First off, if this is in the wrong section of the forums I apologize.
Hey Guy's
New to the forum, was researching audio components for my car and your website came up so I thought I'd register and become a member.
So first off, hello everyone!
My name is Aaron and I am new to car audio, I have always used the factory stereo systems so I never really experienced a quality aftermarket system let along piece one together. So this is all a new experience for me not just piecing one together but learning about car audio in general.
Anyways, I have a bmw m roadster that I would like to upgrade. 2 of my buddies who have the same car (a little club) and have upgraded there system on a budget think I shouldn't really spend a lot on good components as it won't make too much difference. Me on the other hand I think otherwise, I always research whatever I invest money into to make sure I get the best bang for my buck where as they pretty much went off of what a shop told them.
I love listening to music, whenever I am in the car I listen to music so I think its definitely worth investing money into seeing as how much I use it.
12v over on the bmw forum was very helpful in recommending me some components for the doors (mids/tweeters) from hybrid audio that I will be going with.
As far as the head unit goes I am interested in the alpine IDA-X305 since it has the ipod control feature. That was my biggest requirement, my two buddies(in there upper 40's) still use Cd's where as I like to take my entire music collection with me and not have to haul around cases of Cd's. I try to explain to them why an mp3 player is much more efficient but it seems they are happy with there Cd's. But as for the HU, it looks nice and has all the feature that I need. If there are any others that you could recommend, I'd definitely take a look.
Now what I am really confused on is what subwoofer and amp to go with. I guess I will start off with the amp, I figure I will go with a mono amp and dedicate it to the sub. Then run the other amp that I plan to buy from 12v to run all of my other speakers. I found the Alpine MRP-M500 (500watt) mono class D amp on ebay for $180 shipped. Does alpine make a quality amplifier and is this a good deal?
As far as the subwoofer goes, I have not made the enclosure yet so I don't have exact measurements. The enclosure I will be building my buddy already has one in his car so tomorrow I will go take some measurements so that I can be exact. But I did take a tape measure to the area where it will be going and did some rough measurements, the cubic ft came out to .4/.5 I was looking at the 10" Kicker Compvt woofer with an enclosed box.
Again I am not 100% but will know for sure tomorrow, the enclosure will be small since its going in a two seater convertible.
One of my buddies is running an 8inch fosgate punch and the other a 10" JL audio. After listening to there systems I thought that they definitely sounded better than the factory but I wasn't really too impressed. Could this be because the subwoofers that they used were most likely made for a larger ported enclosure? He had it tuned by a shop but it really didn't make much difference. This is where I figure a shallow mount woofer will help even tho they think it won't make any difference.
So with the size of the enclosure in mind what sub would you recommend? I really would like to fit a 10" in there. I'm not really going for earth shattering bass because frankly its a small car and a convertible. But I am going for something that sounds clean and hits nice.
Sorry guy's for typing up so much, I really wanted to keep it short but as I started typing it just seemed to get long and longer.:laugh:
I would greatly appreciate any feedback/recommendations for my setup. I am sure you get a lot of new guy's asking the same stuff so I would be very grateful.
Hey Guy's
New to the forum, was researching audio components for my car and your website came up so I thought I'd register and become a member.
My name is Aaron and I am new to car audio, I have always used the factory stereo systems so I never really experienced a quality aftermarket system let along piece one together. So this is all a new experience for me not just piecing one together but learning about car audio in general.
Anyways, I have a bmw m roadster that I would like to upgrade. 2 of my buddies who have the same car (a little club) and have upgraded there system on a budget think I shouldn't really spend a lot on good components as it won't make too much difference. Me on the other hand I think otherwise, I always research whatever I invest money into to make sure I get the best bang for my buck where as they pretty much went off of what a shop told them.
I love listening to music, whenever I am in the car I listen to music so I think its definitely worth investing money into seeing as how much I use it.
12v over on the bmw forum was very helpful in recommending me some components for the doors (mids/tweeters) from hybrid audio that I will be going with.
As far as the head unit goes I am interested in the alpine IDA-X305 since it has the ipod control feature. That was my biggest requirement, my two buddies(in there upper 40's) still use Cd's where as I like to take my entire music collection with me and not have to haul around cases of Cd's. I try to explain to them why an mp3 player is much more efficient but it seems they are happy with there Cd's. But as for the HU, it looks nice and has all the feature that I need. If there are any others that you could recommend, I'd definitely take a look.
Now what I am really confused on is what subwoofer and amp to go with. I guess I will start off with the amp, I figure I will go with a mono amp and dedicate it to the sub. Then run the other amp that I plan to buy from 12v to run all of my other speakers. I found the Alpine MRP-M500 (500watt) mono class D amp on ebay for $180 shipped. Does alpine make a quality amplifier and is this a good deal?
As far as the subwoofer goes, I have not made the enclosure yet so I don't have exact measurements. The enclosure I will be building my buddy already has one in his car so tomorrow I will go take some measurements so that I can be exact. But I did take a tape measure to the area where it will be going and did some rough measurements, the cubic ft came out to .4/.5 I was looking at the 10" Kicker Compvt woofer with an enclosed box.
Again I am not 100% but will know for sure tomorrow, the enclosure will be small since its going in a two seater convertible.
One of my buddies is running an 8inch fosgate punch and the other a 10" JL audio. After listening to there systems I thought that they definitely sounded better than the factory but I wasn't really too impressed. Could this be because the subwoofers that they used were most likely made for a larger ported enclosure? He had it tuned by a shop but it really didn't make much difference. This is where I figure a shallow mount woofer will help even tho they think it won't make any difference.
So with the size of the enclosure in mind what sub would you recommend? I really would like to fit a 10" in there. I'm not really going for earth shattering bass because frankly its a small car and a convertible. But I am going for something that sounds clean and hits nice.
Sorry guy's for typing up so much, I really wanted to keep it short but as I started typing it just seemed to get long and longer.:laugh:
I would greatly appreciate any feedback/recommendations for my setup. I am sure you get a lot of new guy's asking the same stuff so I would be very grateful.