Hello everyone,
I started out by adding a grom audio adapter to my stock HU. After doing this i decided that it may be intresting to update the whole system. From what i understand, it wouldnt look as good changing the headunit, plus i like it. KI have started to try and plan out my system. My goal is to keep the price low and increase the quality, and also get the best bass possible in this range. My questions are :What do i need to get an amp connected to the head unit? So far i have chosen these components:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113KFC1...KFC-1662S.html
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_142SLC4/Scosche-SLC4.html
http://outlet.crutchfield.com/p_020A...180.html?cc=02

I plan to get two pairs of the kenwoods for the front and the back, and use the amp there to connect to the sub (havent decided on that yet)

Anyone able to advise me? I am also trying to cause the least damage to my car in the process, but dont mind getting down and dirty with the car

thanks

 

If you care at all about sound quality I would lose the stock HU, but if your really set on keeping it know it has a built in EQ that deteriorates sound quality. I would defianlty stay away from those speakers, or any kenwood speakers for that matter. Instead of paying double the money on fronts and rears. Spend the absolute most you can on speakers up front, at least $150 on a pair. Rear speakers are not necessary on a budget, and you will get much better sound. I would even look for another amp. This is the most asked question here, if you just search or even just click on threads on the first page I get much more in depth.

 

okay thanks. I will look around a little more and post any other questions i have here. any kind of specs i should be looking for in the speakers in the front? Could i get away with keeping stock rear speakers, getting 150$ of front speakers, and a good subwoofer?

As an update,i found these alpine speakers:
http://outlet.crutchfield.com/p_500S...cc=02&tp=13711

i decided i will most likely end up giving up the stock head unit.
I was looking at this head unit. I didn't worry about the the power of the hU because i fugred it would be going to the amp from there:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_070XDM6...0.html?tp=5684


Sorry,if i am making you copy/paste responses from other threads,i did take some time to look and comprehend some of the responses.

 

Well alpine speakers are generally good. Those speakers aren't top notch, but if that is all you can afford then I don't think they would be too bad for the money. Your better off with nothing in the back than the stocks. I ran only front speakers for almost a year while I saved up for rears. I took so long because they really weren't necessary. He hasn't been on for a while, but a member here who competes and has won several SQ competitions recommends exactly the same thing on a budget.

Now your HU choice is very important, your overall sound quality will only be as good as your source. A crappy source running $500 speakers will sound like crap. Alpine makes my favorite HU's, but pioneer and kenwood make some nice units as well. Don't cut corners with the HU, this is easily the most important piece of a quality system.

Now specs you should look for speakers, in the 7th gen accord we only have 2" of depth behind the speaker. But we can squeeze a 2.5" maybe even a 2.75" with a baffle, there is plenty of room in front of the speaker. So look for a speaker with less than 2.5" of depth or so. Stay away from textile or composite dome tweeters, you want silk or titanium. Titanium or other metal tweeters can give a pretty harsh sounding upper range. I personally prefer silk dome tweeters. Your going to have to hear different speakers to see what you like. Also different brands sound a bit different, so I would recommend actually going out and hearing different speakers before choosing a pair. You definitely want a speaker with an efficiency rating of at least 89db.

 

so the speakers i have chosen are alpines,and they have a silk material. They also have a sensitivity of around 88db, which is very close to the 89 db value you suggested.

As for the head unit, i am still not clear what i am looking for in one. Would i be looking for multiple pre amp outs, a certain type of built in amp,higher preamp volatge, etc.

 

If you can spend more on the speakers I would, while they are not horrible there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Forget about the power rating for the built in amp, an HU that doesn't even have one is a nice option, or at least the ability to turn it off. You want at least 5 outputs from the HU, one for each speaker and a sub. Having sub control on your HU is really worth while, and most quality HU's do. You want at least 2v preouts, although I doubt any company would advertise having less than that. Really 6v to 8v is where it is at, but if you find a nice HU with 4vs go for it. The higher voltage just means the amp has to amplify the signal less. Every signal has noise, we want to keep all of it at inaudible "volume" range. Lower voltage preouts can make this noise audible. I don't care what anyone says, unless your some godly expert you can not hear the difference between 2v and 4v with equally good HU's. Then there are more advanced options that can make a good system sound great like timing corrections, 7 band equalizer, built in cross overs, and the like. From what I've seen alpines newer unit's don't come with such features built in, and you need to get the additional processor to access said features. I'm pretty stoned right now so sorry if I left something out.

 

alrighty, thanks a lot. I think the headunit is just a toss up then with brand, etc. I think ill go with the 80$ one i saw before. I was thinking that id have 2 preamp out puts, one for the sub amp, and then another for the other 4 speakers, and use the built in/additional crossovers to split the sound there

 

Any $80 is going to be crap and more likely than not introduce some distortion or clipping. Definitely stay away from those HUs with only 2 preouts, I to this day don't understand why they even bother with 2 preouts. If you did what you saying you would have to split one of the pre outs four times for the speakers, each time you split it the voltage goes lower. And when your starting out with the bare minimum of 2vs, splitting it even once is only going to cause you problems. You want AT LEAST four pre outs, and 5 would be optimal giving you more control(EDIT: if you go for four, you have to get a LOC to run your sub, and not split one of the four for a sub, you really should get a 5ch HU). What ever decision you make now your either going to have to live with every day for years, or end up spending more money correcting your mistake. Either way, it's not worth saving the money. Your better off waiting, and just putting money off to the side. Than rushing to buy cheap gear to "save" money. If you care at all about sound, about the last thing you will be doing is saving money in the long run.

 

ok thanks. I think ill stick to the option of postponing it. Dont have that kind of money sitting around currently, haha. Thank you again though