Sefhinny75

Okay to give everyone a little background. I own a 2000 Camaro SS that came with the amazingly brilliant Monsoon sound system. /sarcasm. The car has 70k original miles and was completely stock when i bought it.

I have officially finished ordering my entire line up of performance parts for my build.

I am now moving on to my interior. With my Corbeau RRS seats ordered along with a few other odds and ends, I'm finally ready to tackle upgrading the sound system. I am looking to do a complete overhaul. I have a pretty good understanding of how audio works, wiring, etc.

What I dont know are any good products as I dont have a lot of experience with good quality audio. Quite frankly, ive never spent the money. Im looking to replace all of my factory mids and highs, and run and independent amp. Id like a touch screen doible din and a high quality sub and amplifier that will be playing all different types of music. Im not looking for something just to be loud, i want to music to be rich and powerful too.

With all of the brands out there, can anyone point me in the right direction on what to buy?

Thanks

-Seth

For example... when comparing the JBL GTO609C vs the JL AUDIO C3-600. Theres a difference of $200 retail on Crutchfield ( $250 vs $450 . Is there really going to be that noticeable of sound quality difference?

CFLFORMULA93

whats your budget? i just bought all new mids highs and subs at a reasonable price. if your willing to run the wire yourself you can save alot if money vs a shop. i currenty am running 4 skar pax 6.5's 2 skar vxt 4 in bullet tweeters powered by skar rp150.4 and they are crystal clear and louder than youll ever want. im sort of a basshead so i also have 2 ddx 15's on a sk2500.1d 2 xspower batteries all o gauge wire 3 farad capacitor big 3 optima yellow top etc....im a skar audio fan boy check em out for sure!

jl/kicker/rockford fosgate and other big corporate brands are way overpriced these days....for half the money you can get a pro audio competition level sound ...before the skars i ran soundstreams which also sounded great for the price

2ToeRacing

iTrader: (5)

I've had MTX in my s-10 for 20yrs now, me and my friends think its a nice system. I will be doing my camaro soon so I'm also interested in what others have to say

z28pat

iTrader: (10)

For a head unit I just picked up a pioneer avh-x391bhs from Best Buy, double din, Bluetooth for calls and music ,steering wheel control compatible and satellite ready and it's got great eq settings, good deal at $299 installed

HappySalesman

iTrader: (3)

Product recommendation really depends on your budget. If you want the best sound and money is no object, focal speakers all the way.

if you're on a budget, alpine type R's are great speakers, but sound best if you do a full system (fronts, rears, and a sub with a good amp).

if you don't want to do a system then I'd recommend alpine type s speakers. Bang for buck they've got great sound even if they aren't amplified.

JTtransAM

Talk to Ian at Key Audio. He can get you set up with an entire system for a pretty good price.

Sefhinny75

I would like to stay around $2000 - 2500. I could stretch that a little farther if need be.

I'd really like to completely redo tho whole system. Head unit, all components with a new amp and 1 or 2 subs with an amp. The install will be done by myself.

my dilemma being, its hard to wrap up $800 - $1200 in components ive never heard before. Also, lets say i spend $800 but could have got twice the quality out of another set if i would have just spent $1200, I WILL GLADLY DO THAT.

Thabk you for all of your input.

CFLFORMULA93

im not a big fan of components i like using a mid driver and seperate tweeter. heres a quick price rundown of my recent system install to give you an idea.
(4) skar pax 6.5's app. 40 ea - 160
(2) vxt4 ti bullet tweeters 35 ea- 70
skar rp 150.4 highs amp (1000w rms @ 2ohm) -180
(2) skar ddx 15 subs 180 ea -360
skar 2500.1 sub amp 579
kenwood double din bluetooth h/u 299
add some wire connectors extra batteries etc 3/400 i think i have roughly 3k in mine but
very doable at your budget. i can gurantee you that this combo gets loud and has great sq. do a youtube search and check em out. great company to work with if you order direct theyll do free shipping and throw in lots of free swag

Sefhinny75

did you have any trouble with the mounting depth of the 6.5s? I also looked at the specs on their subs, and they are assembled with some pretty impressive parts for the cost.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Ummm... that's what components are - speakers with separate woofer/mid and tweeter (as opposed to coaxial speakers which consist of a mid and tweeter mounted and wired together).

CFLFORMULA93

i assume your putting this into an fbody? if so i can dbl chk the mounting depth in my firebird to see if they will work i have these in a gmc jimmy.....theyre subs and amps are absolute beasts. the intent is to have competition quality but at a price us blue collar guys can afford. if you compare the specs on subs they can outpeform subs that cost 3x as much. i just did a demo for a coworker who had 4 JLw7 15s....which each cost $1,000 ....my little setup had him grabbing his chest and he bailed out of the truck bc he couldnt take it lol most people dont know about them and they have only been around a few years but they make nice stuff.

zbugger

My setup is as follows. Pioneer AVH-4100NEX head unit, JL XD600/6v2 running Alpine TypeR components in the doors and some Kicker KSC65 coaxials in the sails, and a Kicker Comp 12" sub in the rear cubby being pushed by a JL XD200/2. I need more sub and I'm gonna probably go with the XD600/1v2 with a new sub. Sound clarity is excellent and it gets to pretty good volume. I used a SMD DD-1 to set gains. Dialed in the EQ on the stereo and that's it. Is it competition quality? No. Does it sound good? Hell yes it does. Could I do it again for less money? With different speakers, sure. I got the amps because they don't overheat and they are pretty damn small for what they are. I'm going to remove the old monsoon amp and create a new bracket to mount these in it's spot so I can totally hide them. Also, my mirrors vibrate plenty with this setup and I can drive for over an hour at high volume with no heat issue with the amps. I will say this. I can be driving down the highway at speed with the volume almost at full and have cars a couple lanes away roll up their windows because they don't want to hear what I'm listening to. I need to keep looking at other amps for size and power so if I need to replace these I can at a lower cost.

By the way, I'm not a basshead. I love bass, but I'm more into sound clarity at volume than I am into straight bass. I just need a little more out of my system now. And yes, it's time for sound deadening. And yes, my ears are usually ringing after a session in the car.

TX98Z28

Sefhinny75
If you're looking for audiophile grade drivers Sea's, Scan-Speak would be a very good starting point. The budget you provided of $2000-$2500 is acceptable to redo the entire system. No need for 2 subs, 1 will be just fine. For your mid woofers Seas Prestige ER18RNX are hard to beat for the money. Tweeters again Seas and Scan-Speak offers very good quality drivers for the money. I would say you seem to lean toward SQ from reading your first post, especially wanting audiophiles advice…

eb110americana

iTrader: (4)

I agree. Look up a bunch of local audio and electronics stores in your area and try to listen to as many types of sample speakers as you can. You will not find all the available options, but you should get an idea of the quality/price balance ratio which you can live with. What I consider to be quality may not sound the same to you, so you always have to take recommendations with a grain of salt. Personally, I cannot stand overly bright treble in setups, which is easy to achieve, and often impresses people with its "clarity" but I find to be painful, and unbalanced. But that's me.

I did the same sampling search with my front component system years ago. I wound up going with Rockford Fosgate's "Punch" line, and have stuck with them ever since. I have been repeatedly impressed with their quality. Compared to say, some Infinity or Pioneer speakers we installed in my brother's mustang in the '90s, where the plastic cones melted in the sun! And that is inside the hatch area with dark tints.

A lot of people on this forum go with Kee's setup, which is plug-and-play, and from a site sponsor. I have never heard them myself, but perhaps a member lives close enough for you to sample their ride's audio.

TX98Z28

Heres those Seas Prestige ER18RNX midwoofers. Check out the frequency response of these. Real hard to beat sound quality wise for the money, especially being in a car which is the worst environment possible for audio.
http://www.seas.no/images/stories/pr...56_er18rnx.jpg

Checkout SB Acoustics too. Again very good overall quality drivers for the money.

CFLFORMULA93

my point being alot of these comoanies offer "component "sets" that retail for 200-300$ when you can purchase a 6.5in for 60$ and 3 in tweeter for 30$ i cant justify the difference. i got my setup all connected last night. granted its not in an fbody but im certain it could all be moved into my firebird. i agree that youll only need one sub. i think one 12 with the right power and box design would sound great in the back hatch.....ill try to post up a video after break in time and some amo tuning to give you an example of what skar products can do

PyroguyFTW

iTrader: (1)

From my own experience, just browse Craigslist for a lightly used system. I got a fantastic system, 4 Kicker mids, 2 Pioneer coax's, 2 tweeters, a Polk sub, Alpine monoblock(sub amp), Pioneer head unit(double din, touch screen, bluetooth), and a 4 channel Kicker 1k RMS amp for $450. The guy hit a raccoon and hated doing body work, and a speaker system does nothing for the value of the car, so it was a win/win.

That said, avoid Boss and Pyle like the plague.

Best of luck to you, PM me if you have any questions.

98_Newb

Can you give us a budget to help suggest some options?

First, you absolutely need components for the front stage. I'd even wager upgrading rear speakers. If you have a solid front stage, you may not need rears other than a subwoofer.

Also, please consider sound deadener. You are better off sound quality wise with a set of average components in the doors w/ sound deadener. Less road noise, better acoustics.