well, this is my first post, and i must say, this forum is exactly what I've been looking for.
I have tons or questions, but I'm going to contain myself and only ask a few at the moment...
Question 1: I'm looking to be buying a new car, and I'm going to be getting a 2003-2006ish Infiniti G35 coupe or sedan. I looked it up, and If i found the right info, the OEM alternator is a 110 Amp setup.
Now, I'm also going to be looking to hook it up, as I am quite the lover of music and also hard of hearing, so normal old stock speakers and such don't cut it for me. The G35, both coupe and sedan, have 6.5in front door speakers, 6.5 rear speakers (door speakers in the sedan i believe, and shallow mounts in the walls on the coupe) and 6x9's on the rear deck. I'm looking to take all that out and replace them with something that will sound nice, but I have a very narrow band of experience with car stereo speakers... I think Kicker makes some decent component setups. Any suggestions on brands? Also, with the 6 speaker setup, am I going to have problems with finding a compatible head unit with output for all six speakers? I'm also wanting to have an amp to power all of them.... I was looking at a 500wx4.... but that leaves 2 speakers out... maybe go for a 200 or 300x2?
For the low end... I currently have a 1600x2 mono amp sitting around at home, I am unsure of the brand, it might have said California something-or-other on it, but I am unsure, I'm pretty sure its an off-brand. It was pushing 2 Kicker CVR 12's in a sealed box, of unknown dimensions, maybe 4ft by 2 ft? I'm unsure and out of the country. It sounded good, and was reasonably loud, got me pulled over once without me having it up too much. For the subs... i'm tempted to hold onto them for now, to try and save a little money on the system for now, since i have them and the subs are 2 months old, the box is nice, and they were loud in my SUV, they should be good in a small coupe or sedan. But for the future, I am wanting to go bigger, perhaps looking at 1500-2000W from a good quality amp, and some nicer 12's, maybe some 15's. I do like Kicker, but from what I've read on this board, they are only mediocre in most ears. Quick bang for your buck. Opinions on other brands? I read about Soundsplinters (http://www.soundsplinter.com/), heard they were good, the prices are reasonable, but I'm rather unsure. I've never heard them myself, and never met anyone that had them... a company can toot its horn about its own product all it wants, i want experiences. I had a friend who does freelance custom audio work on his freetime and frequents competitions out here in California suggest Earthquake subs (http://www.earthquakesound.com/index.html), saying that they blow his 10kw Kicker 18" CVX system out of the water. Any suggestions? Experiences?
I guess in final, w/ the OEM 110A alternator, will it be able to handle the possible 2400W system I wanna install, keeping my present amp and subs? What size of alternator would I need to push a 3KW-3.5KW system in the car? Suggestions for the loudspeakers/subwoofers? Amps?
To push 3k rms or more you'd need to check into DC power engineering or Mechman and go with the largest alt they have for you. If you're going to upgrade, you might as well get the largest. Second you would need an extra battery, or two, in the trunk, running as close to the amp(s) as possible. Its a good idea to upgrade the big 3 reguardless, but if you're upgrading your alt etc. then it is a must. If you want good quality products but don't want to pay a lot, check into Fi car audio. A pair of 12" Qs on ~2k rms would be nasty. You could also do a pair of SSDs on ~1500 rms. A custom enclosure is always a good idea. You can go ported or sealed depending on your taste in music. The SSA Xcon is also a nice woofer to look into. As far as amps, Sundown Audio is a great choice, if you want to save a little more money and still get a good amp, Audioque is also a great brand. There's many different amps to choose from. Your electrical is going to be key though when running a lot of power. As far as in the in car speakers, there are a few different good component companies to choose from. I'm not too familiar with all the different brands but I know CDT is a name that is mentioned a lot for a good set. Some people will say to just focus on a good front stage. Get a good set of components up front, installed properly with sound deadner and feed them plenty of clean power and thats all you'll need. In that case you would just need a good 2 channel amp for the front speakers and a mono for the sub(s). Rear fill is a personal preference and there are a few ways to go about setting it up. There is a great page from Glasswolf I'm sure someone can post for you to check out and read. His page also explains EVERY aspect of car audio. The main thing is, what is your budget and what type of sound as you looking to achieve.
My budget is somewhere in the $1500 to the $2500 Range... I'm looking to spend more towards the mid to lower end of that for now, probably planning on keeping my current amp and subs for 6 months to a year before i can part with them, since i got to use them for 2 months after i bought them, i wanna get my money's worth out of them before i go sell them.
What am I looking to achieve, I'm looking to put a system in my car that I will be happy with for years to come, something reliable and powerful, so that I dont have to be thinking 6 months after I put it in about putting something new in, other than maybe more lower end output. I want a upper/midrange that I don't feel i have to upgrade because it is merely sounds "good".
Sound-wise, I'm kind of a 50/50 SQ to SPL guy. I love loud, but i want at least some feel of quality to it. I'm half deaf, due to my occupation, and I like having something i can turn up. I don't want to have to max my system out to get reasonable volume out of it.
Musical tastes, I normally listen to a lot of Rap and Heavy Metal, and little bits of everything from punk to jazz, I prefer sealed boxed, mostly due to my love of heavy metal. I don't really plan on doing any Competitions, but its always a possibility in the future.
Also, have you personally heard a 3000 rms + system before? To achieve good sound you won't probably need more than 2k rms. There again its all in personal taste but 3k rms might just be a lot more than you think it is. Not running a ton of power will save you money on a lot of electrical upgrades. That money can then be spent on high quality amps, a great pair of components and some nice subs.
Yes, I've heard many systems over that, I have a friend who has a 10kw system that he takes to Comps, thats too much for a daily diver, but I was thinking about just seeing how little of power I could have and get away with....
I looked into the Fi Q's.... and I'm honestly thinking of going with a single 15" Q, a sealed box, but I'm confused, they come in 1 or 2 ohm, and are 1000W RMS, and a Sundown Audio SAX1200D, but it will only put out 1200W at 1ohm. I've got a rather limited understand on electricity, being a generator mechanic, but I forgot most of it. Isn't 1 Ohm running dangerously close to a short circuit? What kind of a setup would i have to look at doing with the amp? Is that amp even gonna work for what I want?
And for the interior, I imagine I could get a SAX-100.4D and wire some 2 Ohm front speakers up in parralell, and my rear 4 speakers up in 2 separate series, but that would make a difference in ohmage (sp?) being put out through the different channels.
The subs will be dual one ohm or dual two ohm. If you plan to run a single woofer at one ohm then a dual 2 ohm would wire to one ohm. Running at one ohm is more taxing on your system. Two ohm will be easier and 4 ohm being the most efficient. It is going to take a larger amp though to run say 1k rms at a 4 ohm load than at 1 ohm. It will be cheaper to run a one ohm system normally than to run a 4 ohm system, however 4 ohm is going to give you better SQ than running at 1 ohm. Even though when playing subs you probably won't hear the difference. When running interior speakers though its best to run at 4 ohm for the best SQ. The sundown 1200D would be a great choice for single Fi Q. There are options you can choose from when ordering it to help customize the sub. Great choice on the sub and amp though. Both are very good products.
A second battery helps to maintain voltage. Definitely do the big 3, that'll help also help to maintain voltage. Keeping voltage as high as possible is important because whatever your amps are rated at, are normally rated at a 14.4 voltage intake from the car. If the voltage intake is less than 14.4 then the output rms is going to go down accordingly. Something that helps save the alt is a battery isolator. This allows each battery to change independently but if your voltage is still dropping a lot, that's how you know you need a larger alt. An alt large enough to power your system and also charge your battery(s).