brucelee

iTrader: (6)

I want to buy some nice speakers and have them installed by a professional car audio shop somewhere near my area...

I made the huge mistake of going to Best Buy last time for my 06 TR... Oh man, I think an ape could have installed them better, so this time around I want it done right so that my tweeters don't fall out, or my speakers stop working due to bad wiring.


Also, can anyone recommend some good speakers for my 07 STi? I'm only going to change the speakers since i love the deck... I want something LOUD with good rich bass... and most importantly, something that doesn't crackle like my last speakers!


Help a brotha out.

PS: I'm not an audiophile so I don't need the best of the best, I want something that is loud with good bass... I don't want to spend an arm and a leg on them, so keep that in mind.

What says you?

so steezy

iTrader: (17)

PMed

OneManArmy

iTrader: (7)

I can tell you that stereo city stole from me. Pacific Stereo of Albrae tried to... twice. They broke my window as well. And Rick Ko pretty much screwed everything he touched up.

so that's 3 people to avoid.

Ivegotthenuts

iTrader: (21)

My friend goes to Sound Image, i think thats what they are called. They are in San Jose, he seems to really like taking his car there. Try checking that place out.

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

Wow! Just WOW! Sorry to hear that, Ray... That's friggin crazy!

Thanks for the warning and heads up, I know where I WONT be going.

NorCalDC5

iTrader: (12)

I actually had really good luck at Circuit City on Stevens Creek believe it or not but I do not know if it is the same people. One thing I liked about them is that since I bought the stuff there, installation was free (if I remember).

Then when my headunit was acting funny I went back and they gave me a new one (updated model) for free, then installed it for free.

Never had any problems.

And best part was when I took my car back to stock and sold it, they uninstalled everything and then reinstalled all my stock stuff for free as well.

But yea it still is Circuit City.

Next door to that is Wireless World which I think does good stuff, I had my alarm on my Subie installed there. I heard that they just split off and now the other location is in Fremont or Milpitas or somewhere, I forget.

ldivinag

iTrader: (3)

2 words: SOUND INNOVATIONS in hayward.

known the guy there since we were in 5th grade.

tell ernie, that leo d. sent ya.

they have had numerous cars in car stereo mags.

ldivinag

iTrader: (3)

unfortunately, you get what you pay for.

but trust me when i tell you that you dont need rear speakers in the doors.


leo d.'s plan for a kickass stereo system:

1. buy the biggest and baddest front speaker system you can afford.
2. buy the biggest and baddest subwoofer you can afford.
3. now buy a 3 channel (minimum) biggest and baddest amplifier you can afford to power #1 and #2.

now a head unit is the wild card. you can do nuts or go simple. but in the end, the source isnt that important.

the most important is the speakers since that is the last thing in the chain before it hits your ears.

now, remember i said STEREO, since i believe in the car audio world, stereo is still king.

i know there are now DVD for the cars. but you know what? just everyone still listen to music and a good portion is still in stereo.

that is why i believe a 3 channel setup is what is best. when you introduce speakers in the rear doors, what it tends to do is move the "stage" from the front and drag it to the rear.

(fortunately for subarus, specifically, the sedans, the rear doors have smaller openings for the speakers.)

what you want is the "stage" to be front and center. more important is if you listen to clean and kickass recording of a single person singing, is that the singer appears to be standing by your front bumper, by the grille logo.

and this is what is hard to achieve. trust me on this. without really expensive speaker setups, i ended up relying on active signal processing and delaying one side so essentially, both signals come to hit my ears at the same time.

in the car environment this is very hard to so since drivers sit on one side.

slugrx

iTrader: (12)

^^+1 on front speakers only...

i went with infinity fronts and a JLW3 ten inch with kicker 1000 watt...i really like the way it sounds, a lot of rattle on the rear deck lid, but outside of the car you cant even hear it hitting...but it hits so nicely inside and is my favorite thing of my car...

and i went to best buy santana row for deck and speaker install cuz it was a gift and they did it proper...sub and amp i was at audio wave in sj..the install was good at first but after a month the amp fell off cuz the screws werent tight enough...

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

Hmmm... front speakers only eh?


Since I'm on a budget and don't want to change my head unit since I like it, would it be ok for me to just get some really kick *** front speakers and be done with it? Do I need an amp and subwoofer?

Spoolin415

iTrader: (4)

Yeah, that HU isn't enough to power good aftermarket speakers properly.

NorCalDC5

iTrader: (12)

You don't really need a sub, you can just get an amp to go along with those speakers.

I have a nice amp for cheap if you want it, since I have no use for it in my car...

rubaCU

iTrader: (9)

as ldivinag said, music is only in stereo so only the left and right speakers are important. surround sound doesn't really do you anything extra.

that being said, i ended up powering the front speakers and the sub with an amp, and using the stereo to power the rear speakers just to give the people in the back some sound.

ldivinag

iTrader: (3)

no. and eventually yes.

front speakers AND an amp.

trust me on this.


leo d's rule for car stereo electronics.

1. head unit makers lie like a mother fu**** when it comes to rating their power for the built-in amplifier.

2. see #1.


look. mid range 2 channels amps are about the size of 2 books, like artie lange's recent book "too fat to fish". most are like 2x50 watts.

now, take a look at a single DIN sized head unit. now can you really believe any of them when they claim their power rating is 50x4 watts?

bullocks!

if i were you, get the biggest and baddest front set of speakers first. expect to pay $100. $200+ if you really like music in your car.

then buy a 4 channel amp. expect $200. $300-$400 will get you a very nice one these days.

that way, you can save up and wait to get a subwoofer system. but you already have an amp.

normally, a 4 channel amp, you would use 2 channels to power the fronts. then the other 2 channels would be bridged to a mono channel to power the sub.

but in the mean time, you can bridge the 4 channels into 2. just be careful setting the levels so you dont damage the front speakers.

why go through all this?

plain and simple: clean sound.

another tip? scrounge ebay for 5+ year old amps. 10+ y/o ones are even better. i constantly look on ebay for one amp: a soundstream reference 604.

they dont make amps like they used to. back in the early 90s, companies like soundstream, phoenix gold, precision power, rockford fosgate... ahhh, the good ol days...

lol...

ldivinag

iTrader: (3)

wanna make me envious?

pick this baby up...

http://cgi.ebay.com/PHOENIX-GOLD-MS-...2%7C240%3A1318

i woulda given my left nut for this baby back in the 90s... this was a rare model since when you have 2 of these, you can link them together via that MASTER/SLAVE ports. it was supposed to make them sound even better.