My Son Wants a Sub (Car)

[slipperybidness]

Yeah, I recall years ago seeing the Sony Xplod speakers and them giving me a feeling of some way overdone sneakers that I would not be caught wearing.

Kenwood is one of the names I have been looking at. Some of these in dash units are way over the top for my needs and cost more than some home audio flagship AVRs. I would basically have to live in my car travelling across country frequently to make use of such and park my car in an armed guard compound. I am not about to be dealing with a chirping alarm system every time I need to get in and out of my old truck, either.

I finally took official possession of my 'new to me' truck yesterday and I was pleased to see it is the model that also has speakers in the rear of the xtra cab. I think all four factory mount speakers are 6.5" and for all I know, it may even have decent ones in there already. I was in the middle of work (my company bought it) when I test drove it and really haven't gotten a chance to check it out in depth. Basically, my boss had a mechanic go through it and I have maybe spent 15 minutes total with it to date.

In my last Toyota 4x4 I had dual 10" MTX speakers in a carpeted box, a Clarion marine stereo that a supplier left with us, and I don't recall the door speakers I had in there. The amp for the MTX speakers was either Rkfrd Fsgate or Bostn Acstcs. That meager system actually sounded quite good. Perhaps even overkill in an 87 Toyota xtra cab

I think MTX may be a bit over-rated. I would prefer Kicker over MTX.

On the other hand, I had just about forgotten about Clarion! Clarion may be under-rated! I was curious, so just took a look at Wiki. Looks like Clarion is actually a Hitachi brand and now Foxconn also has a share. Hitachi knows a thing or 2 about audio (understatement).

 

[panteragstk]

For head units I think Pioneer has great bang for your buck. Kicker is a very good sub brand along with Infinity. Speaker wise Infinity and Pioneer are both very good. JBL has some great stuff as well. I've never been disappointed with anything I've bought from those companies.

 

[MrBoat]

I think MTX may be a bit over-rated. I would prefer Kicker over MTX.

On the other hand, I had just about forgotten about Clarion! Clarion may be under-rated! I was curious, so just took a look at Wiki. Looks like Clarion is actually a Hitachi brand and now Foxconn also has a share. Hitachi knows a thing or 2 about audio (understatement).

Before I got the Clarion, the last I had known of that brand is that it was relatively low end kind of kmart brand back in the day, and then it got better in my years away. Interestingly enough, of all the marine stereos we installed, the Clarion was actually one of the more durable brands with the least amount of failures.

When I got it, it had more rms wpc than some of the top names at the time. The only downside was that it was one of the last cassette models (and it was a sort of pearl white color for marine), which happened to be good for my rough riding truck by chance. It was fine as long as I didn't leave the cassette tapes in the hot cab all the time. I was really surprised how good they sounded in the boats we installed them in so I was glad to get it for my use. Besides, it was brand new and free, came with a remote etc.

The MTX speakers came with the truck. I have another similar enclosure at the shop that has cutouts for 2-12" subs. Although, I am looking at building something myself for perhaps a single 12".

There is a lot on youtube etc about car audio building. Again at least as challenging technically as home audio. It didn't used to be so.

 

[Pogre]

Looks like my son's plans are at least on hold. I'm struggling with helping him spend all his money on audio when he should be saving. We went to Best Buy and checked out their selection of amps and speakers. There wasn't a whole lot. I'm already seeing him go down the rabbit hole and don't want him to turn into me! Well, at least until he's established a little better anyway. I actually have the money to spend on this stuff.

 

[slipperybidness]

Looks like my son's plans are at least on hold. I'm struggling with helping him spend all his money on audio when he should be saving. We went to Best Buy and checked out their selection of amps and speakers. There wasn't a whole lot. I'm already seeing him go down the rabbit hole and don't want him to turn into me! Well, at least until he's established a little better anyway. I actually have the money to spend on this stuff.

It may not be fun today, but that is a good decision.

No reason to dig yourself a hole for audio. This hobby should be enjoyed with expendable income only.

The general rule for $ management: If you can't pay with cash, then you can't afford it!

 

[MrBoat]

Looks like my son's plans are at least on hold. I'm struggling with helping him spend all his money on audio when he should be saving. We went to Best Buy and checked out their selection of amps and speakers. There wasn't a whole lot. I'm already seeing him go down the rabbit hole and don't want him to turn into me! Well, at least until he's established a little better anyway. I actually have the money to spend on this stuff.

I am finding a decent value on recently outdated stuff that would be top shelf otherwise. As with home audio, everyone seemingly wants the latest/greatest. I'm in no hurry and can hold out for a good value at least. It's still looking like the Dayton RSS***HF-4 would work well for car audio with out needing ridiculous amplification. It may not be the trendy favorite, but as with home audio, some people go a bit overboard with popular brands.

 

[lovinthehd]

I had just started to scratch the surface with connectivity. Kind of like what you guys were telling me about with home audio in my beginning here. Half of why I lost interest in car audio is for skipping CDs and all of the advertisements with FM radio, being most of my vehicles in recent history have had the ride one might associate with an ox cart. In my old Bronco, even the painted stripes on the pavement are bumps. My ex-wife's grandfather affectionately referred to it as; "The ball buster." lol

I basically have the majority of my cd collection on three largish usb drives in 320mbps mp3 format (this unit doesn't do FLAC) and the head unit also has a hand held remote control to keep you from fooling with the controls on the head unit (kind of a reach in my vehicle, or you can even hand it off to a passenger in the back for them to make their own selection), but you can see on the head unit display what the artist album/is as you scroll thru. Pretty handy.

 

[Pogre]

It may not be fun today, but that is a good decision.

No reason to dig yourself a hole for audio. This hobby should be enjoyed with expendable income only.

The general rule for $ management: If you can't pay with cash, then you can't afford it!

I totally agree with you. He does have the cash, but he's 18, still living at home (with plans to start college in the fall), and has a baby. He's been working for a couple years and just graduated high school. I think he has other things to focus on and he needs to save as much as he can.

He's just like me. I already know exactly how it'll go. Start with a sub, 1 farad capcitor and amp, then he'll want an amp for his front speakers, then new speakers and a head unit. I know this because that's what I would end up doing when I was his age and end up spending more than necessary. If this was for myself I'd drop a grand or so and buy the whole kit and kaboodle all at once.

He does have a birthday coming up in September... mebbe the old man will surprise him. Gives me plenty of time to shop craigslist and look around.

 

[lsiberian]

Looks like my son's plans are at least on hold. I'm struggling with helping him spend all his money on audio when he should be saving. We went to Best Buy and checked out their selection of amps and speakers. There wasn't a whole lot. I'm already seeing him go down the rabbit hole and don't want him to turn into me! Well, at least until he's established a little better anyway. I actually have the money to spend on this stuff.

Tell him to invest his money in Apple instead. If I'd done that at his age I'd be much better off.

 

[MrBoat]

Seems the truck already has a decent head unit in it already. The speakers kind of suck though.

Alpine CDA 9825

Also there is a 3.5 mm jack/cable wired to it where it appears someone was using their phone with it snaked into the center console.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

Car audio can be easy however in today's cars it is significantly more challenging.
3. How much work are you willing to do yourself?

It was less challenging (in some aspects) to replace head units and speakers in my 1972 Chevy Nova than it was in my 2009 Nissan Sentra.

I was flabbergasted when I looked at how Nissan designed the way the rear deck speakers are installed, to remove them takes folding down the rear seats, popping out plastic trim panels, removing that center brake lamp assembly, etc! It would be so much easier to have them bolted to the underside of the metal panel so as to be able to replace them from the trunk compartment. But to be able to charge unsuspecting customers $$$ in labor they opted for the more convoluted method. And a new industry was created (car stereo installers) so I should shut up and be happy for the new jobs created!