joezero

It's you're money so you can do whatever you want with it. If you're happy with the performance of sony/pyramid/etc., that's great. I just hope it continues to sound as "good" as it does now. The reason so many ppl are opposed to those brands (especially sony) is the reliability issue.

I would be interested to know what it is you're powering with your 300 watt pyramid amp tho.

SuPeR SpOrT

A free 12 inch sub that i got. Urban Audio works.

Yeah it is a budget system but meh.

D M N

Thanks for the site i learned alot

I was thinking is there a way to color subs

Scooby

There is a company named Audiopipe thats making colored subs just dont know if they are any good

84'fxrupr

My friend has a bazooka amp(EL 1500 i believe) It says 600 onit. It runs 500 watts at 2 ohms. He has an all bazooka setup (amp, 2 12's, cicuit city sealed box) and it sounds pretty good. he paid like $600 installed. I found the amp on ebay for $60 buy it now(HAHA). anyways i was thinking of buying two of these amps and running two 10" audiobahn DVC subs. What do you guys think? Good brand? I know the more for the money, but they sounded good to me. any ways thanks for the help.
Jared

D M N

no answer on my question about the paint

Barry85Iroc

Nackamichi CD player w/ remote $130.00
Hifonics Zeus 600 watt 2-channel amp $220.00
Hifonics Zeus 440 watt 4-channel amp $220.00
2 Infinity Kappa 6x9 3-way $50.00
2 Polk 4x6 co-ax $69.95
2 Audiobahn 10" Dual Voice coil subs $150.00
1 Stinger 2 farad Cap $90.00


All but the Polks purchased on Ebay. Changing out the Polks for audiobahn 4x6 plate co-ax. For what I paid, this system ROCKS. Made my own sub box out of a hard hatch cover and MDF.

89blackGTA

If it were me I would stick with Polk. But thats me

Barry85Iroc

Are the Audiobahns that bad? the Polks are the best (IMHO) that were available to hear. I figured that the Audiobahn's having a Round woofer, may do better.

D M N

i know this guy that has 2 12" audiobahn subs they kick ***

89blackGTA

Some of the audiobahn stuff is decent but over priced IMO. I have had nothing but good experiences with polk, I love their stuff.

Brian

jiggajiveturkey

Great call on the pioneer head unit... you will be very satisfied! I got mine on ebay for $96 so wait for a deal.

Barry85Iroc

D M N, I was talking about replacing the 4x6 dash speakers. I am VERY happy with the subs. Most accurate car subs I have ever heard.

The Audiobahn stuff is high--------if you pay retail. E-bay is another story.

Daishi

Would not go a cheap route......

Heres what I got

Pioneer DEH-1500 $250
2x12' Clarion subs $300
4 gague wire kit $90
Sony 6'9x2 $60
Kenwood Amp $150


As you can see I dont have the best system. But with 2 Clarion 12' subs, It pounds hella. And I am not impressed, I wish it were louder.

If you go cheap now, you will regret it later. EVERYONE I have ever met said "I just want something to play cd's" And bought what you bought, no more than 4 months later they all wanted something better..

If it were me, I'd just go all out now, and save your money in the long run

89blackGTA

Interesting.... you dont think that sonys are cheap, and you think they are the best.....hmm. I am going to have to go with........NO.
It looks like you have a decent system but not even close to the best.

Daishi

I said as you can see I don't have the best system.... what is it you are talking about here

Daishi

I said, I would not go a cheap route, meaning... If you read a little further, you will see I think mine is cheap and I am NOT IMPRESSED WITH IT. So I was only warning him not to do what I did and buy cheap. Cause you will regret it :P

89blackGTA

My bad. I read it wrong. Sorry. my brain was working at a different speed than my eyes I guess.

Daishi

lol, too much subs pounding in the brain, I swear I have lost some of my hearing

Barry85Iroc

WHAT?????????????????

84'fxrupr

...anything about bazooka or audiobahn like a asked above?

jaredi

Try these guys. Alot of people on Sound Domain Like them alot. I am probably gonna get their 15s. They look so.... something. I don't know what I think about the look just yet. Oh, also you might look into a JL W3 12". I have heard them, they are good subs. I have a friend who has been running 2 JL W3s for over two years now behind them is an 800W Planet Audio amp. W3s are also reasonably priced.

Jared (84'fxrupr- Sorry to be a sig stealin b*stard )

84'fxrupr

sorry if i stole it thats my name and i had never seen your sig
i'll sign differently from now on.
84'fxrupr

jaredi

Doesn't really matter, I don't have an official sig and you've been here longer so...:hail:

Ah, we know each other apart anyways

I'm just curious if anyone on this board has any experience with the Elemental Designs subs.

JaredI

TomP

Here's something else to consider if you're low on cash- crutchfield.com - YES, they overcharge. You can do better at local stores, but: They allow you to do a payment plan. I think their current deal is spend $200 and get 6 months of no interest payments. It might be the way to go.

Check out local stores like Best Buy, too. Granted you'd need credit to get their credit card, but maybe your friends or parents could work out a deal with you.

And never, EVER, go cheap on wires. Getting a $20 amp hook-up kit will make a $1000 amp sound like crap. Buy the wires individually. The main concern is the patch cords. I always say to spend at least $30/set of 2-channel 16 foot patch cords. At least!! Those $20 amp kits are coming with $5 patch cords. If you must, and it somehow winds up to be cheaper, buy the $20 amp kit for it's 4 gauge power and fuse holder, throw away the cheap patch cord set it comes with, and buy $30 patch cords.

eBay's a great source for patch cords. Places like StreetWires always change the color of their patch cords, and guys wind up with overstock. Here's one example for you! If I didn't have $60/set cords already, I'd be buying these: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=32809

jaredi

I must agree with TomP completely about the wires. I had my XTRs hooked up with some cheap wires and then one day I got the idea to try out some of that Monster cable stuff. Excellent stuff. Just the splitters made a huge difference. The next week, fully converted to Monster cable. 100x better. I would have never believed it if I hadn't seen it firsthand. Wires are the first thing to affect your sound quality.

Don't go cheap on the wires. I like Monster Cable, but I've never had any experience with StreetWires. Heard they were good though.

JaredI

D M N

Maybe thats why people who buy pyrmaid have a bad sounding system because they use cheap wires too

TomP

Ouch, then they're screwed twice!

When I re-did my system for a second time, I used a cheap patch cable for my subs. I ran outta cash, and figured that a sub is just putting out bass, so I wouldn't miss any clarity. A couple weeks later, I bought a quality patch cable and swapped it in- the whole damn system sounded better!!

My guess is that the cheap patch cord was acting like a power cord- the cheapie wasn't shielded at all. It was probably destroying the signal inside my quality ones.

(All three patch cables are routed down the exact center of my car.. yep, under the center console, and under the carpet, straight back. Not the world's most fun job, but it pays off! Of course it'd be best to do this if you're replacing the carpet at the same time... )

joezero

That's pretty doubtful since the RCAs run at a low voltage and low amperage. The increase in SQ probably was simply a result of getting a quality low end. I'm sure everyone here remembers when they first got subs how much fuller everything sounded.

D M N

yea thats right

MoJoeVanilla

I have got an alpine Typr R 10", i have a fosgate amp, it is a little more expensive, but it hits harder, louder, and cleaner than my friends 2 pioneer12's, so i would go with an alpine sub, or go for all fosgate if you just want loud......they make some pretty good stuff, but its just loud, not nessecarily clean........just loud!

D M N

why hasnt anyone asked about crossovers, Eq, or capasitors?? I did some research and found that there are alot of things that you need to have a good system besides a amp and subs. See this is why i think that all does brands are ok its just user error

jaredi

Thats stuff you can add later on after you get your stuff. I would get my speakers and amps and all the major stuff first and then get the other stuff as I went along. That's all involved with making it sound good, not really a necessity yet. I would invest in some bass blockers for the tweeters though

It's not as bad as driving around with an untuned engine. If you buy Pyramid stuff, you can put all the crossovers and Caps you want on it, but it'll still sound horrible when compared with a system made with good quality components. I have a friend with MB Quartz mids and highs and two Alpine R-Type 12s. Don't know about what amps he has, but it sounds awesome. You're not gonna make cheap stuff sound as good. Plus when your cheap stuff blows your gonna end up spending more money replacing it with better stuff...

Most of the time it's just, you get what you pay for... Pyramid is no exception. But if you don't really care what it sounds like and you just want something a little better than stock... go for it, but you're gonna be mad when drop all that $$$ on the stuff and it don't sound as good as you expected... But I used Monster cable? I've got the crossovers set perfect! Why does it sound like dooty? Think about it...

Better yet, go over to Sound Domain and see what all they have to say about Pyramid stuff... Try this thread.

Just my .02,
Jared

[edit: acn't speel rgiht]

Barry85Iroc

A Capacitor is a capacitor. It's designed to store juice. The only real variable is how much it will store.

joezero

First off, the title of the thread is "$331.79 system". There is no way in ***'s green earth that you can get a system with seperate eqs and crossovers for $330. Second, look at what they do for you. Practically every head unit has an eq built in and every amp has a crossover. Secondly, both are used to fine tune flaws out of your system. In essence EQs, crossovers, and capacitors are all "band-aids" for your system. A large majority of the population does not recognize the difference between a finely tuned system and a not so finely tuned system. Those that do often don't feel that the slight improvement is worth the increase in cost. My question to you would be this, have you ever pulled up next to a car with a big stereo and said "hey, his system has a really nasty roll-off below 30 Hz"? That's what a better crossover or EQ will do for you.

Let me give you a real life example that will help put this in perspective. I attended a school for recording engineers. One of the things they did at the beginning was point out that there were two sets of speakers in the studio. One was active one was passive. The passive speakers were a couple of hundred bucks a pair, the active ones were a few thousand. The active speakers were much more accurate than the passive ones. Yet 10 of the 12 people in the class thought the passive ones sounded better because it sounded more like their speakers at home. They thought the active ones sounded too flat. The truth was, the passive ones didn't have a flat frequency response, just like the speakers all these guys had at home. So a flat, true response sounded bad to theses guys. That's just something to keep in mind whenever you're after that "perfect sound".

As far as just a bad setup on cheap stuff like pyramid. Well, the reason that they suck is two fold. 1. They overrate the output. This is a problem if I buy a pyramid 600 watt amp to power to Alpine type-r subs. My subs would burn out from being underpowered. 2. They have a really high THD. What this means is that as you turn it up, it will start to distort the signal. I'm sure you've heard someone who's maxed out their stock stereo (especially on older cars like ours) and it sounds like ***. Same concept, it's just that it sounds like *** 20 dB louder.



You can look at sites like sounddomain, but even there you will find a lot of people don't know what they're talking about. I've seen guys who have done absolutely beautiful installs and put a capacitor in it because "they were told you needed 1 farad for every 1000 watts". They didn't even know if the system was going to have a big enough impact to require a cap, and they didn't try the cheap/easy solution of upgrading the stock power wires to try to fix it.

TomP

See, you're thinking I changed the subwoofer setup- I didn't. I added an amp for the inside speakers. Somehow that one cheap patch cord threw off the rest of the system.

joezero

I thought you added the cheap patch cord to the sub amp? Maybe I read it wrong...?

TomP

The good RCA went from being on the subs to being on the rear speakers. Bought a second good RCA for the fronts, and wound up buying a cheap cord for the subs.

Original system was a Craig pull-out tape deck with one set of preamp outputs. They ran to a sherwood BP240 sub amp. (Awesome amp, that old Sherwood!) At the Sherwood, I used a set of y-splitters to run a short radio shack patch cable to a thumpin' Pyramid Pro 210 amp that powered the front and rear speakers (yet another y-splitter was used)! What a crappy system that was! Eventually I chucked the Pyramid Pro amp because the distortion was making my eyes tear.

Second system went to a Pioneer pull-out tape deck, Sherwood 7-band EQ- giving me 3 sets of preamp outputs. Installed a Blaupunkt 4x20 amp, so I needed 2 more patch cords.

Then all I did was swap the cheap cord out for a quality one- and heard a difference thru the whole system. There was actually a separation between "left" and "right" ... before the patch cord swap, my whole system sounded like it was mono. I don't think better sound from the subs could've enhanced the staging.