speakers? (1 Viewer)

[Frank A]

Quite a few months back, I looked at some internet speakers that I seriously (well,maybe not too serious) was considering buying. For the life of me, I can not remember, even remotely, the name of the speakers or web site that I was looking at.

Can anyone give me the names of websites that sell speakers for diy installers? Maybe the name will come back to me, but I am looking for a pretty good pair of speakers (component style?) in the range of a couple hundred dollars or less.

I hope to pair them with, possibly an Eclipse head unit.

edit: I did not look hard enough (did most of my looking on google), until I looked here a little harder (sorry about that) but CDT is the speaker I was thinking of.
I will do some more reading on them.

Thx, Frank

 

[JoeSR]

There's CarDomain Crutchfield, and PartsExpress. Also BestBuy, which you could go to and listen to the speakers first, (I just wouldn't let them install anything.)

 

[Frank A]

Thx, Joe. I don't know much about car stereos/speakers, but was thinking that maybe internet sites for speakers might be more bang for the buck similar to home theater internet/diy speakers versus name brand. But the more I look, I'm not real sure that is the case when comparing some of the prices.

There are only two places in town (that I know of) that sell and will install car audio. I haven't looked at their stuff in probably over a year or two. Back then, I was looking mostly at head units and not speakers so don't really know what they offer. If I get a chance I will go into town and start looking at what they have.

I do remember that one pushed Alpine h.u. and the other pushed Eclipse (which seemed the better of the two brands to me).

I do have a co-worker that used to do installs and he said that he would help me with whatever I decide to do.
thx, Frank

 

[JoeSR]

Alpine, Kenwood, JVC, Pioneer are all good HU's. I personally stay away from Dual's and Sony's, but that's just based on what I've heard/read.

 

[DougEW]

CDT's are very good, at least they seem to be popular on the BMW forums. If you find some name brand speakers you like, then I think Ebay is the way to go. I decided I wanted Infinity Kappa's for the front and back of my car and I saved around 50% off local prices by going the ebay route. I also picked up a good 4 channel amp off ebay. I'm using an Alpine hu and really like it.

 

[Frank A]

I went in the other day and the one place that I listened to the Eclipse no longer carries them. They've started carrying the Alpines. Said the Eclipse did not sell too well. I didn't get a chance to really listen to any of their setups (raining and the better half was waiting in the truck for me). I think they pretty much carried standard brands, sony, kenwood, alpine, pioneer, jvc h.u. and jbl, polk, and a couple others that escape me right now. I will continue to do some looking and thinking. This will be going into a 95 Chevy p/u for my son, extended cab.

thx, Frank

 

[Juan Castillo]

www.thezeb.com at one time had a really good deal on CDT components. At least the classics. I'm not sure but I think they went under. elemental designs has some nice stuff..http://www.edesignaudio.com, but this is a brand, not a retail site with multiple vendors.

 

[Frank A]

Just an update. My son got home last week (been gone two yrs--church mission). We/he went down to the local store and after much consideration and looking on the internet, we decided to go this route:

We bought through Crutchfield. Might can find cheaper prices, but I have read nothing but good about them and their service. When I shop on the internet, that is something that I really look for.

What he wanted and we bought were:

H.U. is the Pioneer deh p6800mp with the ipod control interface.
The dash speakers are some Infinity Kappas 462.7. For the rear pillar speakers, we decided on the Pioneer TS-A4670R's. (Crutchfield has free shipping, along with free installation/harness kits. I think this probably saved me around $50+). The local place, the price included installation, but not the kits to install them (probably $30 or so).

The CDT's just didn't go over too well with him, so I didn't try to force myself. After all, it is going in his p/u (94 Chevy (not 95) 1500 extended cab).

I'm not into car stereo, so I'm hoping that this will be quite a bit of an upgrade over the stock stuff in it now. It just has a radio with a cassette deck in it now. Sitting in the garage, he has a box with 2 12 inch subs in it and an amp (both are 6 or 7+ yrs old), but he says it is too big to go into the truck. Maybe we will find something later on to go "under the seat?".

We are both kind of excited to get this and try it out. A co-worker of mine said he will help us with the install. He used to do that stuff. Should get this shipment sometime this coming midweek. It shipped out this afternoon.

Thx, for all of the advice and suggestions (I did use some of them).
Frank

 

[Frank A]

Sorry, Juan, but I just went to the link you posted. Pretty interesting on the quick look I took. Are you using their stuff? If so, how does it compare to some of the other standard brand of things?

Frank

 

[bigmke184]

try www.woofersetc.com or www.ikesound.com

those are the two best online wholesale car audio stores that have a huge rep.

 

[JoeSR]

Something else to consider while you have the truck apart is sound deadening. I've put RAAMmat in a few cars and it's really kept the vibrations and external noise down.

 

[Frank A]

bigmke, those are good looking/prices websites, but as stated earlier, I've already ordered, but, I will bookmark those two, along with others for future reference.

Joe, that stuff sounds pretty good, but just a little much, money wise, for me right now. I will keep it in mind.

Thx, again.
Frank

 

[Frank A]

OK, a quick update. Got the shipment in Wednesday. We will be installing these in about an hour or two. I was told it should take somewhere around 4-6 hours for all four speakers, the h.u. and the ipod adapter. I will keep you informed.

I know this will not be a real high dollar investment, but I am thinking that it has to be/sound a lot better than the stock that is in there now (no cd player, only a radio and casette). We will be looking at putting one or two 10 inch subs in the back under the seat, later. Any suggestions on that? Right now, looking at a "stealth" type of enclosure and have not really started looking at subwoofers or amps, yet.

Thx, again, Frank

 

[Greg_R]

Yes, run the cable to the sub amp position _now_ while you have things taken apart! It will make the future sub install a lot easier. Most headunits allow you to turn off the Sub output (so no worries about the cable being live, even though the power in RCAs is minuscule). 1 decent 10" sub in a truck cab is a lot of sound...

The new speakers should sound significantly better than the stock system. let us know how it turns out!

 

[Frank A]

Well, it took all of 6-6 1/2 hours to get it done. It does sound good to me. My son thinks it sounds quite a lot better than before. I'm glad I had a friend doing the install. I would still be trying to take the old unit out if I had been doing it. I would probably have everything "ripped" out.

I have to say the ipod adapter works really nice. Nathan did a good job of concealing all of the wires and it works/integrates really well with this head unit. You control the ipod thru the h.u. His ipod hook up is just thru a cable with an "ir". He thinks this works a lot nicer/better.

Greg, after watching him take the unit out, you made an excellent suggestion. That should have been what we did, but, the only problem was, I read it (your suggestion) too late (oh, well). Plus I did not have any of the cabling or anything else needed. The sub will just have to wait a while (just had some landscaping done to the yard yesterday, so will have to wait a payday or two).

Hey, thx again for listening and giving suggestions. I really appreciate it.

p.s. I will have some questions, maybe, on those two 12 inch subs I mentioned earlier.

Frank