Basic system

[Blinkybill]

This is somthing i did for another Forum, its really basic and simple, just thought it may help on here

 

 

 

I thought I would post this for the I.C.E newbi's

 

To start with I.C.E = In Car Entertainment!

 

 

First off we have the Head unit (HU) this is basically the stereo in the dash of your car, they are available in Tape, CD, Mini Disc, DVD & VCD e.t.c the one u chose depends on which u listen too, there are also many add on for your head unit, such as Multi Changers, which can be a 6 disc up to 51 disc! Or minidisc, or DVD!

 

I would say spend around £200-250 so (I would recommend Alpine, Kenwood, Pioneer or Clarion, Blaupunkt, Becker)

These are all good manufactures and should be good all rounder. Which one u get depends on what u wont from it.

 

 

Front speakers:

 

I always recommend components for front speakers, most of the time you will get a better sound from them. As u are able to position the tweeter were u wont it to enhance sound stage e.t.c

Spend around £100-150, the bigger the speaker the better (Boston Acoustics, MB Quart, MTX, Phoenix Gold (PG) and Rockford Fosgate (RF) are all good makes)

 

Rear speakers:

 

I wouldn’t recommend rear speakers as they tend to ruin the sound stage by dragging the sound to the back, and were do u sit?! (6" by 9" are a NO NO!)

If u do wont rear speakers then just replace the factory rears and run them off the head unit.

 

Amp:

 

A 4 channel amp is a good idea so you can run your fronts and your sub of the amp, by using the front two channels to run the front speakers and "bridge" the rear channels to run the sub. Spend around £150 or more. (Alpine, MTX, Phoenix Gold (PG) and Rockford Fosgate (RF) are all good makes (there are many more))

 

Sub:

 

Firstly think about what you want to use it for....

 

10" tend to be good for tight and fast bass, small boxes

 

12" tend to be good all round subs, Can do the fast and low bass, medium boxes

 

15" can go very low, but a bit slow, requires large boxes.

 

Boston Acoustics, MB Quart, MTX, Phoenix Gold (PG), Rockford Fosgate (RF), Resonant Engineering (RE), Digital Designs (DD) are all good makes again.

 

Box design:

 

There are two main types of box. Sealed, which are mainly good for SQ (sound quality) and Ported. Which are mainly good for SPL (Volume) and normally go lower. All speakers work well/Require different boxes, which should be included in the manual/web page e.t.c

You can also build custom boxes for the sub, and the main man for this is EFMAX ( www.efmax.info ) he has been building boxes for years and uses complicated computer software to do so. A ported box does tend to be larger than a sealed box. Sealed boxs are good for punchy, tight and fast paced bass, wereas Ported boxs are good for deep, loud, long and low bass, these tand to be louder at the lower freq but have a much shallower drop off so really need a subsonicfilter on the amp. What u go for depends on the music u listen to and what u r looking for. One thing i will say is don't go for an "off the shelf" ported box as these tend to be badly deisgned and tuned high for volumn which is not good for the sub, i would recomend building your own ported box to either manufatcers specs or get hold of me to see i can help u with a design.

 

WARNING - If you have a sub in the boot and speakers in the parcel shelf, the sub can kill the speakers with pressure.

 

Wiring:

 

The wiring u use really depends on the equipment, but remember never cheap skate on this area, as this is the main part of the system, as they carry all the signals e.t.c

But basically this is a rough guild to go buy

 

For one amp use 8 gauge

For 2 amps use 4 gauge*

After that I would go for 0 gauge

 

*If they are high power or Class D amps (More efficient, used mainly for subs) use 0 or 2 gauge cable.

 

 

Always run the RCA's on the opposite side of the car to the power wire, to reduce the posibilty of interference ( pretty rare but can be a pain in the arse to get ride of ! )

 

 

AND REMEMEBER DON'T BE CHEAP IN THIS AREA !

 

 

Hope this helps you!

 

 

Good luck!

 

 

Here are some useful websites:

 

http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/caraudio.htm - excellent site with every thing to do with Audio

www.respl.com - www.bladeice.com

www.ddaudio.com - www.ddaudio.co.uk- www.usaudiodirect.co.uk

www.rockfordfosgate.com

www.mtx.com

www.kicker.com

www.pioneer.co.uk

www.alpinef1.com

www.pro-plussound.co.uk

www.phoenixgold.com

www.caraudiodirect.com

[Blinkybill]

And i may be upgrading the wireing in me car soon so will do a "how to" thread for u if i get the time, the car is a Mk6 escort

[BrAiNsTeW]

thts really useful dude, thanks

[DAVE W]

 

Ian mybe this could be some sort of guide on the main pages

[sime73]

we already have a link with all this information on it but fair play to blinky for his personal opinions and experience