Car Stereo System Suggestions

[OutBurst]

I managed to get myself a $530 gift certifcate to Best Buy.

Now that I have this, I plan on buying a new stereo for my kickin' Buick Century. I am in the market for a new head, two 5.25" speakers, and two 6"x9" speakers. Suggestions folks? Whatever it is, I must be able to get it at Best Buy because of course gift cards only work there.

I'm looking for the 5.25"s to be at least 2-way and the 6"x9"s to be 4 ways. I play a lot of different kinds of music but I'm looking to get clarity over bass. The head must be iPod compatible and play the usual mp3's and so on.

Suggestions folks?

[slinkyspine]

a kenwood deck its chrome with a purpleish screena nd a 12inch typoon sub alson kenwood

[blckout20]

Okay...well I'm going to try and help you out. I just picked up around $600 worth of new stereo equipment for my car.

As far as a head goes....Alpine and Pioneer are my personal preferred choices. They are pretty user friendly with not so many buttons which is good for use while driving. Kenwood's tend to be a little too cluttered for me. I'd recommend around a $150-$200 Alpine HU because really anything more than that isn't necessary.

As far as speakers are concerned I'm not so sure about the availability in those sizes because my car uses all 6.5" but I know that Best Buy carries both the Rockford Fosgate Power series speakers which aren't their Power Type-RF's but still very nice speakers. They have a good amount of bass for front stage speakers and still have great clarity from what I've seen. Also, the Alpine Type-R speakers are good and I'm a big fan of Alpine audio equipment. You might also want to look into installing component speakers in your car which best buy I believe carries the components of both speakers I jsut mentioned which will allow for optimal performance and clarity. Once again, as far as Best Buy speakers are concerned, I would stick with either Rockford Fosgate or Alpine, they are both widely regarded as quality product and you will know what you're getting. The only problem with this is, if you are getting these speakers which are pretty powerful indoor speakers you will need a four channel amp to power them to allow for the best possible performance and now your looking at probably breaking your price range. If your not prepared to upgrade your amp to power these speakers I'd stick with a less powerful coaxial but this won't have the same performance as you can expect.

In my Jeep right now I have an Alpine HU from the 2004 or 2005 lineup and it has been everything I needed. I have a KAC-420i direct connect for my ipod which is a good product and now I don't really ever use cd's and just use my ipod for my car. I'm also running two 12" Rockford Fosgate Punch Stage 2's in a sealed box off of a RF p300.1 amp. I'm going to pick up the RF Power speakers I mentioned and a RF 400.4 amp to power those. This set up already sounds great because my stock speakers are really nice and the open jeep allows for a good sound. Any question you need just let me know and I'll do what I can.

[SullyLax]

How are you looking to interface your iPod? Through the headunit, or through the iPod itself. I have heard good about the Alpine iPod link system, and I reccomend Alpine, Pioneer, Kenwood, and Panasonic for HU's. I use an Aux-out (two rca jacks in the rear) for my iPod, because I like controlling it on the pod itself. If you want through the headunit you have plenty of options.

On a side note, I thought you drove an Avalanche?

And if you're installing the things yourself, let me know if you have any problems because I also drive a GM sedan very similar to yours, so hookups are similar.

[blckout20]

Just a quick note the pro's and con's of running it directly through the head unit.

CON: On my direct connect it takes a while to cycle through all my artists. I have a couple hundred artists so unless the artist begins with A-D or R-Z i unplug the ipod and just go to the artist and plug it in because it would take to long to cycle through.

PRO: It is a lot safer because you don't need to keep your eyes on the ipod and you can just use your hand and keep your eyes on the road while cycling through artists/songs/playlists/albums.

PRO: It looks cool and has a high quality sound. It is much better quality than most other options.

The way sully mentioned with the aux-out is good, either that or the direct connect get my recommendation. Like I said the artist cycling is a little annoying at times with the direct connect but it's not a big enough hastle where I'm not very happy with it, If it cycled faster it would be too easy to cycle over artists.



NOTE: Can we keep this thread on topic too. It's not that hard he want's recommendations on speakers and head units that he can buy with his best buy gift certificate.

[OutBurst]

How are you looking to interface your iPod? Through the headunit, or through the iPod itself. I have heard good about the Alpine iPod link system, and I reccomend Alpine, Pioneer, Kenwood, and Panasonic for HU's. I use an Aux-out (two rca jacks in the rear) for my iPod, because I like controlling it on the pod itself. If you want through the headunit you have plenty of options.

On a side note, I thought you drove an Avalanche?

And if you're installing the things yourself, let me know if you have any problems because I also drive a GM sedan very similar to yours, so hookups are similar.

I am looking to go all out and get the best sound quality through an iPod interface in the HU. I am currently deciding between the Pioneer ($120) or the Alpine ($100) iPod interface. They seem extremely similar so I might just go with the Pioneer since I have decided on the Pioneer DEH-770 Head.

I did drive an Avalanche until my father decided he wanted it back. Ohh well. There is a Bose system in that so I've never wanted to. Either way, when I'm done, both vehicles are going to have some pretty sweet systems.

[OutBurst]

Just a quick note the pro's and con's of running it directly through the head unit.

CON: On my direct connect it takes a while to cycle through all my artists. I have a couple hundred artists so unless the artist begins with A-D or R-Z i unplug the ipod and just go to the artist and plug it in because it would take to long to cycle through.

PRO: It is a lot safer because you don't need to keep your eyes on the ipod and you can just use your hand and keep your eyes on the road while cycling through artists/songs/playlists/albums.

PRO: It looks cool and has a high quality sound. It is much better quality than most other options.

The way sully mentioned with the aux-out is good, either that or the direct connect get my recommendation. Like I said the artist cycling is a little annoying at times with the direct connect but it's not a big enough hastle where I'm not very happy with it, If it cycled faster it would be too easy to cycle over artists.



I've got a 60gb Video iPod that's already got over 33gb filled but I don't think the slow cycle time would prevent me from getting the best possible audio.

So far I have:

HU: Pioneer DEH-7700
5.25": Alpine SPS-130A or the Rockford T152C or the Rockford P152C
6"x9": Pioneer TS-A6981R or the Rockford P1694C

What I am gathering from reviews and such is that with what I am planning to do, an amplifier is highly suggested. Is this true? What is the benefit vs cost ratio?

I want to stick between either Pioneer, Alpine, or Rockford because those seem to be the best Best Buy carries.

Thanks for the help.

[WHEELAX2]

yes an amplifier is def. necessary.. the head unit itself will not be able to power higher end components very well.. they may sound great for a while, but they will generally age much faster, and you simply won't get the full range of sound that the speakers are capable of..

[blckout20]

Yea I don't have the time to look at the specs for the speakers that you are considering or the HU's preamp output but I am sure that the HU will not be providing enough power to the speakers as necessary causing the speakers to not hit their full potential making a slightly drowned out effect with distortion at higher volumes. With an amp going to all four speakers you will allow the speakers to work the way they were intended to. Now an amp can be pretty pricey which is the hardest part. Depending on the brand amp you want to use prices can range pretty extremely and you can sometimes buy a refurb really cheap but Rockford is known to have the best quality amps with the highest percentage output but they are also the most exenive. The RF P400.4 I assume would be a good amp to power all your speakers though.

[OutBurst]

Okay guys, I grew a set and went out and bought the head, amp, and interface.

For the head I got a Kenwood MP628 that is 50Wx4 and has 2 RCA preouts at 2.5V. The amp is a Kenwood KAC-7202 920W 2 Channel. Since I do not plan on installing subs I knew I'd need the amp and plan on getting a pair of 3-way 5 1/4's and a pair of 2-way 6"x9" rear deck speakers. The interface is just the Kenwood iPod interface, nothing special.

Any suggestions for speakers?