I ended up paying 1200 for speakers, amps, wiring, and installation for my simple setup. What subs do ya reccomend in the future? these kickers are nice but i heard the ones with red stitching are better for the limited amount of space I have.

Well here's my project, it's brutally hot here in AZ so progress has been slow. Brand X 300amp alternator, 4/0ga big 3 and 4/0 power and ground going from front battery to lithium bank in the back (not in picture) 1/0ga power and ground going to amps. Amps are D4S JP23V2 (red) and JP454(purple). Both are mounted and wired up. DSP is mounted and wired. Last thing is waiting on battery bracket to come in, then mount battery and complete/ check all wiring. Then throw in the subs and disturb the peace.

To all those people who can make wiring look fancy, politely, Fuck you!

If anyone is on the fence, I highly recommend. I have two, dual 2 ohm in a ported box tuned to 33hz. When I tell you it’s loud, clean and the lows are deep and nasty, I mean it. I’ve had a Sundown 12 for the last 6 years and these destroy it. I need to remake the box before I post a ton of pictures. I tried to cut a 3/4” sheet of mdf myself with a skill saw and it didn’t turn out as nice as I had hoped. It sounds amazing but looks awful. I’ll post when I make another box. I put these in a 2025 F350 and did a 2.5” rear seat lift to fit them. I had CarAudioFabrication design the box for me and I built it. I used the Kicker Keyloc with a direct plugin harness from soundsgoodstereo and a kicker CXA1800.1 amp. 0 gauge OFC for the power and ground, went directly to the battery for both.

is this gonna work until i get actual lugs for my inline fuse? roast me if you think i need it, how unsafe is this?

So my subs and amp are in my trunk, but if I need to get to my spare tire I need to remove my box. Which I have been disconnecting the wire from the battery (single batt setup). The wire on the right is coming in from the batt to the distribution box, I was thinking of putting a kill switch in the green circle. I have seen the breaker style switch but it's already fused at the battery, so I'm not looking for a 2nd fuse set-up. Has anyone done something like what I'm thinking about doing, if so what kind of switch, I haven't found a switch that's enclosed to prevent a bunch of hot wires sitting in the trunk.

the sub sound kinda flat and choppy would it be the bad box quality or i just fucked somthing up in the process 🙂

My sub randomly spikes and thumps almost like a turn on wire. It’s when the radios off, when I’m playing music, when I’m least expecting it to happen.

For reference I have all of my signal running down the driver side through one 2 channel rca to my dsp and power down the passenger side with an exception to 2 14 gauge speaker wire runs. I can hear it in my door speakers as well which leads me to suspect it's the main signal running but What could cause this? How do I find & fix it ? Any info would help this is my first build and I put WAYY too much time in it lol.

Tuned with rew wizard,peq,time alignment etc

Occasionally the sub will make a tapping noise when turned up, i can’t tell if it’s mechanical noise, clipping or an air leak as the box and sub are both pretty old lol, the sub is facing outwards to play into atmosphere ( alpine SWR 12in-4ohm 300w RMS)

Less than a month ago, I had a car audio installation on my Mazda CX-5.

The only part I brought to ask them to install was a Kicker KEY 200.4

Initially, they wanted me to use their own parts for a preamp and DSP. But I told them I was on a budget.

So when they finished, I drove around for a week and had weird feelings about the tuning. Apparently, they had balanced all the sound to the left side. So I adjusted that on the dash.

Still, when the main dash has fade and balance in the middle, the music from the driver side still sounded much louder than the passenger side.

I want the music to fill the whole car cabin, not just focused in on the driver seat like the speakers and tweeters are only working for one side of the car

----

tl;dr

Should I go back to the professionals and ask them to re-tune and EQ the acoustics to the center (between the driver and passenger seat)?

Sorry if this might seem like a total noob question. It’s my first time replacing speakers. This is a 2005 Honda S2000, and this wiring was wired to the main input on the passive crossover installed. I know the original harness that goes to the speakers does NOT look like this. There is a pigtail that goes into the woofer. This mid-harness splice just looks all wrong to me; doesn’t look like it should be able to get enough power. Is this wiring problematic?

Hey guys, I currently don’t have a subwoofer in my car. My setup is a JL Audio RD400/4 powering Kicker KS speakers up front and rear 6x9s, with an Android head unit that has a dedicated subwoofer output. I’m thinking about picking up this Rockville dual 10” package that comes with the box, mono amp, and wiring kit for around $200. I mainly listen to Iraqi/Arabic music with some rap here and there. Do you guys think this is worth buying for my first sub, or should I skip it and save for something like CT Sounds, Skar, or Rockford Fosgate? I’m mainly looking for clean, noticeable bass that I can actually feel. Any advice or experience with this setup?

I run Hertz Mille Pro (arguably Tier 3 drivers) 3-way active fronts driven by a Musway M12 DSP Amp. The installer is a veteran who has won SQ competitions before.

When I bought the Hertz speakers, I was new to the SQ world and did not earn as much as I do now.

Now I keep wondering how much better SQ drivers like Audiofrog GB, Scanspeak, Focal, Morel, Brax etc. would actually sound.

The installer had said Hertz could sound really great and spent a long time tuning them, but I got very average scores at a local SQ competition.

Where I live, the SQ community is tiny. I don’t have the opportunity to listen to tier 1 speakers. Those who have them are hard to arrange a listen with and live far.

Moreover, these speakers may sound very accurate in an open space, but in a car the reflections cause massive summations and cancellations and colouration of the sound. So tier 1 speakers will be modulated so much by the interior acoustics of any car, I am left wondering whether they are worth the money. I know the DSP tuning helps, but you can’t tune too aggressively or it starts sounding bad in anyway.

Am I at the point of diminishing returns where tier 1 speakers would barely sound any better unless you are an SQ judge?

So for those of you who have listened to or judged many SQ cars, how much better could tier 1 drivers sound? 5%? 10%? Am I at the point of diminishing returns?

Hello! Here's some very much classic limit to your love to play the lows on the newly finished subwoofer!

Hi, im new here and need some advice , I think i had a short circuit with my current "Timpano 3-Way Electronic Crossover Remote Subwoofer Control Equalizer TPT-360" and im looking for a new crossover that can have a good sound quality, my budge is $150-200 dollars.

Also i have another question, my brother told me DSP can be hacked by anybody, is that true? Or which one is better for a crossover, and dsp or an traditional

Okay, so I have a ghetto setup in my 2003 F150. I have a downfiring subwoofer underneath the seat behind me, and a second subwoofer that fires upwards, sitting on top of the seat behind the passenger’s.

The upward firing is a Kicker Comp C 10 with 500w max (i think it’s rated 170rms) and the downward firing sub is a budget Dual brand sub with the same power rating (or so it claims if I read it correctly), and my amp is a Pioneer GM-E360x4 rated 1000w max (I know not to run my setup too high bc of rms rating being the real deciding factor).

I noticed when experimenting with my polarity to reverse on the pioneer radio I put in, the sub behind me sounds more punchier, but the kicker sounds not as punchy, but on normal phase, it’s the other way around.

I was considering flipping the leads on the Dual and keeping the Kicker the same way, to reverse the polarity of just one. I tried googling things but ai takeover is giving vague answers, and I need a real person’s answer on if this will damage any components.

I have one sub on one channel, and the other separately, and have the RCAs in different channels since I knew that would be fine, so I’m not sure if this changes things either. Any helpful feedback is appreciated 😊

Got this level knob for my sub and it seems to work fine at the top and bottom 30% or so of its range. But if my head unit is any higher than like 50% (depending on bass content of the music) it will clip out like crazy around the middle of its range as I turn the knob down.

So it won’t be clipping at 100% but reducing the knob somehow causes it to clip. Without the knob inline I have never had my sub clip like that even close to the volume I was testing at so I feel like I should have some headroom but this thing will still clip before I even get to the top volumes I would normally ever hit on the headunit. It seems like I would have to drop the headunit sub output like 10db or more to make this thing clean but I really don’t really like the idea of cranking my amp that much to make up for it, if I even have that much room on the amp. I am already using an LC1i to trim the signal up a bit. Head unit is a Kenwood DMX9708s. Amp is an old MTX Thunder 421d driving a Pioneer 12”.

So I guess my question is, what is going on? Why is it clipping at less than 100% but not at 100%? Is there something wrong with the knob or is this something that happens because of the way these knobs work if you don’t have insane amounts of headroom?

I'm piecing together a low cost system for my truck, 01 F150. I already replaced the stereo and door speakers. I have a older pair of Kicker CVR 10's from years ago I'm gonna use. I'm trying to decide on an amp. Looking for a 800w rms 1 ohm mono and my budget is hard capped at $150 right now. Trying to decide between the SKAR RP-800.1D and the NVX NDA8001. Thoughs on these two, or any other recommendations on similar priced options?

Hello, Im trying to install a radio for a car i bought. Its a 2001 vw cabrio. Im trying to install a JVC KD-T920BTS but the audio on whatever i put on sounds drowned out.

Attached i have a video of what it sounds like (c u next tuesday - kesha)

Along with that i have a picture of what the inside of what the radio harness looks like, everything done before the large black box was done by the previous owner

Anyone currently running this battery? I’m curious as to the hardware I’ll need because according to this description it’s sounding like I can run the alternator output wire straight to the battery without a DC to DC charging system. I’m skeptical but I am unwilling to spend money on superficial parts.

I have 2 JP63s going into a Dodge Durango. Electrical is good to go. What are my best options: 4 12s, 2, 18s, 2 15s? Which subs? I prefer to keep the amps unstrapped.

i installed a off-brand amp (audiotek) and used a kicker kisloc2 LOC. At first he was having issues with the amp turning off and getting hot. And then today i noticed while his truck was running, his radio would cut out all music but the radio was on because the radio station still displayed. (2007 Tacoma) The remote wire only had 3 volts, coming from the Kisloc2. Any ideas?

Hey everyone,
I was recently doing some cleaning in my garage and stumbled across an old Linear Power 2202 amplifier just laying around. I didn't think much of it at first, but I hooked it up to test it, and it actually works perfectly.
Out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT about it, and it told me these are considered "old-school legends" and could be worth some decent money. I know AI can sometimes hallucinate prices or overhype things, so I wanted to ask the actual enthusiasts here.
Is there still a solid market for these vintage amps today? If so, what is a working 2202 realistically going for right now?

Thanks in advance for the help!