Anyone know anything about car audio?

[joester]

I am looking into buying subwoofers for my car and I don't know much about them. I am looking for suggestions on what kind of system I can get for around 300-350 dollars. I would preferably want 2 12s, an amp, and a box. If anyone here can help educate me on what I can get for that price range and suggestions. Thanks.

[joester]

no one knows nothin???

[Redskins Win]

You should watch "pimp my ride" they are always doing something whacky with subs.

Try looking at the circut city, best buy, meyer empco (sp) web sites.
Do a google search for sub woofers.

[mutantseabass]

The only thing i can remember from my younger days and car audio is once you start you are never satisfied. Hard to stick to the limit you set for yourself. I just use stock now a days. Im sure when the younger guys get out of school today they can offer a hand to you.

[Teck]

go with some MTX subs.. they're not bad and I've had friends with them and you can get 2 10's for like 150.. that was like 2 years ago so who knows.. but they're a decent company for amps and subs.

[NittanyLions]

Im currently into doing that stuff to my stang. I would suggest replacing the speakers if you havent already. But speaking subs, power subs are very nice and they include an amp, so its probably cheaper. But you would most likely get the most power out of an amp and double subs. A pretty good amp can go around 150 and double subs in the upper 100s if theyre good enough.

[LT Blue Colt]

All right, Dood. Let's get thumpin'. O.K. Now what are you exactly looking for. Because pure bass can be done fairly cheap. All around perfect sound is much, much more pricey. So, let's work with just bass for now. Sounds like that's what you're looking for.

2 - 12" speakers is a perfect combo if you have the room. Now, what I mean by that, is you're going to be looking for a reasonably priced sub(s) that are used primarly in a ported box(s). Which for one sub can take up approx. anywhere from 1-2 cubic feet. Other specs you're going to look for in your subs are RMS power(watts) handling and not max. power handling. Max. doesn't mean S#$T. And you want to also know is the speakers sensitivity rating. Such as 88 dB. This indicates how efficent the speaker is at turning power into sound. The higher the number the more efficent it is. Most speakers range from 84-92, and that might not seem like much of a difference, but it is. Now, you also want to look at frequency range. I enjoy a sub that is responsive from mid 20's up to 500 Hz. This means it picks up well on low noises. Like synthed bass in rap, unlike a guitar solo which can get up into the thousands. And, yes, yet another spec I'm going to mention is a speakers ohms. Some people go crazy over 2 ohm speakers now a days because ohms have to deal with the resistance your speaker has. Well wether a speaker be 2 ohm with 50-200 watts RMS and 88dB, it's technically no different than the same speaker at 4 ohms. Because a speaker built at the same specs isn't going to use that much more power at 2 ohms than 4. The sensitivity (dB) has a lot more to do with that than ohms. The reason they make them that way is for more wiring options. Like 4,6, or 10 speaker systems. The things is, is that 4 will sound better. The extra resistence will give you more punch, and hold back distortion. O.K. I gotta go back and see if I missed anything. I don't think so. PM me if you have any questions.

O.K. now onto an amp. The heart of any system. Now a good amp is what you want to accomplish first. So, I hope you made it to this section before going out and buying your subs after the first paragraph. So, some of the same pricipals work here. You want to find an amp that can supply good RMS power(watts) and not max. power. Especially because an amps RMS power is usually based off of a power supply of 14.4 volts. Which is utterly stupid because the majority of our vehicles do not run at 14.4 volts, especially went we're trying to kick some butt boomin' out our favorite bass tunes. Not to mention if you happen to turn you headlights, wipers, or even hitting the brakes. O.K. now on to the built in crossover specs. It would be nice if you didn't have to have one, but it makes things that much more expensive, and depending on what the amp has, will work just fine. Now you usually want a variable crossover, so you can tweak it, have a frequency range around 50-300Hz. Now if the low-pass crossover(used for subs) has a dB rating from 18-24, that's great. Efficentcy again. The more efficent the better the sound and more power you're going to get out of it. Now a great thing to also look for that they didn't have much of a few years back when I was really into it, is a 4 ohm stable bridge power. Now, what that's going to do is help both your 4 ohm speakers and your amp, as well as provide more power(bridging). Bridging is connecting one (-) wire of speakers to one channel(left or right) and then connecting one (+) wire to the other channel(right or left). And that's what the specs mean when they say bridge power. Now if you have 2 - 12" speakers you're going to run one speaker like this as well as the other. That will give you a 4 ohm load overall. If you run the speakers together it will give you an 8 ohm load. Which will cut power, and that's just something we can't have.

Now wiring is a whole nother thing. A lot depends on how far from the battery you're going to be putting the amp. The farther, the thicker wire and bigger fuse you're going to need. If you want PM me the amp you decide to get, and where you plan on putting it, and I'll let ya know what I think would work best. Now I've probably forgot a lot, there's a lot of little things to know that can help. But, PM me if you want to know anything. Here's a couple links to some great package deals offered by Crutchfield and if you do your homework you can probably get something really kick a$$ off of E-bay, too. So, I hope I've helped. It's been hard remembering everything I used to know tinkering around, but anyway good luck, man!

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-V1zcetfH4i ... =7007252W3

Well actually that's about the only package deal I saw in the price range, I would actually recommend. But, hey, it's out there to find if ya look for it.

[LT Blue Colt]

Funny story actually that I wanted to share. Back when I was first getting into systems, I learned a lot quick. It was a passionate hobby of mine. Well like an idiot I always thought more money would do the trick. So, my 3rd system I designed was a good one, not my best, but at the time I thought I was the S%&T. Well my buddy wanted a system real bad and only had about $250 to spend. So, I worked something up, and need less to say his kicked my systems butt. And, boy, did that piss me off. So, I just wanted to let ya know Joester that if you're looking out there for something and the best seems pricey, don't worry, just keep lookin' and you'll find something just right.