noob needs advice - is my plan any good? (kinda long)

[wennington99]

Hello,

......so my first foray into this hobby was pretty much a disaster, for my Caddilac Deville I went with a Clarion Deck, pair of infinity coaxials up front, an SDX 12" sub with prefab box, all powered by a 4 channel MTX older amp I purchased used...wiring was from Knu Conceptz....installed at a reputable place and all sounded pretty crappy

i then upgraded to clarion sss501's comps in the front...still crappy...then a pair of 12" Image Dynamics ID's in a custom ported...still crappy

then my amp and speakers kinda gave up around the same time,...was probably all underpowered

so I've researched..and researched and researched...and my new plan is as follows with 2 goals, a) get a decent sounding system and try and learn a bit more about the game

A local shop can do Hertz High Eneryg comps in the front for me at a decent price for both install and equipment....same decent enough deals on a pair of amps...either matching 4 and 1 channel Kenwood XR Digitals or for a bit more Hertz HDP 1 and HDP 4

I feel real good about that...lots of praise on those speakers and amps

As far as the sub..that part gets tricky....all the shops near me tend to offer great deals on speakers, decks, and amps but not subs, further more, they charge alot for custom boxes that really don't seem to be that all that great and finding a local private box builder has been real tough...

the good news, since JL Audio is everywhere around these parts and the shops push the hell out of the w6 and w7 HO Boxes there is a ton of them used at good deals so I was leaning towards one of those and by most accounts...those drivers are pretty good with the majority of complaints I seem to read pertaining solely to pricing...they pop up all the time locally for $400-$500, usually nearly new

I think my plan adresses 3 areas of debate that I read about all the time and would like to experience for myself a little

1. Ported vs Sealed.....I would ike to hear the difference and the JL option would allow me to later switch to a sealed box quick and cheap

2. Active vs Passive...again, would like to hear the difference and I could start with passive and then adjust to active down the road with the amps in question

3. Rear fill vs non rear fill....the local shop can drop in hertz coaxials at a later date for cheap

Also, regaring the sub option, was considering the following as alternatives,

a)the local shop will do a pair of Hertz HX300s in a custom box for around $700

b)I can get a used near mint 15" JBL GTI MKii and also a near mint 15" Digital Designs 2500 series and then have the shop build the box total price would be around $600

your thoughs are all appreciated

[White Lightning]

Start with your wiring / battery power / fusing first ... get that good enough to power what ever you want ... Then show us a pic of your trunk area to see what type of enclosure needs to be custom built ... then the rest will fall together easily ... Don't rush into anything until you do your homework !!!

Edited April 19, 2012 by Cablguy184

[mattc3366]

My advice is if you wanna learn more about car audio do not have the shop do anything. Build your own box and get subs from any reputable mentioned on this site. Install your own speakers and all the money you save from avoiding the shop you could pick up a dd1 and set your gains with it. And then you have it for future systems and you can help out your friends and possibly charge them and make some easy cash

[andrew018018]

TL:DR

haha i joke, i was just wondering if you ever thought of doing the install yourself, or maybe asking a guy on here to design you a box and build it yourself.. you would save a lot of money which you could spend on equipment instead

One thing about the JBL sub is that your final load is going to be 3 ohms (Dual 6ohm) so you're not going to get the full potential of that amp. take your time to make a decision because the worst thing is to rush and to be unhappy with the results

[White Lightning]

buy seperate amps for your mids / highs and your Subs ... Very few amps can handle that correctly, and you will pay dearly for those ...

[stroupe79]

hertz are good...i dont know about the kenwood amps your talking about...but i wouldnt pay a local shop to put your stuff in..especially if you have had shops install setups that you considered to sound crappy...

building a box is not as tough as it looks/sounds....and like Cableguy said get your electrical setup in order to handle the power your trying to run and go from there...honestly for the price of JL even used you could get brand new sub/s and amp that I am sure you wouldnt be disappointed with..$4-500 for a used sub

[That1Kid]

Have someone on here design a box/build one for you. Or have someone design it, and try to build it yourself. Everyone starts somewhere.

Paying a shop is good and all...but make sure they aren't full of shit. You can't believe everything they say. At the end of the day, they are trying to sell you something. Just because they say something is a "great deal", doesn't mean it is.

Get a beefy electrical.

And you don't need JLs & Hertz to sound good. Both companies make great products...but the partners on this site make/sell great products as well. Cheaper too.

[White Lightning]

detailed pics of your vehicle (and pics of your girlfriend if you REALLY want our help ... lol) so we can see what you are working with in giving suggestions will help out alot ...

lol ... just kidding about the whole "Girlfriend" thing Sir ...

[wennington99]

wow so many responses already thanks

[corey0928]

Only thing Im going to say now is you can not blow anything from simply under powering it. The shop you went to probably didn't use an oscope to set your gain and you probably had distortion and clipping that is why everything sounded like shit

Also what area do you live in? Like I've said before there is probably someone on here that can help you

Edited April 19, 2012 by corey0928