need help with choosing speakers

grey mx-3 · Post by **grey mx-3** » March 6th, 2005, 1:24 pm

i am looking around for a sterio system 4 speakers 2 subs an enclosure and an amp so i went to this place around me unique autosports the guy tried to sell me DUAL subs with an enclosure and a DUAL amp and AUDIOBAHN speakers with tweaters. are these good brands i have heard audiobahn is good but im not sure about DUAL.. i appreciate any advice thanks

showgun · Post by **showgun** » March 6th, 2005, 1:40 pm

My friend has a full Audiobahn system in his car. It sounds nice, crisp and clear. Looks great too, but it's a bit too pricey for what you get. You're paying for the looks more than the quality.

I have Infinity components in my car. Much cheaper than Audiobahn and they sound excellent in my opinion.

My brother had Polk Momo components in his SUV and they sound awesome as well, but a bit on the higher priced range. American Power/Italian Finesse is what I believe they said.

It's all up to you. I'm not exactly sure what the Dual is. Maybe Dual Voice Coil? Either way, test them out first, before you buy and find what sounds good to you.

grey mx-3 · Post by **grey mx-3** » March 6th, 2005, 2:46 pm

no dual is the name of the company that makes the subs

MX-SLICK · Post by **MX-SLICK** » March 6th, 2005, 10:42 pm

Audiobahn sucks, trust me. They are a show off brand, not quality in any respect. DUAL i have never heard of, probably a form of no-name company such as Pyle, pyrmid, legacy, etc etc. They may still sound alright depending on what you are looking for. If I were you i would stick to better brands, as said, infinity makes some really good budget equipment. For amps, you want it to put out at least 100 watts RMS @ 12v to each subwoofer (so 100 X 2 RMS for a stereo amp) I would spend a bit extra and shop around. 1 thing is for sure audiobahn is a no-go, unless you want chrome paperweights

ovendenk · Post by **ovendenk** » March 6th, 2005, 11:01 pm

if you want my opinion, go infinity. i have all infinity. you need to make sure that you go with at least the kappa series because they have an external crossover for each speaker. if you have a fat wallet, go for the infinity perfect series (amazing sound at any volume). i have the kappa 6.5" 3-way's up front, the kappa 5.25" 2-way's in the back, and the basslink as my sub. the basslink btw has ridiculous performance for it's size (10" and 200W rms). my buddy with 2 12" JBL's envies it. i've got my speakers running off a rockford fosgate 4-channel amp and i've rewired all my speakers with 12 gauge and a 4 gauge kit for my amp and sub. i'm getting a monster 1 farad capacitor as well. overall, i'm really happy with my system and so is anyone who gets in my car.

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » March 7th, 2005, 1:09 am

Unfortunately.. car stereo equipment is all in the ears of the listener. You can get decent equipment without spending tons of cash. Unless you are going to be doing competition applications.. does it really matter if you have the best money can buy? Guess I am too old to worry about this stuff any more.. in my opinion clean is better than loud anyday. Plus with a simple system like mine (Panasonic Deck & 4 6.5 kickers) My hatch doesnt rattle

My point about this is simply this.. get what sounds good to you, because ultimately.. your the one that will be listening to it day in and day out.

Tunes67

ScooterBovine · Post by **ScooterBovine** » March 15th, 2005, 2:43 am

ovendenk wrote:i've got my speakers running off a rockford fosgate 4-channel amp and i've rewired all my speakers with 12 gauge and a 4 gauge kit for my amp and sub.

Why did you choose 12 gauge for the speaker wire? I've wondered about the different gauges for speaker wire. I assume that you know much more about car stereo equipment than I do, so if you went with 12 gauge, then maybe I should, too?

ovendenk · Post by **ovendenk** » March 15th, 2005, 10:06 am

i chose 12 gauge cause i wanted to make sure that there would be no resistence problems. the higher the gauge number, the thinner the wire. i'm all about quality over quantity. i'm not one of those guys who likes to show off my audio system as i drive down the street, but if i got into a pissing competition, i know that my system has the balls to kill most stereo setups.

think of wire as a highway and the signal as the cars driving on that highway. if you live in the middle of bum f*ck nowhere and there's a 8 lane highway that only ever sees maybe 100 cars a day, you know that you'll never have traffic problems. nice thing is that if all of toronto (or some other well known major city) decided to drive down that highway one day, you can rest assured that it would be able to handle the extra load with little to no problems. try that with a 2 or 1 lane highway.

same thing with speaker wire.

although i don't use my wire to its full potential, i know that when i need to pump the volume, i don't have any distortion or noise problems. you could probably get away with 14 maybe 16 gauge wire, but i don't like to risk audio quality. check this out, he's got a pretty decent write up:

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

oh ya. just make sure when you run your speaker wire, you always keep it away from your amp's power wire because you'll get interference problems caused by the magnetic field caused by the power wire. i ran all my power wires down the driver's side and all my rca interconnects and speaker wire down the passenger side. my webserver changed on me, so i have to redo my website, but i'll have that done soon and post pics of my setup.

MarkMoore · Post by **MarkMoore** » March 15th, 2005, 3:11 pm

go pioneer, they're very good quality... i have 4 6.5" pioneer's in my mx and i'm happy w/ 'em....

you should probably buy off of ebay.... it has some great deals on pioneer's or really any other speaker brand...

Ricksmx3 · Post by **Ricksmx3** » March 15th, 2005, 7:51 pm

MX-SLICK wrote:Audiobahn sucks, trust me. They are a show off brand, not quality in any respect. 1 thing is for sure audiobahn is a no-go, unless you want chrome paperweights

Wrong again. Audiobahn rocks and sounds awesome when you set it up right. Apparently you heard a piece of s--- setup.

2fazed · Post by **2fazed** » March 16th, 2005, 3:56 am

Dual is an entry level product, like profile. Our local Circuit city sells them. I wouldn't bother with them. You can get so many other brands like Kenwood, Infinity, etc for almost the same price.

jbruynson · Post by **jbruynson** » March 18th, 2005, 2:44 pm

Ricksmx3 wrote:
MX-SLICK wrote:Audiobahn sucks, trust me. They are a show off brand, not quality in any respect. 1 thing is for sure audiobahn is a no-go, unless you want chrome paperweights
Wrong again. Audiobahn rocks and sounds awesome when you set it up right. Apparently you heard a piece of s--- setup.

no actually he's right, there loud, but they have no sq at all. Their giant shiny paperweights.

Ricksmx3 · Post by **Ricksmx3** » March 18th, 2005, 8:11 pm

jbruynson wrote:
Ricksmx3 wrote:
MX-SLICK wrote:Audiobahn sucks, trust me. They are a show off brand, not quality in any respect. 1 thing is for sure audiobahn is a no-go, unless you want chrome paperweights
Wrong again. Audiobahn rocks and sounds awesome when you set it up right. Apparently you heard a piece of s--- setup.

no actually he's right, there loud, but they have no sq at all. Their giant shiny paperweights.

Sorry but your wrong also. I dont know what you guys think they are but mine have no shineyness to them they look just like all the others. I have seen the ones with the chrome flames and s--- but mine are nothing like that at all. So think what you want but i will always disagree and never change my mind. To bad you guys just look at the shiney ones and dont look to see if they have any other types.

MarkMoore · Post by **MarkMoore** » March 19th, 2005, 12:30 pm

Ricksmx3 wrote:
jbruynson wrote:
Ricksmx3 wrote: Wrong again. Audiobahn rocks and sounds awesome when you set it up right. Apparently you heard a piece of s--- setup.

no actually he's right, there loud, but they have no sq at all. Their giant shiny paperweights.
Sorry but your wrong also. I dont know what you guys think they are but mine have no shineyness to them they look just like all the others. I have seen the ones with the chrome flames and s--- but mine are nothing like that at all. So think what you want but i will always disagree and never change my mind. To bad you guys just look at the shiney ones and dont look to see if they have any other types.

k, how bout this... i haven't been keeping up w/ this thread really, but i suggest to just let the guy make the decision for himself, because obviously we all have different opinions on what sounds good, and we've all have different experiences with different manufacturers-good and bad....

ha, with all that said, i still say go w/ some pioneer's... lol... but no really, u should look into a wide variety of brands and should stick w/ a respectable company, don't go w/ the cheapos.... u'll regret it later when your favorite song comes on and u can't enjoy it over the buzzing coming from those cheap spkrs that blew out 2 months after you got 'em.... i say go to best buy and decide what you like and what you want... then buy from EBAY.... ebay is phenomenal!!!! no overhead=cheaper prices for customer

TekPmp · Post by **TekPmp** » March 19th, 2005, 1:26 pm

Its a fact! bestbuy has 100% markup on car audio ....sometimes its more than that