Help me build my stereo system, please.

[jorgensensc]

Let me start by saying I am not much of a stereo guy, so bare with me. After much turmoil I have decided on cutting my dash. I know it is sacreligious to some, but this will be my daily driver and I found the radio I wanted. Then I found it on ebay gently used. It is the pioneer deh-p9800bt. as seen here: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PU...er/DEH-P9800BT

It has built in bluetooth and the one that I won also has the xm reciever and the ipod interface. So I got roughly 700.00 worth of stuff for 247.50. Now comes the hard part.
I bought the kick panel speaker housings from Wes. I know they don't direct the speakers perfectly, but I'm not looking for full on custom. I didn't get the speakers they sell with them because I found them on ebay for dirt cheap. as seen here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=009

I also found the upgraded 180 watt ones here for cheap too:
http://cgi.ebay.com/PIONEER-TS-G1642...QQcmdZViewItem

So here is my question. I think I need an amp, (or two) but I'm not sure. I removed the behind the seat tank, so I have room for a speaker box, and think 1 maybe two 10" subs behind the seat. Do I need tweeters somewhere? If so, where should I put them without them being completely in the way. What about the upper part of the door panel, kinda aimed towards me? I don't know. I listen to rock mainly, with occasional country and occasional old white guy soft rap (old beasty boys, rundmc, Ice T, you get the idea).
Help me out guys. i think I did good on the stereo, but I don't know what else to put with it now. Thanks for the info!
shawn

[djracer]

I can help! if you haven't bought the 6.5's I can get you a really nice set of 6.5 components speakers new they are 300. These are in my buddies truck and he is wanting to do a really big system. I can get you some good subs also and design you a box. I have been in the stereo bus. since 1986!

[calvinator]

Speakers/cd player
Im quite new to this forum and these kind of trucks but Ive been interested/installing/buying/selling car audio for a few years already. In fact I own that same Pioneer headunit. Let me start by saying you made a great choice on the head unit. If you own an ipod it will change your world of listening to music. I dont remember the last time Ive played a cd in it. Because you've got a cd player thats well above average, I wouldnt cheap out on the speakers. Please dont be offended but those first speakes are garbage. Even the second speakers I wouldnt bother with. No matter what brand name of speakers you buy, Id highly recoment "component" speakers rather than "coaxial" speakers. Components offer more versatility, sound better and are often higher quality. They come in a set of a woofer (6.5" or 5.25") a seperate tweeter (often 1" or less) and a crossover. The crossover is a little plastic rectangle that you wire the power from your cd player into and then it has outputs for the woofer and tweeter. seperately. so the tweeter gets the high notes and the woofer gets the lower. But dont get me wrong, you CAN get good sounding coaxial speakers. Whats your price range for speakers? to answer your questions.. if you buy coaxial speakers then no you do not need to buy tweeters because they're built in (almost always mounted in the middle of the woofer) components speakers come with the tweeters but youd still have to mount them somewhere. whether its only a few inches from the woofer or higher on the door is a personal preferance. before you mount them, just hold the woofer and tweeter at different height levels and see what sounds best to you.

Amp
you shouldnt need an amp with components or coaxials because your cd player is above average as i said earlier. but if you buy components that have an RMS rating of 80 + it'd be a good idea to buy an amp.

Subs
subs are an option you definitly dont need but theyre nice to have once in a while. although you can get sick of them very quickly. personally i plan to install either one 10" or two 8" subs in my truck once i get that far. If you buy a sub or two yes you need an amplifier for sure. try to buy a "class D" amplifier for the subs. its a special type made just for subs. regular speakers require a "class A/B" i think. or maybe its just "A" or "B" not 100% sure. main difference is a class d only has one output and a A/B has 4 or sometimes 2. Please dont hesitate to ask more questions about any of this. Ive written a lot so I hope I answered a few questions at least. So other than the pioneer cd player what else did you get in that deal for only like $250? hope I helped.

[canadianc-10]

totally agree with calvinator on the components. pioneer or premier head units ive have no issues with, and there all ill buy. as for an amp make it a 4 channel and dont get too cheap with it. think my pioneer i got on ebay was 100 bucks, and locally it would have cost 400

[AceX]

Forget all that, do what I did!!! lol

In all seriousness, that's a dam good headunit. Probably has the most expandability and features crammed into it of any other one on the market and still puts out pretty good sound.

If you run the components, I would definitely run an amp and if you get into doing subs, you NEED and amp.

For what you're looking at, probably a high powered 4 channel amp or an ARC Audio KS900.6

Personally, I don't like Pioneer's component sets. They just don't deliver the goods for the price you pay. If you love rock and don't mind spending the good $$$, invest in a set of MB Quart Premium components. You will NOT be disappointed.

For the amp, I do recommend the ARC Audio KS900.6. It's not very big, delivers solid power and sound great no matter how hard you push it.

Edit: For subs, it all depends on what fits. Pioneer and kicker both make great shallow mount subs and if you can drop the extra coin, JL Audio has taken the crown of the thin mount sub. A single JL TW512 will stomp all over two Pioneer or Kicker shallow mount 10's.

[djracer]

Read my lips! All headunit power sounds like $hit. You really need to amplify all the speakers! A good 4 channel will run the entire truck! Shallow mount subs don't sound as good as regular designed subs and you should have enough depth for a decent pair of 10's! I haven't done this stuff all my life for nothing!

[jorgensensc]

Okay guys, you have filled my head with an insane amount of knowledge! I think I might be playing with the big boys when i really need to be in the peewee club. i hope no one takes offense to this, but I think y'all are talking a little out of my price point. I chose that head unit mainly because of all the interfaces, but I would never have never spent that kind of money on it new though. Does that make sense? I needed a blu tooth for my phone, I wanted XM and I wanted to be able to use my ipod. Those functions alone (or a blu tooth headset)would have cost me about 300.00, so to me the radio was a deal. I checked out that arc amp, but they are like 650.00. I really can't afford that kind of money. i'm still trying to buy parts and get the truck back on the road. So what could I do in the mean time for a set of speakers (I take it i should get component)that would sound good, but i could maybe add an amp later, or subs later? I would like to build on the system over time, but be able to enjoy it in the meantime? Also, if the coaxial speakers have both the tweeter and the "woofer" in one unit with a built in crossover, what is the difference between that and a component that has seperate speakers and a crossover? I know you guys probably feel like good money should be spent on the sound system, but I just don't have that kind of funds. Tunes are not as high on the priority list as say.. a good carb, or nice mufflers.. does that make sense? Heck the '56 Bel Air still has the original radio delete plate in it and this truck hasn't had a radio in it since I got it, and I drove it daily for about 8 months.
Thank you again for all of your help. I hope you will still help me out with my cheaper build. As for cost of speakers, I don't know, I thought 50 or 60 was a good price for 6.5 speakers, but what do i know.
Shawn

[jorgensensc]

Are these good speakers?
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ALPINE-SPR17...QQcmdZViewItem
the reviews I have read said they were pretty good. Any feedback from the experts?

[calvinator]

Yah those alpine type R components would be a great choice in my opinion. I plan to buy the exact same ones for my truck, but Id run them off of an alpine 4 channel amp. i recomend going to a store that sells car audio nearby and listening to a few different styles/brands of speakers. thats the best way you'll know what you like, by listening to them. its not how expensive they are, or how big the price tag is. its what sounds good to YOU. maybe they'll even have identical speakers (one playing off a head unit, and other powered by a 4 channel amp) that will give you a good idea if you want to spend the extar cash. if i were you id buy those alpines. and run em off your pioneer head unit for now, and later down the road if you want to upgrade then buy an amp for them. im my opinion, you'd be better off to power your speakers (if theyre good) with an amp than to buy a sub/sub amp. hope this helps. let me know with more questions.

[AceX]

The type R's that you posted aren't bad.

Sorry to overwhelm you with all this info. I didn't know what kinf of budget you were working with.

For now, go with the Pioneer deck and a simple pair of coaxial speakers and if you feel the need to go bigger and better later on, switch out to components and an amp then subs to round it out, but until then, keep it simple.

[djracer]

you need to check the mounting depth of those kick panels. I think they are pretty shallow. The used components I was talking about have very small neodieum magnets! I can get you crazy deals on amps and subs.

[Riveted1]

Jorgensensc, reading your posts and in between the lines, you just need a simple set up for now like AceX said. I agree w/some of what was said in the other posts and disagree with some of it, but we are talking about YOUR situation here.
There are TONS of variables in the car audio world. (I'm sure you can see that by some of the answers you got here.) If you aren't "audio savvy" it's enough to make you feel being on the receiving end of a Scanner (ref. to the Cronenberg movie Scanners for u young'uns!) Anyway, in YOUR situation I would keep to the K.I.S.S. rule.
The second set of Pioneers you listed would be fine. Power them from your Pioneer headunit and call it a day. If you like it loud, go w/the Alpine R's you listed earlier, but you will probably want an amp to bring them to their full potential. I gotta plug these too... cuz I have a pair of the old (more expensive) ones and they sound awesome. Just remember that you can fry a speaker quicker trying to crank em on LOW power than running em with a good amplifier.
And FOR WHAT YOU ARE DOING, stick with name brands that you recognize, don't buy those brands' lowest priced offerings, and don't listen to 99.9% of the salesmen in stores. Most of them have NO IDEA what they are talking about. Just my .02

[JAKES 68GMC]

I kept it plain and simple in my truck. I have a Pioneer headunit, 2 5 1/4 speakers under the dash, 1 in each corner, and 2 6x9s under the seat. No subs, no amps, no anything...just hard wired speakers. It sounds plenty good enough for me, its loud when you crank it up, and altogether it was pretty cheap. I've gotten alot of compliments on how good it sounds.

Just throwing a simple idea out there. I don't know anything about stereos either.

[SkullCandy]

Originally Posted by jorgensensc

I also found the upgraded 180 watt ones here for cheap too:
http://cgi.ebay.com/PIONEER-TS-G1642...QQcmdZViewItem

i have these speakers... i paid 39.99 cdn for them this weekend. for the holiday sale. really like the sound for the price