Stereo upgrade help

My winter project for the car is going to be upgrading the sound system. I have checked out the crutchfields of the world but the choices seem to be endless. I wanted to start with the speakers then move to the head unit. So I am looking to narrow the choices down a little and get suggestions from you guys to point me in the right direction. I am looking for brand names and specific types of speakers you have had experience with and enjoy. I currently have the shaker 1000 system.

I upgraded mine to the shaker 1000 amps and subs with Avic D3 head unit. I have not changed my interior speakers as of yet. I am also looking at doing the complete switch this winter. I just picked up to fiberglass 10" sub boxes off of ebay and plan to run 10" JL Audio subs. I have to look to see what interior speakers I want to run though. If you need help or a heated garage this could work out let me know.

i buy alot of stuff from sonicelectronix.com

Droptop306 wrote:I upgraded mine to the shaker 1000 amps and subs with Avic D3 head unit. I have not changed my interior speakers as of yet. I am also looking at doing the complete switch this winter. I just picked up to fiberglass 10" sub boxes off of ebay and plan to run 10" JL Audio subs. I have to look to see what interior speakers I want to run though. If you need help or a heated garage this could work out let me know.

I will probably take you up on the offer of the heated garage and I am sure I can use some help. Once I get out of the research stage I will start buying everything for the install.

6SPD04COBRA wrote:i buy alot of stuff from sonicelectronix.com

Thanks nate I will check them out.

I've been using Kicker and JL Audio speakers (both regular sizes and subs) for years with no problems. Depending on what features you want for the head unit, the Pioneer AVIC models and Alpine offer some great products. I have an Alpine headunit which works great, but their navigation service is so dissapointing... If you want to add some decent bass to your car, but don't want to sacrifice trunk space, I installed deep mount 8" subs in my doors (with some somewhat minor door panel mods-all of which were on the inside so the outside is untouched) that sound really nice! The current dual 12" sub box I have, I bought new off of eBay for about $140 shipped. If you're going to want to crank up the power with amps, Rockford, Alpine and Kenwood are great amps.

You may have seen this already...pics of my stereo install.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kooldawg6/sets/72157616475530657/

^ John's sounds KILLER!

BCP wrote:^ John's sounds KILLER!

Thanks, B! ...and I'm only weeks away from pulling the trigger and doing a very similar install in the Mazda

Head unit upgrade is a most. Simple, yet, great ones are sony xplodes and kenwood. Really good ones are pioneer. I have stock speakers up front,but pioneers in my rear. Sound great. I also have 2 12" DUAL subs in my hatch. They could bump better but my amp is only 650W. Kicker and JL audio and Orion are great newer brands, whereas brands like kenwood are great oldschool ones. I've always loved kenwood personally, but seems as if these newer brands are slowly outperforming it. Its all personal preference, of course.

Thanks guys for the feedback !!! John (kooldawg6) I knew you had a bad a$$ system in your car just from hearing others talk about it but from the pic's you really did it up nice. Now I have something to shoot for. Don't know if I will do all you have but at least I have some direction.

I just purchased all the amps and speakers for my install. I was wondering though since I am getting rid of the shaker 500 amps and speakers do I still need to keep the 5 volt resistor in place or can I eliminate that now. This was used to eliminate the popping due to fords amps only using 5 volts instead of 12 volt. Also wondering if anyone could tell me what farad cap I would need. i was looking at a tsunami 5 fared cap. I will be running three amps with two 10" jl audio subs. Ideas. I also need to start building my amp enclosure. Shaker 1000 and amps will be for sale soon.

Nope you wont need the resistor after market amps need that 12V to turn on. How much power? 1 Farad is good for like 2000 watts i think.

Well my kenwood 9960 went deffective. I sent it back to Kenwood and they notified me that they will not be fixing it. Apparently there have been so many problems with this model they want to ship me the 2011 model which has been upgraded with built in HD Radio (Free) dual ipod setups and better resolutions. Downfall have to wait to second week of april to get it. I guess that is better than nothing. So now my car sits torn apart but yet again for a month.

Kenwood used to be a cornerstone of electronics... now... I dont touch them...

That sucks... BUT hopefully the new one will work flawlessly for you!