Newbies Start Here!!!!

[bumpinstang77]

first and foremost learn about what your doing. Go to www.BCAE1.com RESEARCH. There is no best brand of speakers and there are no loudest subs. It's all has to do with preferences, budgets, and your install. If you want the "best system" your going to be paying tens of thousands of dollars and that still will not be the best system to many people other then you. Please when your asking for reccomendations post these things because we can't help you out without knowing the resources to start with.....
1. Budget
2. space available
3. Prducts needed (ex. subs, box and amp.......head unit and speakers.....ect...)
4. Some sort of idea of what you want.....sound quality, loudness (to a mic) Low and loud, good even smooth bass that sounds good and gets loud (call it SQL)

If you can follow these guidelines it will make everything run much smoother. Also read some threads before you start posting. Get an idea of what people like and your question may be answered.

now PaulD Can you please sticky this?????? Thanks a lot...... If you want I can also put together (in collaboration with some other members) a list of brands in categories like bad, average, good, great ect..... I know we had one before but it wasn't the greatest.

[threedd97]

I agree. Sticky please. I"ll help keep it bumped until Paul sees it.

[CBFryman]

BUHP!!!! lol. a modification to BUMP. Agreed. We need a stickey of nothing but goods, bads, and uglies.
Now paulD....F'in get this done.
As for my Reccomendations. A-Z.

Adire Audio:
-Subs, Subs, Subs. the inventor of XBL^2. from the shiva to the Tulmult to the parthenon. Adire Gets 'R' Dun. also great for HT.

Acendant Audio:
-Though i have no expernce wiht hem i have heard great things and they do use XBL^2 and are just about the cheapest XBL^2 on the market. im looking to get an avalanche 15 for my truck... its gonna be sweet.... lol

Alpine:
-Headunits are about the onlything worth buying from alpine IMO. and im not talking their $300 ones with all the fancy features. im talking their $500 ones with little or no features.

Cadence:
-Amps, Amps, Amps. Cadence is to amps as adire is to awsome drivers. they are a little pricey, but their amps are friggen awsome.

Crystal Audio:
-Their Componets are top of the line for the price. cant afford $400 for a great componet set. they have you covered. but yo ucan? well they have you covered also.

Digital Designs:
-Not the greatest SQ but superior to most main stram and man to they slam for the money. not hte most efficent woofers in the world either. but if you like rap or even rock they are your cup of tea. like SPL drags? look into the 9100 series on up.

ED Designs:
-Amps, that is all i have expernce with. they are great amps (as anyone on here will tell you). the most popularly reccomended set up is a brahma 15 and an ED NINe.1

Hifonics:
-Another great amp comany for the price.

Image Dynamics:
-Their woofers have some of the top of the line SQ on the market.

JL audio:
-Im not a JL fan but just about everything JL is quality, also expence....

Lightning audio:
-Just kidding

Pheionix Gold:
-Once agian, a great amp company.

RE audio:
-Their woofers are known world wide. the XXX isnt a woofer, its a legacy. but without adire they would have never become what they are. they make everything from great SQ to nearly unbeatable SPL (except for by DD)
-Componets not only look great but they are great from what ive been hearing.

TruTech:
-One of the top of the line amp companies. XXX and a hammer head amp....you enjoy having ear drums? obviously not.

US amps:
-alont the lines of TruTech but not as expensive

[Diceman83]

maybe instead of a list of what's good and bad, we could have a list of how people react to various brands, subs, enclosures, etc. So it goes like:

(out of 10 - 10 is best)

• Sony Xplode
  • Amps - 2
  • Speakers - 1
  • Subs - -50
• [Makers of Brahma]
  • Amps - N/A ?
  • Speakers - 7
  • Subs - 9
• etc...

That would be a pretty useful list in my opinion.

edit - Dang, he beat me!

[SKyleS]

Originally Posted by Diceman83

maybe instead of a list of what's good and bad, we could have a list of how people react to various brands, subs, enclosures, etc. So it goes like:

(out of 10 - 10 is best)

• Sony Xplode
  • Amps - 2
  • Speakers - 1
  • Subs - -50
• [Makers of Brahma]
  • Amps - N/A ?
  • Speakers - 7
  • Subs - 9
• etc...

That would be a pretty useful list in my opinion.

edit - Dang, he beat me!

lol, subs are -50. Haha, my friend has explods, each are 800w peak and he says they are 800 watts RMS and the subs are 3 years old. I think they are about 250-300w RMS but he says im wrong, lol. Anyways, my point is, sonys do suck. =P

[AndonD454]

fryman... like what you did, but wondering if it would be easier to set up the list as it has been in the past.

i think since there are too many companies to pist pros and cons for, we should list companies under a bad, fair, good, great kinda setup. there is a post from before that ius kinda set up this way but i cant find it right now.

we could make one list for bad-great subs, one for amps, one for HUs and one for speakers. since most people dont know much more than this i dont know if it would be necessary to include brands of EQs, crossovers, etc.

i think that the top members of the forum (you know who you are) should make lists and then we could help with suggestions. finally, pauld could consolidate our ideas and we could have one thread (this ones fine but we should delete random posts like this) where we list all the info.

EDIT: found the post i was looking for.. http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=212270

[bumpinstang77]

NOT RECCOMENDED
-----------------------------------
Boss
DHD
Dual
Jensen
Legacy
Optimus (Radio Shack)
Lightning Audio (lower end models)
Pyle
Pyramid
Sony
Soundstorm
Thump
Verge
Volfenhag


AVERAGE
----------------------------------------
Bazooka
X-site
MA Audio Visonik Cliff Designs (Anaba Group) (Execpt for high end amps)
Low end Alpine***********************
Kenwood
Lightning Audio (high end)
Pioneer (minus high end head units and premier series)
Lanzar
Audiobahn
Crunch
MTX (minus amps)
Panasonic
Rockford Fosgate
Blaupunkt
Kicker (subs)
Alpine (low end subs and speakers)
Polk
Audiopipe
Concept
Cerwin Vega
Infinity
Alphasonik
Digital Audio
JVC


GOOD
------------------------------------------
Autotek
Hifonics (for the price)**********************
MTX (amps)
Profile(price is AWSOME)*********************
Pioneer premier and high end HU’s
Ma Audio, Visonik, and Cliff Designs high end amps (especially for SPL applications)
Phoenix Gold**********************
Directed********************
Orion******************
PPI
Viper
Alpine (higher end subs and speakers, lower end head units)******************
Kicker amps
Avionixx*********************
Alumapro
Audiomobile
Boston
Clarion
Crystal
Crossfire
Earthquake
JBL**********************
Memphis
Soundstream***********************
MB Quart***********************


HIGHLY RECCOMENDED
-------------------------------------------
Alpine (higher model head units)***********************
Cadence********************
Eclipse*********************
JL Audio********************
Elemental Designs********************
Helix
a/d/s
Adire Audio**************************
Arc Audio
Brax
CDT************************
Diamond
DD*********************
Focal (borderline good/highly recommended)
Image Dynamics*********************
Kove (borderline good/highly recommended)
McIntosh
Cadence***************************
MMATS*********************
Morel
OZ Audio
PPI (old stuff before they were directed)
RE Audio (resonant engineering)************************
US Amps**************************
Zapco
Linear Power
Incriminator Audio*************************
Ascendant Audio***************************
Stereo Integrity ***********************
Sound Splinter*********************
Audioque
Xtant
Tru Technology
TC Sounds
Rainbow


************** means that this is a brand we talk good of freqently on this board and is within most people's price range. A lot of these products will be reccomended.

If there's anything I missed let me know if you feel something should be moved up or down let me know I'll edit the list. Don't copy paste and repost the list. A lot of very rare brands most people will never hear of are not included. Credit goesout to CKY3100 for a quick reference to a lot of the brands on this list.

[AndonD454]

you put audiobahn with kicker and alpine subs?.. i might move audiobahn down one.. and i suppose im biased towards kicker subs a little more than i should be just cause i own one.. but its fine there i suppose lol..

im sure people will have little issues here and there but its all opinion anyways.. for the most part i liek this list a lot.

[bumpinstang77]

its with alpines lower ends because alpine does have bettre SQ but won't touch almost all bahns in loudness..... And kicker subs IMO are there with audiobahn..... hell I'd rather have bahns

[AndonD454]

haha ouch..


and hopefully if pauld stickies this then ill delete all my posts and hopefully others will do the same..

[aznxthuggie]

this thread went to hell and started getting biased right after the 2nd post

bias opinions will not help newbies because they haven't personally heard anything, its up to them to try, if htey do something wrong, then they learn, you guys aren't open minded at all, most of you just jump on the bandwagon and get what everyone else gets

how many of you actually went and put a system together out of components you liked when u heard them, or just out of companies you liked and knew were good? instead of suggestions by other members? o well its hopeless

[SKyleS]

IMO Kicker subs should be "good" (CVR's are great circle subs) and Alpine (high end subs) should be highly recommended. (eg: Type X)

[bumpinstang77]

Too bad I made my choice after hearing RE, Adire, ED, Jl, Audiobahn, PG, Eclipse, Kicker, lanzar, and many others. I like the way the RE setups sounded the best so that's what i went with. And it is biased, but all its doing is letting people know what brands out there are in what category in the opinion of what I like to call "enilghtedned car audio nerds" being people who have heard and know about more then fosagte, JL, Kicker, Audiobahn ECT.........

[Mannyb18b]

Im behind the list. And yes i believe it will help alot of newbies. And yes I have got equipment from just recommendations, and very happy with em

[CBFryman]

Originally Posted by aznxthuggie

this thread went to hell and started getting biased right after the 2nd post

bias opinions will not help newbies because they haven't personally heard anything, its up to them to try, if htey do something wrong, then they learn, you guys aren't open minded at all, most of you just jump on the bandwagon and get what everyone else gets

how many of you actually went and put a system together out of components you liked when u heard them, or just out of companies you liked and knew were good? instead of suggestions by other members? o well its hopeless

Actually, i acuired a large portion of my knowledge and experencel ong before i even knew Automotiveforums.com existed. there have been companies such as Ascentant Audio that i have been reccomended to. but unless ive heard something i wont talk bad about it (unless you can look at it and tell its crap). and unless ive heard something or it has been highly reccomended by more than one well respected audio enthusiast then i wont praise it. though if i look at it and it looks good i will praise it and reccomend it as an option if they would like to try. And pretty much anything with XBL^2 will sound good so all the companies using it are pretty damn good companies.
all opinions are bias. a reccomendation is bias, it is saying this is better than the rest in that price range. we are reccomending a varity of products that most people like. if you are saying what our bads are are bias. well if you think boomy distorted bass is good then go ahead and pay alot for audiobahn calling it SQ . as said before, bahn's are great for SPL but give nothing of a flat responce or clean bass in high excursions.

Originally Posted by sKyleS

IMO Kicker subs should be "good" (CVR's are great circle subs) and Alpine (high end subs) should be highly recommended. (eg: Type X)

CVR's are 'ok' and alpine are 'ok'. neither have wonderful SQ or pound like a mofo.