Talk to me about new car stereos

[mroper]

I have been out of the car stereo game for a long time. Last time I put one in was the early 90's. So I have a few questions. I normally listen to classic rock , talk radio and audio books. I am looking for clarity not loudness.
Do I need a subwoofer ? Do I need an Amp if yes how many channels ?
Or will just the receiver and 2 6X9 Speakers work for me ? It is going into 1985 el Camino. I am going to put the 6X9 speakers in those speaker boxes.
There is no interior in the car so should I start out with reciever and speakers and run all the amp power and other wires now to make it easier later.
Thanks in advance

 

[FireInTheWire]

I have been out of the car stereo game for a long time. Last time I put one in was the early 90's. So I have a few questions. I normally listen to classic rock , talk radio and audio books. I am looking for clarity not loudness.
Do I need a subwoofer ? Do I need an Amp if yes how many channels ?
Or will just the receiver and 2 6X9 Speakers work for me ? It is going into 1985 el Camino. I am going to put the 6X9 speakers in those speaker boxes.
There is no interior in the car so should I start out with reciever and speakers and run all the amp power and other wires now to make it easier later.
Thanks in advance

Do you wanna go big? or go home?

There is only one way to fly in the audio world. The right frequency for the right speaker. Find a head-unit that doesn't have an amp built in. Run you pre-outs the back of the head-unit. 1 out to a D class sub amp. Have it power a sealed enclosed 8" sub. Run your other pre-out to a 2 channel amp to a set of 2-way component speaker set utilizing the included X-over to direct the correct frequency to the right speaker. This set up will be crystal clear and will go louder that you can listen, but also be "clear as a bell".

If going home... get ya a good head-unit and power your 6X9's with it. It'll get ya cruising down the road.

If your interior is out... now is the time to plan and figure out which route you wanna go.

If you have more questions.... I'll try to help you out. This was just a quick overview.

 

[pronstar]

On my Suburban, I didn’t want to put a lot of dough into it but did want decent sound.

Head unit runs (4) 6.5’s in the doors, and I have an 8” sub with a 300w amp under the back seat.

Good value/sound...imho you want a sub, makes everything sound cleaner.


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[Shady]

you will be fine with 2 brand name 6X9's in the back cab area even just powered by a decent name brand head unit. If you like bass then it might not be enough but that is simple to add with a small amp and sub. Just make sure the headunit has at least 1 output for an amp so you can go bigger if you have to.

I would go to best buy and snag an open box set of 6x9's or watch the fry's daily adds sign up for the email flier and you will find killer deals on car audio stuff you may have wait a few weeks till they pop.

As far as running the wires its not going to be that big of a deal in an El Camino to do it now or latter but its always simpler to do it with the interior out.

I would recommenced some sound deadening stuff its like black tar with sticky on one side and foil on the other. That will help your sound more than an amp and sub . Amazon has a house brand that works well. You don't have to coat every bit of metal The more you do the better. FOr the most part the big flat areas like floor pans and on door panel put it inside the door against the outter wall of the car.



As far as brands I have been happy with my Polk audio stuff and got it cheap when on sale.

Most modern head units will do what you want but I would again stick with the bigger players Kenwood Sony pioneer

 

[mroper]

thanks for the info so far Yes I will be putting dynamat or equiv down .
receiver I am looking at Kenwood DMX7705S
speakers Focal RCX-690 or Apline SPS 619.
If I need a sub RF P300
amps I really dont have a clue
I am not trying to cheap out just don't want to be buying things I dont really need.

 

[pronstar]

Imho look at the efficiency ratings of the speakers. Often, higher-end speakers will require more power to drive them.

With a low-power head unit, you want to be up around 91 dB/watt or higher.

You may not get sufficient volume otherwise, though dynamat will help.


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[grasshopperglock]

I'm deficient when it comes to audio components. On the RF P300. I suggest a 10" over the 12". The 10" gives a better sound and quicker reaction compared to a 12" or 14".

I've seen all three in action. Overall, the 10" gives a better sound. One will be enough if it's inside the interior verses in the trunk. Two 10" is fairly ok on the thump. A mix of 10" and 12" better covers the range of the bass.

Watching both side by side. The 10" reacts a lot more over the 12".

2cents.

 

[FireInTheWire]

thanks for the info so far Yes I will be putting dynamat or equiv down .
receiver I am looking at Kenwood DMX7705S
speakers Focal RCX-690 or Apline SPS 619.
If I need a sub RF P300
amps I really dont have a clue
I am not trying to cheap out just don't want to be buying things I dont really need.

• high- and low-pass filters

I see that head unit has low-and high pass filters. I wonder what the high pass cut-off range is..? That set-up wouldn't be bad at all.

Get ya a D class amp for that sub. Here are some inexpensive options...
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-u83tj...MIjOzZ6re63AIVDdvACh2eBQNbEAMYASAAEgJpKfD_BwE

 

[Kar98]

You don't "need" a subwoofer if you have an array of speakers covering the range of the various frequencies.

I've got a Pioneer with BT, GPS and touchscreen going to a medium amp under the driver seat, from there to two sets of 3 speakers each in different sizes in the doors and a pair of large speakers in the rear.

Sounds nice

 

[grasshopperglock]

Bass speakers are a cultural thing around here. It does a couple of things. Tribal affiliation and the attraction of a mate.

Knuckleheads around here have been putting loud speakers behind the grill. So not only do you get to hear the thump. You can hear the vocals coming out the grill. The type of loud speaker you hear at baseball games.

 

[rman]

the only thing I recommend, and have done in all my vehicles, is out your good speakers in the front (doors). I usually run no speakers in the rear, maybe the stock for fill.

With proper imaging it should sound like the music is coming from your rear view mirror.

You don't go to a concert and stand with your back to the stage...

Sent from my SIG Sauer

 

[Kar98]

A proper concert venue has sound coming from all directions, rman.

 

[Brains]

Ugh, I'm probably going to get long winded on this, and you may know a lot already, but ...

I'll start with your listening material:
Talk radio and audio books - not much is needed here, nearly anything will be up to the task.
Classic rock - quality is going to matter, these were the days when actual instruments were played and the mix wasn't run through a compressor to keep the avg. level as close to 0dB as possible. More dynamic range in the source material means higher requirements for the system to faithfully reproduce it.

Your head unit choice is fairly nice, but I don't see HD radio listed among the specs. It's nice to have, if nothing more than for additional options when surfing the FM dial. Many stations have 2 or 3 additional programs on the HD channels. Otherwise it has all the popular options and will probably have more than you actually use.

Focal makes some very nice speakers, can't go wrong there. Alpine isn't bad either, and there's quite a few other quality brands too. Let your ears be the judge if you can find someplace that has a listening room. I always advise folks about one marketing piece of nonsense when buying speakers - IGNORE the wattage ratings. So many people try to plan their systems around them, and they're doing themselves a disservice. They're complete bullshit at best anyway.

What DOES matter, is having amplifier power available to power your speakers properly. Another common misconception is to choose the amplifier by it's wattage rating as compared to the wattage rating of the speakers. This is bad juju. You absolutely need MORE amplifier power than your listening requires. It's not like a light where when you turn on a 60w bulb, you consume 60w. An amplifier, while operating, will need to produce anywhere from 0w to it's limit. The lower the volume, the fewer watts needed. Once the amp hits its limit though, the top and bottom of the waveform is chopped (clipped) and that is what destroys speakers. If the waveform is clipped, the speaker faithfully follows - by standing still for that portion of the wave. The more clipping, the more the cone is standing still, and the more distortion is heard. Problem is, speakers are primarily cooled by airflow around the voice coil, and the airflow is only generated by movement. Stall the cone, generate more heat, and eventually the coil will overheat and fail. In short, you can kill a 1000w subwoofer with a 100w amp overdriven and hard clipping. To be clear though, you can also kill a 100w speaker with a 100w amp by overdriving the speaker past it's mechanical limit. Use your ears and your common sense and everything works out well (aka if it sounds like crap turn it down).

I could go into the science, but the simple take-away is that power vs. loudness increases on a logarithmic scale. Rule of thumb is every doubling of volume needs 10x more power. There's a lot of science in how to properly match the amp to the loudspeaker too, but for most people it isn't necessary to get into the details.