Best Audio Set up for a car?

Question

Im thinking 4 18" or 16" subs in the back cuz im gonna rip out the back seats and throw a box in.

but i dont want the tunes to sound bad. i know alpine is the way to go, but what sizes?

is 18 too large?

i want to wake up the whole neighbor hood with something they can understand not some crappy sounding stereo

Answer 1

first off you seriously need to tell us your cars stock power output, what kind of alternator, and battery setup you have. without that no one can tell you anything other then this, for a system that big you will need over a thousand dollars (if your thrifty) of power system upgrades.

Answer 2

check out these sites for subs:

http://www.reaudio.com

http://www.audiopulse.com

http://www.audioque.com

http://www.soundsplinter.com

http://www.ddaudio.com

http://www.imagedynamicsusa.com

http://www.ficaraudio.com

check out these sites for amps:

http://www.cadencesound.com

http://www.xtant.com

http://www.zapco.com

http://www.crossfiresudio.com

http://www.memphiscaraudio.com

http://www.usamps.com

http://www.diamondaudio.com

http://www.trutechnology.com

http://www.mcintoshlabs.com

http://www.sundownaudio.com

Answer 3

o.k. understand volume has nothing to do with speaker size. in the the world record is held by a 12" sub from pioneer. i guess what i am saying is there is no need to rip out the back seat. if you went with just 2 of the pioneers with 3000 watts you would wake the nieghbors for sure, and that system would require a new alternator, battery, big three upgrade, and some serious 0 ga wire to hook it all up. your already talking several thousand and that fits in the trunk of even the smallest cars. you would only need about 4-5 cu ft. for that system. in addition you would want to use some sound damping material such as fat mat or eDead.

you say you want it to sound good, well the fact is if you have it installed right most systems can sound good. when you hear a poor sounding system it is usually a result of wrong enclosure sizes, improper crossover points, improper powering, amps clipping, gain settings, poor wiring, ect ect...

so find some high SPL subs like the pioneers. look at the effeciency rating the higher the louder. for every 3db it is like doubling your power. so a sub rated at 96 db will sound louder with a 1000 watts than a system of 88 db with 3000 watts. also if you double surface area it adds 3db so 2 x 12" will be 3db louder than 1 x 12"  and 4 x 12" will be 3db louder than 2X and 6db louder than 1X 12". that make sense.

Personally if i was to make a system based on SPL. i would get 2 x 12" pioneers, and power them with a 1500-2000 watt amp. i would then upgrade the big three, get a HO alternator and replace the battery with a optima bat. i would then put edead in all the doors and the trunk. and i would call it good.

but thats just my opinion.