I'm having a hard time deciding what I need. I'm reading a lot and everyone seems to have different opinions and preferences for audio setups.

I just recently upgraded the speakers in my 97 dx to mtx 6" fronts and energy 6x9 rears. While they sound good, I'm pretty sure that I want to add a sub because they are just not deep enough for me (the bass from the 6x9s is too loud and punchy, whereas I would like a deeper, mellow bass sound). Since I don't really want loud, car vibrating bass, I won't be going larger than 10". I have an older JVC (kd-s5050) head that outputs 45x4 watts. Here's where I can't really figure out what to do:

Is it ok to leave my 4 mids powered by the head and get a mono amp to power the sub?
Should I try and find a 3 channel amp/4 channel amp with 2 channels bridged to power the rear speakers and the sub while leaving the fronts to the head?
Should I get a 5 channel amp/4 channel + mono amp (2 amps) to power all of the speakers and the sub separately?
Should I get a better head if I plan on using to to power some/all of my speakers?

I will be building my own box. As far as what I've read, I would like an enclosed box since I'm more interested in accuracy than volume. I liked the in-floor mod. Would it be acceptable to mount the sub a little lower than the trunk floor and cover it with a grill (flush with the floor) mainly so that if I had anything in the trunk, the sub wouldn't get damaged?

>I am on a budget. I would like to achieve as much value as possible.
>As much as I'm excited about ripping my new car apart, learning about it, working on things myself, I'm an apprentice electrician who does lots of bitch work such as pulling and strapping wire, so I'm not really enthusiastic about running and trying to hide dozens of wires back and forth between components.

Those points being said, I still want a good result. I'm not refusing to run wires or spend money, I'd just like to find a nice middle ground.

TIA for replies, cheers.

 

So if you turn your bass down to say half or slightly less, and turn the speakers up to 50 or 60% (fairly loud), does it distort alot?

When i had my first system, and the handy little cd player High Pass Filters weren't around, I would just turn my bass down quite a bit for the cd player itself, so the mids didn't get overloaded, and rely mainly on their midrange and high end output. I ran 2 subs on an amp that had bass boost features, and extra power. I just turned the amp up higher then normal and used the bass boost to get a solid sound right where I wanted it. Then if I HAD to get extra bass for some music, i would just turn the bass setting up 1 or 2 from the cd player, and down other times for music that had plenty of kick.

If your midrange speakers up front sound pretty solid at your max. listening level, then you shouldn't need an amp for them. Yes amps help, but they are alot of work, and with todays power options on most head units, you don't really need to upgrade unless you just go overboard on your speaker choice.

I would just buy a nice little mono amp and whatever 10 or 10's you want. I like JL audio myself, have had their W3 10's for nearly 10 years now, never swapped. I run mine around half power, but if you buy 1, or 2 and amp them properly you won't regret it. Plus they have good customer service, that speaks loads to me. And they are tight enclosed, sound solid and don't distort.

Let your subs pick up your deeper tones and don't rely so much on the in car speakers to produce alot of bass. Thats the way I would go. I don't ever amp my in car speakers, there just isn't any need.

 

Here I go with my diagrams again. Someone shoot me.

Personaly, If i were to choose a speaker, I would get somethingthat runs at 1 or 2 ohms. Here are my ideal setups:

1 single voice coil sub@ 2 ohms

2 single voice coil subs @ 4 ohms (each)

1 dual voice coil sub @ 4 ohms

2 dual voice coil subs @ 2 ohms (each)

These setups give you a 2 ohm load to your amp, which means generally it pulls the most power out of the amp itself. SO, if you were to buy an amp thats pushes 400 watts @ 2 ohms, and its a mono amp, it would perfectly push a sub rated somewhere around 400 watts, as long as it was wired to 2 ohms.

If you went with 2 subs, that each required 300 watts RMS, you could get an amp that pushes 600 watts @ 2 ohms.

Hope that helps some.

 

So I bought an Infinity Ref311a 312W RMS@2 Ohms for $99. I still haven't made a decision about whether or not to upgrade my head unit, but whichever one I choose, it will be powering my mids.

As far as a sub goes, is there much difference between getting a DVC @ 4 Ohms each (parallel wiring for 2) or getting an SVC @ 2 Ohms?

In my 97 dx, should I be concerned about my alternator not being able to power my setup? What are my alternators specs?

I'm looking at these Premiers and these Alpines. Is it okay that the Pioneers are 350W and my amp is 312W (I read that the amp should outrate the sub by a small amount).
Do you have any other suggestions for subs? I'd like to spend under $150.

 

To be honest, no. The only major difference in voice coil setups is to allow more flexibility when someone wires them up. You can find that information online, there really isn't any difference. But, think ahead. If you plan to add say a 2nd sub later, you will want voice coils that allow you easy wire ups at 2 ohms.

And as for your alternator, you shouldn't worry. I run an amp thats about 50% more power then you will have, and I have never encountered a power issue. I run 2 subs as well, and lots of other electrical junk.

I would think that Alpine would be decent, or the pioneer. I have personaly heard a set of Pioneer IMPP's free aired in someones car that rocked my world. It's really whats in your price range.

I can tell you your spending too much buying from that place, you need to check out sonic. They have that same alpine sub for half off.

here

here is the speaker I was suggesting, on sale since its their older edition. It would sound pretty solid on your amp.

here`s a nice kicker, decently priced, which should match well.

There are really tons of options. I still tell people, especially when working with smaller setups. The sub is not as important as your amp. If you have a clean good powered amp you can almost make any sub sound like you want it to, but it's power raiting has to closely match the amp. You will be on running a sub that wants 300 RMS with your amp, don't worry. Chances are you will want to run the gain just slightly lower then full anyway, to prevent overheating and overpowering.

I would look at customer raitings, maybe check other sites like crutchfield and online forums for negative comments on the speaker or bad raitings. Then get your money together and make a final decision. Just make sure it's a single 2ohm or dual 4, to get the most power!

let us know if you have more questions.

 

Thanks, sonic has much better prices than the big stores.

If my head has ~20W RMS, and my mids are 50-70W, what are the consequences of the setup? My speakers sound fine being underpowered by the amp, but are there any long term effects? With the sub discussions I've been reading, they are always warning about matching your source to your speaker, but it's a lot more difficult with a head unit.

 

By source are you talking about brands? Thats just a myth. Some people like to keep brands the same, just to say they have it that way. Maybe when you sell your car you can just list full "Alpine" system, or "sony" audio, etc.. But in all reality it's sometimes alot better to mix and match stuff. It just depends on what you want. Sometimes one brand, like Pioneer, might make a great head unit, and decent speakers, but suck with amps. Likewise maybe another brand like kicker makes a good amp, decent front speakers, but blows at subs. Thats not true in this case, but it's just a for instance.

I am not sure if that's what you were asking or not.

Anyway as for long term effects. The only way your going to wear out those speakers is if you are blasting it with high levels of bass and because of the underpower it's distorting rather obviously. I have however seen alot of amateurs run no amp on speakers and blast them with full bass, underpowered of course, and they last 10 years. So really it's just in the way you listen to your music.

If you set your in car speakers to a max listening volume, the loudest you are probably ever going to listen to it, and then adjust your bass/treble and etc.. Until it sounds good, and not like garbage, then you can lower the volume, and be confident that they will probably last until you get rid of the vehicle. The only thing an amp would do is "clean up" the sound a little, and give you more control over individual volume, and the advantage of having the High Pass Filter, which will keep those dangerous "lows" from going to your smaller in car speakers. You can buy bass blockers, as they are called, which are basicly an in-line high pass filter for each speaker if your worried about that.

Let me know if that didn't make sense. I am tired thismorning.

 

By matching your source with your sub, I meant the amplifier wattage to the sub wattage. So I was taking those warnings and comparing my mids to my head's amp, but it seems like it isn't really a big deal.

I've decided to buy JVC's kd-nx5000 HU (the single DIN nav/dvd unit), Alpiine type-s 6x9s and a JBL 12" 300W sub to match to my infinity 311a.