I am no car audiophile although I am much into the home theatre world so I want to know what kinda of system I can get for around $500. Not looking for porch rumbling, back window rattling too deep bass noise maker. Just a clear, adequate bass sound. Something better than stock. I found some nice pioneer and alphine HU for sale under 250. alpine amp for 130.. just need subs and components. Any thoughts?

 

i have 2 10" pioneer subs in a sealed box f/s cheap. they sound good but dont rattle windows. a def. improvement over stock. for components id recommend some cdt 6.5's. they are $150 and great speakers. they can be found at thezeb.com

 

If your into home audio, then you know that buys nothing.

 

it would probably cost 1/3 the cost of buying these subs to ship them to nyc. i'll give it consideration though

 

Your best bet would be to save up $1000 and then look for a system, obviously the more the better, however i can give you an idea for a system for $500 that is better than you would expect.

Tsunami GXA1000D amp - $140shipped
2 PHOENIX GOLD Ti10 Titanium 10 - $157shipped
Pioneer Premier DEH-P460MP $149 shipped
JBL EC6.2 6.5" components for front $78 shipped
CLARION 6.5 srr1615 2 way coax for rear $44shipped

And that's $568, of course you could get worse stuff and get under the $500 mark but i was trying to come up with something that might actually work, the door speakers are the worst in this situation, can't really get good sounding door speakers for very cheap.
Also factor in the cost for wiring which is expensive, and for a box.

-Alex

 

good point on the shipping. damn i got my pg's for 168 shipped on thought i had adeal.

 

Subs, the sub i found that sounds the best for its price is a 10 inch Apline Type-R 1000 watts peak (4ohm or 2) for $180 and a cheap Profile California CA600M for $140 and then you can pick up a wiring kit for it for no more then 60 bucks and if youre handy just build yourself a box for under 10 bucks (i dont recommend it)

 

buy the wiring kit online - many different companies will sell you the wiring online.

Get the subs/amps/HU from a dealer - if they blow, you may be able to get warranty (trust me, I've blown an Alpine 7894 HU, and a Bazooka sub). This stuff does go bad on occasion.

The only sub I could recommend that does come in a box, and is pretty cheap/small at that, and pounds pretty good, even with a smaller 200w amp, is the Bazooka T1-S (the triangular one - 8 or 10").

I've had it before (see my WWW for a pic), and really liked it (for the price/style), until I fried it 2x with my JL 500.1 amp (the amp's fault, not the sub - too much power for voice coil).

I upgraded to better subs (for my wants/amp) after that, but I liked it nonetheless.

 

First, never beleive anyone who try's to sell you the "best" product for a given price range. The first thing you want considering your price range is a good line out converter, LOC. This will convert the speaker output level signal from your headunit to a high quality RCA line in. In the under $1000 range you won't be able to buy speakers, one or more amps and a high quality headunit. Most decent headunits are more than $500 by themselves. Since you are looking to improve your low frequency response get a LOC, 10 or 12 inch sub and a mono amp. But just those three will be tough to get decent quality for under $500. I you aren't a decent box designer and builder you can ask friends or you may want to consider one of the several pre-built sub / amp combo units.

Also consider looking at used equipment. Even junkyard equipment. You'd be surprised what you can find in a totaled car.

 

alpines are pretty good about having decent line outs, but the model wasn't listed so who knows.

as for head unit
Clarion DXZ835MP (220 @ thezeb.com)
low end alpine or eclipse

comps
cdt cl-61 (150 @ thezeb.com)
viper 650.2 (140 @ sounddomain.com)

amps
hifonics, pheonix gold, or jbl

subs
too many choices

500 really isn't enough. do the front stage first, then save up money for the sub and sub amp.