my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » Kick-Ass Car Stereo (Page 1)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Author Topic: Kick-Ass Car Stereo Ian Price Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1714 From: Denver, CO Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-17-2003 04:41 PM                     The below should be read with the full knowledge that I am 41-years-old. I hate, hate, hate those kids who drive around with their stereos thump, thump, thumping. My assistant manager, Sean is one of those kids and takes his car to loudness competitions and wins sometimes. He tells me that his subs can reach 150 decibels! I have a 1994 Dodge Caravan with the factory AM/FM radio, and 139,000 miles on the odometer. My car is named Norge because it resembles a refrigerator. I bought it in a fit of desperation after totaling my 1992 Plymouth Colt Vista after moving to California. After having my stereo stolen out of the Colt Vista, I swore that I would never have another aftermarket stereo installed. FM radio in Northern California sucks much ass, and the reception is poor to boot. I was looking to buy a new car pending a landscaping bid for my back yard. The landscaping bid came it at twice what I had budgeted for it. So I decided that I would keep Norge for another year. All the better for carrying around plants and mulch, anyway. Since I am driving it a couple of thousand miles across the desert to Telluride next week, I decided to have a CD player put in so I could listen to music. One of my ex-employees got a job at a local car stereo shop, so I took Norge to him. The speakers would have to be replaced of course, due to the fact that they rattled. Sirius radio was having a promotion that gave you their receiver for free if you signed up for satellite radio for a year. I figured that would be nice for my 35-mile commute. Also the shop was having a buy one; get one free promotion on their subwoofers. It might be nice to have a little bottom fill with my music. (I did tell them to back it off quite a bit as I didn’t want boom, but just a nice bit of bottom end fill.) So this is what I ended up with: Kenwood KDC-PM522 head unit (Does CD, AM/FM, Sirius Ready & MP3) Sirius tuner (under the passenger seat) Sirius (puck-like) antenna on the roof by the hatch 2 - 6"x9" JVC 3-way speakers in the back hatch 2 - 5 ¼" Kicker coaxial speakers in the dash (I had specified 4" JVC but the holes were bigger and I got the upgrade for free.) 2 Phoenix Gold 10" subs in a non-parallel, carpeted, sub enclosure 1 Phoenix Gold, 150 watt, stereo amp, bridged for the subs (under the driver’s seat) Holy shit! This system rocks! My God, you can’t back the bass off enough. At first I was a little bit disappointed by the sound of Sirius radio. The highs a bit bright and tizzy and the bass is a bit pronounced. (Well, in my car anyway) I haven’t had a chance to play around with the EQ yet. But finally I put in Disc two of Rush Chronicles and this system just sounds great. Neal Pert never sounded as good on any system I have ever owned. The bass is tight and doesn’t seem to lose control. The bass notes can be differentiated from each other. I have to be careful to turn it down when I drive through my neighborhood. Oh my God, I have become one of those people I hate. I figure that a few of us techno-geeks have pretty good care stereos too. So, what have you got?  |  IP: Logged Ron Lacheur Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 650 From: British Columbia, Canada Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-17-2003 04:53 PM                     Holy shit Ian, PG Subs and you didn't want boom? That's impossible. Pretty good all around. Just keep an eye on the Kenwood deck. They are known to have faulty face plates that just stop working.  |  IP: Logged Ron Lacheur Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 650 From: British Columbia, Canada Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-17-2003 04:54 PM                      |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 08-17-2003 05:01 PM                     Back many years ago in college a friend of mine put TWO 18" subwoofers in his trunk! He converted the entire trunk to an enclosure, so as one would expect with the trunk open there was no bass to be had at all, but close the trunk and he could crack your skull with the vibrations. He installed a second alternator and the entire system (less the head unit) ran off of AC power via converters. The trunk housed a small rack with 1/3 octave EQs on every channel, a Pro Logic decoder and an insane amount of amplifier power. Did I mention his satellies were 3 way? Indeed it was the most powerful system I have ever seen. I didn't like his choice of midrange drivers, as I felt it destroyed the quality of the sound and he was deaf at the highest frequencies (so they were boosted far too high), but for sheer mammothness, it could not be beat. By the way Ian, most of those guys judge the quality of their systems by cranking it up and standing outside of the car. That to me is just stupid. I don't think a goal of a car system should be to broadcast music, but to sound good INSIDE the car with as little bleed through to the outside as possible. Also most car systems cannot handle the real low end very well. This fellow would play pipe organ music with frequencies down to 20hz and it could reproduce them effortlessly. Most of the music you hear in these competitions is 50hz "boom bass", which is easily reproduced. Taking a cue from him in 1992 I put a single 18" in my 1984 Honda Accord coupled with a fairly high end set of stereo speakers. (I kept them in their boxes.) I didn't bother with pro logic or anything like that, but I did have a 10 band eq on the satellites and a 1/3 octave mono eq on the sub (which I calibrated with an RTA) and a couple of sizable amps in the trunk. The system was effortlessly flat to 20hz. My head unit was only a cassette, but I had a portable "walkman-type" cd player and a direct line level in cable running up to the front of the car. While I'm sure there have and are better systems out there, it still remains the best car system I have personally ever heard. Of course a 16 year old girl in a Ford Escort rammed me on an overpass at an estimated 50mph after I had the system running for only one week. The impact of her car hitting my car pushed mine into the Suburban in front of me so hard the rear tires of the Suburban was inches from my face on the windshield. (Everyone was stopped but her. She was busy painting her nails, so obviously that was ok.) All in all 5 cars were totaled because of her and I never bothered to put in any serious effort on another car system. It's been so long now I'd have to put some thought into it if I wanted to do it again. The moral of the story is though to put in 18" subwoofers. Anything else is a waste of time.  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 08-17-2003 05:11 PM                     I had an old Mercury Montego station wagon at one time, and I put a senserround 18-inch subwoofer (with the cabinet) in the back of the wagon. It took every inch of the space from the front seats to the tailgate. I used an inverter to power a Sansui QR-6500 amplifier. It sure sounded good. I could not put a cup of coffee on the roof of the car. The roof vibrated so bad it just bounced the coffee cup off the top of the car.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-17-2003 06:52 PM                     Once upon a time in my yute.... I did the car stereo thing...Alpine and Jensen (this was back in the early '80s)...I had a joy-stick that could fade the sound anywhere around the four corners...separate High and low controls (all right under the dash, next to the parking brake release)...this was in a '65 Dodge Polara. Then in 1984 I bought a Camaro...I went with Nakamichi Head unit and amps with JBL speakers. It did quite well and the tape player was second to none (auto azimuth and Dolby-C NR)... Then at got a an '87 Corvette and....got a stock GM AM/FM radio with the anticipation that I would do an end-all system...but that just never happened...I found that I was just as happy with the radio and the stock speakers for the listeneing I do in the car. It also doesn't call attention to itself. A couple of years ago...the radio died...so I found an AM/FM/Cassette radio on eBay for the '87 Corvette...so it perfectly matched the rest and now I have that and have used the cassette part about 5 times. I guess you know when you are geezing when you think the factory radio in your car is just fine Steve  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 08-17-2003 07:27 PM                     quote: I guess you know when you are geezing when you think the factory radio in your car is just fine Yup. Nowadays I listen to talk radio anyway. Nothing beats Russ Martin in the afternoons here in Dallas for driving entertainment.  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 08-17-2003 10:24 PM                     I haven't even listened to the radio in my truck but once in the past two months. I'm in agreement with Ian ... the voices in my head are much more entertaining than the crap that's on the airwaves here in Northern California.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 08-17-2003 10:46 PM                        I never listen to the radio. I'm not even sure how it works. But it's there if I need it for some reason (built into my in-dash MiniDisc player). Many times I will listen to MiniDiscs (of which I have tons and tons). I took the player out of my old car and put it in my new car just to retain the ability to play MDs. CD-R's didn't cut it for me because I didn't want to spend all the time turning a ton of MD's into CD's just for the car. My system sounds pretty good with decent low end. I don't want to add a subwoofer or anything, because then there would be no room for my bike or dead bodies to fit in the trunk. I realize I will bankrupt the entire music industry for making copies of my music for listening to in the car (or on an MD Walkman). But oh well. They don't deserve to be in business anyway.  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 08-17-2003 10:46 PM                     Believe me, FM generally sucks here in North Carolina, too. OK. Laugh after reading this if you think you need to... I just re-coned all of the drivers in my factory Delco-Bose system in my 1985 Toronado. Also, re-capped each of the four amplifiers. Wow. Sounds great allover again. Total cost: $117. I removed and installed everything myself. The speakers were done by a local shop. I, too, play pipe organ in the car. The rumbling bass is back, and I can effectively drown out the loud cars around me. My old truck has a Pioneer system with a matching 150 watt amp driving a home-made 12" woofer cabinet pair with tweeters. It's been in the truck since 1989, and still sounds fine. I've surprised several people at traffic lights with MY volume. I love a good loud system, but I dont think that power is everything. My GM/Bose system is 25 watts per speaker set. Total is 100 watts. The woofers are all 5 inchers!! I shouldn't forget the chamber that makes it a Bose system. Close the port and the bass dies.  |  IP: Logged Will Kutler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1506 From: Tucson, AZ, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 08-17-2003 11:45 PM                     I get sick and tired of hearing about these punks who think that how much wattage you are cranking out means everything! Fact is that most of these punks are clueless about soundsystem construction and design! Rarely have I heard one of these cheap rice rockets turned "high end Crap..er...Boom box" that is nothing more than an overabundance of uncomprehensible distortion! Fact is that wattage means nothing with regards to sound quality. I always get a laugh about my friends home audio system. It is a mid-priced system that he put together while stationed in Korea in the 1960's-1970's. He supplied the speakers to which a Korean craftsman designed the cabinets. The cabinets were a mid sized free standing style about (4 * 2)Cranking this system up to a whopping 25 Watts woke up the neighborhood and put out a bottom end that would put these "high end Crap rockets) to shame! And his system put out an absolute minimum distortion to boot! He just had some decent speakers installed into these well made cabinets that were very efficient. And I think his reciever/amp was only rated somewhere between 50-100 Watts. But for those of you into classic car restoration, CustomAutoSound along with JBL and Pioneer supply modern systems for a wide range of cars that install into the origonal dashboards w/o having to tear them up. These are pretty decent system, with a wide variety of accessories. Check out their web-site. BTW, speaking of high end automobile systems, what about the Mark Levinson systems designed and installed for Lexus?  |  IP: Logged William Hooper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1879 From: Mobile, AL USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-18-2003 02:19 AM                        I'm disgusted to learn that Steve Guttag doesn't have A-2's in his car.  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 08-18-2003 07:06 AM                     Will hit it on the head! I refuse to cut the radio opening on my Toronado. Most of the audio crap that I see in the stores is covered with gaudy flashing lights, etc, and I dont like that. I wonder who is designing this stuff. A reject from the Village People staff?  |  IP: Logged Ron Lacheur Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 650 From: British Columbia, Canada Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-18-2003 08:57 AM                     Mark Levinson anything is a waste of money. I laugh at all these people that think spending $10,000 on a power amp means the absolute best sound. For that price you most likely could install a whole barrage of QSC and have quite a few bills left over. Getting back to topic, Focal makes some of the best car audio speakers IMO. I'm for sure installing these in my new car next year.  |  IP: Logged Will Kutler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1506 From: Tucson, AZ, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 08-18-2003 12:02 PM                     Bruce check out www.custom-autosound.com They have all kinds of neat goodies for my '65 Ranchero. The origonal dash speaker was mono paper with a tweeter sitting on top of the bass/midrange. Custom-Autosound has a dual stereo speaker set up that mounts in the origonal location w/o any mods. Kenwood upgrades included. Also, the origonal kick-panels in my car were plastic. Over time they warp and crack. Custom-Autosound has reproduction kick panels made out of ABS plastic modified to accept speakers. Between Custom-Autosound and Kenwood, I have about 6 radios to choose from that are made for my origonal dash and not requiring mods to the origonal sheetmetal. Kenwood also has a 10 disc c.d. changer that can be hooked up to some of these radios, as well as a secretaudio system. For laughs, being a vinyl enthusiast, I was looking up high end turntables. Anyone knows that the Techniques 1200 mkII is an excellent machine. Sure, d.j.'s love them because they can "scratch" or what ever that rap-crap is called. But all in all this turntable is mechanicallly excellent and, with a good stylius, is easy on records. So, why do I laugh? Some of the hi-end turntables that I have seen run anywhere from $1500.00 to $100,000 U.S. and no, this is not a typo.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.