jlibert

Have an 04 quad cab with the infinity stereo. The cd player quit working and the passenger side door speaker quit working, soooooo it's time to upgrade.

I used to be into stereos back in high school, mainly ran JL subs, PPI amps and Eclipse head units. I've been out of stereos for some time now, and need help with my selections. Trying to keep the equipment cost at or below 2k. Here's what I have planned, tell me what I should change.

Eclipse CD5000 head unit (8v pre outs) $299
Focal 5.25 coaxal rear (tweeter pivots) $99
Focal 6x9 coaxal front (tweeter pivots) $149
JL 500/1 sub amp (500W RMS @ 4 oms) $399
JL 300/4 for highs (75W X 4 @ 4 ohms) $369

Would like 1 good quality 10 or 12" sub, probably in the center console like the JL stealthbox. Any suggestions for or against the console box? Would a sub under the back seat be better? I plan to re-run all new speaker wire. Please reccomend any components that are superior in quality for roughly the same price, or list any personal experience with any of the components listed above.

Thanks in advance,

J.P.

metalaram

A little DLR quote to start. you are not doing to bad with your selections in my book but i will give you a couple of ideas to kick around.

jl audio is always good i have had many of their woofers. i now have two 10W6v2s under the back seat in a custom built cabinet and their amps are good.

i also have focals in the doors 6-1/2 with 4-tweet in dash and 6-1/2-tweet separates in the rear doors. you can put a 6 1/2 in the back its tight but will fit and give you a little more mid base. consider the 165 v1 for front and rear awsome-awsome sound.

by the way make sure your deck has 3 preouts not two. as long as they are more than 4v you are good to go.

it might be a little more expensive but look into the new (out about a year) alpine pdx amps. they are awsome! very efficent and clean. wont drain the batteries or put a strain on the alternator and they dont get very hot! they are very compact and easy to place in tight spaces in the truck.

i was running 3 amps in my 05 but am now using only two and have a lot more power 1000x1 for the subs and 150x 4 to the fronts. they go under the front seat. before i had to move all the jack stuff under the pass seat but not with these amps .

for your needs they have a 600.1 for a sub/s and a 100x4 for the fronts that you can get a good price if you shop around.

lastly if you are more rock and roll get a 10 if you are into rap etc get a twelve.


just a few ideas im no stereo god but i have had and now have some pretty sweet systems......chris

walker

Sorry for the hi-jack - I have an SLT and would like a modest upgrade in sound. I listen to classic rock-n-roll exclusively. Floyd, Rush, Boston, Creed, e.t.c.(I'm an ex-hippie from the 70's )

Speaker upgrades? Best bang for the buck? Easy installation?

jrussell

If you're not a fan of multiple amp setups, take a look at the JL 500/5 amp. It has 4 channels to power the mids/highs and a 5th channel for the sub(s). The rear channel is a little light on power (rated at 25x2 watts) but if you're running 5.25's in the rear like most people it works fine. JL amps are always WAY underrated when it comes to power levels too.

igotaleadfoot

save some money, buy something other than jl. not that they are bad, but IMO they are overpriced. there are many other brands out there that are equal to or better than jl for less $$.

for a sub, i would suggest you get an rl-i10 from www.soundsplinter.com. you will not be disapointed in any way. i have two of the 8" rl-i's and i can tell you they have amazing sound quality but are not shy in any spl output either. perfect for small enclosures. their customer service is second to none.

good choice on the focals. the alpine pdx amps, as suggested, are pretty nice, too.

metalaram

the jl amps are very good and a 5 channel can be a good deal for a moderate system one problem is size (its 20"x10" big! the amp is so big that its very tough to get it in the truck. i was thinking about running the 1000x1 for my subs but it shares the same outer case/heat sink with the 5 channel and my installer said mounting it would be an issue. it can be done but it might not be a clean or cost effective install.

you can put two of the alpines in the space of one jl biggie! but that is one of two problems with a 5-c amp the other is flexability in the future. they are only set up to run in that configuration if you want a little more oomph later you have to add another amp anyway. also you cannot bridge the 5-c to use it another way or add more power to your setup.

i would rather have a little extra power and flexablity i will never use than not have enough and have to start over and spend way more to fix it.
so those are the major reasons to use a multi amp setup.

well one more actually! you never want to run a amp turned all the way up!!! it will not sound as good you will get hissing through the speakers during mellower parts of songs and in between tracks. also the amp will get very hot very quick and can shut down your music down untill it cools off and possably hurt the amp in the long run!

the best way is to run the amp normally at about 3/4 of max for best sound and heat control. example.. my 2 subs handle 800watts and my amp is 1000watts so at about 3/4 im at roughly 750-800 to the subs and thats about perfect.

i was a little sceptical of the alpine amps at first but watch out they are bad boys!!!

there is a lot of good equipment by a lot of good brands out there! this should never be about joes brand is better than bobs brand.

what is important is picking the right equipment and setting it up properly for your needs!!!! stero equipment is one of the many things that if you are cheap now you will pay much more later.....chris

metalaram

there is a pick of the big jl amp mounted in a mega cab in a thread called jl audio stealthbox. quad cabs dont have that much room to spare. it does show how big it really is though!

jrussell

A couple of points worth noting...

- You can still bridge the front and rear channels of the 500/5.

- There are separate gains for front, rear, and sub so you can adjust them individually just like if they were separate amps.

I understand your points, but for me it was the best option. No problem fitting it behind the rear seats of the MEGA either!

EDIT: Here's the pic metalaram was referring to. Not really a clean installation by any means, but I plan to clean it up one day.

jlibert

Thanks for the great replies!

When I used to be into car stereos back in the day I would have NEVER considered an alpine amp!!! . It was always punch, ppi, or Zapco. But, I guess times have changed. Thanks for opening my eyes to them. I think I'm going to purchase the 1.1000 pdx, and the 4.150 pdx. Focals in the doors, and the eclipse deck (it has 3 pairs of 8v pre outs).

What should I do for a sub or subs??? JL's console with the 13, or two 10's under the seat? I wish I could get the stealthbox in the console location with a better sub, maybe a JL W7? If not, which subs should I use under the back seat? The boxes I've seen only have about .7-.8 cubic ft. for each sub, and it looks like I'll be running the 1.1000.

Thanks again for all the help.

metalaram

i waited about a year to get more feedback an the alpines and herd nothing but good localy and national reviews. and they rock!!

anyway i would stay away from the w7 JLs unless you are going to compete in spl competions. they are very did i mention very! power hungery and are extreamly deep and hard to fit unless you want them sitting on top of your back seat!

w6s are the way to go!!! whether in your own box or in a stealthbox. if money or space is to tight another option would be the 600.1 amp with two w3 V2! not v3 that would be a very balanced set up also and save about 4-500 bucks or so. i had the 10w3v2s in my 01 firing down under the rear seat with a phx gold amp bridged at 500x1 and that setup rocked.

like i said earlier 10s if you rock 12s if you rap what ever brand you choose.

lastly what is also very good about the w6s is they handle a lot of power but only require a small enclosure.

i wish my truck was not sitting at the dealer with a clogged DPF or i would take some pics for you.

let me know if you have any more questions...chris

P.S. putting a cap on your setup with big amps is a good idea!!!

metalaram

jrussell. please take no offence to this but though you can bridge the amp what would you do with it after that.

if you bridge the two 100w channels into 1 at say 300w and the rear two into 1 at say 100ish watts what would you do with two different outputs i guess you could run the fronts mono from the one front channel you would have and the rears from the rear mono channel that would be created by bridging......basicly you would have a amp with 3 mono channels.

if you look at JLs web site they give the bridged rateing for all their amps except the mono ones and the 5 channel....chris

jrussell

The same thing you would do with a 2 channel bridged amp. With either type of amp you only get mono once it's bridged...so what's the difference?

You said it couldnt be bridged. I was just trying to point out that it can be bridged the same as any other 2 or 4 channel amp. Doesn't really matter because the front channel is more than enough power for even the highest quality mids/highs, so there isn't a need to bridge it. Like I said before, the rear is a little lacking but it still provides plenty of clean power for any 5.25 speaker.

A 5 channel amp is not really one amplifier. It's more like 3 amps combined into one. In the old days you would have a 2 channel for the front, 2 channel for the rear, and another 2 channel bridged for the sub(s). The 5 channel is just all those combined with separate gains and crossovers for each.

btolenti

for the center mounted sub, I got a hotbox from E-bay. I have an eclipse 10" sub in it and it sounds great....

bbhzx12

I've got some great gear in great or new shape if you'd like to consider it. Boston Z6's slightly used, 2 Boston G5 12's, slightly used, Boston GT-28 and GT-42 both new in the box, a Pioneer AVH-P7500DVD used but just back from a new CD drive unit and working great, an Alpine CD deck (I'd have to check the model), and some 1 farad caps. Let me know if anything intrests you, it's great gear that I'm sure you'd be happy with.

rustyshakelford

i have an 800 watt?? amp from alpine and a 12" type r sub in my boat and i hate it! its way to powerful and makes everything rattle and vibrate. so...its going in the truck and a 600 with a 10 will be going back in the boat!!

brett