How to put in car system?

Question

I want to put a system in my car but I know nothing about it, what do I need, from an amp to w/e else is involved? How much will it run?

Answer 1

Your question is too vague...

What you want out of the "system" will determine what you need. It could cost you anywhere from $50 to $100,000 (or more).

Car stereo "systems" are very much a case of "you get what you pay for."

I'm going to assume you want one of those crazy ghetto blaster setups. That being the case here's what you're going to need:

A new head unit ($150 - $1000's)

1 or more subwoofers in an "enclosure" ($50 - $1000+)

4 (or more depending on your car) speakers to replace the factory speakers ($100 - $1000's).

2 amplifiers, one for your subs and one for the speakers in the factory locations ($200 - $1000's).

Speaker wire, cables, mounting kits, power wire for your amps, etc. ($100-200).

Depending on what kind of car you have you may need to invest in a capacitor and or a better battery to prevent the dreaded lights diming when the bass hits.

As a side note a good rule of thumb on amplifiers is if it's cheap and it's rated for a ton of watts it's a piece of crap. The higher quality amps are often rated very low, i.e. 50 watts x 2, however if you read the fine print they are stable down to 1/2 ohm or even 1/4 ohm. The 50x2 rating is for 4 ohms usually. You can run the amp at lower ohms by wiring speakers in parallell and the ohms will cut in half. An ampt that's 50x2 @ 4 ohms will be 100x2 @ 2 ohms, 200x2 @ 1ohm, 400x2 @ 1/2 ohm and 800x2 @ 1/4 ohm. A piece of junk amp will not run below 2 ohms and maybe not even below 4. If you buy a good amp as described above subwoofers with dual voice coils are a good idea as they will allow you to wire the two voice coils together in parallell and run your amp at 2 ohms instead of 4 (assuming the speakers are 4 ohm).

You will then need to install all of that stuff and a good installer may charge $200-300 (or more).

http://www.sounddomain.com/ is a good site with forums, retailers, pictures of installations and even some how-to's if I remember correctly.

Answer 2

What sets amplifiers apart is if it's CEA-2006 compliant or not. Amplifier manuafacturers voluntarily submit their amps to the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) and if passed, produces the watts RMS stated, anything else is a guess.

Always go by watts RMS as this is a more accurate depiction of true power.

I have to disagree with Ron above. Just because an amp is stable at a lower impedance (ohms) it's not always best to run it at that. Doing so will cause the amp to run hotter, sound worse and have a shorter life than running it at a higher impedance (4 ohms).

You get more power out of an amp, but at a price.

See my site for more info http://spkrbox1.spaces.live.com

Answer 3

Pay someone to do it. It's a world of pain and regret if you do it wrong and damage something.

Answer 4

Go to: www.crutchfield.com
They are the experts in this area, and will tell you everything you need to know -- free.