I have a 00 lude and I want to make my car sound like it has surround sound in it.I have 2 legacy 300x4 amps and 2 8's already. my headunit is a clarion r series i think and i just put some jenson 6x9's in the back which actually sound pretty good. what else should i do? i plan on having visual by next year and all want to do is spend a min of at least 500 bucks.( more going into hp.)

 

If you want true surround sound, you will need:

A: A dolby digital decoder, or a deck with one in it.
B: two door speakers
C: A middle speaker on your dash
D: 2 rear speakers
E: at least one sub.
F: DVD player of some sort (PS2 is a popular choice)
G: A TV/Monitor

Amps to power everything, and someone who know's how to hook the whole system up properly.

I think that's about it...

 

Unless you are doing it for show, I would spend the money on a home theatre system. I did anyway.

 

Yea I'm doing it somewhat for show, so I could really careless for home(I still live at home).

 

Oh okay than... well do what vtec_inside said. Centre speaker is a must in order to get dolby digital/DTS. You can find decks that has built-in centre speaker...I think Panasonic has one, not sure about other company. Good luck!

 

Are you interested in just competing in car shows or actual car audio competitions. The surround-sound A/V systems definitely score a lot of points at car shows but generally don't do well at car audio competitions unless they are tuned correctly. In IASCA-sanctioned events, the judges are looking mainly for sound-quality and how well your system is installed. They are not impressed with playstations, DVD players, dolby digital, etc.. They are mainly looking to see if your system can accurately produce stereo sound. For more info, check out http://www.iasca.com.

If you want to build upon your existing equipment (as mentioned in the other posts) you'll need door speakers, a center channel and a surround processor as well as a small amp for the center channel. Rockford Fosgate makes and add-on processor that's reasonably-priced (RFQ-5000). Alpine also makes a nice unit (PXA-H510) but will probably cost twice as much as the Rockford piece. For more detailed info check out their respective websites.

5th gen Preludes don't really have a good place on the dash to mount a center speaker unless you do some serious custom fabrication. Look into the Eclipse ESG-8220 which mounts on the back of your rear-view mirror. It only handles limited power so use a small amp and bridge it to mono.

If you're looking to compete in IASCA.....start from scratch. Lower-end brands such as Legacy and Jensen don't have good reputations with judges. Regardless of how well your system sounds, you'll see lower scores than cars that sounded worse but have higher-end equipment. You can still setup a awesome surround system with all of the A/V goodies and win in IASCA. It all depends on who is installing the equipment and how well your system is tuned.

 

NO I DONT PLAN ON ENTERING IN ANY COMPETITIONS. I JUST WANT MOBILE A/V FOR LOOKS AND ENTERTAINMENT