual 10" Sub I believe its a 250 Watt... But couldnt find the Manual on it..
Capacitor of some sort... hmm... I gotta look into that too.. I'll edit what I missed when I find it.

There you have it. In a nutshell.. I have SHIT and want better.. but can't pay that much rofl... Oi... all that I have there is roughly 500-600$ Canadian worth of equipment.

P.S. If you hadn't noticed... I'm new to this Car Audio stuff.. so sorry if I missed some specs. I will try and get them if u guys need more info.

Oh... almost forgot.. I'm driving an '89 Honda Civic, and I have Pioneer 6"x9" Speakers but they dont fit in the back or the doors

Welcome-

You are in good shape. $1000 is quite a bit to work with on a car audio system. Most people ask about what they can get with $500, so you will have some more options. First off, in order to help you, we need to know what you are looking for. Do you want component speakers up front? Do you want to get some speakers that fit your rears? Do you even want rear speakers at all?

Do you want to gear your system towards SPL or SQ? (Loudness, or sound quality?) Do you care if your sub setup is single/dual? Do you need trunkspace?

Those are some questions you should think about and ask yourself. Typically if you are adding subs you will need to add aftermarket speakers, this means you will need to add an amplifier for your speakers. With this now, you are looking at two amps, which might require a new deck.

I cant really post any suggestions on equipment yet. For a sub I would suggest an Resonant Engineering RE model 12". Maybe 2 of them. They don't require much power, they are cheap, and they are reliable. You could also look at Alpine Type-R's, or Ascendant Audio, or maybe some Kicker Comp VR's.
You will probably want to get a sub with a low RMS rating, because it will require less power. In turn, this will pull less current from you alternator, so you will not have to worry about upgrading your electrical system of your car. This can be spendy.

http://www.reaudio.com
http://www.ascendantaudio.com


i'd take a look at those sites, just look around.

[William from NOLA]

You will probably want to get a sub with a low RMS rating, because it will require less power. In turn, this will pull less current from you alternator, so you will not have to worry about upgrading your electrical system of your car. This can be spendy.

Spendy indeed.

To add to lotas's post: The less power you use, the less you will end up spending is what he is getting at. Due to the laws of physics, high power speakers do not in any way shape or form mean that it will be louder than lower power rated; just something for you to think about.

[Darthness]

[quote="William from NOLA"]Spendy indeed.

To add to lotas's post: The less power you use, the less you will end up spending is what he is getting at. Due to the laws of physics, high power speakers do not in any way shape or form mean that it will be louder than lower power rated]
Sorry for going off topic and potentially derailing this threahd, but would you mind coming down and beating some sense into my brother in law?.. he slike "ayee dawgg dem sony xplods wil be supper loud.. all gud car systemzzzzzzz should have 2000watts... alternatir dosnt matter.... sony an kenwood are like the best in car audio!" (told me that a "1400watt" sony sub will be louder then... pretty much everything :)

sorry to the thread poster and people posting replys. and i agree, you should go with RE 12"s.

[William from NOLA]

Sorry for going off topic and potentially derailing this threahd, but would you mind coming down and beating some sense into my brother in law?.. he slike "ayee dawgg dem sony xplods wil be supper loud.. all gud car systemzzzzzzz should have 2000watts... alternatir dosnt matter.... sony an kenwood are like the best in car audio!" (told me that a "1400watt" sony sub will be louder then... pretty much everything :)

sorry to the thread poster and people posting replys. and i agree, you should go with RE 12"s.

Just give him a physics textbook :) That's all you can do, heh.

[Vindicate]

Hmmm... sorry.. I dunno what Component Speakers are.

Ok, onto to your questions. I'd like some new speakers to fit the rear, but without getting custom mounts, I can't get 6x9s, I dunno what other sizes of speakers there are, but I have 6"s in right now. I would like to find some way to angle my door speakers more up cuz atm they're pointing at my feet. Trunk space doesnt concern me that much, I dont really use it ever, lastly I want more bass, for the bassier songs I listen to, I like to listen to all types of music, and like to hear guitar riffs and stuff still. Will it help u figure out what would be good for me if I post the music I listen to? So you can get a feel for what I like?

I'm BRAND new to all this Car Audio stuff, I dunno what the terms are, and/or what I need to match up equipment, I VAGUELY understand the wattages and stuff on amps/subs... lol... I'm tryen to get into it cuz this shit interests me greatly..

[lotas]

Hmmm... sorry.. I dunno what Component Speakers are.

Ok, onto to your questions. I'd like some new speakers to fit the rear, but without getting custom mounts, I can't get 6x9s, I dunno what other sizes of speakers there are, but I have 6"s in right now. I would like to find some way to angle my door speakers more up cuz atm they're pointing at my feet. Trunk space doesnt concern me that much, I dont really use it ever, lastly I want more bass, for the bassier songs I listen to, I like to listen to all types of music, and like to hear guitar riffs and stuff still. Will it help u figure out what would be good for me if I post the music I listen to? So you can get a feel for what I like?

I'm BRAND new to all this Car Audio stuff, I dunno what the terms are, and/or what I need to match up equipment, I VAGUELY understand the wattages and stuff on amps/subs... lol... I'm tryen to get into it cuz this shit interests me greatly..

alrighty cool

component speakers have the driver seperate from the tweeter. On a normal coaxial speaker the tweeter is usually mounted onto the actual speaker, they are seperate in component system. Another key to a component speaker system is the crossover that they typically come with. The crossover basically tells the high notes to be played by the tweeter and the low notes to be played by the speaker/midbass driver. The advantage to a system like this is, like you stated about your music pointed at your feet, you can "raise" your sound stage. One way to do this is to make or purchase custom kickpanels for your car that go in the corners of the floor, top left corner of the drivers side, and top right corner of the passanger. Kick panels are angled up so the speaker and tweeter can be "pointed" up to the center of the car, or to the direction of the listener. Another way to raise the sound stage is to keep the speaker in the stock location and mount the tweeter higher. Popular places are on the A-pillar in the car (the "bar", for lack of a better term, that runs at an angle parallel to your windshield) or perhaps somewhere in your door panel. You want to try to keep the two (tweet and speaker) as close as possible because you want the sound to "blend".

you sound like the type who wants some quality bass on the typical rock and other kinds of music, but who wants to be able to bump if and when the rap comes. Is this accurate?

If that is accurate, that sounds like you are looking for an SQL sub. The first one that comes to mind for me is an RE XXX, but that involves around $400 and will be very spendy to power, so we might want to steer clear of that one. Will also very likely involve an electrical upgrade.

[Vindicate]

I dont listen to all that much rap, I'm more thinken where I can listen to my Marilyn Manson with some bass and more mids/trebles, and then switch over to The Crystal Method and listen with more bass and moderate mids/trebles.

In regards to the Coaxial/Component Speakers, I got I guess a "Component Speaker" setup, my 6"s are in the door, pointing at my feet, and my tweeters are in the left and right sides of my dashboard kinda. I was just hoping there was a way to angle the speakers in the door more up without having to remount them somewhere.

I checked out those 2 sites, and I'm liking the RE 12" since it doesnt look like I'll need to buy an overly expensive Amp along with the sub(s).

[lotas]

I dont listen to all that much rap, I'm more thinken where I can listen to my Marilyn Manson with some bass and more mids/trebles, and then switch over to The Crystal Method and listen with more bass and moderate mids/trebles.

In regards to the Coaxial/Component Speakers, I got I guess a "Component Speaker" setup, my 6"s are in the door, pointing at my feet, and my tweeters are in the left and right sides of my dashboard kinda. I was just hoping there was a way to angle the speakers in the door more up without having to remount them somewhere.

I checked out those 2 sites, and I'm liking the RE 12" since it doesnt look like I'll need to buy an overly expensive Amp along with the sub(s).

Yeah an RE or two should suit you well. You can fiberglass in order to point the speakers up, but that requires fiberglass/fabrication knowledge. If you know someone who is good with it you could go for it. Or you could goto a junkyard and get a door panel from your same car and try it yourself on it or something.

[audiofreak12]

For rock, a single RE12 or two RE10's sound really nice. One RE12 still manages to get near the 135db range, but will still sound good. The 10" version's also sound good, getting close to as loud as the 12, and with two will produce that real low mid-bass that most rockers produce. I have also never herd anything bad about ascedent(spelling?) audio so that would be another thing to check in to. Justin sells arc audio, and from what i understand they have amazing s/q. Rainbow components and subs also have very nice S/Q, but the price is up there a little bit. With $1000 to spend, you have a lot of options, and personal oppinion is what matters. Have you herd any of these speakers were talking about? Have you herd other peoples stereo's and liked how they sounded? If so what brand? That will help too.