Car Audio Help! What Speakers?

Shlogan

Shlogan

Active member
I have a 1999 4 door Ford F-150 with shitty speakers and i want to upgrade for christmas. i have about 260 bucks to spend, but i don't know what i want or need. i will be using my ipod, and i'll either use my itrip or if i get a new stereo then ill get an aux plug for it. I do not know weither to look into really nice speakers, or get a lower quality and buy subs as well. basically I'm just looking for a place to get started and some ideas i can work with for my price range.thanks and merry christmas
 
I have Infinity Reference speakers in my car with a nice headunit and its sounds awesome, I'm not sure on the price but it seems in your range just measure the speakers because different sizes can be different prices. And if you don't have one yet get a head unit because that will make it sound much better too if all you have is a crappy stock one. Just look anywhere online for the best prices
 
One more question actually:1. the stereo it has now does not even have a CD player. would it be worth it to get a new one for around $100? or would it be better to just invest in the speakers? Also, when is an amp needed?
 
I would definitely get a new one especially since you'll want CD capability so just find a good head unit for cheap around 100 isnt bad I've got an Alpine and kenwood is good too and jvc arent bad. You dont really need an amplifier unless youre getting subs so don't bother unless you have tons of money to spend, I dont have an amp to power my speakers, just the subs and my speakers are still unreal and can hit great highs and mids.

So try to get speakers and a head unit for sure because it will make a huge difference, look at crutchfield because they always have some deals on stuff. And other good speakers are boston acoustic, polk audio, and kenwood
 
And I didn't see that you were looking at subs too but it'd be hard to have a nice set up for that little, subs amp speakers headunit and all. My subs are Kenwood two 10" with 500 watt amp a nice box and a wiring kit for $200 that I got off of 6thavenue.com. I would definitely get speakers and head unit before subs because its not that much fun when all you can hear is your bass. But if you want real cheap subs maybe look on craigslist for some used ones and just make sure they work before you buy them, good luck
 
Amps are mostly used to power subs, you can hook them up to your mids but it is mostly a waste in my opinion.

Amps come in different wattages and with different channels. To properly hook an amp up to your mids you want a separate channel for each speaker. If not you cant fade front to back or left to right because they will all have the same power all the time. If you get an aftermarket deck it will probably put out 30-50 watts apposed to around 10 for the stock one. This is all you really need for door speakers IMO.

What I would do:

Get two sets of these

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113KFC6882/Kenwood-KFC-C6882ie.html?tp=105

but dont get them from that website you can find then somewhere else cheaper.

Then get a deck of your choice. I happen to have mine for sale,

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113KVT514/Kenwood-KVT-514.html?search=kenwood+kvt+514&ssi=0

I'll sell it for $350, but get whatever you want.

I'd leave it at door speakers and a deck for a bit, then you can decide if you want to get subs and an amp and all of that.

 
i would deff. get a cd player. using your ipod is like taking 1/10 of the frames out of a movie and still expecting it to look good. so a new head unit w/ a cd player is probably a good idea. and you should need an amp unless you go w/ subs. and with that budget im not sure how much you will even be able to get. that shit doesnt go cheap. and trust me, dont go the cheap way out. youll be so much happier spending the money and getting head unit, speakers, amp and subs. from a car audio shop you could probably get all that done for somewhere between 600-900 and have a decent setup(thats including install)
 
wrong-
4ch amp will help you out so much
for starters you can use the amp that comes with your head unit- but they have very little power. If your going for a full set up I would do it in this order
Get a head unit, Go for a brand name like Kenwood or alpine, avoid sony their car audio blows.
Replace your speakers in your door- If ur on a budget go with some 2ways- if you can afford it get components
get your car all wired up for subs- get the biggest wire u can afford so u wont have to replace it if u decide to go bigger in future
get a sub/amp combo- so many different options it ridicilous (remember the type of box u get is a really important factor...sealed/ported)
get a 4ch amp.. Use NEW wire to replace stock wiring.. its kind of a pain to do cause u have to tear up your car but worth it in the end

Then use your money for dynomat!!
haha car audio is addicting and expensive
 
thanks guys! lots of good info! for now i think im ganna try and find a nice deck and either a new speaker for each door or just get some nice ones for up front (if thats ok to leave the back ones the way they are). about the ipod not being good quality, is there a way to change that, does anyone else really think its a bad idea to use? i would much rather do that than use CD because all my music is on there.
 
I would consider getting a reasonably priced deck first and then see how you like it. My brother got one for his birthday, and that alone made an incredible difference. It also had the auxiliary port, so that was nice too.
 
Using an ipod doesnt mean its not as good quality, its all about where you connect it. My head unit connects to the ipod through the USB port instead of the auxiliary port which still isnt that bad, and my music sounds crystal clear with it. Get your head unit first and then your front two speakers and whatever else you feel like spending money on after that
 
Yea your iPod can absolutely play CD quality audio you just need to make sure that the tracks in your iTunes have a good bitrate (I don't rip or download anything less than 256k). If you have it hooked up with an auxiliary jack or a USB cable instead of some shitty iTrip radio thing you'll get full quality sound as long as your cable is good (get something like a monster cable with 24k gold contacts-- its worth it, trust me).

As for your car setup definitely get a headunit first. I'd recommend alpine but I have a JVC and its pretty legit for the price. Even if you get good speakers they still won't sound great if you use your stock deck from 1994 or whatever you said.

As for the speakers I would recommend alpine again, I really like their stuff. Their Type E's would probably fit your budget they are on the low end of their price range but still sound pretty damn good. You can find them at bestbuy or someplace like that. And also have them professionally installed its just not worth the time fucking around with trying to install them yourself if you don't have any experience with it.
 
CD audio will be the best sound, but a lot of kids thing that burning their mp3s onto CD's will give them that sound. It won't. Remember that you'll need to buy CD's or download them in a lossless format (~700mb per CD) to get the best sound. And honestly, it's not worth it. Your car isn't a sound isolated system and the inside was not designed with acoustics in mind.

Just use your ipod, but make sure you have an auxiliary cable and don't use your itrip. The itrip degrades everything to FM radio quality (96 kbps). Download your music in 256-320kbps and play it off your ipod, in a car you won't be able to tell the difference anyway.
 
No offence- this is not what you want to do. - Get a nice head unit around130 bucks- then spend the rest on your components and a nice amp to push them all- subs are when your looking for more bass and to better match your lower frequencies- and in your price range your not going to get anything.

I always recommend for a cheap system a set of Alpines cause they are clean- effective- have very little distortion- etc. Some type S's is all you would need- Now with the right head unit you could power these but it would be no where near what they should be running at. Head unit amps are extremely overrated as far as actual power output is.(They rate them if you had a 14.4 volt battery hooked up which no one does unless your really serious about car audio. Also they can't produce power efficiently because they are such a tiny amp. Overheating is also a major problem if you cranking it up. Their built in crossover suck ass and they have a horrible time matching power outputs and frequencies. Your head unit should just be the source.A nice cheap Pioneer like a p3100 would do the trick.

Then spend the rest on a good quality set of components and a decent amp to power them. Remember when looking at amps and speakers to look for the Root Mean Square(RMS) power rating as this is a little more accurate as to what the speakers and amps can handle. Even these are overrated at some times. peak power is just a sales gimmick as most speakers can only handle that kind of power for a few seconds before they explode.

Lastly buy good wire. You can have the best shit on the planet and it will sound like ass if hooked up shittily. Good interconnects and power wire will make or break youre system. Honestly I would wait until you had a little more saved up.Or at least start off with the head unit and work your way up from their. Speakers are something that you get what you pay for. Go with good reputable brands and you usually can't go wrong. Hope this helped. Im going to go take a nap now.
 
alright i got a high end kenwood head unit last weekend and ended up paying 250 just for that and install, really sucks. i shopped around town and that was my cheapest option because best buy was like 100 or more just for install. i have 95 bucks left and im going to blow that on speakers up front when i get a little more. the place i got the head unit from had the kenwood speakers posted above, so ill probably get those. the head unit has a usb as well as a whole much of other shit, its one of the exelon (or whatever) models, so I'm just using the ipod cable to plug i in.
 
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