Head Units

[tooslowtahoe]

If i was replacing my head unit and all factory speakers what would be the best way to go about getting a head unit and speakers that will work the best together? Things like watts and ohms? any one know what size the factory tweeters and in the door of a 99 Tahoe and if direct replacements are sold thanks

 

[94LowRider]

Need details about Budget and how MUCH you like Clarity and Bass. Also what type of music do you listen to mostly ?
I just bought my 4th Kenwood, have never had any Failures, still have all of them, would Highly recommend them.
The next purchase should be a GOOD Quality set of frt stage speakers, i like components but price will dictate choices. Start with the best you can afford of these first 2 items, then add a sub and an amp later if you want. The latter 2 will Really Enhance your Sound Quality, as well as pump up the volume. The doors will take anything from a 5 1/4 to a 6 3/4, sometimes you need an adapter.

 

[jcoatswo]

I've been installing car audio for my friends and family for about 8 years now. IMO Alpine is the absolute best for budget head units. It all depends on what you want to do with your setup. I love bass SQ, Alpine has hands down the best bass engines for their radios. Also 99% of alpine radios have dedicated front, rear, and subwoofer pre-amp outputs. On the other hand alpine does lacks in pre-amp output voltage (important for subwoofer and 4 channel speaker amp SQ) where as other brands such as eclipse and clairon prevail. The reason I choose alpine over the competition knowing this is because clarion and eclipse are insanely expensive in their higher end equipment (worth the money but spending $400-$1,200 on a head unit is not my cup of tea) and they are usually a pretty boring looking faceplate. For the money alpine mixes style and function ability IMO. But again it all depends what you're trying to do. You can buy the best (coolest) product a crappy company (half the brands sold on sonic electronix) makes. Or a middle of the road alpine for the same price. PM me if you have any questions before ordering your radio I'd be more than happy to help you out and let you know what I think the best radio for your budget would be.

 

[Vortec Lover]

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Here's mine... made by Delco I think. It doesn't have too many features as far as Blue Tooth or USB go, but it really flows with the interior of the truck.

 

[nate3531]

I like Alpine. My '97 has a deck that's been in my last 4 trucks. Had it so long, I can operate it without looking at it. Has outputs for 2 amps & a sub. Has the bass boost engine. It's a 9838 running the stock speakers. I've got a set of 6.5" components & a 10" slim sub for under the seat. Gonna install those once it's outa the bodyshop, along with an old ERE-G180 7 band equalizer.
The '98 has a CDA-9813. Red/green/blue display, and a built in multi-band equalizer, with V-Drive. Originally cost $500. C/L find for $100! Had it a year. This thing is so damn complicated, I still haven't figured out all the features!

I'm an Alpine guy too, I have a CDA-123 love it. Soon as I get my sons Kenwood wired up I am swapping it from my Tahoe and putting the Alpine in my truck.

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Here's mine... made by Delco I think. It doesn't have too many features as far as Blue Tooth or USB go, but it really flows with the interior of the truck.

That's what mine looks like too for now...

 

[silverado98]

the tweets for the doors u can 1 1/2 inch got to this other post i posted to see what i did and u have to cut a tiny bit but nothing serious here the link http://www.gmt400.com/forum/showthread.php?16115-ECSB-Sub-Boxes&p=401544#post401544 here u go tell me what u the tweet is from power acoustic there decent for 15 bucks the pair

 

[qukon 95]

i install the 2 din sony xav-72 bt in my yukon this was the only radio that came close to the same features as my kenwood kd-x979 1 din. i got pics
in my www. photobucket.com/qlcp

 

[tooslowtahoe]

what do we think of this http://www.poweracoustik.com/pa2012/source-units-PTID-8920.html

 

[jcoatswo]

Again it all depends on what you want. What ever the specs are on that unit I can almost guarantee they are way overrated. If you don't buy car audio equipment from a reputable company you're going to get crap with pretty much no exceptions. The specs I find important on a head unit are signal to noise ratio(basically the quality of the signal being sent to the speakers) and the pre-amp voltage (the higher the voltage the stronger the signal you send to your amplifier). Another very nice thing about having high pre-amp voltage is that the higher you go on this voltage spec it gives you a wider the range of voltage you can send to your subwoofer ie your subwoofer level setting on your amp. As a quick example, the head unit I have now has 2 volt pre-amp outputs. I can change the subwoofer level on the unit itself but there is basically an off, loud, and louder setting. I had a kenwood head unit that had 4 volt outputs, I could dial the subs from off, very low, daily driving volume, loud and louder. Its not 100% needed but I will never buy another head unit with only 2 volt outputs because that is just my preference.

Another note, a Hifonics amp for $140 that says it does 1400 watts RMS will only put out roughly 900-1000 watts RMS. A JBL amp for $399 that says it puts out 1450 watts RMS will put out about 1700-1800 watts RMS. I have a JBL BPX500.1 that says 500 watts RMS on the box, since these amps are individually assembled they each come with their own specific birth sheet of specs which they test on a bench before boxing up the amp (a birth sheet will only come with very high end brands). My birth sheet says my amp put out 792 watts RMS on the bench. Also if yours thinking of getting 2 cheaper amps to make up the voltage don't. Spend the money and get a high quality stuff, the clarity and sound quality of my expensive, "lower end voltage" (not a million watts RMS like everyone wants) absolutely CAN NOT be matched by any cheap-o amp on the market.

FYI for all you audio enthusiasts out there, you can determine RMS output of any amplifier by multiplying the fuse rating on the amp by the amount of voltage you are putting into the amp. Always use 14.4v as a reference as this is what your alternator should be putting out when the vehicle is running. The hifonics amp mentioned above has a fuse rating of 70 amps, the JBL has a fuse rating of 120 amps.

If anyone needs help on setting up a system please PM me I would be happy to help. Also anyone is located in south east Michigan that needs help picking out equipment or installing their system let me know I love doing this stuff!

 

[tooslowtahoe]

well i guess i know a lot less the a little lol.... Im looking for something mid range not the best but not going to break in 6mo. some good sound quality and decent bass. clean and crisp highs are more important to me then bass, i will add subs but just for a little something extra. 1-12 or 2-10's something like that. I have a MTX amp 1501d?? its an older model i had on a 4-12 system long ago, but over all my system sounded like trash, i diff dont want anything that big so i might sell that and get a smaller amp. i was looking at the unit above because i really want some type of screen but i know its not top of the line just thought it might be good enough, guess not.