Myster2

Back in 1995, I put in a very nice system in my car with a reasonable sub, HU, new speakers all the way around, eq and amplifier. My goal then was to just have some great sounding, well rounded (not bass thumping)music. Years later 2001'ish, this acquaintance show'd me his system in his Honda Accord....
Factory head unit
Factory CD changer
Factory speakers
added some thumping pair of 12" subs in the trunk.
Expensive Macintosh amplifier that produced a lot of power and was pretty big which was the only thing I saw of significance. He said he paid around $1000 for it.

It sounded so well balanced highs, lows, mids and bass and very loud volumes. He said the amplifier is the key thing in any system and the proof seemed to be in the pudding.

If you were going to upgrade or add one component, would this be the one?

(0)

superbad

When i was into car audio i was always told the amp is most important. The place i had my stuff installed had an expensive amp and had it hooked up to cheap wal-mart type speakers and it sounded amazing. Much better than what i had at the time.

__________________
2010 ALTIMA 3.5 SR:Prem Pkg, Sport Pkg, Tech pkg
MODS:A34 Nismos, BC Racing coilovers, RL RSB,RL rear endlinks, Recaro baby seat

(0)

sc302

you can have the best speakers in the world hook up to a crappy amp and those speakers will sound crappy. If you don't have good equipment driving the other equipment, the other equipment is unimportant. The same is true with home audio. Get a good receiver, get what you can afford everywhere else.

(0)

MrHiggles

The amp is the best thing. Quality is everything. I rather have a 200 watt amp with clean sound instead of a 30k watt amp with some distortion.

__________________

(0)

Myster2

That all makes sense to me.

Can I get some amp recommendations?

(0)

sc302

Macintosh is a great brand to stick with. They are the only one I can think of that haven't sold out to the rest of the world. Fosgate used to be awesome 20 years ago. Alpine also used to be good (might want to look at them as a second if you can't afford a mac).

(0)

c4w18

MMATs? Zed? Focal? Rainbow? There's quite a few great companies out there that compete with Mcintosh's $1500+ amps for much less.

(0)

MrHiggles

But how is the TBD? Mac is 0.005

__________________

(0)

MrHiggles

Screw the Stealership. Take it to a place that does audio work.

__________________

(0)

Penguinchit

If you want to clean it up, I'd definitely go with better quality speakers. Upgrading your speakers, even with leaving the rest of the factory system in place, will give you a night and day difference. The reason I recommend speakers over amps and head units is speakers for mids & highs can produce anywhere from 1% to 5% THD. Subs easily jump that number to 10%. Then, introduce the rest of the car's resonance, vibrations and road noise, and you have a ----ty sounding system. It doesn't do any good to push a great looking signal through a crappy paper double cone. When amp manufacturers brag about their low THD, it doesn't matter. We generally can't pick out THD of 1% or less. And that's with a clean simple tone. Add in music and it's not audible at all. Speakers will give you more benefit and usually cost less. Start there and then add/replace the amp later if you find it lacking. In the end, you'd probably end up replacing the speakers anyway because you'd have all these great electronics with a still poopy sound. That factory plastic film tweeter is nothing compared to a silk dome equivalent.

__________________
05 3.5SE AT

(0)

gameguru1360

if you're on a budget, I'd recommend first just replacing the head unit and all speakers. If you're not planning on putting an amp, just go with coaxials for the front and rear, but if you plan on putting in a 4 channel amp, save up for really good 6.5" components for the front and 6x9 coaxials in the rear. Then go with a mono amp for a sub and sound deadening, then upgrade to the Big 3 with 1 or 0ga wiring, possibly an agm battery as your starter battery such as Kinetik or Shuriken or XS

__________________

(0)

bigaudiofana

Good amp brands:

Zapco
Audison
Memphis
Alpine "PDX"
Rockford Fosgate "hybrid amps"
JL
Rainbow
Image Dynamics
McIntosh
and quite a few more....

(0)

c4w18

If you're doing competitions, yea, it'll give you an edge. But for a .025 to .004% difference in total harmonic distortion, I'll keep my $500 thank you very much lol.

(0)

c4w18

This guy knows what he's talking about.....speakers will ALWAYS be the weakest link in your audio system....but with one thing comes another...why chalk up the money for speakers without putting up the cash for a headunit and amp? vice versa etc...but if i HAD to choose one upgrade...yea...i'd do speakers.

(0)

bigaudiofana

I agree I have had some people want great speakers but really cut on the amps. Ending up running something like a boston acoustic amp. Still sounded great.

(0)