Hey guys, thought I might hit you all up for a bit of advice.

Before someone whinges, yes I have searched but info is very vague. I'm looking to spend a bit of dough modifying my TL to make me happy, I was planning on lowering but can't talk dad around insurance and the fact he thinks it "ruins the entire car, engineers have jobs for a reason" etc so I thought I'd do the next best thing and spend a little on making the audio setup a bit more satisfying.

The car is a stock TL ES. I'm not a fan of having extremely loud music, just clear. At home I've become accustomed to listening to music with a small sub so I've permanently got the headunit with the bass right up to accomodate for this. To get enough bass I need to have the headunit around 17, 20 is preferrable to make everything clearer. I can't get the headunit past 23 (goes past 50 something) without the rear 6x9s seriously distorting.

So after my life story the question I pose is this: what is the most effective way to generally improve sound quality in the car with a budget of say $300 give or take? Would some tiny tweeters in the front improve clarity of mid/treble, combined with some half decent 6x9s to make the base a bit smoother and less distortion? Do cables need upgrading? Are stock speakers fine? Is it the headunit? I'm 100% clueless as to where to start.

Lately I've been listening to gyroscope, coheed & cambria, the used etc. if that helps in suggesting what might be the best value for money improvement.

Edit: forgot to mention it'd be preferrable if the speakers hid underneath the stock grey 6x9 mesh... just trying not to make the car too tacky. If this is being too fussy I wont bother retaining the mesh.
Cheers all.

Ive heard that the stock speakers r great, you just need a new head unit to make the speakers sound great.

i would recommend a head unit for sure, i mean thats the first thing id ever done with a vs commo, vl commo and my ts magna, every car has seen drastic improvements with a decent headunit,

i spent 250 on my headunit and its a pioneer mp3, 2 pre outs and 250 watts. id recomend something along that line, get a brand name [pioneer or alpine i would recomend on a budget, however i have had a kenwood before i liked, although its not the most renowned brand

hehe, Mate Coommmmeeeee onnnnn At least Up the budget to $450....with that you can get a new HU, some nice 6*9s for the back, and some nice coaxels ORRR Even splits for the rear

JVC KGD 615 - $230 now (3 preouts, great HU)
Fronts - Maybe some pioneer Speakers, or go to www.caa.com.au and pick up a 2nd hand pair of speakers
And rears well The JBL's are awesome but there about $130 a set....Maybe pioneer would be good for your application aswell.

wires wont need to be touched.

But if your gonna get some gear, dont be a tightass, spend some money and get some good quality things, it may cost maybe $100 more in total but the quality in sound and production is worth it.

I.e. Dont get all BOSS becuase its cheap.

UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTLY CANT AFFORD MORE THE $300 then id say upgrade the HU, and get a new pair of front coaxels.

Hoped that helped.

O, i picked up my splits for half price just out of the blue....so have a listen to some speakers, note down which one it is, and keep your eyes out for it, you never know you might end up saving yourself a wad of cash..

hoped that helped mate

Hi Piv....

We have guided many on car audio travels here, Tuffy is one of our graduates. He is on the right path.

As mentioned, the TL/TW speakers are actually fairly good for stocko's. The main problem is the HU..... it only puts out a feeble 7 watts or something pathetic like that.

So, number one must be the head unit. For a budget of $300 the world is your oyster these days.

Our current budget recommendation is to get a CD tuner with MP3 (maybe WMA) with 3 pre outs (for later amplification). Any extra EQ's or other controls are a bonus.

That JVC KDG-615 deck fits the bill well, you may be able to pick it up for around $200 as they start to run them out. As Tuffy said, $230-240 is the going rate, but there is a new model on the way. Many AMC members have these, and they all run well, I hevn't heard of one dying yet. It has a number of extra features that the Pioneer and Clarion HU's don't have for that price - you might have to spend the whole $300 to get that in their ranges. Alpine's lowest 3-RCA HU is the CDA-9847, but that RRP's at $500 - a bit out of your price range.

Please stay away from Kenwood at all costs, and be wary of Sony's low-end HU's. Oh, and forget the "4x50 Watts" on the HU's... they only put out 13 Watts or so, but alot cleaner than the stock ones.

The stock wiring is fine for stock speakers. I'd leave them for the time being. I'd just go for the HU, and get that in and running. We can look at further upgrades at a later time if you want them. If you would like to know more, just yell.

Yeah I think the 4x50 are 4x23RMS, or something very similar to that. Its certainly in the 20's somewhere, or at least mine is. I'm running a Pioneer DEH-3850MPH

I agree with all the above. I went on the same path as yourself. I first upgraded the headunit, and it made a lot of difference in clarity, even at higher volume. Then later i upgraded the speakers, which just blew me away on how much better that sounded again. Even just some $100 pioneer 3way 6inch speakers for front and $150 6x9" alpines at rear sounded just great off the new head unit.

But yeah, headunit is the first place to start.

Yeah HU is the first step! I bought mine before I had even picked up the car! lol

Its taken me over a year to get my system to where it is... so maybe just get a decent HU (most of your $300) and then save for a bit longer and buy the rest of it slowly... you will be happy with just the HU for now as your existing speakers are pretty good.

Maybe save about another $300 later to spend on 6.5" coxials for the front and some 6x9s for the rear and you will be a very happy camper on a pretty budget system!

Cheers
Pete

Further upgrades (if it was me) after upgrading the HU would follow thus:

1) 4x100WRMS amp, splits (spend at least $250 on them, I am happy to suggest some models), sound deadening and a 1/0 AWG wiring kit, plus 3-way distro block (1x 1/0AWG in, 3x 4AWG out) and 4AWG amplifier runs, RCA's (two sets, something like Stinger Helix 4 channel set plus a Helix 2 channel set, plus some speaker wiring (enough to run from the boot to the front doors).

I'd prep the front doors properly, MDF mounts, sound deadening, sealing it up as much as possible. Plenty of how-tos on the subject on here, you can search for them. Run the speaker wire to the rear where you have mounted the amp, Run the RCA's from HU to the amplifier and the ones you are not using, tape them up or something so they do not short out. Run the 0 guage cable, distro block it to the amp. Connect it all up and you are go. I'd run the 6x9's off the head unit at that stage.

2) Next step would be probably a cheap secondhand single 12" single voice coil sub in a sealed box. Bridge the other two channels on the amp, and run it off that. Otherwise, look at buying either 1 really good sub and an amp to suit, or if you are like me, 2x 12" subs and a nice big monoblock. Just wire it into the monoblock, and connect the monoblock to your sub RCA's and add more 4AWG power cable from the distro block to the monoblock. As you did all thr groundwork in the first step, the rest is too easy!

3) Last stage would be to buy good 6x9's and put them in, connect up the rear RCA's to the 4x100 amp and run the speaker wiring. Too easy as I said. You could swap 2 and 3 around to suit your tastes, but as you said, you are used to a sub.

At the last stage you could also look at some further sound deadening, like a tin of GSpot paint on deadener that will cost you $40 or so. painting that on the underside of your parcel shelf and the inside of door trims works wonders. Also look at using Dynamat on the inside of your bootlid, maybe on the 3/4 panels, anywhere that has problems.

Doing this this way will cost a large amount ($1500?) in step one, but makes the rest 300 times easier when you decide you want to upgrade, which is then a simple 'drop it in, wire it up' proposition. Unlike me who is going through the power wiring upgrade, new front speakers, proper front door prep & replace all the RCA's as we speak.

Damn... so much to take in. Seems like HU is definately the first thing on the cards, and easily within budget. Installation shouldn't be a prob either, if it involves removing center console I'd do it myself rather than having dip****s at autobarn break stuff and create rattles for me.

Can anyone suggest a HU that doesn't look too tacky and cheap if you get what I mean?

Goto JB Hifi and look at the Pioneer or JVC range

Can anyone suggest a HU that doesn't look too tacky and cheap if you get what I mean?
Eclipse. And good SQ aswell :)
Their base one is RRP: $329 I think..

Go with JVC!
Brilliant decks for their price with plenty of features and look sweet! JB HIFI always has good deals on them, and quite often you can knock em down even further :D

JVC KDG-615 - Listed at JB HiFi for $239 in Sydney last weekend, but I saw them walk out the door for $200.

Basically any CD tuner headunit with Mp3 capability and 3 sets of pre-outs (that's RCA connections) and you are laughing.

Ideally, you would get something which can control the 'volume' of the Subwoofer pre-out/RCA connection, that way you can do it all from the head unit instead of one of those silly "Sub volume" knobs you run from the amplifier. That JVC unit does it I am fairly certain.


so listen to me....

:slap:

stop listening to everybody else

:belt:

okay. Run to your nearest JB HiFi. Ask for a JVC KDG-615.

They will ask you for $239. Laugh at them and offer $210.

Part with your cash and take the HU. Install it. Come back and talk to us once done.

go on :gtfo: and do it.

kthnxbai :P