Vehicle Audio!

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posted by Crazy_eyes

Well people...I need help. I want too upgrade the soundsystem in the truck, but I admit I know nothing about car audio:ohcrap: I got about 650 CDN to spend...what would you recommend, and if I want a sub, do I need an amp? I'm driving a '95 F150 extended cab. The existing speakers arent bad, and the deck is fine...open to suggestions. Thanks all.

posted by Dex

what kinda music you like playing?

posted by Crazy_eyes

uh...everything from heavy metal too rap, to industrial...depends what I'm doing.

posted by Enickma

A couple of things to keep in mind

When you're looking at specs for equipment note whether you're looking at RMA or Peak watts. RMA are the watts you'll realistically get. Peak is for brief..and I mean brief spikes. Many manufacturers will try to get sneaky with how they present their watts...you think you're buying a 500 watt amp and it's actually only 250 RMA...etc

Yes you must power your sub(s) with an amp...a good amp. Power your other speakers with an amp too...unless you get a high power head unit. Remember, distortion, not power blows speakers. Overshoot the power on your amps a little. For instance If you're trying to power a 200 watt RMA subwoofer get a 300 watt RMA amp and run it at 75%. Doing so keeps you in clean watts. The harder the amp works the more distortion it puts out. Look for amps that have a THD (total harmonic distortion) around .01%

For the variety of music you play make sure you get a sealed or ported sub box. Dont' get a bandpass box no matter how much more powerfull the punkass little eminem wannabe at the store tells you they are. Bandpass boxes make for boomy sloppy bass. You want tight and accurate for your non-rap music. Nothing like turning a metallica guitar solo into bass soup to F' it all up.

Crutchfield is a good place to look for planning and to find out what fits in your vehicle, but once you find the equipment that works for you shop around cause their prices are a bit steep usually.

http://www.crutchfield.com

This is just off the top of my head and IMO, if I think of anything else I'll put it up.

Good Luck

posted by Crazy_eyes

Thanks alot man, definately a starting place

posted by Dex

get two 10's and an amp that can power them

posted by Crazy_eyes

piece by piece man, It's going to take a while...and winter is coming up soon, definately need loud music to start a day of snowboarding

posted by Enickma

I just realized that throughout my entire post above I called the watts RMA...it's actually RMS.... I'm an engineer and sometimes I get my acronyms and abbreviations confused....sorry.

posted by Crazy_eyes

lol no worries man, actually bought a new deck today. Sounds better already.

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