Polk DB6501 Question
 

My car is a 2010 Nismo. The stereo really sucks. So for the time being, until I save up enough for a good H.U. I'm going to install some Polk DB6501's which are really for the new H.U. that I get someday. (soon I hope) Hopefully they will help the stock H.U. sound a lot better.
Question is:
1. Should I install new wire to the stock H.U. from the tweeters and door speakers?
2. What size wire for the door speakers?
3. What size wire for the tweeters?
4. Where do I install the wire to on the stock H.U. I mean is it a harness with a plug end or do I splice into the wires behind the stock H.U.?
5. Is there a good known spot to put the cross over unit?
thanks for the help.

imho, the HU should be the first place to start on this car and then work the others.

amazon has a sale going on and you can get the new P4200DVD $321 shipped.
there was another thread on this just this am. get the HU first, place with the EQ...then play with your speakers later.

Agreed. There's just no reason to install awesome components if you don't have the HU or amp to fully take advantage of their power.

Same with any audio system. For your home theater, if you purchase some blazing new Paradigm 11's but are hooking them up to a wal-mart receiver, what's the point?

Start with the head unit and when you get the new speakers, run 16 gauge or 18 gauge from the harness of the head unit to the crossover and from there to the new speakers.

Truth be told, we train our guys to sell speakers first, the HU wont be to bad, but the $3 speakers are crap. Start with the speakers. You know the speakers are bose, the HU maybe a Pioneer, or Clarion, or a...you get the idea, most OEM HU are now made by one of the big aftermarket HU companies. This is the BIGGEST reason for so much OEM intergration with the OEM HU.

you should probably train your guys by first sitting in the actual car and listening and getting familiar where the first shortcoming is.

yes the speakers are not good but the HU is crappier. it's not the pre-1990's where cars came with fullrange paper cones and whizzers. :icon17: the speakers have wider bandwidth now.

and the OEMs are manufacturing these headunits at the lowest possible price at manufacturing facilities that make other low/mid grade HU's. the key here for OEM is durability and reliabilty, not quality of actual sound. :)

Hey, like I always say..... Garbage in, Garbage out. Source would be my first fix. A good signal can make even carppy speakers sound not so bad. But to each his own. Speakers would probably be easier to install and on the wallet. GL

BTW Paradigm???? :gtfo2: :bowrofl:

Ahh ha ha.

Yeah, I know. When I got my new receiver I wanted to upgrade my speakers. Found a guy on CL who was going over seas, selling a set of Paradigms (5 speakers + sub) for $500. Not the ideal choice, but a good deal.

Yes start with a head unit and go from there the head unit will provide more power to the stock speakers, and actually make them sound better. Than do the speakers.

thanks

I work for one of the largest audio companies/manufactures in NA, so i think there may be some research it what we train. Not to mention i have sat in numerous cars and heard many a demo cars/display boards at CES where this can be heard and proven.
Just what i've learned from real world experiance.

This must be why so many companies, including high end once make converters to KEEP the OEM HU...

The reason you guys recommend replacing speakers first instead of the headunit is simple common sense business practice and has NOTHING to do with sound improvement like you claim. Its much EASIER to attract and close a customer on a $100-200 speaker set over a $500-$1500 head unit. After doing the install the customer is more likely to return to a business they have already worked with and then can be up-sold to the more expensive headunit later. And THAT my friend comes to "real world business experience!"

i'm just sayin take a listen to a stock HU with good speakers, and then stock speaker with a aftermarket HU a hear what makes the bigger improvment in sound qualitiy.

The improvement would be with the stock speakers with new head unit. They give more power to the speakers rather than a stock unit only putting out around 5-10 watts.

[QUOTE=bigaudiofanat;725013]The improvement would be with the stock speakers with new head unit. They give more power to the speakers rather than a stock unit only putting out around 5-10 watts.[/QUO

you should maybe go and try it for real, more power doesn't always mean better sound.
But after 20 years in the inductry what would i know...

20 years would mean u know a lot of old information!

[QUOTE=90 ST;725017]:iagree:90 knows a ton more than any of you guys. Oh wait better listen to Matt as he is the expert.:rolleyes:

Changing the HU fist is "old information" OEM HU are a lot better now days.
Think about why HU sales are down and more companies are making OEM intergration pieces for the stock HU...You guys all seem to think the HU is the problem, do you have any idea how many time i have pulled the OEM unit to find made by Pioneer, Clarion, Alpine, Rockford on them, but speakers...almost never say who made them, guess why...There crap and no one wants to put their name on them.

Now don't get me wrong, change the HU if you can or want more features, but don't do it cause you think the sound is going to be better, it's NOT the weakest link.

Oh so what your saying is if I say swapped out my old stock cassette unit for a aftermarket CD unit I would notice a difference? But if I said I upgraded my existing OEM digital media player for another aftermarket digital media unit I might not notice such a big difference?

Hun weird I never would have thought that. I must be old:ugh2:

Gee wizz... I didnt know the Nismo had a digital media player! maybe if I owned one like you I would have know... oh wait.. oops!

Yep, old tape deck=crap, aftm CD player=good.
Yep again, New DMU would be good, and the only major advantage would be features, SQ would be very close.

:tup:

Someone who speaks the truth.

Thank you, finally some one who gets it! ;)

Yup! Amazing stock Digital Media Unit in that Nismo!

Heres a read for you, from test done a few years ago:
http://www.davidnavone.com/heresHow/...%20Decks21.pdf

And that is with a basic, good, but basic LOC, now think about a good one like the RE-Q or LC-6 or a Bit One...

I think the point that was being made was replacing the stock HU vs stock speakers which will improve sound quality more, also that putting more power to stock speaker doesn't work so well compared to putting lower clean power to higher quality speakers.

The choice should be odvious for someone with a little knowledge.:stirthepot:

If you do not have the power for new speakers they are not going to be worth the time to put them in, as aposed to a new head unit.

Little story my dad taught me about amplifier power, my first car Datsun 200 I was shopping for an amp for my new 6x9's max power was like 150watt and I wanted all of that so I was out shopping for this new amp. I show my dad what I was going to get and he laughed at me, he asked why would you need that much power going to those little speakers? I said I don't know isn't more power better? He laughs again at me and says you should buy this little 20watt amp right here! Now I am like yea right, he says I will buy you what ever amp you want if you try this little 20 watt orion amp. I am like sure thinking I am getting what ever amp I want anyway. So we hook this thing up and I could not believe the sound I got from two 6x9 and less than 40watts total power it blew me away. Let's just say I didn't get the amp I wanted and kept that Orion amp for several years, wish I had it today. Funny how it always ends up that my pops was right.

The expert has spoken, end of discussion.:tiphat:

Over powering and under powering are both bad when you under power you not even going to have enough power to really move the woofer, and you can actually damage the speakers that way. Now if you want to talk tube amps than 8 watts from there is much more efficient than 80 watts from a regular amp in home audio talk that is.

Actually the post originated from a gentleman who currently has a Nismo and is looking to replace the speakers and then eventually replace the headunit. Others chimed in saying that they would replace the headunit first. I stated that the recommendation for replacing the speakers first is so of a business tactic because its easier to sell a customer on a $100-200 set of speakers and then later upselling them on a new headunit instead of trying to initially sell them on a $1000-1500 headunit. A little business common sense would be obvious to anyone with a little knowledge. I certainly would expect a "professional" installer to know such practices!

Now now now.. I thought you and 90 ST were the experts. Considering all your combined years you guys just seem to know everything!

Dude you are so far out of your league here, I suggest you go back to reading your magazines.

For the record this is not a personal attack so don't give me crap, I will now leave the forum before I get banned. Thank you and goodnight!

Gee wizzz.. i heard that before!

If you read the link i put up, you would find a good sales/installer wouldn't sell him a HU, he would do like the OP wants to do and swap out the speakers, then add an amp and sub...leaving that $1500 HU on the shelf for some one with a tape deck.

All with in reason, i'm not saying you'll want to run a set of Utopia BE's with a stock HU, but it would sound better then swaping the HU and running the stock speakers...some of the cleanest home amps are lower power...i would rather have a 25x2 clean amp then a 50x2 crapy amp.

And you would read the original post you would notice that the OP has a Nismo with has the base head unit which is a total piece of junk garbage, not some top level OEM digital media player. If the OP was driving a Touring with Nav I would be more inclined to agree with you!

If you read the link they don't use a high end OEM unit, and it's from a few years ago. a Ford and GM unit/Delco not even a Bose...

I could care less what the link says and yes i did read through it. A junk head unit is going to sound like junk and no amount of you saying otherwise is going to convince me. Lets just chalk it up to agreeing to disagree. And i don't care that you have 20+ years of installing experience. You're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine.