car audio question

[lilskirk23]

i know this doesnt have much to do with 300zx's but i have been trying to get an answer for this all night. i have been researching this all night and cant seem to find an answer and it gets too confusing. i bought a subwoofer (alpine swr-1042d) which is 500 watts RMS and 1500 peak power at 4 ohms. so i will need a mono sub amplifier that is about 500 watts RMS to get the most out of my sub. but HERES THE PROBLEM... putting in the sub with factory speakers is going to sound horrible meaning i need new speakers. its not like i am going to be listening to the opera in my car so i dont need to overpower my sub. so i started looking at speakers and their power ratings are like 60 watts RMS and 100 watts RMS for nicer speakers. from my understanding (which is obviously wrong) it still doesnt sound like i would hear much of the actual words in the songs... i mainly listen to rap and hip hop but i dont mind the occasional R&B song. how can i match this to make it sound good?

[evildky]

Welcome aboard, I believe if you look at the menu to the right you'll find tha aurio sections but I'll play along anyhow

what source usit are you using? if your running the stock head unit I hihgly recomend upgrading to some decent name brand aftermarket perferabbly with 4 volt pre amp out outs and one of those pre amps outputs designated a a sub output, this means you won't need a crosssover or filter on board or inline with your amp, hook it up and your done, you can add secondary amps and better fill speakers later, trust me, just getting that bass fill will help a lot and you will be able to hear just fine as the sub will be reproducing signal under whatever predetermined crossover point and below only (say 80hz or so) your fill speakers won't go below 250hz in most cases and won't conflict, you'll just be adding what you are presently missing

I used to be heavy into competition car audio, then I figured out all the weight slows the car down, my Z32 has a small (8") powered sub, with 2 way fills front and rear powered by a source unit with 50w line level outputs and 4 volt pre amp outs, not gonna win any sound offs but sounds great with the tops out cruising

if you have any other questions feel free to ask

[lilskirk23]

thanks for the info... i will definitely be getting a different head unit... im not really interested in doing any sound competition.. just something thats not too much for the car... like you said i weighs it down... but something that sounds good and is descently loud without sacrificing sound quality... trying to keep it fairly cheap too because i want to start doing performance mods right away... ill problably start off getting an exhaust and intake and maybe a new ecu then start saving up for something big (either a rebuild or a new vg30dett dropped in).

[evildky]

firts thing should really be the head unit, it's nice to be able to play mp3's and have satelite radio too, and nice units can be had cheap unless you want a flip out monitor, be sure to get 4 volt pre amp outs and 50 watt line level outputs and stick to name brands, you'll be amazed at how good those crappy speakers sound with the sub filling in the bass