Hey audiofiles, It's been a long *** time since I've looked at stereo shtuff, but I'm thinking it's time to put a decent little stereo in my car. I was pretty into to it in high school, but I haven't bought any car audio for about 13 years, so please help me out with what is quality these days.

I don't really have a budget, but I'm not planning on spending a ton either. I'm just looking for a good, solid set up. I already have an Alpine Type R 10" in a sealed box, though I'm not set on using it. I definitely wouldn't be going any bigger than that... If I don't use the Hype Arr sub, I would go down to a free air 8" sub that I could work into the back deck or something.

Back in the day one of my systems had a Soundstream 5 channel amp that I loved, so I'm looking at something like that again. This P5.610 has my interest piqued, and Newegg has it for $136.

If that's all well and good, what would be your recommendations on speakers for mids/highs? I'd love to spend less than $100 all around on speakers, but I know that's some serious skimping. So, maybe less than $150?

This is all to go into a '97 EJ8 that hauls a couple of kids seats and a bunch of photography gear on the regular.

 

You can go Infinite Baffle or as some say "free air" behind the rear seat with that type R

That's if you don't need fold down.

IE



Speaker wise, Polk DB 6501 is hard to beat under $130. upgrading rears aren't necessary.

Btw, do you have a headunit?

 

Hmm, das cool... I don't know that I've ever folded my seats down, so I can't say that I would need them to. I'll consider that.

I have a JVC KD-R320 head unit right now, but I'm thinking that I would like to swap it out for something that has built in Bluetooth/iPhone/Pandora controls.

Thanks for the recommendation on the Polks.

 

check out the clarion cz702

And the PPI P900.5 5 channel

 

Unfortunately Soundstream is not what it use to be.....

When amp shopping, expect to pay around $0.30-$0.80/watt(retail) of RMS power for a decent amp.

You can have a good sounding stereo with the equipment you already have. You aren't going to get a better "sounding" stereo by changing it out, you're just going to get different/additional features. I just put in the Pioneer DEH-X4700BT(I'm a ride or die Pioneer radio guy ) in two of my cars over the weekend and love it, but it was just to get bluetooth.

In the EG I just sold I had the same stereo with the Pioneer TS-1605 commponents in the front, Infinity Reference in 6x9 boxes in the rear, and a Rockford R500x1D powering a Massive Hippo 84 8" sub. Jammin stereo for <$500 retail.

Keep that JVC(I think it has sub controls), use that type r, grab two pairs of speakers and a sub amp and you'll be rockin on the cheap.

 

That's a real shame... I freaking loved my old P205. I actually stumbled upon one on Ebay, but the guy wants $200 for it.

If I change the deck, the only reason would be to add the Bluetooth features and extra controls... But I do like Pioneer products too.
I was looking at the DEH-X6700BS

I'm not completely dissatisfied with the sound I have now, but I wouldn't mind having some more control over my crossover points and some additional bass punchiness.

I do have a cheap little amp I could use for the sub without buying something, and that's what I initially planned to do. It's a crappy Lightning amp with somewhere around 150 watts @ 4ohms. I actually bought it brand new before I quit working at Best Buy 10 years ago to give to a friend. He had it for 4 years and never installed it, so when he moved he gave it back to me with the Type R sub... they've both been sitting together for the last 6 years, haha.

Thanks, I'll take a look.

 

Some soundstream is fine
Reference
Taratula
Nano
Picasso
& XXX are all legit

 

Hey that lightning audio amp is decent, it's from when lightning audio was just bought out by Rockford Fosgate.

I assume you have a sedan and not a wagon? I've got 200 watts in my 95 tahoe and I forgot how much sound difference there is being in the same compartment as the sub vs a trunk setup. Maybe it's because I'm getting long in the tooth but 200watts has served me just fine for now. (Until listener fatigue sets in )

 

Word.

Alright, you might have convinced me to not spend money on an amp. I'll just plan on doing the new deck, the Lightning amp and Type R 10 for now.
Should I replace the front speakers too?

Yeah, I've got a sedan.

Pics of my girl to show my gratitude for y'all helping out (since everyone loves photos)

 

Clean!

I would swap out the front speakers if you're running stock. Be advised you will have to cut out the back of the plastic basket that the stock speaker sits in to get virtually any aftermarket speaker worth buying to fit.

Running the stock deck you don't need high dollar speakers. You can equate buying speakers to buying an air intake. Going from stock to aftermarket you will probably see SOME difference either on the butt dyno or at the pump, but going from one aftermarket intake to another will most likey be "psychological" and you want so bad for there to be a difference because you paid more money lol. Going from stock or blown aftermarket to a nice set of $50-$100 speakers will be a world of difference, but going from that $50-$100 speaker to say a $150-$250 speaker in my 15+ years experience is not worth the difference, in THIS application.

 

Thanks.

I've always thought it best to try and match the RMS output of the amp with the capability of the speakers... is this flawed?

If running off of a deck that only outputs 17w RMS, wouldn't the speakers that you have (which are rated at RMS 60w) be strained to produce a quality sound? I mean, clearly they aren't being fully used to their ability, but the lack of power detrimental to the sound production from those? Or, is the RMS number simply a maximum continuous power rating and it's not a problem running 60 watt speakers with only 15-20 watts?

 

The latter. Speakers don't "consume" power like a radio draws current from a battery. They are "pushed" power from the source(amp or radio) so if you only have 17 watts of power, the speakers will function..........at 17 watts. They won't be strained to put out quality sound, but any distortion or "muddy" sound you may hear would be coming from your radio. For easy math, let's assume your radio volume number goes all the way up to 100. You can crank the volume up but when you get to around the number 75 or 3/4 "power", that's where you start to getting into what you could call "dirty power". In this upper 25% of the range, the radio(or an amp) gets less efficient at producing sound and this is where distortion enters into the picture.

Say you were to feed it 120 watts of clean power for an extended period of time at a high volume. Then the speaker itself would be the reason for poor sound because it is being overdriven.

Feeding it too much power for too long= Speaker blows because it was trying to reproduce sound at a level it wasn't designed to.
Feeding it "dirty"power for too long= Speaker blows because it was trying to reproduce a sound it wasn't designed to.

Moral of the story, you're fine using 60 watt speakers on your deck. Just don't turn the bass all the way up and drive at volume 75 all day everyday

 

More is always better. it's expected, maybe even normal to vastly exceed the long term power handling for a few miliseconds at a time in order to have a dynamic system.

Looking at some of the material I've looked at lately, a 50w rms system would need to be capable of a peak of 500w to remain true to the source material's dynamic peaks.

 

Wow, that's kind of nuts... I suppose it makes sense, I just never would have thought it was that high.

Yeah, I got ya... thanks for the explanation. Even now, when listening from my phone into the auxiliary input to my deck I don't have the volume on my phone all the way up. (I guess I'm not positive it's the same thing, but I do notice a cleaner sound when the volume levels of my output are not maxed.

 

While technically this is true, this is more of a statement for home audio where outside noise pollution is FARRRRR less than in a car, and something the OP doesn't need to worry about or even consider when it comes to picking out equipment. Cars are hands down the worst environment for audiophiles to try and build their "perfect" sound stage. Speakers are at bad angles, horrible locations, not evenly spaced to the listener, all kinds of angles & materials that reflect sound differently. Not to mention all the outside noise pollution from tires, noise, engine, exhaust and everything else in the outside world.

Like I mentioned, go out and get a pair of $50-$100 speakers that sound good to YOU and call it a day. If you go out and look for a pair of speakers that match the RMS output of the deck, 15-20watts, you're basically looking at OEM replacement speakers and that's it. You will be more than fine going with a speaker from the usual suspects like Infinity, Pioneer, Sony, Alpine, Kicker, etc. My advice, head to your local stereo shop/best buy, close your eyes and listen to the different speakers they have on the wall. You can get a feel for the general "sound" each speaker mfr has, and if they don't have the exact model in stock you can get it online. Example, I'm a fan of Infinity, Alpine, Pioneer, and Kicker speakers. Sony, Kenwood, JVC, and even some of Pioneer's lower end models sound a little too "tinny" or high pitch for my taste. Nobody can tell you what the "best" sounding speaker is, it's all personal preference.

 

You got it! It doesn't matter what the source device is, same concept applies. The ONLY exception is if you are streaming audio via Bluetooth. In that case crank it all the way up! When using AUX in, it will almost always sound better with the phone volume at 75% and then using the radio to get the volume higher.