Need Help New To Car Audio

Hey whats up I'm new to all this car audio stuff so I got a few questions. First of all i'm re-building a wreck 02 mustang and I'm building a custom fiberglass box to go in place of the back seat. I set it up to hold 3 12's and 2 10's. I already bought the 3-600 watt 12's and 2-600 watt 10's. All mtx. And 600 and 800 watt mtx amps. all totaled up to be about $17-1800. Was this a good choice or not or there 3 other 12's n 2 other 10's that are better...n also should i get a different amp. And what the hells are ohms haha.



Whats up with this amp on this site???

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=64451&item=3767923244&rd=1

was this a good choice - no, both the setup and the equipment are bad choices

are there better subs - yes, a very emphatic yes

should you get a different amp - well first off you should get either 1 amp or multiple identical amps, so yes

ohms - http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=332169

amp on ebay - that's a home audio amp, and a very good one at that

If you were in my situation then what would you get...for say $2000. And are you sayin somethings wrong with the setup of 3 12's and 2 10's or what? Please Explain! i need help!!!

You shouldn't have different subs playing the same frequency range, especially not different sizes. Different subs will have different frequency response and phase shift characteristics, not to mention different reaction times/sounds to transients. Each speaker has its own "personality" so-to-speak when it comes to how it sounds, if you combine multiple different subs together, with them all playing the same frequency range, these will all blur together in a mess of cancellation, peaks, and weird phase issues.

If you're doing multiple subs then you need them all to be the same brand, model, and size to avoid these problems. All the wiring also has to be symmetrical (hard to come up with a word for that), basically all the subs need to be wired the same way, and if you have multiple amps they need to be the same.

$2000 on just the substage?
That can get you pretty damn far, how much airspace do you think you can fit back there?

So basically what your sayin is take the shit back that I bought haha. But we already build the the box so is there anyway that it won't sound as bad because i still need to get 3 12's and 2 10's. I'm nto sure what u mean by airspace...we took out the back seats in the car and can use as much of the trunk room as needed. And the $2000 is for the combo of amps+subs. What are some you'd suggest if it was your car. I heard there are some really good internet brands that would blow away MTX for about the same price..what do you think (cuz u deffinietyly know more than me lol) Thanks

do you have AIM or nething easier to talk on?

yeah my aim is wuzup0714
I know it's gay, leave me alone, I made it in like 8th grade ;)

since you got off I'll just post it here


I've given it a bit of thought, and here's what I've come up with (first return the MTX stuff if it's possible)

10's
2 Image Dynamics IDQ10D4's - $130 each
you would want around .5 cubic feet for each of them if at all possible.

amp for the 10's
hifonics brutus bx500d - $140

12's
3 resonant engineering SE12 - $170 each
you would want around 1cf for each of them

amp for the 12's
you're going to want around 1500rms at 2.67ohm, which would be around 2000rms at 2ohm. It might actually be easier to get a trio of monoblocks, each one doing around 600x1 @ 2ohm, something like a jbl bp600.1 or a PG Octane-R 8.0:1. Assume around $225 for each of the smaller ones, or around $700 for a single big one.

Total cost is somewhere around $1600, plus wiring and a new battery or alternator (or both).

Now the difficult part is in the tuning....this thing is going to be a nightmare to set up right. The best way that I can figure it, assuming you got everything I listed here, and the PG Octanes for the SE's, is you let the 10's handle the upper bass and since they're so close to the driver, maybe some of the midbass as well, and let the 12's handle the low bass, where the extra displacement will really help. To do this you would want to wire the IDQs in parallel/parallel to get a final load of 1ohm and attach that to the 500d. You would set the lowpass on the 500d around 100-125hz, and set the subsonic filter around 50hz. Then you would take the RE SEs, wire each one in parallel and wire them to each amp (these will all be wired individually). You would set the lowpass on each amp around 50hz, and you would probably want to set the gains on them using a multimeter to get them all the same.

Hey man hit me up on AIM rydemenmystang I have a 97 stang so it has the same trunk and I know how to make ur stang bang. Also 3 12's will not work very well. 2 ported 12's firing forward is the way to go and like sr20 stated above if you can return that MTX stuff so you can get something better. What are you looking for out of your bass? Loud as hell low n loud good overall balance and sound quality? IM me we can discuss it.

yeah my aim is wuzup0714
I know it's gay, leave me alone, I made it in like 8th grade ;)

HAHA...It's not that hard to change it :)

HAHA...It's not that hard to change it :)

I've had mine since the 8th grade which was what, 8 years ago? I don't change it because the people I talk to over the internet already know that particular screename. I know how he feels though.

If anyone wants to talk to me, you can get in touch with me via AIM @ threedd97

I'm going to ask a few questions for Stang:

$2,000 budget and this will be for a showcar

Enclosure:
I already have a box made out of probably partical board or mdf board with a fiberglass front with five slots for 5 subs. Should I throw this box away, decide on my subs and then build a new box according to the specifications of the subs? Should the box be fiberglass or MDF? Is fiberglass really worth my money?

What if I can't change boxes and MUST use the current box I have, what can I do with it? It's not built to air volume specifications for any kind of sub or amount of subs, nor are the subs positioned properly for best sound output. Cost isn't an issue with this box.

If I rebuild a new fiberglass box, could I get some info on how it should be built according to the subs suggested in this thread?

Subwoofers:
Are 5 subs too many? What about 3 even? Or should I just go 1 15" or 2 12"?

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Here are my answers to most of them:


Enclosure:
I don't know shit about fiberglass, so I told him to ask here. I recommended MDF. I know it's cheaper and a hell of a lot easier.

Subwoofers:
I told him 2 12" Brahmas or RE SE's. I also suggested 1 15" Brahma or XXX.

Amplifiers:
These are fairly easy to advise on. I told him with 2 12" of any of those brands above, depending on the brand, a 1500W amp such as a Cadence ZRS-8. As for the 15"s, an eD NiNE.1 for the Brahma would be fine and save money or for the XXX, the ZRS-8 or something with more power would do.

As far as electrical upgrades, a yellowtop, possibly a larger alternator and that big/magic 3 wiring upgrade.

Anybody?

This guy needs some help.

can anybody give me a little help?

if someone is asking these kinda questions for a "show car" ...... he/she really needs to have a shop do it

The guy helping me and my dad build this owns a couple body shops, we just don't know much at all about car audio. By show car i wasn't meaning audio show car if thats how it sounded. I just meant like all around, and i want a great system to go along with the rest of the looks. And since alot of people told me that 5 12's in a fiberglass box isn't exactly the best sounding thing i could get, (i still need to stick with it) I'm just looking for some help to make it sound best as possible

I already told you go with 5 13ov2d2's and 5 nine.2's I emailed ED and they will do it for around 1600 which leaves you some for a new alternator and yellow top...you may want to add a second one though.