a little guidance would go a long ways

[SiegeFalcon]

Hey, my name's Craig, and I've been in the background of AMF for about a year. I'll pop in now and again to acquire bits of info here and there pending what I have questions on. I owe a lot of my basic knowledge simply to the awesome supporters of this site that have posted great threads on many individual topics. I've learned about subs, differences in boxes, common electrical circuitry terminology, and all kinds of other stuff that would take too long to list. I personally have no hands on experience with setting up systems other than my home reciever setup (which i did from common sense rather than experience), but I do have access to friends who know how to get around a car with wires. I'm no putz, and I would hate to fucking blow my money cuz I made a stupid mistake trying to look good and smart so I've really taken my time to figure out I need a system in my car.
Right now, I'm riding in a '97 jetta that is my baby. It only has 56,000 miles, and I can't wait to start working on the body and engine, but I'm going to start with my audio. As many of you know, my jetta comes stock with 8 speakers. I got 2 6 3/4" front door panel kickers, 2 dash speakers (idk how u'd refer to them), 2 rear deck speakers (again idk how to refer to them), 2 rear deck tweeters, an alpine cda-9825 head unit, and 2 10" pioneer subs sitting under my bed in the box. I'm hearing a bit of rattling these days from my speakers, and I believe that was caused by Lil' Jon It was a sick stock setup for any car, let alone one from 1997. I want to get it at least back to where I started, maybe with a little more umph, (to replace 8 separate speakers is not easy on the bank...i'm a college student be realistic...but i am willing to drop the time and money if it's worth it) and especially some bass. My #1 thing is sound quality, I use to laugh when my friend would come by with his Xplods and he thought he was the shit cranking them up, but they sounded more like recorded farts than sweet lo's...
Yea so to keep everyone alive, can anyone lend some info onto what I'm going to need to get my sound quality back, power to my speakers, bass to show Lil' Jon some respect, and not a mile long trail of receipts?

BTW...rap is great, but I'll take rock/screamo/emo/(basically guitars and singing) any day as well.

Let me know if you need more info such as speaker sizes and whatnot...

[balls_to_the_wall]

Front components ~250
Component Amp ~200?
Sub ~ all depends on what you want 100-300
Sub Amp ~ Once again, Profile amps from 85 bucks all the way up to a IA 20.1 Take your pic.

How much do you want to spend?

[SiegeFalcon]

Thank you for some feedback...

I'm not sure how much I'm going to spend. Obviously I'm not going to shop for all of this at once online and rack up a huge bill, so I'm thinking if I box the pioneer subs i already got (when i said they were in the box before, i meant the boxes pioneer wraps their products in), get an amp and some wiring to start, i can go from there. one step at a time, one check at a time, that way i can budget my funds a bit better.

I got a question, you said that it would be about $250 for the front components, is that all 4 speakers? And also what about the rear deck with the tweeters and 6 3/4" speakers?

I am going to have eventually 8 speakers in the main compartment and 2 subs in the trunk. that's at least 1 amp for the sub, and one for the front components (idk if that's 2 or 4 speakers)...so do you think i'll need another amp for the rear components as well (can i use the term "component" to describe any speaker in the system, because each will have a different range?)

If my price goes up to 2500 dollars over 2 years it ain't a big deal...i can make that money if i know i have to...it's just i don't want to waste my money getting better sound than i would ever care to have (sorry guys i'm not a psycho SQ fanatic yet lol, i'm just aware of it)

[balls_to_the_wall]

The front components + sub(s) is all you would really need. Don't put all 8 speakers in. Just do some researching on other forums and ask around to find out what components would be the best for you w/ whatever substage your going to be running. If you want to try to get some other peoples inputs on component they are running, NG has the XXX's I think, CBFryman has the RE's, and MannyB has CDT EF-61's (don't know if there installed, but he has them).

[balls_to_the_wall]

Sorry, components are a midbass + tweet (includes passive crossover network when you buy the set) usually a 6.5" mid driver.

[SiegeFalcon]

okay that's cool, so the 6.5's will be midbass with tweeters in the middle of them? that means i should put 4 components up front, and the 2 rear 6.5's and tweeters already back there should be disconnected?

question...are the 6.5's and the tweeters on the rear deck separate from eachother because of old technology? nowadays they'd be components?

NG, CBFryman, and MannyB if you guys are actively posting, do you think a comparison could somehow be done? im not too familiar with what speakers are made form what companies so if a little more info on RE's and XXX's could be given that'd be great (obviously the EF61's are CDT, but still info would be sweet). im gonna do some searching on my own but my first google lookups didnt give me anything, and im not going to every audio site til i hit the jackpot lol.

if anyone else has any input that'd be cool, the more knowledge i can work with, the better. thanks

[highteknology]

Originally Posted by SiegeFalcon

that means i should put 4 components up front

don't put four components up front. it will be a waste of your money. in reality, you could get away with a sub(s) in the trunk, a deck (which you already have) and a nice set of components up front. plus the amps. many people say not to replace the rear speakers. this makes sense to me as i am currently rolling with my rear speakers disconnected. people don't really ride back there and i don't sit back there and drive so i don't hear them.

Originally Posted by SiegeFalcon

okay that's cool, so the 6.5's will be midbass with tweeters in the middle of them?

a component speaker will have a midbass driver, a tweeter and a crossover. some companies will include a bracket or a mounting thing that will allow the component speaker to act as a coaxial speaker. a coaxial speaker is when the tweeter and midbass are together, like you said. most speakers you see at Circuit City or Best Buy are coaxials. component speakers allow for a little more flexibility but are more expensive. everyone i talk to say they like component speakers better.

here is a link to a picture of a component speaker
http://twtr.imageg.net/graphics/prod...1346309reg.jpg
the "bigger" speaker you see is the midbass.this is usually located closer to the drivers feet. the "smaller" speaker is the tweeter which is usually located near the midbass driver. the box is your crossover.

her is a link to a coaxial speaker picture
http://img.alibaba.com/photo/5027770...al_Speaker.jpg
as you can see there are more 'components' to a component set of speakers, hence the name. coax speakers are a cheaper way to improve your audio but in my eyes if you are going to improve your audio do it with something better by using component speakers.

one thing to keep in mind when installing component speakers is the location of the tweeter in realtion to the midbass driver. i've heard that they should not be farther than 12 inches from the midbass driver. i know Q-logic makes some component kicker systems that will fit in your car and you can put your speakers into these systems. if you are good with fiberglass make some sick ones yourself.

i hope this helps a little more. just remember, i personally don't think, nor would i spend the extra money, to replace all 8 speakers in your car. if you get the urge you can do so later. but you should be able to get a decent set up with just the subs, deck, and some speakers up front. just ask away on here, there are many more guys out there that are far more knowledgable than me and i'm sure they will be willing to help you out.

[balls_to_the_wall]

Resonant Engineering makes the RE component set, the XXX are just mids, there isn't a set for them.

Link to making kickpannels, lots cheaper than buying Q-logic ones.

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38665

[PaulD]

what it takes to get sound qaulity:

Good head unit (Cd player)
Equalizer of some type
Crossover*
1 or 2 Amps
midrange/tweeter for the front
1 or 2 subs (8" 10" or 12")

*if you buy a 4 channel amp with a built-in crossover and use the passive crossovers that come with the mid/tweet speakers, you will not need a seperate crossover unit.

This is a minimalist system, and for sound quality - usually the less the better, just save a little to buy a little better stuff the first time. You actually save money in the long run.