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kegann

Many questions, any help would be appreciated

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I used to read up on car audio back when I was 17-18 and had a couple tens and decent speakers in an S10 and loved car audio. Sold that got a camaro and found out about FI speakers and planned on getting some. Went thru hard times never happened and here I am. I have a 96 nissan Altima. I can finally put some type of system in it and get my audio addiction fixed that I've missed for years. My car is not a thing of beauty and I plan on driving it for only for another 2 years or so.

I got this aftermarket cd player put in. I know its sony xplod and people make fun of it, but it was a decent price and had an AUX and usb connection. It beats the hell out of the manufacturer cassette player.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sony-Xplod-CDX-GT40UW-Car-CD-Receiver-with-Front-USB-Port/17127948

I will be having these speakers put in front doors tommorrow. Got them for 25 bucks. I can return these though.

http://www.scosche.com/car-audio/product/2215

Now I need opinions with those 2 things and the car I have what I should get for the cheapest amount of money. Most important thing to me is bass. I like loud and bass, not so much on sound quality as long as it isnt crackling. I was guessing a 15'' or 18'' BL since this will be a daily driver. Also will be in a ported box. I would like opinions on this, esp if an 18'' in a ported box would even fit the trunk of a 96 altima, what amp I need to get to power the sub, if I'm on the right track, and any other opinions.

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An 18 in the trunk of a Altima? A fifteen is gonna be close to a stretch.. What are your "MAX" dimensions you're willing to give up as far as trunk space???

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List a budget.

Measure the trunk space yourself, I for one don't own a 96 Altima.

Your goal of loud bass can easily be accomplished with the mentioned 18" Fi bl, but don't expect the stereo as a whole to sound that great. You wouldn't buy an lcd hd 1080p television only to hook it up to a vhs player.

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Do a 15, an 18 won't work.

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Two 12" SSDs would be a good option as well.

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An 18 in the trunk of a Altima? A fifteen is gonna be close to a stretch.. What are your "MAX" dimensions you're willing to give up as far as trunk space???

I'm willing to give up the whole trunk, this will be a car to drive to work and college or out with friends.

List a budget.

Measure the trunk space yourself, I for one don't own a 96 Altima.

Your goal of loud bass can easily be accomplished with the mentioned 18" Fi bl, but don't expect the stereo as a whole to sound that great. You wouldn't buy an lcd hd 1080p television only to hook it up to a vhs player.

From the back of the back seats to the lip the trunk closes on is 35 & 1/2 inches. Vertical is 17 inches. The smallest area from side to side is 40 inches, and ofcourse is wider closer the the lip of the trunk closing.

Which aspect are you compairing the a vhs player, the speakers or the H/U? What would you reccomend to make it less like that? I do want to understand what they are saying, I dont want my head to just be vibrating. I would just want more vibrating than crisp sound quality.

Budget I would like to keep to around 600 if at all possible. But dont mind more because I can buy peices at a time.

Edited by kegann

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It's better to do an all round decent system with the money you plan to spend on what you have described in your opening post.

Edited by StreetLegal

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Two 12" SSDs would be a good option as well.

Which would you choose if you was wanting what I want with what I have? I def want good low bass also.

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It's better to do an all round decent system with the money you plan to spend on what you have described above.

Can you point me in the right direction then? Like I said I can return the speakers right now. I also have a panasonic CQ-C3401U H/U, but I have no harness for it..

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Two 12" SSDs would be a good option as well.

Which would you choose if you was wanting what I want with what I have? I def want good low bass also.

Two SSDs will be easier to fit into the trunk and have more cone area. I've owned both and they are both excellent drivers.

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2 - 12" SSDs ported to whatever "low bass" you want would be great... I think they require less than 5.5 cubes which you're gonna have alot of ... Plus you won't "need" as much power... I'd say a good 1k would be enough and later on you could upgrade that for a bit more output....

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Two 12" SSDs would be a good option as well.

Which would you choose if you was wanting what I want with what I have? I def want good low bass also.

Two SSDs will be easier to fit into the trunk and have more cone area. I've owned both and they are both excellent drivers.

Thanks for the quick and helpful replys man. Would you reccomend ported or sealed box? I'm pretty sure sealed is for sound quality and ported is for loudness, but could have changed with how they make subs since then. Also my area literally has no car audio places and I need to find a box, built specifically for the subs. I'm sure their are some people reccomended on here?

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From what you have already stated you will want to go with a ported enclosure.

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Two 12" SSDs would be a good option as well.

Which would you choose if you was wanting what I want with what I have? I def want good low bass also.

Two SSDs will be easier to fit into the trunk and have more cone area. I've owned both and they are both excellent drivers.

Thanks for the quick and helpful replys man. Would you reccomend ported or sealed box? I'm pretty sure sealed is for sound quality and ported is for loudness, but could have changed with how they make subs since then. Also my area literally has no car audio places and I need to find a box, built specifically for the subs. I'm sure their are some people reccomended on here?

It was never that way....... people just assume that because they may have only read or saw something that had bad information or they assumed it was in a "show" car so it was just to be loud... You can get great sound out of ported... I had that with my 12" Icon.... Wish I would have kept it and bought a second and ported those.... lol... Now I have one 15" that requires almost as much space to do ported... lol

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Generally speaking, an 18" will have more cone area then two 12".

Your head-unit only has one set of rca outputs: "2V rear/sub selectable preamp outputs," which means if you use the outputs for the subwoofer, then you can't really amp your front speakers.

You could use the single output as rear, then use another device to split the signal for highs and low, but I wouldn't bother.

Personally I would want to amp my front speakers, so I would end up buying another head unit.

With a depth of 35.5", 17" height, and 40" width, and using 0.75" MDF material for the box, you have around 11 ft^3 to work with.

Fi BL 18" requires 5-8 ft^3 for a ported enclosure, two ssd12 would require 3.5-5ft^3 total, and one ssd 18" would require 6-10ft^3.

Brand new the 18" bl would be around $334 ish, two 12" ssd $400, and $254 for a single 18" ssd.

I have no experience with trunk cars, but I would try an 18" ssd upfiring, and with the money saved I would replace the head-unit, front speakers, and get a nice 500w-1000w amp for the sub.

If you aren't comfortable woodworking, and don't know anyone around you, you can get a box built online, but the shipping is hefty. Check out the vendor section here for box builders.

Edited by stefanhinote

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Generally speaking, an 18" will have more cone area then two 12".

Your head-unit only has one set of rca outputs: "2V rear/sub selectable preamp outputs," which means if you use the outputs for the subwoofer, then you can't really amp your front speakers.

You could use the single output as rear, then use another device to split the signal for highs and low, but I wouldn't bother.

Personally I would want to amp my front speakers, so I would end up buying another head unit.

With a depth of 35.5", 17" height, and 40" width, and using 0.75" MDF material for the box, you have around 11 ft^3 to work with.

Fi BL 18" requires 5-8 ft^3 for a ported enclosure, two ssd12 would require 3.5-5ft^3 total, and one ssd 18" would require 6-10ft^3.

Brand new the 18" bl would be around $334 ish, two 12" ssd $400, and $254 for a single 18" ssd.

I have no experience with trunk cars, but I would try an 18" ssd upfiring, and with the money saved I would replace the head-unit, front speakers, and get a nice 500w-1000w amp for the sub.

If you aren't comfortable woodworking, and don't know anyone around you, you can get a box built online, but the shipping is hefty. Check out the vendor section here for box builders.

Awesome information and I really appreciate it. I forgot to mention I have a 5-6 year old panasonic H/U i used with my first setup and it has 2 RCA outputs. I dont have a wiring harness for it, but I just looked on ebay and can get one for 3.99...

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-d44xDQfTsjo/p_133C3401/Panasonic-MXE-CQ-C3401U.html

Would this be better than the sony I have?(I can still return the sony). But it doesn't have a usb or aux input which I def would love. Im guessing I just need to man up and buy a newer H/U with 2 outputs. Can you point me in the right direction for 5x7 speakers? Or a site explaining things so I can make my own decision and learn things. I thought if I power my speakers with an amp along with my sub Ill need to buy batteries.

And Im sure i can find a woodworker in the knox area that could build one. Shipping is outragous on heavy things.

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Generally speaking, an 18" will have more cone area then two 12".

Your head-unit only has one set of rca outputs: "2V rear/sub selectable preamp outputs," which means if you use the outputs for the subwoofer, then you can't really amp your front speakers.

You could use the single output as rear, then use another device to split the signal for highs and low, but I wouldn't bother.

Personally I would want to amp my front speakers, so I would end up buying another head unit.

With a depth of 35.5", 17" height, and 40" width, and using 0.75" MDF material for the box, you have around 11 ft^3 to work with.

Fi BL 18" requires 5-8 ft^3 for a ported enclosure, two ssd12 would require 3.5-5ft^3 total, and one ssd 18" would require 6-10ft^3.

Brand new the 18" bl would be around $334 ish, two 12" ssd $400, and $254 for a single 18" ssd.

I have no experience with trunk cars, but I would try an 18" ssd upfiring, and with the money saved I would replace the head-unit, front speakers, and get a nice 500w-1000w amp for the sub.

If you aren't comfortable woodworking, and don't know anyone around you, you can get a box built online, but the shipping is hefty. Check out the vendor section here for box builders.

Awesome information and I really appreciate it. I forgot to mention I have a 5-6 year old panasonic H/U i used with my first setup and it has 2 RCA outputs. I dont have a wiring harness for it, but I just looked on ebay and can get one for 3.99...

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-d44xDQfTsjo/p_133C3401/Panasonic-MXE-CQ-C3401U.html

Would this be better than the sony I have?(I can still return the sony). But it doesn't have a usb or aux input which I def would love. Im guessing I just need to man up and buy a newer H/U with 2 outputs. Can you point me in the right direction for 5x7 speakers? Or a site explaining things so I can make my own decision and learn things. I thought if I power my speakers with an amp along with my sub Ill need to buy batteries.

And Im sure i can find a woodworker in the knox area that could build one. Shipping is outragous on heavy things.

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I've never used any Panasonic headunits before so I don't have any input as to whether they are good or not, but that model does seem to have plenty of rca outputs for what you need.

As far as speakers, that's pretty subjective, and installation will play a bigger role. I would try to use some speaker adapter made for your car, and fit a circular driver, 6", 6 1/4", 6.5".

If you had planned on getting a bl, and running a lot of power then you likely would have needed batteries and or a high output alternator.

The way I see it is you don't want to spend a billion a dollars, but you still want something better then your average car, and much louder. You can use a large enclosure for the subwoofer, you'll gain efficiency, use a smaller amp with no ill effects, and gain some more headroom for the power demands of another amp for the front speakers.

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Two more drivers you should consider: Sound Solutions Audio Icon and Gcon. The Gcon was just released so there isn't a TON of reviews on it, but I'm sure it's awesome, or SSA wouldn't make it. The Icon is the next model up, and in the similar price point as the ssd.

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So the icon as in this

http://store.soundso...-subwoofer.html

Gcon

http://store.soundso...-subwoofer.html (only goes to 15 inch though..?)

Will def read more up on these, as they will be a little easier on the wallet. Heres a basic goal list if I wanted to go for a good system and upgrade as money came in. I will be keeping the H/U and door speakers im installing tommorrow just because they are bettter than anything and will allow me to atleast get my sub going first. Now as far as a amp running the fi SSD. It's 1000w RMS

http://outlet.crutch...bdCP.html?cc=01

I remember rockford fosgate being a great brand and these seems like the cheapest 1000watt RMS amp with a good name. Can anyone give me any more recommendations? This is what I would like to get to get me going with bass and with one of the H/U's I have right now.

Now down the line if I upgrade my front and rear speakers this is what I was leaning towards.

Front door speakers

http://www.crutchfie...572.html?tp=105

Rear Speakers

http://www.crutchfie...-T16.html?tp=95

amp to power 4 speakers

http://www.crutchfie...5.html?tp=35782

Edited by kegann

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So are you considering the eighteen now? If if so I highly suggest that you rethink that idea.

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Rockford Fosgate makes good amps, and remember you don't need the same amount of power as the driver's rms rating.

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IMO you dont need rear speakers, go with a good 6 1/2'' component set (adaptor plates available) infront with a 2 channel amp.

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i would go with the gcons

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