June 2005
Built on a budget. Not trying to impress anyone. Just want to hear my music over the small block sometimes. The biggest challenge is that the car is almost 18 years old at this point... the speakers (only 4 of them - and none of them "full-range") are odd-ball sizes - making it hard to upgrade without going custom. Worse, the sizes in question (3.5" front and 4x10" rear) are really poor for producing any kind of low frequency without distorting. Even 6x9's would be a huge upgrade... if they fit. So the sub pretty much becomes necessary... add the bass blockers to prevent the low frequency signals from hitting the small speakers (and making them sound like garbage) and let the sub take care of it. After that, just put the best speakers you can afford in the factory locations (your selection will be quite limited) and go. I went with a 10" sub because I wanted tighter/faster response and because it's easier to fit (than a 12"). The matched amp is reasonable, certainly not overkill at 175w, but hits hard enough. My front speakers are actually nicer than my rears, which is fine, since I like to have the sound coming from in front of me. I don't generally go to a concert and put the stage at my back. If I had my druthers, I'd add some component door speakers to get some sound coming from the sides as well. All these pieces came from Crutchfield - the people there know their stuff. This entire system was well under $1000.
After living with this setup for a few months I only really have one significant problem. It sounds just fine when the car is off. Once the car is running though, even idling, I can no longer hear the bass - it pretty much cancels out - my car really is just too loud :) But way better than stock - and really, I'm not a car audio guy, I really don't care that much. When I want to be an audiophile, I sit in my living room. My theory about why young guys put so much "stuff" in their cars is that they don't have houses to do that to... yet.
| head unit: | Blaupunkt (Skyline) Hamburg CD70 | 25w x 4 RMS | 45w x 4 peak | |
| front (dash) speakers: | Alpine SPS-080A 3-1/2" | 2-15w RMS recommended | 75w peak | 75-30k Hz response |
| rear (deck) speakers: | Pioneer TS-A4103 4x10" | 2-35w RMS recommended | 120w peak | 38-23k Hz response |
| sub: | Alpine Type-S SWS-1042D 10" | 50-300w RMS recommended | 900w peak | 30-1k Hz response |
| mono-sub-amp: | Alpine MRD-M301 | 175W x 1 @ 4ohms | 20-200 Hz response | |
| sub box: | Q-Logic | |||
| misc: | PAC bass blockers front (800Hz) and rear (150Hz) |
Maybe in the future:
