Car Audio 101

bigaudiofanat · 06-30-2009, 03:37 PM

Well class take your seats it's time for another lesson. Today were going to learn about car audio and the terms associated with it, and what they mean.
Let's begin!

Ohm's

Okay ohms or Ohm's law is the rule of resistance that something has. Most of you probably think about things like rubber and all having high resistance and that is correct. But in car audio we use ohms for what a speaker's resistance is at. For example if you have a sub that has a 4 ohm single voice coil. Than that sub can be wired up to an amp with the resistance of 4 ohms.

The next part of Ohms is power. If you look at any amp's specs you will see that is has something like 100 watts RMS x 4 at 4 ohms (150 watts RMS x 4 at 2 ohms) 300 watts RMS x 2 bridged output at 4 ohms (4-ohm stable in bridged mode) so lets look at the first one. This one states that is can run 100 watts per channel "or speaker" as long as each speakers has a resistance or Ohm's of 4. The second one states that as long as all the speakers are at 2 ohms the amp can put out 150 per channel. The last one shows that it will put out to 2 channels 300 watts a channel if there ohms are 4 ohms. "you will also notice that is says 4 ohm stable at bridged mode." This states that the amp was built for the load of 4 ohms and is able to be bridged.

The thing with ohm's is that the higher the ohms the more resistance. So when you go with a lower ohms rating it can have much more power to run that speaker. You may be asking well can I wire different ohm rated speakers to two different sets output on an amp? You can ONLY do this if the amp is setup for it. If you want to get relay technical about Ohms law just google it and click on any of the first few links that come up. Or just simply ask.

RMS

Now you may have notice in the previous section when watts were being explained it said RMS. Something like 100 X4 at 4 ohms RMS. This is very important when choosing an amp. RMS stands for root mean square. In normal terms this means what an amp can continue to produce for long periods of time none stop. You may bee seeing things like 1200 watts MAX. In a few simple words this is a gimmick the amps will never produce this power and no matter how hard you try there just not going to make it. You always look at RMS when shopping for an amp. You will even see it on head units saying 50 X 4 max it is rely putting out around 12-15 watts RMS.

Amp Settings and Gains

So great you got your new amp and are wondering what in the world are all these knobs and switches on it for? Well here is your answer. Gain or volume. Some even say it differently than that but the deal with this is, think of it as a adjustment to insure your not clipping the signal. When you are all done installing your system is it time to put a test disk in of a normal song or a test tone of 80HRZ go to your amp and turn the gain all the way down than go back to the head unit and turn the volume 1/4 to full volume. Now you go back to your amp and slowly start turning up your gain until you hear distortion than turn it back just a hair. This will insure that your speakers are not going to distort or clip.

Now those Low pass and High pass knobs and all. Well a normal setup consists of your fronts being components. "speakers with separate tweeters" So the crossover will take care of the filtering of all that so your front should stay on Full. If you are going with rear speakers I would turn on the High pass filter and dial it to around 80 or maybe a bit higher. What these filter do are basically insure that the speaker will not get frequency's that it can not reproduce. The Low pass filter is fro when running a sub woofer your cut off should be around 60 for your sub.

Crossovers
So you know that little box that comes with your component speakers and some coaxial speakers. There things are called crossovers. Basically what they do it take the unfiltered signal that your amp sends it and sends the frequency's to the tweeter and the proper frequency's to the woofer. Some people like to turn there high pass on there amp to around 100HRZ so that way it takes more strain off the crossovers. It is a personal thing I prefer to let the crossovers to there thing.

Sub Wiring

This and this alone is the trickiest to master of everything in car audio. There are so many was to wire subs that it is very hard to explain, but I am going to try my best. There are 4 kinds of subs which included there Ohm's and all. There is a SVC "single voice coil" 4 ohm and a 8 ohm formats. Than there is a DVC "dual voice coil" 4 ohm and 2 ohm formats. The SVC are pretty easy. You can hook up a 4 ohm coil as a 4 ohm or if you have 2 you can wire them as 4 or 2 ohms. If you have a SVC 8 ohm sub than you can hook it up as 8 ohms. If you have 2 of them you can hook them up as a 4 ohm load. You can not wire different ohm rated subs or speakers together this will damage the sub and or the amp.

Which brings me to DVC subs. Honestly there are so many ways to wire them that I would hope that you IM me or consult this guide to help you wire them properly.
Subwoofer Wiring Diagrams

As always if you have any questions or comments let me know.

Next lesson will be on rely's, power wire, fuse ratings, and how much current until you have to upgrade your alt, and all. ENJOY!

rreign · 06-30-2009, 04:10 PM

Damn good write up. I thought about doing one of these along with my sound dampening thread but decided against it. Thanks for clearing up all the retorical and redundant questions. Probably could add a bit about crossovers though.

bigaudiofanat · 06-30-2009, 04:28 PM

Thanks you I went ahead and added about the crossover in there. I will be doing more write up's as I have so much time to do it. Hope you enjoy reading them.

rreign · 06-30-2009, 04:35 PM

Like a said bro, a great write up for the amateur installer. For guys like Jeff, you or I to try to break this all down in one write up can be difficult but I think you pulled it off well.

How long have you been doing car audio/video? I've been doing installs for about 10 years but just over the last 4 or 5 years, I started getting into building custom boxes, fiberglass boxes, kick panels and what not. I checked out some of your builds and they aren't bad, but if you need any tips/tricks for custom builds, just let me know. You can check out my album, I have one of my fiberglass jobs in there.

bigaudiofanat · 06-30-2009, 04:38 PM

Thanks man ya I am use to explaining things to people it comes easy for me for some reason. Well I have been self taught and been doing it for 4 years now if that. Built my first computer at age 7 and been into electronics ever sense. I can pick up on electronics in a few minutes of working with them. Thanks for the offer actually this weekend I begin learning fiberglass from what I have read so far it is pretty simple.

Plasmaball · 06-30-2009, 06:02 PM

So can i come to you for advice on what speakers to get and such for my Z?
I used to "get it" and lately i am just not sure anymore.

Is it smarter to buy a component system or part out the tweeter and speakers?
Does it matter if all the speakers are the same? Or is mixing and matching fine?
Are base blockers needed for tweeters?

As of this moment i want base from the front speakers and sub.The side speakers i want pure audio/vocal. So i was thinking base blockers for the side speakers. A lot of people are saying the side speakers are not even needed because of the acoustics. That i am not totally buying if you have no vocals basically coming out of the front speakers.

Can i list some speakers i am looking at for your opinion as well?
I already have a in dash installed. Its the kenwood DNX 8100 series.

thanks

rreign · 06-30-2009, 06:07 PM

lol, simple is not quite the word I would use. It definitely gets easier the more you do it though. Key rules ... watch your ratios with resin and hardener. Too much hardener and it can become brittle, too little and it can take forever to dry as well as weaken the mix. Don't be afraid of the bondo, lol. Make sure to sand and sand and then sand some more, inbetween layers. NO AIR BUBBLES!!! If you plan on painting, make sure there are no surface scratches, bubbles, cracks etc. If you can stand on it, it's strong enough for bass, lol.

Just work on your skeletons and don't be afrad to try different techniques. If you got any questions, feel free to hit me up. A good site for materials is fiberglasssite.com great wholesale company with great prices and everything you could need.

bigaudiofanat · 06-30-2009, 06:07 PM

If you have aim you can hit me up at reimermatt. But if you can not yes you can pm me and all. Your best be is to buy the tweeter and the woofer together. A component set already is setup for the best sound for those speakers and as well the tweeters will handle all your vocals and all. Honestly I dislike rear speakers anymore they just do not make the song sound real. Feel free to hit me up any way you want and I can truly help you out.

Plasmaball · 06-30-2009, 07:17 PM

thanks....My handle is Darkstream81 on aim

ssqpolo · 06-30-2009, 07:26 PM

ok so now the question for all of us that dont understand anything that u just said...what is the best sub? or a better question...what is your favorite sub? not the most powerful, or cheapest/expensive...what sub is your favorite? i'm not a brand whore. I have 10's, so if u want to be specific and say what is your favorite 10" sub...that would be much appreciated

rreign · 07-01-2009, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssqpolo

ok so now the question for all of us that dont understand anything that u just said...what is the best sub? or a better question...what is your favorite sub? not the most powerful, or cheapest/expensive...what sub is your favorite? i'm not a brand whore. I have 10's, so if u want to be specific and say what is your favorite 10" sub...that would be much appreciated

I have messed around with and personally owned quite a bit of subs. Car audio has been in my life for about 10 years. Personally I like 10's for the quick tight bass in comparison to 12's or bigger that are mainly for heavy bass and picking up lower frequencies. Here are a few that I usually recommend for my customers... (not in any particular order)

10" MTX TR75-22 (400W RMS, DVC, great style, wide range of bass/music, great SQ, good price)

10" MTX TS85-22 (600W RMS, DVC, square design, decent price)

10"/12" Cerwin Vega stroker/pro (2000W RMS, DVC, very crazy bass, a little pricey)

10" JL W7 (750W RMS, odd 3ohm impedence can be hard to judge different adjustments, amps, etc. a little pricey and over rated. IMO)

antennahead · 07-01-2009, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rreign

I have messed around with and personally owned quite a bit of subs. Car audio has been in my life for about 10 years. Personally I like 10's for the quick tight bass in comparison to 12's or bigger that are mainly for heavy bass and picking up lower frequencies. Here are a few that I usually recommend for my customers... (not in any particular order)

10" MTX TR75-22 (400W RMS, DVC, great style, wide range of bass/music, great SQ, good price)

10" MTX TS85-22 (600W RMS, DVC, square design, decent price)

10"/12" Cerwin Vega stroker/pro (2000W RMS, DVC, very crazy bass, a little pricey)

10" JL W7 (750W RMS, odd 3ohm impedence can be hard to judge different adjustments, amps, etc. a little pricey and over rated. IMO)

Are you stationed in Beaufort?

John

rreign · 07-01-2009, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by antennahead

Are you stationed in Beaufort?

John

Yep. Came from Camp Lejeune to here 2 years ago.

antennahead · 07-01-2009, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rreign

Yep. Came from Camp Lejeune to here 2 years ago.

Cool, I'm in Charleston.

John

bigaudiofanat · 07-05-2009, 05:05 PM

Well I start my next class for college tomorrow so I want to get this done tonight. Today we are going to talk about wire size, fuse ratings, and the difference between coaxial and component speakers.

Wire Size
So power wire is used to send power to your amp. Usually the rule is the bigger the wire the less resistance the power has going threw the wire. The normal size is usually 8 gauge or 4 gauge, the lower the number the bigger the wire....don't ask LOL. 8 gauge wire can carry power up to around 400 watts that is total from whatever your amp is putting out. If you are going to have more than that or 2 amps I would step up to 4 gauge wire. 4 Gauge is good up until 1000 watts. After that you will have to step up to 2 gauge or even the big 0 gauge. Now when you run any of these other than 8 gauge, you can use something called a distribution block. this allows you to hook up multiple amps to the same wire which is completely fine. Most of them will step down the size like 4 gauge in and 4 outputs of 8 gauge.

Ground Wire
This is a huge thing for your amp. Believe it or not DC "Direct Current" flows from negative to positive. SO your ground wire is as if not more important than your power wire. Now your ground should be on a solid piece of metal preferably on a main beam or brace of the car. Not saying that you can not use just any piece of metal just these are the better places. A lot of people like me do not like to drill holes and all so we look for bolts that we can place the wire under it. Before just drilling a hole make sure to check under were you are drilling you do not want to drill into a fuel line!!!. After you drill your hole sand or grind the paint off so your ground is a real nice ground. Before i go and install my ground I put some di-electric grease on there.

Fuse Rating
These little babies help from you starting a fire on your nice car! LOL DON'T GO RUNNING AWAY. Fuses are simply to protect the wire and the electronics from shorts weather it be on accident by touching a wire to ground or a wire slipping out of an amp. The easiest way to find out what kind of fuse you need for your amps is look at the fuses on your amp add them up and that will give you the correct fuse. Most people just run what fuse comes with the wiring kit which is fine.

Speaker Types
Let us start with component, a component setup usually consists of crossovers, a tweeter, and a woofer. This makes for the best you can get. The reason for this is because of the first component. The crossover, before that power even gets to your speakers the crossover filters the frequency's of the music and makes sure that only those frequency's that the speaker can reproduce, gets to them. The next part the tweeter, this takes car of all your high frequency's. Having it not actually on the woofer means that you can install it almost anywhere giving you the very best sound angle. Look at ti this way are you looking down at the ground at a concert is that were the music is coming from NO of cores not. That is why tweeters that can be mounted anywhere are better you can put them as if you were at a concert giving you a more true experience with your music. Coaxial, there cheaper and easier to install but not better. These are made for rear fill, or for someone who wants to do a quick and easy install. The tweeters are built right into them. This causes loss of power from the woofer as it can not move as far as one without the tweeter built in. Also it can not sound as good because there is resistance to the movement of the woofer the tweeter being right in the way is what dose this. Also there is usually no crossover to take car of the sound that calls for you to use your high pass on your amp and set it by ear.

Next time.... Well let me hear some suggestions from you!
Enjoy!!

06-30-2009, 03:37 PM	#1 (permalink)
bigaudiofanat Car Audio Installer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Magnolia DE Posts: 8,342 Drives: 2012 Infiniti G37x Rep Power: 853	Car Audio 101 Well class take your seats it's time for another lesson. Today were going to learn about car audio and the terms associated with it, and what they mean. Let's begin! Ohm's Okay ohms or Ohm's law is the rule of resistance that something has. Most of you probably think about things like rubber and all having high resistance and that is correct. But in car audio we use ohms for what a speaker's resistance is at. For example if you have a sub that has a 4 ohm single voice coil. Than that sub can be wired up to an amp with the resistance of 4 ohms. The next part of Ohms is power. If you look at any amp's specs you will see that is has something like 100 watts RMS x 4 at 4 ohms (150 watts RMS x 4 at 2 ohms) 300 watts RMS x 2 bridged output at 4 ohms (4-ohm stable in bridged mode) so lets look at the first one. This one states that is can run 100 watts per channel "or speaker" as long as each speakers has a resistance or Ohm's of 4. The second one states that as long as all the speakers are at 2 ohms the amp can put out 150 per channel. The last one shows that it will put out to 2 channels 300 watts a channel if there ohms are 4 ohms. "you will also notice that is says 4 ohm stable at bridged mode." This states that the amp was built for the load of 4 ohms and is able to be bridged. The thing with ohm's is that the higher the ohms the more resistance. So when you go with a lower ohms rating it can have much more power to run that speaker. You may be asking well can I wire different ohm rated speakers to two different sets output on an amp? You can ONLY do this if the amp is setup for it. If you want to get relay technical about Ohms law just google it and click on any of the first few links that come up. Or just simply ask. RMS Now you may have notice in the previous section when watts were being explained it said RMS. Something like 100 X4 at 4 ohms RMS. This is very important when choosing an amp. RMS stands for root mean square. In normal terms this means what an amp can continue to produce for long periods of time none stop. You may bee seeing things like 1200 watts MAX. In a few simple words this is a gimmick the amps will never produce this power and no matter how hard you try there just not going to make it. You always look at RMS when shopping for an amp. You will even see it on head units saying 50 X 4 max it is rely putting out around 12-15 watts RMS. Amp Settings and Gains So great you got your new amp and are wondering what in the world are all these knobs and switches on it for? Well here is your answer. Gain or volume. Some even say it differently than that but the deal with this is, think of it as a adjustment to insure your not clipping the signal. When you are all done installing your system is it time to put a test disk in of a normal song or a test tone of 80HRZ go to your amp and turn the gain all the way down than go back to the head unit and turn the volume 1/4 to full volume. Now you go back to your amp and slowly start turning up your gain until you hear distortion than turn it back just a hair. This will insure that your speakers are not going to distort or clip. Now those Low pass and High pass knobs and all. Well a normal setup consists of your fronts being components. "speakers with separate tweeters" So the crossover will take care of the filtering of all that so your front should stay on Full. If you are going with rear speakers I would turn on the High pass filter and dial it to around 80 or maybe a bit higher. What these filter do are basically insure that the speaker will not get frequency's that it can not reproduce. The Low pass filter is fro when running a sub woofer your cut off should be around 60 for your sub. Crossovers So you know that little box that comes with your component speakers and some coaxial speakers. There things are called crossovers. Basically what they do it take the unfiltered signal that your amp sends it and sends the frequency's to the tweeter and the proper frequency's to the woofer. Some people like to turn there high pass on there amp to around 100HRZ so that way it takes more strain off the crossovers. It is a personal thing I prefer to let the crossovers to there thing. Sub Wiring This and this alone is the trickiest to master of everything in car audio. There are so many was to wire subs that it is very hard to explain, but I am going to try my best. There are 4 kinds of subs which included there Ohm's and all. There is a SVC "single voice coil" 4 ohm and a 8 ohm formats. Than there is a DVC "dual voice coil" 4 ohm and 2 ohm formats. The SVC are pretty easy. You can hook up a 4 ohm coil as a 4 ohm or if you have 2 you can wire them as 4 or 2 ohms. If you have a SVC 8 ohm sub than you can hook it up as 8 ohms. If you have 2 of them you can hook them up as a 4 ohm load. You can not wire different ohm rated subs or speakers together this will damage the sub and or the amp. Which brings me to DVC subs. Honestly there are so many ways to wire them that I would hope that you IM me or consult this guide to help you wire them properly. Subwoofer Wiring Diagrams As always if you have any questions or comments let me know. Next lesson will be on rely's, power wire, fuse ratings, and how much current until you have to upgrade your alt, and all. ENJOY! Solid370z and 1991Z32 like this. __________________ Need help with car audio or electronics? Let me know!! Need Help Let Me Know Direct email address reimermatt@gmail.com Owner of: Dynamic Mobile Audio Follow me below https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicmobileaudio/ Last edited by bigaudiofanat; 03-22-2012 at 05:26 PM.

06-30-2009, 04:28 PM	#3 (permalink)
bigaudiofanat Car Audio Installer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Magnolia DE Posts: 8,342 Drives: 2012 Infiniti G37x Rep Power: 853	Thanks you I went ahead and added about the crossover in there. I will be doing more write up's as I have so much time to do it. Hope you enjoy reading them. __________________ Need help with car audio or electronics? Let me know!! Need Help Let Me Know Direct email address reimermatt@gmail.com Owner of: Dynamic Mobile Audio Follow me below https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicmobileaudio/

06-30-2009, 04:38 PM	#5 (permalink)
bigaudiofanat Car Audio Installer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Magnolia DE Posts: 8,342 Drives: 2012 Infiniti G37x Rep Power: 853	Thanks man ya I am use to explaining things to people it comes easy for me for some reason. Well I have been self taught and been doing it for 4 years now if that. Built my first computer at age 7 and been into electronics ever sense. I can pick up on electronics in a few minutes of working with them. Thanks for the offer actually this weekend I begin learning fiberglass from what I have read so far it is pretty simple. __________________ Need help with car audio or electronics? Let me know!! Need Help Let Me Know Direct email address reimermatt@gmail.com Owner of: Dynamic Mobile Audio Follow me below https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicmobileaudio/ Last edited by bigaudiofanat; 06-30-2009 at 04:41 PM.

06-30-2009, 06:07 PM	#8 (permalink)
bigaudiofanat Car Audio Installer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Magnolia DE Posts: 8,342 Drives: 2012 Infiniti G37x Rep Power: 853	If you have aim you can hit me up at reimermatt. But if you can not yes you can pm me and all. Your best be is to buy the tweeter and the woofer together. A component set already is setup for the best sound for those speakers and as well the tweeters will handle all your vocals and all. Honestly I dislike rear speakers anymore they just do not make the song sound real. Feel free to hit me up any way you want and I can truly help you out. __________________ Need help with car audio or electronics? Let me know!! Need Help Let Me Know Direct email address reimermatt@gmail.com Owner of: Dynamic Mobile Audio Follow me below https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicmobileaudio/

07-05-2009, 05:05 PM	#15 (permalink)
bigaudiofanat Car Audio Installer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Magnolia DE Posts: 8,342 Drives: 2012 Infiniti G37x Rep Power: 853	Well I start my next class for college tomorrow so I want to get this done tonight. Today we are going to talk about wire size, fuse ratings, and the difference between coaxial and component speakers. Wire Size So power wire is used to send power to your amp. Usually the rule is the bigger the wire the less resistance the power has going threw the wire. The normal size is usually 8 gauge or 4 gauge, the lower the number the bigger the wire....don't ask LOL. 8 gauge wire can carry power up to around 400 watts that is total from whatever your amp is putting out. If you are going to have more than that or 2 amps I would step up to 4 gauge wire. 4 Gauge is good up until 1000 watts. After that you will have to step up to 2 gauge or even the big 0 gauge. Now when you run any of these other than 8 gauge, you can use something called a distribution block. this allows you to hook up multiple amps to the same wire which is completely fine. Most of them will step down the size like 4 gauge in and 4 outputs of 8 gauge. Ground Wire This is a huge thing for your amp. Believe it or not DC "Direct Current" flows from negative to positive. SO your ground wire is as if not more important than your power wire. Now your ground should be on a solid piece of metal preferably on a main beam or brace of the car. Not saying that you can not use just any piece of metal just these are the better places. A lot of people like me do not like to drill holes and all so we look for bolts that we can place the wire under it. Before just drilling a hole make sure to check under were you are drilling you do not want to drill into a fuel line!!!. After you drill your hole sand or grind the paint off so your ground is a real nice ground. Before i go and install my ground I put some di-electric grease on there. Fuse Rating These little babies help from you starting a fire on your nice car! LOL DON'T GO RUNNING AWAY. Fuses are simply to protect the wire and the electronics from shorts weather it be on accident by touching a wire to ground or a wire slipping out of an amp. The easiest way to find out what kind of fuse you need for your amps is look at the fuses on your amp add them up and that will give you the correct fuse. Most people just run what fuse comes with the wiring kit which is fine. Speaker Types Let us start with component, a component setup usually consists of crossovers, a tweeter, and a woofer. This makes for the best you can get. The reason for this is because of the first component. The crossover, before that power even gets to your speakers the crossover filters the frequency's of the music and makes sure that only those frequency's that the speaker can reproduce, gets to them. The next part the tweeter, this takes car of all your high frequency's. Having it not actually on the woofer means that you can install it almost anywhere giving you the very best sound angle. Look at ti this way are you looking down at the ground at a concert is that were the music is coming from NO of cores not. That is why tweeters that can be mounted anywhere are better you can put them as if you were at a concert giving you a more true experience with your music. Coaxial, there cheaper and easier to install but not better. These are made for rear fill, or for someone who wants to do a quick and easy install. The tweeters are built right into them. This causes loss of power from the woofer as it can not move as far as one without the tweeter built in. Also it can not sound as good because there is resistance to the movement of the woofer the tweeter being right in the way is what dose this. Also there is usually no crossover to take car of the sound that calls for you to use your high pass on your amp and set it by ear. Next time.... Well let me hear some suggestions from you! Enjoy!! __________________ Need help with car audio or electronics? Let me know!! Need Help Let Me Know Direct email address reimermatt@gmail.com Owner of: Dynamic Mobile Audio Follow me below https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicmobileaudio/ Last edited by bigaudiofanat; 07-16-2010 at 10:30 AM.

06-30-2009, 04:10 PM	#2 (permalink)
rreign A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: South Carolina Age: 41 Posts: 2,341 Drives: 03 Evo 8 Rep Power: 709	Damn good write up. I thought about doing one of these along with my sound dampening thread but decided against it. Thanks for clearing up all the retorical and redundant questions. Probably could add a bit about crossovers though.

06-30-2009, 04:35 PM	#4 (permalink)
rreign A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: South Carolina Age: 41 Posts: 2,341 Drives: 03 Evo 8 Rep Power: 709	Like a said bro, a great write up for the amateur installer. For guys like Jeff, you or I to try to break this all down in one write up can be difficult but I think you pulled it off well. How long have you been doing car audio/video? I've been doing installs for about 10 years but just over the last 4 or 5 years, I started getting into building custom boxes, fiberglass boxes, kick panels and what not. I checked out some of your builds and they aren't bad, but if you need any tips/tricks for custom builds, just let me know. You can check out my album, I have one of my fiberglass jobs in there.

06-30-2009, 06:02 PM	#6 (permalink)
Plasmaball Base Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: San Diego Posts: 113 Drives: 6sp PG 370z Rep Power: 17	So can i come to you for advice on what speakers to get and such for my Z? I used to "get it" and lately i am just not sure anymore. Is it smarter to buy a component system or part out the tweeter and speakers? Does it matter if all the speakers are the same? Or is mixing and matching fine? Are base blockers needed for tweeters? As of this moment i want base from the front speakers and sub.The side speakers i want pure audio/vocal. So i was thinking base blockers for the side speakers. A lot of people are saying the side speakers are not even needed because of the acoustics. That i am not totally buying if you have no vocals basically coming out of the front speakers. Can i list some speakers i am looking at for your opinion as well? I already have a in dash installed. Its the kenwood DNX 8100 series. thanks

06-30-2009, 06:07 PM	#7 (permalink)
rreign A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: South Carolina Age: 41 Posts: 2,341 Drives: 03 Evo 8 Rep Power: 709	lol, simple is not quite the word I would use. It definitely gets easier the more you do it though. Key rules ... watch your ratios with resin and hardener. Too much hardener and it can become brittle, too little and it can take forever to dry as well as weaken the mix. Don't be afraid of the bondo, lol. Make sure to sand and sand and then sand some more, inbetween layers. NO AIR BUBBLES!!! If you plan on painting, make sure there are no surface scratches, bubbles, cracks etc. If you can stand on it, it's strong enough for bass, lol. Just work on your skeletons and don't be afrad to try different techniques. If you got any questions, feel free to hit me up. A good site for materials is fiberglasssite.com great wholesale company with great prices and everything you could need.

06-30-2009, 07:17 PM	#9 (permalink)
Plasmaball Base Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: San Diego Posts: 113 Drives: 6sp PG 370z Rep Power: 17	thanks....My handle is Darkstream81 on aim

06-30-2009, 07:26 PM	#10 (permalink)
ssqpolo Track Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Florida Posts: 882 Drives: '12 Black Nismo Rep Power: 268	ok so now the question for all of us that dont understand anything that u just said...what is the best sub? or a better question...what is your favorite sub? not the most powerful, or cheapest/expensive...what sub is your favorite? i'm not a brand whore. I have 10's, so if u want to be specific and say what is your favorite 10" sub...that would be much appreciated

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