[monkeybutt]

Okay, this is for an Image Dynamics Overstock 12" D2 250 watts version. This was from 2006 when ID blew out some items on Ebay which looked very similar to some ED stuff and IDQ. http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...erstock-image-dynamics-12s-15s-up-sale-3.html
I had this in a .9 cu ft. sealed enclosure running off 300 watts and it sounded nice and performed very much like the IDQv2 10 except it went a bit deeper and louder. I thought this would be a perfect sub for newer members due to the ease of implementation, ie. the simplicity of a sealed box alignment, relatively easy blending and good SQ.
Anyway here are the contingencies:
1) Must be a DIYMA member w/ less than 100 posts.
2) Briefly, or not, describe your very first system.
3) Describe in more detail your present system and what you are trying to accomplish. For example, tonality, staging, impact, stealth, etc.
4) Have some fun telling your story.
I'm gonna go against my own rule of 'no shipping' and open this up so I will be sending this one via UPS ground to someone in 48 states free of charge.
It is night of 4/18/09 so let's let this run until 4/22/09 Wednesday 8pm PST when I'll announce the winner. Thanks for playing.

 

[shadowfactory]

Just a suggestion but you might want to run this more than 1 day to allow the thread to get enough replies to warrant a contest.

 

[JSlabotsky]

Well, my first "system", if you want to call it that, was a JVC two shaft cassette head unit, a crappy under-dash amplifier (I don't recall what brand) and a pair of Kenwood 4"x10" speakers in the rear deck of my 1981 Cutlass. This was high school, circa 1988. The HU and amp were in place for about six months before being stolen while my car was parked at school.

A few months later I upgraded to a Kenwood DIN pull-out cassette HU and added a Kenwood 150 watt amp and a pair of MTX 12" subs in a sealed box. I think I had it a total of 3 weeks before it was all stolen. They tried to steal the car and failed. In retrospect I wish they'd gotten the whole POS car.

As you might expect, my next purchase was a security system. Funny how when you're young you get priorities all out of order.

So here we are, 21 years later (holy crap!) and I now drive a 2001 Suburban with a car seat in the back. I'm putting together an ultra-budget system with stealth as my main priority. With every piece I'm looking for the best bang for the buck. Right now it's a Pioneer Premier DEH-P400UB head unit with some ultra-cheap Kicker DS650.2 components installed in the stock door locations. I picked up an Orion Cobalt CS500.5 amp on eBay that will soon be installed. The final piece is the subwoofer. Tentatively I planned to replace the OEM driver with a better 8" driver in the stock enclosure. In addition I picked up a Q Logic enclosure for an 8" sub concealed behind the console. I plan on using identical 8" drivers in each location, both run off the sub channel of the Orion amp. However, if I were lucky enough to win a larger sub I'd build a fiberglass enclosure in the space currently occupied by the stock enclosure, extending into the cargo area if needed. Once I have all the basic components in hand, I intend to go about deadening the doors and improving all aspects of the installation as my schedule permits.

Aside from stealth, sound quality is my secondary goal, in particular imaging. I am a musician and have grown accustomed to working with nearfield studio monitors. You get spoiled to having everything appear exactly where it's supposed to in the sound stage. A car's interior makes that just about impossible, but I'd like to get as close as I can without spending my child's college fund. Accuracy and realism are paramount, with SPL serving only to get the volume high enough to mask road and wind noise so that all of the nuances are audible.

I guess my story isn't all that much fun, but I felt like sharing.

 

[Austin]

ok to start my very first system was the stock cassette player on my 1994 sable that i got several years ago. As soon as i had some time to kind of tinker with it i checked out the rear mids and found them to be deteriorating. luckily someone bought new speakers for their ford lightening and gave the "stock" ones to me since he was going to throw them away..they happened to be fairly nice and the right size so i threw those in there. A few months later i bought a new cd deck and all that snazz like removable face plate and auxilary input. it was the cheapest deck so i got it. I found out how to test the wires from the old deck to figure out which one went to where in the car and i installed the deck myself instead of paying best buy $50 to do it.

my first system with subs came a little after that when i made a couple boxes in my wood shop class my sophomore year (im a senior now). this is when i knew absolutely nothing about CU FT or port sizing or anything like that so i just guessed on the size and said that should work haha. nonetheless one of them worked very well (it was a bandpass box) and i still have it. that led me to buy a 12" insignia from best buy for about $100. I was so excited for this sub because it was 1800 watts MAX which just psyched me out so much. ( i soon learned they werent very good) i threw this sub in my box and i tried it out on my home theater receiver and it hit pretty good.

i needed an amp still...i got the best one out there (just kidding)...a pyle 2400 watt amp with...wait for it...a chopper style theme. haha yes i just looked at the max wattage like all newbs do. everyone has done it. i got my amp in the mail soon and i hooked it all up and for then and my first system it hit really hard which now it was very weak. not too long after that i made another box which sucked but it held two of the insignias. i tried the box and i didnt like it at all so i switched back to my single bandpass box. the first sub back in that box blew when i was driving to work playing a lil wayne song with constant bass and the second blew while i was on a short trip on the freeway with my girlfriend blasting music and having fun...it just ended the fun but oh well. it gave me a reason to started working on a new system = ]

my current system i have now is new everything except the deck. ive got a built-to-spec box i made over several weeks with fiberglass coated inside painted flat black and with carpet on the outside which is black also. i have a power acoustik mofo 12" sub in the box which hits extremely hard. i found the perfect position for the box to sit in my trunk a few days ago which is sideways and a few inches from the wheel well on the passenger side. that way it hits the hardest on the inside of the car. i know its the way the acoustics are working with all the sound waves in my trunk. ive got that locked down with two masterlocks locking two hasps that are screwed to my trunk bottom and my sub in opposite corners so no one can steal it. powering the sub is a power acoustik bamf 2000/1d which is a good amp for the price. i know there are better amps out there but this one was the one i liked. today, actually, i just installed a new item i received which is a amp/voltage meter that runs through the main power wire near your amp or anywhere you want on your main power wire. it is really cool yet i need to find a way to make it turn off when my car is off because right now at 1:20 am it is still in my trunk..on..reading 12.4 volts with 0 amps...haha. i know it wont kill my batt so i dont mind much.

I designed this system to be somewhat stealth since it is in a mercury sable (grandma car) but when you open the trunk up you see a nice setup (in my eyes) that looks like i spent a lot of time on it..people actually dont believe i made the box and i try to convince them i did. i hope to add another similar or exact box with the same sub in it and another power acoustik 2000/1d amp to my system with an alternator upgrade to 200 amps since it struggles with just one amp.​

 

[Vega-LE]

I bought my 1st. system back in '87'. I had just bought my 1st. automobile an '85' Toyota extra/cab pick-up. I was still in high school.

I knew I wanted a clean sounding system more than anything else to complement my new truck and make driving more enjoyable. I went to a place in the West Covina Mall (if you know of it?) called "And Then Sound." They sold a lot of home audio stuff, but they had one sound room with car audio speakers.

They had a couple Coustic amps that they used to audition/power their speakers through like a DJ sytem. After listening to the Vega Le Subs and Coustic Audia plate speakers I was impressed... So I bought a Coustic deck and Eq as well. The amps were Coustic 380 and 120 I bought. An all Coustic system with Vega subs.

The guy recommended me to a local shop to get have it all hooked-up, but my step father made me the sub box. It was a box even Marv would have been proud of. Ported of course.ab

The plate speakers were mounted to a baffle on the door panel down low. The original speakers were like 3in. and in the lower dash, so the door panels were flat... Just a baffle to set the plate speaker(s) into with no opening into the door. Easy installation.

I did use either a Majestic or Unic electronic crossover when I later added a Coustic mid/woofer in the extra-cab which made things sound even better. But I think the Coustic 120 couldn't handle the load the plate speakers and mid/woofer were drawn cause it would cut out once in a while. I should have added another Coustic amp (190) to power the mid/woofers alone.

The sound this system produced was amazing... though. The sq was so accurate, clean, natural, and detailed I never wanted anything more. More power would have been ok though. It was all stolen though. I hate Pomona!

I now have a '97' Toyota Tacoma. I also have a '07' Corolla. The Tacoma has had a few different systems, the 1st. being stolen in Vegas. But at the moment, my truck has a Coustic Pro Deck, Coustic eq, Profile 1040 running some older Diamond Audio comps and a Powerbass 600.2 pushing an ID 8".

My ideal system is one that 1st. sounds good and fits into the cars design. As far as stage goes, I'm not sure I care. I'm more about the music just sounding natural and filling-up the cabin. I want to be able to close my eyes and not tell where the sound is coming from. But, that's just me. This Logitech does a pretty impressive job at stage. Lol! Seriously...

I like my ID but I'm not all that impressed. But I'd take one anyways.

 

[pagustin]

Very first system was a JVC headunit with a pair of Kenwood 6x9's in the back deck.

Next lets call it real system was in my Geo Metro. Kenwood KRC-757 full pull-out deck (great idea for security but damned heavy, not to mention you look like your carrying a purse), Alpine (can't remember the model) 50x4 amp running in a 3 channel mode to a pair of Rockford Fosgate 5.25 mids and the really old school 1" soft dome RF that was more of a home tweet with a total mounting diameter of 4", for that last channel I was running a 10" Bazooka tube. SQ was not that good but for someone who was just in his infancy of car audio not to mention I was the first person in my town with a subwoofer of any kind it was good. Oh and pretty loud.

I am looking to install a very stealth system in my car but I want it to be extremely high SQ even over stealth. I will be doing 6.5's in the kicks and 1" tweets in the stock door locations. I would love to use this sub in a sealed enclosure in the spare tire well. Amplification would be handled by an Adcom 4302 to the tweets, Rockford Fosgate 250x2 (or and Adcom 5450 if I can get my hands on it) to the mids, The sub would be powered by a RF 250x2. The head unit will be an old school Sony Mobile ES CDX-C910 with an XDP-210EQ for active cross-over duties as well as some time alignment.

I'd also love to try and IB an ID sub through the back desk too.

P

 

[monkeybutt]

Just a suggestion but you might want to run this more than 1 day to allow the thread to get enough replies to warrant a contest.

Whoops, Shadow thanks for pointing that out. I meant Wednesday 4/22/09 8pm PST. Lack of sleep last night.:blush:

 

[Fast1one]

He is at it again!!! Great guy!

 

[basher8621]

My first stereo was in a 1993 Chevy Cavalier. it consisted on a JVC head unit with 2 12" JBL GT subs and a JBL BP600.1 The front speakers with I think 3" Infinity coaxials and the rear speakers were 6x9 Blaupunkt (with the see through blue cone).

My present system is not currently installed. I am in Iraq right now so I have to wait to get home to do so. The stereo will be built to comepet in SQ. The front stage is still up in the air but I am planning on using Hertz or Morel (3-way active), I need to test both when i get home. The wiring is all Knukonceptz. Deadener will be RaamMat. I will be using Alpine PDX amps (1.600, 4.150, 4.100). The processor will be a Alpine H701. The head unit is a Panasonic in-dash tv. I am also looking for a new sub(s) so this sub would be perfect for my stereo.

The sub(s) will be used in a fiberglass enclosure covered in carpet. The amps will all be mounted under a false floor. The entire front state will be stealth. Exactly where will all be determined when it comes time to install. All wires will be wrapped in tech flex and secured to the floor every 6" or less by zip ties and zip tie anchors.

I think I listed everything.

 

[zoomski]

my first system was in my 93 pontiac grand am (this is 4 years ago).Its had a stock "system", with a cassette player that never worked. So my dad one day brought me a my first deck. Which i didn't know wat brand it was, cause there was no logo or any stickers saying brand name. It was used, but i liked it. I later found out that it was a jvc el camelion (or something like that). IT cost me an arm an a leg to hook it up, because i had no idea wat i was doing. Later on i got a couple of sony xlpod speakers from a friend, with a rating of 350 watts (i was excited). Installed them in the rear deck, and hooked it up to the HU, and it didn't pound as i expected (350 watts i thought was really powerful),i didnt know yet that you needed amps for speakers too, but i was happy.

Now i i have a 06 mazda6 , with a stock hu, rockford fosgate 360.1, infinity kappa 6.5 in front, and infinity kappa in rear doors, powered by a kicker zx650.4. I also have a kicker 750.1 mono amp that was powering my 15" xtant subwoofer, but it no longer resides in my trunk, because of the size, and i really dont like how it plays. Rite now im trying to change up my system a bit. I want to get a 360.2 to advance myself a bit in the mobile audio section of my life.Deadening the car is also on the primary to-do list. Im also looking to pick up a set of the pionner prs components. I really want to experience time alignment, so that's the goal for rite now.

The sub would be in a custom box, that i will (for the first time make) out of fiberglass/ mdf, on the side of my trunk (trying to conserve space, as i use my trunk for work).

and thats about it

 

[Therum]

My first system was in a 89 Pontiac Grand Am. I had a Sony headunit with 10 or 12 disk CD changer screwed into the side panel in the rear :laugh: (it was a 2 door) a pyramid "60" watt 2 channel up front hidden behind the headunit. It had 2 knobs on it. One for Treble and one for Bass with the bass turned all the way down, treble all the way up. I ran it off of the front speaker output of the head. It recieved power from the fuse panel. ; ) Out back I had a pair of Kenwood 6 x 9's that I was so proud of that I cut the rear deck speaker covers (it was one whole piece) so I could put the kenwood grills on. It was powered off of the front channels of a ADS Powerplate 440 with the rear crossover messed up(Should have kept it) that I picked up at a pawn shop for $50. My sub consisted of a 12" home speaker in the home speaker enclosure. So when I went to school and "CRANKED" it up i you could hear the words through the trunk!! LOL I later bought a profile 3 way active crossover. I then had the rear play only midbass. LOL Those were the days. BTW my install skills are way better than they were 13 years ago ; ). I have been through many training classes with various vendors (JL, Alpine, Boston, Kenwood, etc)

Now I am building a new system from scratch I am currently running a Alpine CVA-1005 (I know its old but paid only $100 I couldnt resist), Pioneer PRS-x320 (I got a great deal on this one too) and a JL10w3. I cant seem to find any of the old school premier stuff to match so I am probably going to be getting something else. It will run at 2 ohm mono but gets hot. Never goes into protect but is hotter than I would like. I will probably give the w3 to the misses and find something else for me. I am trying to build a well balanced system. Something I never had the desire to do before. When I was a teen all that mattered was more bass the better. But now its quite a different story.

Thanks for reading. I hope you had some laughs out of it.

 

[stuckinok]

First off i would like to say thank you for doing this! My first system was in my 93 240SX. The year was 2000 and it was my 17th birthday. I asked for nothing but money from everyone and my parents bought my a Kenwood CD player (cant remember the model) but it was the first year they had the MASK feature where the face flipped completely over too look like a blank space. Interior speakers were all kenwood with 4x6s up front and 6.5 in the rear. My substage was my pride and joy lol. I had a 10in Fosgate HE2 in a q-logic ported enclosure powered by a DHD(stop laughing) 500.1 with a Rage 1f cap. I loved that set-up and was a hit in the high school parking lot!

My current system is more of a KISS set-up. It is in a 2003 Chevy Silverado that i got from my late Father. The headunit is Clarion DXZ775USB, Front stage is the best I have ever had my hands on. Peerless HDS tweeters and Peerless Exclusive 7in Mids. They are powered by a crossfire VR404 but they will soon be replaced by all sundown amps due to the great customer service of Jacob Fuller. I have always been in SPL but i guess i found more fulfillment in SQ. There is nothing like siting back and really enjoying the music. I do travel quite abit for my job so there is nothing like some Miles Davis or Eagles and the open interstate or highway. All deadening is with Raammat. All kicker install accessories thanks to that Amazon deal! I dont have any subs right now so I think a ID 12 would be perfect *wink wink*. All iam really trying to do is reproduce the most reallistic sound stage I can accomplish while keeping everything simple, budget minded and within the limits of my own ability. I wanted to also keep everything stealth. That makes it challenging to get the correct stage height and imaging but I like when people sit in my truck and go WOW you put new speakers in here? I also like the fact of people saying Why a Clarion deck? or what is peerless why didnt you get name brand stuff? Clean crisp vocals with a great center image is something Iam focusing right now. Its amazing how much I have learned since I have become a real DIY person. SQ is really where my heart is! The only complaint about my system is that it makes Rap music sound like crap lol I used to only listen to Rap but have now found out that I rather listen to Modern jazz and blues. I dont know what has come over me!

 

[fczeuner]

First I'd like to thank you for the chance to win your old sub, and thanks to everyone who posts here. I've learned a lot.

My very first system was in 1982, I had a 77 Vega wagon (Loved that car). It had a Kraco cassette deck that could record off the radio, a pyramid power booster / EQ and a set of the original blue Jensen 6x9's. For a 17 year old listening to Ozzy and AC/DC, it rocked.

My next system was in 1988, I had a 76 Pontiac Lemans and I bought a Clarion HU and 2 Alphasonic amps (PMA-2150 and PMA-2075) with Clarion 6x9's in the rear and 6.5's jammed in the door. Loved that system. I remember the old amp would fire up with a loud POP and to me at the time it was brutally powerful.

For the last 20 year I've been supporting my family, and listening to stock systems. I drive an 02 Honda Accord 96 miles a day to my job round trip. I recently bought an Alpine CDA-9886 HU and a set of Phoenix Gold RSd65cs comps for the door. Both of those because of reviews I've read here. I picked up an old school Coustic AMP-215x off of e-bay for $7.50 (works great) to run the door speakers. My immediate plans are to get rid off the rear speakers because its a work car and I never have passengers and will be running a sub. So I'm shopping e-bay for a nice amp and sub. I will be building the sealed box. Then I can relive my childhood again (77 Vega days)

Thanks again for all the great ideas

 

[eriley]

Alright, I'll give it a shot. My first system is pretty much my current set up. Originally, I replaced the stock radio in my 95' S10 with an old Alpine deck I bought off of my cousin, it had a cartridge on the front that you could load 3 discs into and it would change them right there. They would get stuck quite often though, and it died pretty soon after I put it in. I then purchased my current JVC KD-G310, I like it but it's too bad I didn't know that 1 RCA output wasn't enough. Then, I added new 4x6's in the dash, I think they are Sony X-ploids from Wal-mart, but I'm not sure the boxes are at home and I'm at college. A Christmas or two later, another one of my cousins gave me a set of Alpine coax's he was going to install into an S10 he had before he sold it. Again not sure what model since the box is at home but they are pretty decent imo. I recently had a 8" no brand clarion sub that I pulled out of a pre-fab box along with a little class-D amp and tried running that for a while, but the quality was not great at all and despite my best efforts to ground everything properly I still had a ground loop with it. So, that's out now, and that bring us up to date. My future plans are for a full SQ set up, I have it somewhat envisioned in my head, but finding the funds and gaining the knowledge to do it comes first. This is bar far the best car audio forum I have come across though, DIYMA ftw! For the most part, however, I want the best full round sound I can get and I'm doing my best to learn as much as possible to accomplish this. Right now the area I am lacking most is the lows. The coax's seem to do a decent job of reproducing mids and highs but in most songs I can tell that there are lower notes being played that I can't hear or can barely hear. Hence the haste in installing the little clarion. I'm more willing to take my time now though as I think I will learn more and gain a better system out of it in the end. Ok, I think I said all I wanted to say. Thank you for doing this, its truly a very nice thing. And thanks for the advice in my other thread, I think it will help a lot.

 

[monkeybutt]

Okay I'll play, but I'm over 100 post so I guess I'm disqualified.
My first system that was not handed down to me from a big sister was in a '76 Corolla E5spd. I had a Pioneer KP-500 Super Tuner cassette deck which had a funky round manual dial that looked like this: http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/8927/kp500kw2.jpg This was connected to my much loved Pioneer 6x9 Triaxials which were placed in the rear deck for best staging. This set up was Da **** back in the day - at least to me. As this was an underdash unit I had a stealth install by having it in the glove compartment. Odd thing is that the designers of this deck didn't think to include 'locking' FF or Rewind. So when I wanted to change songs I needed to reach over across the dash down to the glovebox to keep my finger on the button which was okay except I couldn't see the road too well. Can't quite remember how many times I ended up in the sand or cane fields for a bit of off roading adventure.
My next upgrade was to a Concord HU which bar none had the best sound until the Naks and later some top line Alpines showed up. By then I was into something called 'front speakers' , amplifi-something or others, and my signature components in a ported box in the rear. Heaven.

As I've noted my present systems in my TL and CL elsewhere, I won't go into detail here except to say that for me it was a bit of a good thing for me that some of the other online forums went down as I could concentrate on what DIYMA tended to espouse here. I've got my systems to where I'm pretty happy w/ them now tonality wise and lately have just been comparing some of the boner - and rightfully so -subs popular here. I'm kind of torn between staying passive and going active. Active 'should' give me more options on tweeter placement and being able to raise my stage as well as allow me to check out some cool drivers. I've got most of the pieces to go active except for selecting the components. I'm a bit daunted by the work and giving up the tonality - my personal priority - I worked to get so far. Maybe someone can push me over the edge? As an interim I am presently implementing an ambient tweeter set up to try and raise my stage. If it goes well I'll give credit to my inspiration and, if not, crucify him online.:laugh:

Alright, thanks for listening and keep 'em coming - one more day to go.

 

[designerfh]

First true "system", circa 1993, was a two shaft pioneer tape deck (had auto-reverse, it was smoking), a Kenwood 2 channel 40w amp, and two Jensen "blue max" 140w 6x9's, in a 1977 Malibu Classic affectionately referred to as The Beast. That thing would seriously rock out some Slayer.

Next system, circa 1996, was in my 1986 Monte Carlo SS. I had MTX 3-1/2's in the dash, MTX 6x9's (via a 4x10 adapter) in the rear deck, pushed by an old kenwood 40x4 amp. I had two Kicker 12's in a sealed box being pushed by a Coustic 360 - I think that thing was ancient even then. I loved pulling up at stop lights bumping country, even though I was/am a metal head.

Now I have an 05 Silverado Ext Cab, and the system is a little more serious, but with "big box mass produced" components that I am now trying to phase out and move over to serious SQ equipment. The current setup is an Alpine 9887 deck, MB Quart PVF-216's running bi-amped off a RF T400-4, with two Punch Stage 2 10's being fed from an Alpine MRP-1000 in a subthump box.

Im trying to round out the sound a bit - at the levels I like playing at, I can't get the comps and the subs to cross over well. The subs want to stay under 60-70hz, and the comps want to stay above 200hz, so I need to add some midbass to the doors with custom pods (paging AZGrower) and some deadening. After that, I want to build a custom console and just use it as an amp rack, raise the rear seat, build a new underseat box with a little more area than 0.65cu/ft per side.

I still very much a newb on this site - reading a lot, finding out where to buy what from who, what sounds good for this or that, etc. I'm floored by what is out there for car audio, especially SQ, when you get past what you see at the local audio shop. I think I have the basics down, now im just waiting to hear what some of higher end stuff sounds like. I have the basics for a cabinet shop - table saw, 8" jointer, planer, dust collector, 3 routers, router table, nail guns, sheet of MDF, etc - but havent built anything for car audio yet. This might be a good oppurtunity to put something neat together.

 

[old_skool_noma]

Hello, and thanks for a chance to win this sub

1. yep ive got less than 100 posts here

2. my first system, technically i guess would be a roadmaster preloaded dual chamber box with 2 6.5s and 2 horn tweeters that went behind the seat in my truck, i ran it off the factory head unit in my sonoma with wire T'd into the factory door speaker wires in the little rubber boot from the a pillar to the door, then taped up.
After that, i got an old sony xplode headunit from my old room mate after he wrecked his truck that im still running (hopefully soon to be replaced for my birthday) and i bought a memphis power reference 12 from another friend in a truck box for $20, and powered it with my guitar amp for a week or two with a power inverter until i got a visonik 70 watt RMS amp then built about a 2.5 cubic foot ported box for it, its in a new sealed box in my g/fs car now (yeah it was pretty ghetto there for a while) and i also pulled the 6.5s out of the pre loaded box and put them in my doors.

3. My current system is mainly just temporary until i can get the money saved up to build the system i want. one of my main objectives is to make a visual impact since it is a small single cab truck, ive got 2 ultra linear UL12s in it right now with a dual chamber sealed box at .9-1 cubic foot per sub, as well as a blaupunkt 650i component set that i picked up for $10 at a junk yard just to get me by till i could build my big system. the subs are run off of a 2 channel jensen amp, and the components are run off of a pre xplode sony 4 channel amp thats been bridged to 2 channels. (i cant remember model numbers right now) but im borrowing both of them since my soundstorm started putting out a huge DC offset, so ive been looking at new amps as well.

As for what Im planning, im looking at building a dayton reference series 3 way component set with the RS255, RS100, and one of the 1 1/8th inch tweets and run the RS100 and RS225 off the rear channels of a 4 channel and the tweets from the front channels, and then i was planning to get 2 of the 12" HO sub woofers run in a sealed box, each with their own bridged 2 channel amp to have left and right channel subs as well. As for a head unit im planning to get the kenwood kdc-x693 since it has built in crossovers and time alignment to help me improve my SQ and staging as well as it just looks clean.

ive got a long way to go, but i think my plan sounds pretty solid

so my main goals are to make a visual impact by have an extremely clean install, while still maintaining high SQ and staging, and maybe get pretty loud once in a while, but that would only be an added perk

 

[old_skool_noma]

Hello, and thanks for a chance to win this sub

1. yep ive got less than 100 posts here

2. my first system, technically i guess would be a roadmaster preloaded dual chamber box with 2 6.5s and 2 horn tweeters that went behind the seat in my truck, i ran it off the factory head unit in my sonoma with wire T'd into the factory door speaker wires in the little rubber boot from the a pillar to the door, then taped up.
After that, i got an old sony xplode headunit from my old room mate after he wrecked his truck that im still running (hopefully soon to be replaced for my birthday) and i bought a memphis power reference 12 from another friend in a truck box for $20, and powered it with my guitar amp for a week or two with a power inverter until i got a visonik 70 watt RMS amp then built about a 2.5 cubic foot ported box for it, its in a new sealed box in my g/fs car now (yeah it was pretty ghetto there for a while) and i also pulled the 6.5s out of the pre loaded box and put them in my doors.

3. My current system is mainly just temporary until i can get the money saved up to build the system i want. one of my main objectives is to make a visual impact since it is a small single cab truck, ive got 2 ultra linear UL12s in it right now with a dual chamber sealed box at .9-1 cubic foot per sub, as well as a blaupunkt 650i component set that i picked up for $10 at a junk yard just to get me by till i could build my big system. the subs are run off of a 2 channel jensen amp, and the components are run off of a pre xplode sony 4 channel amp thats been bridged to 2 channels. (i cant remember model numbers right now) but im borrowing both of them since my soundstorm started putting out a huge DC offset, so ive been looking at new amps as well.

As for what Im planning, im looking at building a dayton reference series 3 way component set with the RS255, RS100, and one of the 1 1/8th inch tweets and run the RS100 and RS225 off the rear channels of a 4 channel and the tweets from the front channels, and then i was planning to get 2 of the 12" HO sub woofers run in a sealed box, each with their own bridged 2 channel amp to have left and right channel subs as well. As for a head unit im planning to get the kenwood kdc-x693 since it has built in crossovers and time alignment to help me improve my SQ and staging as well as it just looks clean.

ive got a long way to go, but i think my plan sounds pretty solid

so my main goals are to make a visual impact by have an extremely clean install, while still maintaining high SQ and staging, and maybe get pretty loud once in a while, but that would only be an added perk

 

[bobdole369]

Hi all,

I'm still working on my first real system. My first exposure to car audio was because of my dad (he had a kenwood 999 in his van, and later an 878), and my brother. For years when he was into it (at that age about 12-15) he would ask me to fix problems with his friends systems - I would always find the better ground or the shredded RCA coax that was making the system work less than optimal. I was pretty precocious and thought nothing of using a soldering iron at 11 yrs old. Had a couple cars where I changed the deck - including using my current deck, but nothing that I would call a true "system".

Current system (really my first system from the ground up)
2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser.

Have an older Pioneer CD-deck (will edit with model number soon) going to first a cheesy 7 band EQ (to assist with levels), then on to an Audiocontrol EQX (old version with a 100hz 2 way xover and a 13 band EQ (continually adjusting based on feedback from the first eq).

Nakamichi PA-200 (35wx2) into a pair of Boston Acoustics S35's in the dash.
Clarion APX2120 (60Wx2) into a pair of Boston Acoustics SX65's in the doors.
Profile 200Wx1 into a JL audio 10W3v3 in a 1.2cuft sealed box.

The original goal of the system was stealth. All speakers in stock locations and using the factory radio - 6disc in-dash changer with sirius/AM/FM, but when a tiny bit of plastic gave way inside the deck and trapped my CD's until I freed them - rendering the deck unusable - I went with the Pioneer CD deck that I had in the house from my last car, and the results were so much better I abandoned the stealth idea. It's still surprising to new riders - they only see a deck, and don't expect the quality sound that comes out of a regular looking radio.

I'm very much new and while I'm an old hand at electronics and audio in general - its the "quality sound" part that I'm just now starting to appreciate.

My immediate goal is a flat response curve. Been working on that for quite some time now. One of these weekends I'll break down and get an RTA to assist. Its very time consuming for me, still a novice and I'm sort of not sure what to listen for.

Long term goal is staging and tonality. I want the most accurate - true to life sounding vehicle. I want to play a live CD - close my eyes, and think I'm at the concert hall.

Thanks for offering this up and lets hope DIYMA goes on forever. Without a doubt - the best site in car audio.

 

[bobdole369]

Hi all,

I'm still working on my first real system. My first exposure to car audio was because of my dad (he had a kenwood 999 in his van, and later an 878), and my brother. For years when he was into it (at that age about 12-15) he would ask me to fix problems with his friends systems - I would always find the better ground or the shredded RCA coax that was making the system work less than optimal. I was pretty precocious and thought nothing of using a soldering iron at 11 yrs old. Had a couple cars where I changed the deck - including using my current deck, but nothing that I would call a true "system".

Current system (really my first system from the ground up)
2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser.

Have an older Pioneer CD-deck (will edit with model number soon) going to first a cheesy 7 band EQ (to assist with levels), then on to an Audiocontrol EQX (old version with a 100hz 2 way xover and a 13 band EQ (continually adjusting based on feedback from the first eq).

Nakamichi PA-200 (35wx2) into a pair of Boston Acoustics S35's in the dash.
Clarion APX2120 (60Wx2) into a pair of Boston Acoustics SX65's in the doors.
Profile 200Wx1 into a JL audio 10W3v3 in a 1.2cuft sealed box.

The original goal of the system was stealth. All speakers in stock locations and using the factory radio - 6disc in-dash changer with sirius/AM/FM, but when a tiny bit of plastic gave way inside the deck and trapped my CD's until I freed them - rendering the deck unusable - I went with the Pioneer CD deck that I had in the house from my last car, and the results were so much better I abandoned the stealth idea. It's still surprising to new riders - they only see a deck, and don't expect the quality sound that comes out of a regular looking radio.

I'm very much new and while I'm an old hand at electronics and audio in general - its the "quality sound" part that I'm just now starting to appreciate.

My immediate goal is a flat response curve. Been working on that for quite some time now. One of these weekends I'll break down and get an RTA to assist. Its very time consuming for me, still a novice and I'm sort of not sure what to listen for.

Long term goal is staging and tonality. I want the most accurate - true to life sounding vehicle. I want to play a live CD - close my eyes, and think I'm at the concert hall.

Thanks for offering this up and lets hope DIYMA goes on forever. Without a doubt - the best site in car audio.