QuestionI have a 98 buick riviera, i recently purchased and installed a pioneer deh-9800bt headunit into the center console in my car(what a hassle)and i have pioneer 3way 6x9s in the rear that my friend gave sold me for 20 bucks, and my other friend gave me his "coustic" 8 inch subs and lightning audio amp, and i just hooked that up as well and i can barley hear them up front probably because the trunk is sealed pretty well and they are not very powerful and small. My other friend who does alot of car audio stuff told me to go with pioneer for head unit. was that a good decision? Second. I know a little about this stuff but not a whole lot, and i love high fidelity, that being said, should i upgrade the front speakers even though im not going to amp them due to cost? and if i should what kind are best(i know component are the way to go)? Next. as far as bass goes i love clean tight bass that hits hard, and i dont think the ones i have now are going to cut it, should i get new ones, if so what kind of subs should i get, what kind of enclosure, what amp(or stay with the lightning audio amp which is crappy from what i hear)also with the subs i need them to be sensitive so i can get volume without drawing alot of power and i need to be as cost effective as posible. any advice would be of great help
thanks,
Bradley
AnswerUnderstood. Let us take this on in three parts:
"My other friend who does alot of car audio stuff told me to go with pioneer for head unit. was that a good decision?"
>Depending on the price and your expectations, it probably was not a bad one.
It has acceptable specifications like 5 volt RCA preouts, decent signal to noise ratio for the CD and basically, a pretty good ability to control sound.
"Second. I know a little about this stuff but not a whole lot, and i love high fidelity, that being said, should i upgrade the front speakers even though im not going to amp them due to cost? and if i should what kind are best(i know component are the way to go)?"
>Yes, replace them. Whatever sounds best (to you) of the decent brands should suffice. Polk is well known for their efficiency and smooth/accurate sound, so they would be a great thing to consider while using the 22 watts RMS your deck has.
I would spend as much as possible on satellite/component speakers (since most of the audio spectrum comes from them). They will be the main pillar of the fidelity and should really provide a very noticable improvement.
"Next. as far as bass goes i love clean tight bass that hits hard, and i dont think the ones i have now are going to cut it, should i get new ones, if so what kind of subs should i get, what kind of enclosure, what amp(or stay with the lightning audio amp which is crappy from what i hear)
also with the subs i need them to be sensitive so i can get volume without drawing alot of power and i need to be as cost effective as posible."
>8” subs can be a little short on output level in a large vehicle. However, I would try them (unless you are not happy with them or they are obviously damaged). The enclosure they are in could be a huge part of the problem.
With a few hours of auditioning, you will likely find that (setup correctly and specifically for the particular subs) sealed enclosures sound tighter and have much better extended low bass than vented ones.
As to what kind of amp:
Again, what sounds best to you (that you can afford) is probably going to work very well if setup correctly. Be sure that the amp is compatible with the speaker load, in any case. Use amps that are rated in RMS wattages (only).
I have made enclosures for a pair of 8’s that would rattle your teeth but they were not coustics. You do not need 500 watts RMS of total system power in order to blow away your senses with accurate sound. Plan accordingly.
I cannot assist you in further without more specifics, but I would think your buddy with ‘alot’ of experience can get you through (most of) the rest of this.
Thanks for the question and let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Jerry Mael
