TeamAM

ok, i know that there's a forum for this, but i need specific help to es owners

i'm looking to change my whole system in my car with products from best buy. my cousin works there so she said she can hook me up.


i'm looking to change everything.. dash,speakers,sub,amp.

can you guys recommend me something nice to buy? specific products? i dont know about car audio. lol

i'm looking to spend about $800-1000

thanks!

paintrain

well ur probably not gunna be able to stay under your $1000 budget if you want to change the dash unit since the best thing to get would be a double din setup which would run around 800-1000 alone. however, you can keep the stock dash unit by purchasing this lil adapter that allows you to install subs by eliminating the need for RCA outs. as far as speakers go there are so many choices, but stick name brand like pioneer, alpine, kenwood, or infinity. obviously you need to find ones that fit. im not as familiar with the third gen but im 99% positive that your speakers are 6.5". with the sub it gets tricky, since you have two major options. you can replace the existing subwoofer thats on your rear dash and amp it, or you can get something for the trunk. you definitely need to post this question in the audio forum to get some expert advice.

Lazy

iTrader: (2)

Double din + subwoofers! keep the stock speakers for now.

3000

Change out the stock speakers and the dash if you're gonna spend a grand. Dash kits are only $20+ now a days.... well, if you wanna thump... you have plenty of options.

Choas

Well it all comes down to what you want. If you just want some thump go withj what paintrain says and get the thingy (line level conveter ) Or if you want an all around upgrade and don't care about the thump go with what 3000 or 99es3 says and change out the HU. If you go with option 2 I would recommend the pioneer avic series or a carpc. Or if you want to just add an aux in to you factory setup just let me know all you need is the cd changer and the wiring diagram (found on this forum ), a few parts and I can help you. The choice is up to you.

subwoofers

in my opinion, just run a good double din.

Smitty

iTrader: (1)

If you want to stay in the $800-1000 there's plenty of places on the net that you can get some quality stuff at a good price. Just my 2 cents

PM me and I'll give u this site I've used for quite a few audio things


-Smitty

heorung

my 2cent worth

Head Unit - go for units with USB input / bluetooth phone & ipod capability.
Amps - stick with American Amp (true power in RMS rating... not peak power)
Speakers - do u wanna hear an ant fart during a song? ... I love my MB Quartz.

Subs - general rule .. the heavier the magnet is .. the better the quality.

As for your $1000... right now u better spend that on head unit .. then go forth and multiply.

1 thing though... ur going to go deaf before 40.... or near enuf if u listen to my advice hehehe....good luck with ur choices.

kphu

iTrader: (8)

a lot of great advice was already given. You should really spend some time learning this stuff before buying since $1k isn't exactly short money especially what's happening on wall st. For starters, when you swap your entire system out, you should know that you'll need quality cabling along with a power distribution block. Cabling is not cheap unless you go with the cheap stuff. If you buy high end components i.e. speakers, head unit, subs, amps, etc. and you skimp out on the wiring then your only degrading the components you bought.

Here's a simple layout of a typical stereo system. Good luck.

kphu

iTrader: (8)

Feel free to post any questions about the diagram.

paintrain

kphu makes a good point. quality wiring is a must. and thanks chaos, i couldnt remember what the converter was called and it was driving my nutts

Robert_J

I agree 100%. I've been using a Pioneer with a USB input in my Maxima for the last few months. I have never played a CD. I have a 12GB mini hard drive and a USB to SD card adapter with four 4GB cards. I can put ~30 CD's worth of music in WMA 320kbps format on each SD card.

Are you using "American Amp" as a brand name or just a description of amps made in the US? Because there are very few amps still made here. Yes, you need to find one that does produce its rater power. I suggest that you stick with amps from small companies run by car audio enthusiasts. Sundown is one of those companies. Jacob outsources his building to Korean company Xenon who has been building amps for years. Or you can go the Ebay route for true American built amps. Older models from US Amps, Hifonics, Crunch, PPI, Phoenix Gold, RF and Rockford Fosgate are all available.

Absolutely wrong. Back in the late '80's/early '90's, that may have been true but there have been HUGE improvements in sub and speaker design. For example, I have a two subs that have identical soft parts. One uses a 40 pound ceramic magnet. The other uses a 20 pound neodymium magnet. The 20 pound magnet actually produces more BL than the 40 pound magnet. BL is the measure of force between the magnet and the voice coil.

Best Buy does not carry any amps or speakers that I would be comfortable running. Yes, you are saving money by going to BB and getting an employee discount but you are still mostly buying overpriced crap. Get your head unit at BB but like I mentioned earlier, go with companies run by enthusiasts. Sundown Audio, Fi Car Audio and Elemental Designs can supply you with the rest of your system for probably less than what you pay with your discount and it will be better equipment.

-Robert

HYPERBOY

MTX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL

you can never go wrong with mtx

TeamAM

thanks a lot guys

ES3_Ray

You can do what i did, keep the stock headunit and wire in a subwoofer, keeping the stock speakers too, it sounds really good IMO





this way you use the stock amp and you dont have to run a signal wire to the back, just the + power wire.

good luck! it only cost me about 250 bucks because i built the box and the subwoofer was given to me by a friend because he blew out one, and got a whole new set...so he had nothing to do with the one good one.