Whats the best speakers/sub/amp/headunit i can get for $XXXX

everything to do with car audio is YOUR personal opinion, about 90% of the time YOU are the one listening to your music. We cant tell you what YOU will like!
Go to your local CAR AUDIO (not autobarn/jb hifi/strathfield etc..) store and have a listen to the items they have in stock. Jost because something has a higher WRMS it doesnt mean it will sound better!!!

There are some brands which you SHOULD stay away from (in most peoples opinions) such as

American Boos
AudioLine
Boss Audio
Jensen
Rampage
Xplod (generallY)
US Audio


there are literally thousands of brans which are generally of poor quality.. this is usually reflected by the low price of the item or claims of 50billion Watts

Headunits
Headunits are very much a price vs features item. Pick the features you need such as USB, Bluetooth, Number of preouts, AUX input etc and then pick one which falls in your price range and is from a reputable brand.

Brands such as: Alpine, JVC, Nakamichi, Pioneer, eclipse

There are many others brands which make great headunits, cheap headunits (and generally those from ebay) are known to suddenly stop playing cds or generally just not do half the things which they promise.

Internal amplifier ratings (e.g 4x50) are not WRMS ratings, they are the MAX the headunit can provide for a short burst before it goes BANG! Like any other audio product you should consider the WRMS rather than the MAX output (although the amplifier output of a headunit is unimportant)

One item which many 'newbs' forget when purchasing their new headunit is a Sub Out, this is VERY important, especially when you are planning to run a sub later down the track!

Nice guide.

Front Speakers

This is probably the most discussed area of car audio, along with subwoofers. The pure variety of items available makes impossible to say which item is the Best. Like i said its purely a matter of preference.

There are three main setups which are used in car audio

*Coaxials - The woofer and the tweeter are contained within one body

*2 Way splits - The woofer and the tweeter are two seperate items controlled by a crossover

* 3 Way - A woofer, midrange and tweeter. The most expensive and accurate car audio, only for the experts

Coaxials
The cheapest and easiet way to replace your stock speakers. The woofer and the tweeter come in one package. Generally you can just unplug your old speakers and just plug your new speakers in (depending on speaker size). Having the tweeter and the woofer in one body helps with the imaging of the speakers as they are both firing at the same point, however in sotck locations they are generally not aimed high enough and a blocked by door trims etc which causes them to be staged poorly

2 Way setup
The most common setup used in aftermarket car audio. A woofer and a tweeter are controlled by a crossover which splits the signal between the two speakers. The main speaker is usually between 4-6.5inches and the tweeter approximately 1 inch. The tweeter can be placed higher in the sound 'stage' and therefore generally provide a better quality sound. However this can cause seperation of the mids and high frequencies. the best spot for tweeter positioning is usually is the kickpanels. not so much becuase it is down low, but because the path length difference is minimised which creates the best image. It also helps to recude the left bias which may be cause by having tweeters up high. When the tweeters are near to the drivers head the distance travelled by one sound wave is considerably less than the other (the right side).This is the most reccomended out of the three options as its the easiest to get a good result

3 Way setup
The most expensive and complicated setup of all aftermarket car audio. It uses three speakers, a woofer, a mid range and a tweeter to produce the best sound 'stage' and the best quality. However, if the speakers are not setup correctly the sound 'stage' can sound horribly wrong. This system is for the most knowledgeable (or those willing to spend the most time on their install)

Brands to look for:

Audison
Boston Acoustics
Cerwin Vega
Crossfire
Diamond Audio
Digital Designs
DLS
Focal
Hertz
JL audio
Mb Quart
Morel
Polk
Rainbow
Alpine
Response
Pioneer
Kicker
Rockford Fosgate

Rear Speakers

There is much debate about rear speakers (or rear fill as most audio people call it). Some believe its uneccesary others swear by it. If your not into competition sound quality then you may consider some cheapish speakers for rear fill to entertain your rear passengers (remember you dont have passengers in the back very often). However, there is no need to go spending big bucks on your rear speakers.
For pure sound quality avoid 6x9's (or other oval speakers) like the plauge. The sound quality is never as good as a round speaker (for more information on why this is so look at car audio sites, this is just a basic guide) a simple 6.5 or 6 inch setup is more than acceptable. Personally i am a believer of just using coaxial speakers in the back but those 'hardcore' audiophiles may suggest otherwise.

Brands to look for are the same as front speakers

Subwoofers

Subwoofers produce the majority of bass in a system. Many believe that subwoofers are only for that 'doof doof music' however all systems will benefit for a sub specifically designed for their style of music.
This part of the guide will be broken up into music styles so you can easily find the music you like and find a sub suitable for that style of music

Techno/Dance/House - Short punches (doof doof)
A 12 inch sub in a ported box for loudness or for even punchier sound go a sealed box

Rap/Hip Hop - Grumbly bass
a 12 or 15 inch sub in a ported box, will play the long notes better (Get low by little john and the east side boys)

Rock/Metal - Mainly bass guitar
A sealed 10 inch box will fill the gap that your other speakers miss but wont overpower the midrange sounds

Jazz
Much like rock/metal a quality 10 inch in a sealed box to fill the gap your other speakers left.


The one thing which people tend to forget with subwoofers is that 1 quality sub is much better than 5 lesser subs. This is true even for SPL (loud systems) where a 800wrms sub is going to be louder than 2 x 400wrms subs.

The main item which affects your subwoofers sound is the box size. Manufacturers spend hundreds of hours testing for the perfect sized box for their sub. Make sure you follow these reccomendations and dont just use a box you had lying around (unless its the correct size)

s_tim_ulates wisdom:
All the 10" 12" 15" being for certain music types is a common myth. Bass is bass. a 15" sub can be as snappy as a 10" sub and a quality 10" sub can play lower and louder than many other cheaper 15" subs (e.g. diamond TDX)

What will cause lagginess, sloppiness etc is a poorly designed box, wrong crossover points and slopes etc.

/s_tim_ulate wisdom



Brands to look out for

Rockford Fosgate
Image Dynamics
JL
Alpine
Focal
Hertz
Pheonix Gold
Polk Momo
Digital Designs

i will continue this as i have time

dont take the above as the bible, its just what i have learnt over the past few years put down for other people to learn from, if there is a mistake PM me or post it here and ill fix it up as im still really only learning about the whole car audio thing


in reguards to the post below:

i have listed some brands however other brands i havent mentioned either because i forgot or i have never heard them... there are thousands of brands and its hard to list every good brand known to man as you would understand ;)

nice guide mate
but i would recommend some eclipse gear aswell
got some of there gear in my car and the quality is very good

Amplifiers

It is necessary that you have a amplifier that fits your needs and not one that the car audio guy just 'threw' in.
There are a few things you need to consider when purchasing your amplifier. First you must identify your needs:

Am i going to run just front speakers or rear speakers as well?
Am i going to run a subwoofer at some stage?
What power (WRMS) do these items require?

Most car audio companies like to make their products look better than they actually are by stating the Peak power which they are capable of producing. Make sure you look for the RMS figure of your amplifier not the MAX output. The same is true for your speakers which you plan to run from your amplifier. Manufacturers also state the WRMS at 14.4v which your system generally wont run at, a system will usually run at 12v so these are the figures you should be looking at.

Generally speaking you need 1 channel from your amplifier to run one speaker. So a 2 channel amplifier runs yours front splits (as the power goes into the crossover not the actual speakers) or coaxials, a 3 way system is different but if your reading this you probably wont be doing a 3 way setup. It is possible to 'bridge' two channels together to run more power through these channels. This is generally used to run a subwoofer. Bridging channels provides more power (a jaycar response 2 x 150wrms amp bridges to make 500wrms from memory) which is necessary to run a subwoofer

You also need to get the right load on your amplifiers from your subwoofer.... im no expert on this so if someone could write this section it would be appreciated

It is reccomended to run your speakers with 'over head' on your amp. This means that your amp should have more power than your speakers draw. Although there is no set overhead which is reccomended, i generally run my amps at between 1/2 power and 3/4 power. Running your amp at 100% power creates extra strain on your amp, greatly shortening its life span.

Analogy good explaination of headroom
you can buy a cheap little buzzbox, it has a top speed of 120 kph, but when it sits at that speed it is revving like crazy. Or you can get a V6 it can go upto 200kph, yes you will never go that fast, but when you are sitting at 120kph it will have heaps more left in it and will not be straining to get there. If you have bigger amps to run your load then amps wont overheat or distort and will maintain good dynamics.

When installing your amp make sure that it has a good airflow around it to ensure that it doesnt overheat, this is especially important on cheaper amps as they tend to not have a inbuilt fan.

Brands to look out for:

Jaycar Response (great band for buck amplifiers)
Alpine
Digital Designs
Cadence
Eclipse
Pioneer
SoundStream

mistakes: Coaxials: Having the tweeter and woofer close together helps with imaging as the sound is point sourced. Although as the stock locations are generally not aimed high enough and blocked by the door trim etc, they will stage poorly.

Coaxials are usually cheaper though and only use a 6db crossover usually.

2 way setups re: placing your tweeters up high, the best spot for tweeter positioning is usually is the kickpanels. not so much becuase it is down low, but because the path length difference is minimised which creates the best image. With your tweets up high yes you can get a higher stage, but you can also get seperation of the high and mid freqs, and left bias (from the drivers seat) as one tweet is much closer than the other.
Your brain is much better at localising horizontally than vertically so its stil possible to maintain a good high image, above the dash.

All the 10" 12" 15" being for certain music types is a common myth. Bass is bass. a 15" sub can be as snappy as a 10" sub and a quality 10" sub can play lower and louder than many other cheaper 15" subs (e.g. diamond TDX)

What will cause lagginess, sloppiness etc is a poorly designed box, wrogn crossover points and slopes etc.

Yeah... I should really write up something but meh, theres 5000 posts of audio knowledge in here somewhere, i cbf typing it again (yet)

Peace

Tim

ill fix that up tim, as i said its a work in process and its only what i learnt so its filled with myths and stuff but as someone said a FAQ is necessary to stop the 50billion posts about basic things

constructive criticism such as tims is appreciated and will benefit not only my knowledge but yours and the clubs

and yeah amp corrections:
Amplifiers shouldnt be the most expensive part of a system in fact imo they are the least gain compared to a good source and good speakers.

In terms of priority I would go
Speakers
Source
Preparation (deadening, mdf mounts etc)
Amps
Wiring
All the over head stuff = "Headroom" You want adequate headroom, an analogy I like to use is that of a car, you can buy a cheap little buzzbox, it has a top speed of 120 kph, but when it sits at that speed it is revving like crazy. Or you can get a nive V6 it can go upto 200kph, yes you will never go that fast, but when you are sitting at 120kph it will have heaps more left in it and will not be straining to get there. If you have bigger amps to run your load then amps wont overheat or distort and will maintain good dynamics.

Amps shouldnt cost the earth, spending big bucks here will result in little gain if you dont have a good source and good driver. Buy the most powerful amp that does not degrade the qualtiy of your source or drivers and you'll be laughing.

keep em coming... :)

If you never ask you'll never know so no complaints my end!

Preperation and Installation

Preperation and installation is one of the most overlooked area of car audio. Its the difference between a good install and a great install, not just in looks but also sound quality and loudness.
If you knock an external pannel of a SQ car (this is not reccomended!!! especially if its not your own) they are usually dead, this means that when you knock the pannel its sounds like your hitting a solid block of wood rather than a sheet of metal (or plastic).

Sound deadning your car is an excellent way to improve the quality of your current system without buying new parts. It reduces cancellation and the 'tin can effect' which can come from doors i.e tinny sounding music (think ipod headphones)

a good explaination of sound deadning (and much more technical than i can write) is found here:
http://www.fastfoursforumscarclub.com/temp/fhrxstudios/faq.asp#27

basically it helps improve your midbass as its stops cancellation and makes your speakers sound better all around

Wiring is also a highly technical item which has been written about at length on Mobile Electronics Australia here: http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=43516

dont forget part numbers and stuff for the delta tweeter covers as any easy diy solution :) otherwise sounds good :)

dont forget part numbers and stuff for the delta tweeter covers as any easy diy solution :) otherwise sounds good :)

def a good idea, they are cheap as chips brand new from mitsu. i got mine for $26, but dunno if that was cost or full price.

excellent guide. im by no means advanced in car audio but i do have my basics sorted but i can still learn a thing or two from this. thanks trav.

although, i dont agree on the cheapish rear speakers. i like that its been pointed out that round sound a lot better than oval, but you also need to consider in quality. of course there are other brands to those which have been mentioned and i realise that you wont spend even close as much on rear speakers as you would on front ones but in my opinion good quality rear speakers are just as important and even if you dont really hear them when you fade towards the front stage youll still hear distortions here and there and that can be really annoying

Some good knowledge there.

The biggest issue i have with what you wrote in the sub part. Generally the size of the sub doesnt determine how "fast" it will play. The speed of a sub is from the box design, and the position/type of car it is in.

Furthermore, it can also matter what size sub you get comparred to the rest of your system. If you run average quality splits and a 15inch sub, you will get a gap where your mid and sub crossover. Most 15s cant play that high, and most splits start to roll of at 80hz.

One final thing about subs, is that dance/trance etc has very little amounts of subbass. Infact, the doof doof you hear is actually midbass around the 100hz region. For this reason i would strongly advise against a ported box for dance, as ported boxes tend to have a greater group delay then sealed boxes.

i posted under it a thing tim said about it being a myth where box design is more important than sub size. As i said its a work in progress and all the opinions put together can make a good FAQ which i wish was around when i first began car audio

i posted under it a thing tim said about it being a myth where box design is more important than sub size. As i said its a work in progress and all the opinions put together can make a good FAQ which i wish was around when i first began car audio

I didnt mean it in a rude or offensive way. Forgive me if i was taken like that.

Perhaps, also a bit of information on running front splits Active rather than Passive ? Seems to be alot of people asking question like this

nah mate i didnt take any offence, i dont really know the difference between active and passive so if you or tim or woob (or anyone who knows stuff about car audio) have a go at writing that im sure we can make this an awesome FAQ :)

Active vs Passve

What is a crossover?
A crossover either active or passive is a device which 'cuts' frequencies either below (highpass) or above (lowpass) a certain frequency. This frequency is the cutoff frequency. The term cutoff can be misleading as its important to note that NO crossover is a brick wall, and no crossover can stop all frequencies below a certain point. What they can do is provide various levels of attenuation or rolloff. This is referred to as the slope of the cutoff. Slopes are measured in decibels per octave. (dB/oct) These range from 6, 12, 18, 24, etc these are the most common in car audio.

Crossovers can be grouped into highpass, lowpass and bandpass

Highpass Cuts out the lower frequencies and is used generally for splits/6x9s (full range speakers)

Low pass: Cuts out the upper frequencies and is used generally for subwoofers.

Bandpass: A combination of a highpass and lowpass used for midranges, midbasses and sometimes subwoofers (i.e lowpass and a subsonic filter combine to make a bandpass)

Why do I need to 'cut' frequencies to my drivers?
Simply because no speaker can play the full range of human hearing 20Hz - 20kHz.
We have our
Subwoofers ~20Hz - ~80Hz
Midbasses ~50 hz - 3000hz
Midranges ~400hz - 7000hz
Tweeters ~15000hz - 30000hz

If we try and drive our speakers beyond the range they can handle lower frequencies will cause the drivers to bottom out and distort, whereas higher frequencies will lose their accuracy and realism.

*bored... more to come*

"im gonna get blasted for this but meh"
for a good cheap sub american boss isn't that bad, a mate has an american boss 15" and it goes hard , he's had it for a while now. its been abused. also i've got a 15"rockwood(ebay chepie), and its fine

yeh but what you think is good, compared to high end well set up systems is more than likely absolute rubbish, theres nothing like good quality audio it will blow you away