[ninefivezero]

So I'm getting an 01/02 Toyota 4Runner for sure, and hopefully in a week or two if things go my way.

After the car, the first thing on my mind is a stereo of course. So here is what I have in mind. I gather, from using the Crutchfield "what fits my car" I see AM/FM/CD player; with 6 speakers. And I gather it has 6 1/2 speakers in the 4 doors and tweeters in the front two doors.

I don't have a set budget, but I want something pretty good, and by that I mean $1,000 or $1,500. I've looked a bit, and see some decks that look pretty nice for around $300, componant speakers for $300 that look interesting, and so on. I really don't know much about car audio gear though.

In my own head, from what I do know I'm thinking about a good in dash CD player, componant speakers up front, maybe in the rears as well, those speakers to be on a seperate amp from the deck, and something like dual 10" subs and whatever power I need to drive those.

Deck: I don't like flashy decks with stupid blinking lights. I want something clean looking and good quality. I don't like decks that the face plate has to slide down to put a CD in, I like the slot just being there all the time, I don't know how many are like this. I like big volume knobs, and I assume a removable face plate is a good idea.

I may be running two external amps off this. I want an easy way to hook up an MP3 player, like a line-in on the front, or some easy way to hook up anyones iPod or whatever, and I want better quality than an FM adapter.

Full Range Speakers: 6 1/2" seperates up front. I like good clean, high resolution audio so am willing to spend some decent money here, but am always worried about theft, to they will be under the stock speaker grills for sure. I spend my days looking at $1,000 home stereo speakers so I don't even blink at $300 car speakers, but I don't want to put huge money in the car, more like value high end... if that makes sense. For the rear speakers I'm not sure. I remember a thread here, or maybe just a discussion about it, but it was about having 4 speakers or just 2. Music is stereo and was meant to be heard with 2 speakers, not 4. Still, as a rolling party wagon, I like the idea of 4 speakers, when I'm listening by myself and want the best accuracy possible, I figure I can always put the fade to front speakers only. I know from home theater that speakers must be voice matched, IE being of the same series so they all sound the same. Looking at the seperates, I don't see full range speakers that seem to match up, which is another reason I'm thinking maybe seperates in the back, so all 4 have the same sound. Our Volvo has seperates, and for the back the woofer is in the door and the tweeter is at the very back end of the car behind the rear seat, which sounds quite good. Seems like a possible option for my 4Runner.

Amp: Everyone loves power, so why drive good speakers with the little deck? I don't know if I should look at using the amp to power just the fronts, or both pairs, nor how much power to have. Recomend something.

Subs, Boxes & Amps I don't plan on buying subs until summer time since I'll be driving cross country to school and back, and won't even have space for a sub. Anyways I like good ballanced sound, not stock speakers in an 89 Civic trying to show off with his 2 for $79 subs in the parking lot. That said, I like tight, high quality bass and would like the option to bump it pretty loud at times. 2 10" subs? I don't know, teach me. I know a bit about boxes, and feel like the tightness of a sealed box would be nice, but that ported boxes put out more volume and are more efficent. Give me some ideas. What kind of power would I need for good sound and what will it cost?

Oh, I also want to be able to easily grab the sub box out and leave it behind when I need to throw a bike in the back or whatever.

Yah, sort of long thread, but I'm learning. I want my car to look totally clean, and don't want wires all over. I have a friend whos speaker wire leading to the sub is on the floor, and that is straight ghetto. Would this install be hard? Where would the amps go and how do you hide all those wires? Where would I hide the crossovers from the mains? What would something like this cost to install if I got it done at a shop?

Finally, where should I buy from? Buying from a local store means less selection and (sometimes much) higher prices, but is easier and faster than waiting for shipping then going somewhere to install, but I know shops that will install what you buy for free...

[sims]

Speakers are really personal, we can tell you what we recommend and what we like best, but your the one who has to listen to it. if you like a cleaner sound and aren’t after "boom" for SPL, I would stay away from stuff like rockford and kicker...

for a deck, at $300 you won't really go wrong, everything in that price range is decent, Look around and listen to a few decks see what you like best, a lot of people like clarion although I’ve never been a huge fan, Pioneer has decent decks in that range. If you can find one look at some nakamichi decks, they sound amazing and don’t have all the extra cosmetic and flashy crap you don’t want.

In a car I would only run fronts, but I’ve never really considered and SUV, I’d get fronts first, and they borrow some speakers or get a cheap pair and give it a try see if you like the sound. 6.5 components are pretty standard, I’m partial to focal but that’s just my own personal preference, there are a lot of nice speakers out there, Boston, MB quarts, diamond, macrom etc

For subs, again its really personal preference, I’ve listen to some 12’s that still sounded amazingly tight and crisp, bring some CD’s and see what you like best, obviously the general rule of thumb is the bigger the sub the more dynamic and boomy were a smaller sub will be more responsive and tighter sounding. I personally like adire but there are so many good subs out there just don’t go shopping at best buy, you don’t need to spend huge sums of money to get good speakers, you just need to look for the right stuff.

Building a box isn’t that hard, I would do it myself personally; if you want a proper box built you will pay a fair bit for a relatively easy job. Just cater it to the specifications of whatever sub you choice.

As for where to buy… the internet is clearly going to be the cheapest, compare the prices of the local shop to online, but just keep shipping in mind, if you need to buy the parts you want from multiple stores shipping will totally up fast. Also with a local shop you have convince of warranty right away if there is any problems or if you need bills or anything should it get stolen. You will pay more locally but you get the convinces, total everything up and decide what convince is worth to you….

I’ll try and touch on amps later, I don’t have time right now :P

[ninefivezero]

Damn it people, don't actually make me go OUTSIDE and talk to someone at a store! I want answers from the seat of my ass!

[sims]

Originally Posted by ninefivezero

Damn it people, don't actually make me go OUTSIDE and talk to someone at a store! I want answers from the seat of my ass!

don't we all :P

like I said though, really all we can do is tell you what company's make good quality, nice sounding speakers, its up to you to decide witch one sounds the best to you.

we can give you a list of great parts, and i'm sure you would be happy with any of them, but the only way to know witch you will enjoy the most is to listen before you buy.

[Miller]

i love my mb quarts, have the 6 1/2 components up front witha 10" alpine sub in the trunk

[hans5849]

I think alpine head units are awesome, you don't have those stupid visuals like some head units. And the quality is good.

Infinity makes great speakers.

[super_Chris]

I just(3 weeks ago) bought a Sony Deck at Bestbuy. It was $170 onsale for $150 (instant rebate).

I'd say it punks the shit out of my old Aiwa Deck. Yeah thats all the info I have, I'm no expert.

[Miller]

Originally Posted by hans5849

I think alpine head units are awesome, you don't have those stupid visuals like some head units. And the quality is good.

Infinity makes great speakers.

i have an alpine head unit and i love the thing. i wouldnt call infinity speakers "great". there alright, but there is much better

[ninefivezero]

I'm going to look at a few shops tomorrow and talk to some people to get a better idea of what all the project entails. I looked at some Focal speakers, the 165V2 which sell for $450 at a local shop, found them for $250 online!

[sims]

nice, focal sound beautiful, what model are they ? I’m guessing k2’s or polyglass

[ninefivezero]

http://www.cartoys.com/Default.cfm/p/165V2/



For $449.96, or at another place on line for $249.50. However, that is from some no-name store with no history at Reseller Rating...

I walked to Best Buy today to look around, and the guy I talked to actually knew his stuff, a first for Best Buy in my experience. Of course they don't really have quality gear, with the exception of some decks.

I really like the idea of a deck with an external 1/8" input so I can plug in an MP3 player easily, but few have that. The $150JVC Arsenal KD-AR560 does, and I like the looks, but I can easily afford something of higher quality... I guess I could deal with a cord hanging out of the dash from a rear AUX input on the back of a deck, but that is sort of ghetto-style.

I'm going to a higher end store sometime this week to do some listening and talk to some other people.

I think the 4-channel amp for the full range speakers will fit under the front passenger seat, or maybe the back if need be, but is there any danger of them overheating when penned up in a small space? Because obviously I don't want it to be visable to theives and whatnot. The sub amp is the same way, but would it be possible to just attach it to the back of the sub box? That sounds like a good idea, because as long as the box is close to the back seats it woun't be seen, and can be removed easily, since I want to be able to take the box out for more space or when I'm leaving the car somewhere...

[tex]

heads: look at clarion, pioneer and alpine. the JVCs aren't bad either once you get to the higher end units. namely just make sure and get a name brand. the naks are badass if you can find one that will work for what you want.

front speakers: definately go with componets if you can. the rules are a lot different in car audio. home audio you have a simple quadrilateral space (room). car audio you have the dash and all that BS to deal with. lot harder to work with. If you want to get hi-fi on the road, your going to have to go with an active setup. by this, i mean take the crossovers that come with your componet set and throw them out. you want to cross the speakers at a freq that works for your car, not the preset one that sounds best in all cars. Notice the $2000 focal utopia set. adjustable freq crossovers. see where I am going with this? Ideally, save yourself some money by buying the componets seperately. get the tweeters, then go and find some woofers. look around online and on some of the big audio sites, you can do this more easily than you think. then go out and get a good crossover, or, if you get a nice enough head unit, it will have it built in (pioneer 860 is a nice piece if you can handle the looks). This will let you tweak the sound in the car to perfection. As far as the actual speakers go, its whatever sounds good to you. I had that focal set mentioned above, I love the woofer, but I hated the tweeter. I ran the woofers with MBQ Q tweeters for a year or so and loved it. it will handle as much power as you can throw at it, and also sounds good. if you want any other opinions on sets, just ask, but i'm not going to start throwing anything out there (er, i will real quick: alpine type-x componets get good reviews and can be had for <$200 online)
rear speakers: i hate them. i agree with what you said: 2 speakers for stereo sound. I was going to run surround sound in my car, so I had to make an exception, but you get my point. i know what you mean about the people in the back though. go get a $50 set of sonys or infinities and run them off the deck.
amp: its all in the install and speakers, amp doesn't matter too much. make sure it has good crossovers, a good warranty, and is a good brand. they have some nice MBQ amps floating around on the internet right now, they are very very nice amps, very powerful too. You'll probably want about 100W to each channel on your componets. if you take my advice and go active, I'd look for about 25-50W on the tweeters, 50-100W on the woofers.

It seems like you would be able to install your own stuff. its not that hard to do, and will save you some money. if you need any help, i can walk you thru all of it, except building subwoofer boxes (i'm more of a highs guy then bass head)