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A good aftermarket system is more than buying speakers and electronics. It's how they're selected and installed to match the vehicle. We've all heard old sedans with big subwoofers and the metal of the trunk rattling. People focus on materials that generate sound, but they should also focus on what prevents sound. Sound deadening materials and rubber bushings can help improve sound quality. And what about door windows? Old car door windows don't fit tightly and will vibrate. It's fine to build a speaker box or buy one already made. But what should you line inside the box, how big a vent hole, and shouldn't you put rubber fittings to isolate it's vibration from the car's body? Should you cut holes in the door's metal to add more speakers? Should you cut holes in the front and back dash for more speakers? Some old cars only had one or two speakers and some had none. Even if the car has openings for only 4 speakers, you could build a great sounding system without cutting holes in metal.
And the question is?
Or it's just a statement?
Or a rhetorical question?
Go to DIYaudio and you will have all of them answered there. Prep yourself for four hundred answers at least and a lot of work to be done to your vehicle.
And the question is?
Or it's just a statement?
Or a rhetorical question?
Go to DIYaudio and you will have all of them answered there. Prep yourself for four hundred answers at least and a lot of work to be done to your vehicle.
someone posted about their aftermarket stereo on a topic on factory stereos so I'm starting a topic for aftermarket stereos
Only one place to go for me. Crutchfield. I have been buying from them for 15+ years. If you need help installing. They can send you pics and step by step instructions on installing for you specific vehicle. And will answer any questions you have.
My perspective as a long time car audio hobbyist focused on sound quality:
- no need to overpower the system
- sub boxes need to be custom designed for the driver
- sealed subs over vented subs
- consider active crossovers, not passive
- don't fall into the trap of blingy car audio brands. Buy 4 ohm audiophile brands.
- used is a good way to go, especially for amplifiers
Oh, I see I prompted a new thread because of my post. I had no idea people would freak the hell out over something so innocent and harmless.
Anyway, I was fortunate to know four ME students just finishing up their bachelors degrees at a well known engineering program college. I gave them a budget for what I wanted to spend and had them help me design a custom system for my '96 F-150 that went on to win a 1st place trophy at the State audio competition.
Everything was custom and special order/selected to work in perfect harmony for my vehicle and specific application. I had them do all the complex math and calculations of my sub boxes for exact cubic volume what I needed per factory Kicker specs on these subs. I build the thing myself. I just needed their brains and HEAVY math skills to make a pair of custom boxes that would fit in such close quarters of my regular cab. I did most of the install myself except for the complicated stuff. Tuning that damn EQX crossover took even them hours. I didn't even want to attempt it myself.
I also needed some of their electrical engineering background to help me bridge the amps in a fashion so they wouldn't overheat and would run good clean power without surges.
All in all the system was badass....I loved that truck and system until I sold it in the fall of '01. I don't know if I would spring that much dough on a system again. It was between $3,500-$4,000......
Sure was fun back in '98 though.
Any installer with a year's experience could have designed that system in an hour. Kicker gives the specs for building boxes for their components, and an 8th grade geometry student could have adjusted the dimensions to fit behind your seats. It's not rocket science. For that matter, no installer who is building a system for competition would use an oval speaker. Never, ever, ever. He would have built plates to fit a 5" or 6.5" in the same spot. Have you ever seen on oval driver for a home speaker? Very unlikely, and for good reasons. Bridging the amps takes about 2 minutes, since only the sub amp would be bridged. The other runs in 4 channel mode for the front and rear speakers. Simple, everyday stuff. Custom and special ordered? All of that stuff was available off the shelf at any better car audio dealer or maybe Best Buy or Circuit City back then. So your claim of having 4 MEs designing and tuning that setup is a joke. A joke. There's nothing special about it, and 4 MEs inexperienced in car audio have no edge over an installer who has been working for a couple years. That's two days of install and tuning, assuming some Dynamat and a few other niceties. A couple hours with an RTA is all that system could benefit from.
My qualifications:
1. 10 years of mobile electronics install, from head units at the Honda dealer to $25K ground up custom setups that trophied everywhere the vehicles went. This was back when SQ was the primary goal. I estimate I've done somewhere in the area of 4000-5000 installs, including hundreds at the level of yours.
2. 1300+ hours of manufacturer, installer, distributor, and trade show training. I passed the level 2 MECP practice test 3 years after I stopped installing, which was 15+ years ago.
3. I own a '95 F150, which is the same as yours. I've been all through it. In most of my vehicles I use the factory rears, or a basic 2 way. I do this because rear fill needs to be minimal in order not to drag the imaging away from the front of the vehicle.
4. Since I moved to the custom home audio market segment, I've been a low level car audio hobbyist, and still use the electronics and acoustics basics from years ago.
I wasn't an excellent installer, but was very good.
Don't bother telling me what I do or don't know. Not interested. I also don't care that you won a state championship or think you hit 133 dB, which is unlikely with only two 8" subs in small boxes, and the small amps you had. How about some grills for those woofers so they don't slap against the seat? Didn't the MEs think of that? Normally I wouldn't rain on someone's parade but you have a multi-handled habit of wrecking threads with your own nonsense. You brought this system up in a different thread as if it's the greatest thing ever designed, but it's average at best for someone who wanted a few steps up from stock. I'm glad you enjoyed it, but maybe you need a dose of reality.
Any installer with a year's experience could have designed that system in an hour. Kicker gives the specs for building boxes for their components, and an 8th grade geometry student could have adjusted the dimensions to fit behind your seats. For that matter, no installer who is building a system for competition would use an oval speaker. Never, ever, ever. He would have built plates to fit a 5" or 6.5" in the same spot. Bridging the amps takes about 2 minutes, since only the sub amp would be bridged. The other runs in 4 channel mode for the front and rear speakers. Simpel, everyday stuff. So your claim of having 4 MEs designing and tuning that setup is a joke. A joke. There's nothing special about it, and 4 MEs inexperienced in car audio have no edge over an installer who has been working for a couple years. That's two days of install and tuning, assuming some Dynamat and a few other niceties. A couple hours with an RTA is all that system could benefit from.
My qualifications to laugh at your claims:
1. 10 years of mobile electronics install, from head units at the Honda dealer to $25K ground up custom setups that trophied everywhere the vehicles went. This was back when SQ was the primary goal. I estimate I've done somewhere in the area of 4000-5000 installs, including hundreds at the level of yours.
2. 1300+ hours of manufacturer, installer, distributor, and trade show training. I passed the level 2 MECP practice test 3 years after I stopped installing, which was 15+ years ago.
3. I own a '95 F150, which is the same as yours. I've been all through it.
Don't bother telling me what I do or don't know. Not interested. I also don't care that you won a state championship or think you hit 133 dB, which is unlikely with only two 8" subs in small boxes, and small amps. How about some grills for those woofers so they don't slap against the seat? Didn't the MEs think of that? Normally I wouldn't rain on someone's parade but you have a multi-handled habit of wrecking threads with your own nonsense. You brought this system up in a different thread as if it's the greatest thing ever designed, but it's average at best for someone who wanted a few steps up from stock. I'm glad you enjoyed it, but maybe you need a dose of reality.
Oh, so you know you have to have an EXACT volume of space per Kicker's specs then?
You are full of it dude, just like your brother.
Of course I do, and so does any pro installer who has ever built a sub enclosure. All major sub manufacturers give the box volume necessary, and how much volume the sub takes up. That is sub 101 for anyone building an enclosure. Did you think that some special genius is required to build a box of a particular size?
Recommended enclosure volume + the volume the sub displaces = the internal volume the box needs to be built for. The height and depth are known limits because of the seats and the depth of the sub, so those are easy to find. After that, subtract the thickness of the material used from each dimension, then it's simply H x W x D divided by 1728 to achieve the correct volume in cubic feet. In your case the only unknown variable is the width of the box, so solve for W.
Like I said, 8th grade geometry.
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