What should I put my money into?

[Neil4Speed]

I would say that I have a budget in the ballpark of around $200, I am just wondering what my best course of action would be as far as an upgrade to my aftermarket system.

Currently, I am running a JVC headunit with the following specs.

KD-G320 - Power Output: 18W x 4 [RMS], 50W x 4 - Line Output Terminals (x 2 pairs) - Subwoofer Level / Frequency Control


And I have it powering the following speakers - Two Pioneer 6.5's in the door

RMS Power Range : 2-35 Watts
Peak Power Handling: 180 Watts
Frequency response: 30-28000 Hz


And Two Alpine Type-S 6X9 Speakers in the rear. In addition to 4 factory bose tweeters split between the front and the rear.

ALPINE SPS-6939S 3 WAY 6*9 120W@30RMS



The response from the highs is quite good, very crisp sound. However, I found that the bass is quite lacking at points. Sometimes I find that If I listen to something with a strong bass thud that my rears drop all the mid/high and just thump. I am wondering if the best use of my money is either getting

- One 10" Sub in a Ported Box, with an amp to drive it

- Getting an amp to drive my four speakers.

If I purchase something it would mostlikely be online or used from Beyond.

[arian_ma]

Neil, a 10" will be overkill in your car. I'd say get an 8" in a proper box with a good amp, but I don't think you can get that for $200. I had two 10"s in my previous car and I was going for straight out thud and it shook my entire car, if you want to know what one 10" sounds like in a proper box, sit in Aleks' car and try it out, but personally I think it will be overkill.

[stevo 27]

an 8" would have a bit harder of a punch less boomy
and as stated a 10" MAY overpower the mid/highs

[rahim]

i would never recommend an 8" unless space is in consideration, in the trunk of a legend a 10" would sound great

[97'Scort]

A properly tuned 10" would sound great. For example, the 10W1 from JL only likes to see around 150W and performs pretty well even in a sealed enclosure. The downside is that sub with a box and an amp will run over $600, so you might be a little over budget.

If I were you I'd hang on to the money and wait until you can do it right. There's no point in buying something cheap because you'll just be unhappy with it later on. If you are going to buy, checkout the marketplace and buy some decent used stuff.

[Jonathan@TCS]

Single 10" Sub with small amp to run it. That will fill in the low end, but $200 will be tough to find.

Good Luck

[Graham_A_M]

Originally posted by stevo 27
an 8" would have a bit harder of a punch less boomy
and as stated a 10" MAY overpower the mid/highs

most times when a sub drowns out the mid/highs, its because its not properly crossed over, and it sounds like shit to begin with. I used to have a 15" that blended BEAUTIFALLY with my 4.5" mid high components. Its all about the "timbre-ness" (/step respnse) of the sub, in relation to that of the speakers. <--- THAT mixed in with a properly crossed over unit.
And for the record, a DECENT 8" sub can out perform even a 15" in terms of depth of bass and SPL, I used to have this absolutely awful pair of Orion Colbalt subs. They wouldn't even drop lower then a 6" sub, and weren't loud at all. Just awful sounding, they were useless for anything other then filling the cones up with sand and using them as a designer ashtray.

[Weapon_R]

I wouldn't even bother with a sub. I'd buy a used 4 channel amp from the marketplace and tie the 4 speakers together to the amplifier. This will make a HUGE difference in your system. With the remaining change (or maybe a little more), throw out those rears and put some drivers in there. You'll get more bass while keeping a nice clean look to your vehicle.

[bobby_lu]

Originally posted by Weapon_R
I wouldn't even bother with a sub. I'd buy a used 4 channel amp from the marketplace and tie the 4 speakers together to the amplifier. This will make a HUGE difference in your system. With the remaining change (or maybe a little more), throw out those rears and put some drivers in there. You'll get more bass while keeping a nice clean look to your vehicle.

Also, some dynamat (or like material) on all doors, and trunk will go a much longer way to improving sound quality etc.

[JGerke]

dont do it, go get yourself a budget sub and amp. or 4 cases o beer...

[Neil4Speed]

Hey guys, thank you so much for the responses. I happened to pick up a cheap amp from the legend parts car that I was looking at. It is an older Alpine MRP-365.

It has 30 Watts RMS into 4 Channels at 4ohms which should be perfect for powering my four speakers. I will give that a try and see how it sounds. Should it sound good, I will probably forget even getting a Subwoofer and stick to it.


However, This amp also has a seperate subwoofer output of 100 Watts RMS, is there any sub that would run decently with that little power? I was somewhat looking at these.

Any thoughts on this Sub and Box, would my amp have enough power to run it?

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...002071&catid=#

Keep in mind, I am not looking for pounding bass which will cause small earth tremors, just something for a little more kick.

[Weapon_R]

You can find many 10" subs that will run off 100watts of RMS power. JL audio subs require very little power to sound ok