Hi, I've been into car audio since 1997, when I got my first car (1991 Isuzu Impulse XS auto). I have had many set ups. This is my first set up... My First system... Clarion Pro Audio ARX- 8270 Cassette head unit. Fronts- MB Quart 6.5 KX powered by head unit Rear- MB Quart 5.25 KX powered by head unit I bought all of this at Columbus Car Audio and they installed it. They did a good job too. I used a cassette adapter to line in my portable CD player. I planned on using the head unit's Changer Controls as soon as I saved enough for the CD changer. I drove to school and work for almost 2 months and I was happy with the way my system sounded. During this time I was saving for the CD changer. I finallly had enough for the CD Changer. I changed my mind by this point. I figured I could listen to CDs with my portable. I won't gain much by adding a changer. I wanted bass! Looking back I wish I would have got the cd changer. A kid I went to school with had a subwoofer for sale. Back then I didn't know a W0 from a W3. All I knew was this kid was selling a 10" W6 for $40 in a box. I paid him and I needed an amp so I got an Alpine 2 Channel amp at a pawn shop and my neighbor helped me install it. That JL 10 W6 pounded! Aparrently others liked the way it souned too because my car got broken into shortly after I put it in. I learned a lot from my first set up. Mostly what not to do. Luckily I still had my MB Quarts in the doors and back area, that is about all they didn't take. My portable CD player and roughly 50 CDS were stolen as well. I even took my faceplate off but left it in the door panel. They even got the remote for the head unit! My factory head unit plugged right back in and powered the aftermarket speakers. I was back to cassettes though. Luckily I had full coverage insurance. Not everything was covered though. Basically I had to pay a $500 deductible. Then, I got my door fixed ($800) and insurance only covered the head unit's replacement. The insurance company determined the Clarion ARX- 7470 would be my replacement. Let me know if I'm getting too detailed or if you want me to tell you what I did after that.
keep going.... i remember my first setup.mind you this was in the late 80s when a cassette player was like 500+ bucks.and if you wanted an amp you had to spend like another 500. i had a coustic tape player.a pyramid eq booster.factory door speakers.horn tweets on the rear deck.for bass i had 2 8's from a boom box in the rear deck.it had some nice bass for a 50 watt total stereo.then it got yanked from the car too.along with 2 shoe boxes full of tapes.
Great, I'd like to hear your story! I bought a Hornet Alarm and I had the Clarion Pro Audio ARX- 7470 Cassette. I finally got the Clarion 6 Disc changer and I got a Pioneer 4 Ch amp for my MB Quarts. That lasted about a year and then a channel went out in the 7470. I bought a Jensen Nitro RDC 9643- CD/Cassette combo Double Din with EQ and Jensen HU Controlled 12 Disc CD Changer. You could tell it was Jensen but it worked. I still had cassettes!!! I bought 2 Jensen 4 Ch amps. I amped my MB Quarts and used the second amp bridged to power 2 Dr. Crankenstein 12"s My friend got a Pioneer P200 and I liked everything about it. I sold my Jensen equipment and bought a Pioneer Premier DEH- P400- CD with Premier CDX-P2000 12 Disc CD Changer. The Pioneer quality was a huge difference and I had that set up for almost 2 years. I sold My Dr. Crankensteins on ebay and got 2 Kenwood 12"s. That didn't change much. The Crankensteins were old but were a better speaker. MP3 head units came out and I got a JVC KD-SH99 ( first MP3 deck I had and a very early model) Made it through a whole year without anything breaking!!! I got the next year's model JVC KD-SH707 (couldn't justify an extra $50 for 4V preouts on the 909) I noticed the difference though. Sold car to friend. Car got broken into again at his apartment complex. New car (2003 Eclipse GTS auto) I was happy with JVC so I got a JVC KD-SH9750,JL 300/4, JL 500/1 Eclipse 6.5 Comp, Eclipse 6 X 9"s, JL 10W7 HO wedge 1F Cap with volt meter, all 4 Guage Wiring Sold all my nice stuff Went back to the 6 disc in dash changer and still wanted MP3 so I got Sony 10 Disc MP3 FM Modulated CD changer Wanted Ipod interface, replaced blown 3.5" center factory speaker with aftermarket speaker I got a refurbished Pioneer Premier DEH- 780MP with Ipod Adapter kit. I used a Mitah adapter to run RCA signal to my factory amp. The screeen went blank one day. Only lasted 6 months. I sold it for $80 on ebay broken. I got a New Alpine DVA-9861, still using Mitah adapter with factory amp and speakers. I'm happy with the sound. I installed mount for 9.2" monitor in dash. I can have my monitor ready to go in less than 2 minutes and remove it from the mount in the same time. It is like a quick release mount. Alpine uses a cable without a box and it is faster and better. When I'm in my apartment I can't blast my movies as loud as I want so I watch movies in my car and the volume doesn't bother anyone. I drive almost 2 hours a day during the work week and this Alpine works great.
Well, it looks like the rest of my story got deleted. It got deleted right when I switched from writing in notepad to the site. This isn't the first time I've lost text online. So I got an insurance draft. I took it to CCA and they said that installation on my new head unit wasn't covered by insurance. I got a wire harness and went home and installed it myself. The 8270 was a much better head unit. The 7470 had a button simaler to a marble that went up, down, left, right and you could push it in. Similar to the Premier 780 ecxept no rotoray encoder. I hate that style!!! With that set up you end up changing tracks when you want to push up for volume because you push it to the right too. I prefer buttons for each (<,^,>,V and sel) which my current HU has (Alpine DVA- 9861). I listened to cassettes since most of my CDs were stolen. Then MP3s got big and I got a 2X HP CD burner. I used Napster to download songs and I was extremely happy if they went at over 3.XX KB per second. I made some custom mixes and decided to get the Clarion 6 Disc changer that my head unit controlled. I went to Stereo Limited on a Sunday because CCA was closed Sunday and they installed it for me. Cost about $380 installed. CDs were a huge improvement over the cassettes I was used to. Although that marble button was a pain. I mounted my remote in my center console and that way I wouldn't accidentally change tracks when trying to increase volume. My head unit had to be at 30 out of 33 to be at the volume I liked. It was loud but I can still hear great 10 years later. 30 years later may be a different story but I'm good now. I figured I coulld add an external amp and that would improve the sound. I went to Sears and saw a Jensen 4 X 55 W at 4 ohms and a pioneer GMX- 324 at 4 X 35 W at 4 ohms both RMS obviously. Both were about $200. I decided to go with the pioneer even though it wasn't as powerful as the Jensen. I installed the amp and only noticed a slight improvement. I still liked the volume at 30 out of 33. I got a new job in December of 1999 and I was making more money so I decided to add some bass. I wanted to do it for as little money as possible so I got a Jensen 4 Ch amp that claimed 150 watts X 2 at 4 ohms RMS. There is no way that was what my subs were getting. I found 2 12" Dr. Crankenstein High Voltage series subs at a used car audio place called Audio Doc for 50 bucks. I built a sealed box and wired it up. It had some thump. Very soon after installing the subs my Rear Right RCA on my Clarion 7470 went out and I blew a channel in my amp. I guess having the volume at 30 out of 33 will do that eventually. It lasted about 2 years though. I took my stuff to Audio Doc because they deal in used equipment. I traded my Clarion Cassette (broken), my Pioneer amp (broken) and my working Clarion CD changer. I was able to get a working Jensen Nitro Series RDC-9643 CD/Cassette double din with EQ and a Jensen 12 Disc Changer that the head unit controlled. I'm not a fan of Jensen but it got the job done. With a 7 band adjustable EQ in 1999 I was impressed. I got another Jensen 4 Ch amp (matching my sub amp) it claimed 75 watts by 4 at 4 ohms. I don't know what it actually did but it was way more powerful than the Pioneer! I used this set up for a year and I was happy. Then my friend got a Pioneer Premier DEH-P200. I was very impressed with it. I decided I wanted a simaler HU. I went to Audio Doc and they had a Premier DEH-P400 with a Premier 12 Disc CDX P2000 changer. I traded the working Jensen equipment plus $50 and they gave me the used Premier equipment. This was my set up until the JVC KD-SH99 came out in 2001. I had been on an online forum for all MP3 Head Units and they raved about the JVC 99. I got it and it definately lived up to my expectations. Suddenly I was putting 180 songs on a CD. No need for a changer anymore. I sold my Premier stuff on ebay and got pretty much enough to buy the JVC 99 which cost about $320. In 2002 they improved the 99 and had a 707 with 2 Volt Pre amp outs and a 909 with 4 volt pre outs. I wanted 4 volts but it wasn't worth an extra $50 to me. I settled with the 707 and 2 Volts and coming from the 99 with 4 Volts. I noticed a difference. All you have to do is turn it up louder though. I sold the car in December of 2002. It had 89K miles and some rust. Overall it was in good shape mechanically. My friend bought it for $1750.00. I left all of my stereo equipment for him. The $300 HU, the $150 MB Quart 6.5s the $125 MB Quart 5.25s, the 2 Jensen XA 4150's about $350, I replaced the Dr. Crankensteins with Kenwood Tornados and that didn't doo much. I got 2 for $99. So I guess you could say he bought some car audio equipment that came with a car. Plus he got the Hornet alarm ($150 installed). At his apartment complex somebody broke the driver's side window and stole the head unit, 1 Jensen Amp. (the other Installed under the seat. I guess they didn't have time to remove the seat lol., and the subs. I still had the factory HU and I installed it for him to run off of the Factory HU in exchange for the other amp (under the seat). I sold him my car after I bought my 2003 Eclipse GTS auto in December of 2002. I used the factory system for a year and then I had a good amount of money coming in so I went pretty high end. I got a JVC KD-SH9750 MP3 with Organic EL. I was really sold on JVC Digifine. I got Eclipse 6.5" components for the doors and Eclipse 6 X 9"s for the backseat run off of a JL 300/4. I also got a JL 10W7 in a High Output Wedge enclosure powered by a 500/1. The tweeters were too harsh up front even when they were turned all the way down. I had to buy something at Radio Shack to lower their output even more. I even had a 1 F cap with volt meter. 4 months later I was laid off and I had to sell everything. I returned it to stock and went to CCA for a 10 disc Sony MP3 FM modulated changer. That was a great unit! I got an Ipod in 2005 and I wanted to interface it with my car stereo. I got an FM transmitter and that sucked. I saw Pioneer had an interface. I remembered my Premier 400 and got a Premier 780. This had all kinds of settings. The 16 band EQ was awesome until the screen went blank. It was out of my price range new but I could afford a refurb. I asked on another site about refurbs and nobody had problems and they said it was good that they had been retested and sent back out tested and working. Mine broke after 6 months. The display went blank. I sold it broken for $80 on ebay. Then I wanted DVD so I got the Alpine DVA 9861 with a 9.2" monitor. I really like it. Plus 2000 mp3s on a DVD is cool. I can't get Dual layer to work. I was hoping to get 4000 MP3s. I'm going to stick with this set up for a while. My factory amp gets a 4 volt signal from my alpine and that wakes it up. The stock speakers sound great! I replaced the 3.5" center speaker (weakest link) and that was a nice improvement. I listen at 22/35? or 33? can't remember. 25 is as loud as I go now. I loved the DEH-P400 and that love of Premier made me decide to get a 780 MP just last year. I got it refurbished and it broke after 6 months. Now I like Alpine.
Welcome! Maybe it got deleted by mistake or something, post again lol, i like storytime too. My best memory is an alpine deck from like 1984, i had it hooked up in my room and the sound the came out of that thing wow. So tight and crunchy and crisp lol.
I finished my story again. I'd like to here other people's experiences with their systems and how they changed over the years. Even head units you previously owned.
My first system was in my new 89 Z28. 2 Fosgate Series 1 subs, 2 soundstream reference 500s, 2 Boston 6x9 in the rear seat area, 2 fosgate punch plates in the dash, an Alpine cassette player and an Alpine EQ. Speaker works did the install ( I think that was the name) You guys know the place that did the Grand Nationial, was it Erik Holdiway or something like that. Man that was a long time ago, I must be getting old. I do remember it sounded awesome and it was loud as hell. Boy how time flies....
lol, where do i start, Well in the last two years i've probably fried over $1000.00 or more worth of stuff, mostly due to back yard installs and i seem to be having a big ground issue with this 1996 taurus i have now and my tempo before. I've had jensen decks, they are cool for cheap stuff, a few pioneers, they kick ass, i'm sticking to pioneer for head units. Mainly because of all the adjustable settings, crossovers, subwoofer control, ip bus which alpine also uses allowing you to plug in virtually anything. Stuff i've fried, about 6-8 infinity reference subs, a few rockford fosgate and more i can't think of now. I also have had many mtx subs and i have never burned one, they are strong suckers. I had a 2000 watt rockford fosgate from ebay but when i ran it through bassbox i couldn't get a good response, later finding out it was designed specifically for playing tones in competition not made for music. So i sold that one. Oh let me not forget the ElEmEnTaL DeSiGnS 190v2 18" sub that i fried. My fault though for not building a proper box. I've blown a few kickers, an L7 and an L5 but now i have 2 kicker cvr12's and they really can take abuse, i'm amazed they are still working. When they eventually go i'm going to get a cerwin vega stroker 12" and hopefully it will last forever lol. My orion is the main peice of my system, best amp i've ever owned. Orion 2100 Competition Amp, hopefully it will last too. Once this is all done then i don't want to be screwing around with it anymore. Just want to cruise and enjoy~! Oh ya, i also fried two bazooka rsa150,2 amps, Kenwood, 3 or 4 Infinity Reference amps, a Pioneer gm something and i'm sure there's more. Only thing surviving is my Infinity refernce 6x9s in my front doors and my Pioneer deh-p7700mp and the kicker cvr12s for the moment. So that's just a taste of my hell LOL. It's worth it though.
damn...quite NOVEL you got there nate dog Well...my first system was about three years ago. Started with my first car...a 1994 Mazda Protege. The factory front speakers were old and deteriorated that they sounded like crap. The factory deck was a cassette player but I had no cassettes. So to make it sound halfway decent I faded the sound all they way to the rear. I couldn't take it anymore. A week later I went to Best Buy and bought a 150 dollar Alpine CD/Mp3 player and a set of 5.25 inch Pioneer two ways...the blue cone ones for 50 bucks the pair. Had BB install the speakers because I had no idea how at the time. I installed the deck myself...it looked decent but had no trim piece around it because the dash kit didn't come with a trim piece and the factory trim piece only fit the square ugly cassette deck. So I left it that way. I loved that Alpine unit...it was a good deal and the sound quality was a huge upgrade. It was very easy to use also. My brother and I shared the car so we both chipped in for a sub system. We found a Circuit City special for two 10 inch bazooka CS10 subwoofers, a dual chamber sealed box, and a Bazooka CS150.1 mono amp all for 200 dollars. The amp was rated at 150 watts at 2 ohms. My friend and I installed it. He worked at Best Buy at the time so I got a Rockford Fosgate 8 gauge wiring kit that costs 80 dollars normally for 25 dollars...yeah it was good to have some connections. Well we finally got it installed after a few hours. Tuned the amp the way the manual stated. The thing was that this Alpine head unit had only one set of rear 2 volt preouts...very weak. The amp gain and boost had to be all the way up for some good bass. Thing was that the amp was not clipping at all and there was no distortion. I guess there wasn't enough of an input signal for the amp to clip even with the settings maxed out. Anyways. I really liked the way it sounded. The highs blended really well with the subs. The subs weren't overpowering but very smooth and balanced. Well the rear speakers I blew out. So a my brothers friend had a some speakers that he had from his old car that he totalled...come to find out they were the same pioneer 5.25s so i bought those and made some custom baffles out of some thin plywood for them. I had this system for about a few months...then my brothers friend sold me his two rockford RFZ108 subs, a bandpass box, and a Jensen 720 watt amp(360 watts continuous). This was was a decent amp...only thing was that it overheated easily if pushed too hard. (horrible heatsink, too small). I installed this amp and put the Rockford 10s in the sealed box. Wired it up and damn it was a huge difference over the bazookas. I was bumpin now. I sold the bazookas in the bandpass box with the bazooka amp to a friend for 150 dollars. Then a friend of mine gave me three mtx 10 inch subs in a sealed box so I took out the RF's and installed the three 10s. They were punchier and hit the higher bass notes well but the RFs still rocked for all around bass. Then a few months later I was kinda drunk over at my cousins neighbors house that I'd chill at sometimes...well the guy there was moving outta state and was selling a JL 15 inch sub. I didn't know what the hell sub it was at the time but he was selling it for 60 bucks...I said hell yeah and gave him the cash and I left with a case of beer and a new used 15 inch JL sub. I was pretty psyched. The next week my friend built me a sealed box that I designed around 3 cu ft sealed box for this beast of a JL sub. Installed it with the Jensen amp and that mother wanged hard. About 4 months after that I was driving under the interstate and a dumbass in a Ford Bronco coming my way decides to turn in front of me...instead of keep going into his driveway he stops in the middle of the fuking road when his wife sees me coming and screams. I t-bone him and wreck...HARD. Somehow my right knee was killing and was bleeding through my shorts...I had whiplash pretty bad...good thing about the 94 Proteges were their AUTOMATIC SEATBELTS. The belt did safe my ass from diving through the windshield but it also lacerated my neck in the process. Well in the collision the 15 inch sub and the box decided to fly forward and knock down the rear seats. That was the end of my first ride.
huh you think your getting old...well compaired to these guys here maybe.my first system(posted^^)was in an 85 tempo i got in 88.when i was 17. well that one lasted a while but it was broken into too many times. i lost a great nakamichi 2ch amp,2 radio shack 8's (in truck box's).a few cd players.coustic,sony,alpine.ALL GONE!! so i got rid of it and got my truck.a 1987 gmc s15 had it from aug 90 to nov 06.thats a long time to own a car. i've had dovens of audio set ups in that thing.when i got it had a jvc 2 knob casstte player and the stock 4x6's. that stayed like that for a few months cause i had 0 money from having to pay for it on a teenagers wages.lol. then my buds girl got tired of her car getting broken into and sold me her hifonics vulcan for.....50ish?cant remember.so it sat for a while. then a friend from school sold me some 12in mtx bluethunders(that i still have to this day in my HT. so i had his nieghbor build me a box a few weeks later(no money flow).and i had bass!ok 100 watts,but it was bass and it sounded good.oh along the way i got a xover.coustic xm3 3way. forward a year.replaced the 4x6's with new ones.got a sony cd player with 2 rca outs and a whooping 2v out! found a used targa 2ch amp for real cheap.rewired it for the subs and the vulcan for the mids,and pow now its louder. so it stayed like that for some time.then i got the job i have now.1997.so a few months go by.i have alot more cash to throw around due to the job and a live in GF. so i went nuts and got my doors done.jbl 5.25's + tweets.some new boston 4x6's.a new earthquake eq with sub out.(its own vol for the sub)cause at the time everything was a damn buttom.no more knobs for vol.i hatted buttons. couple years go by........2000.i found my pheonix gold M44 4ch.so now my subs were on that and the vulcan was still hammering away on the front stage at 2 ohms.90x2 with 40x2 to the subs. again it stayed like that foe a good 4 1/2 years.getting new headunit along the way.a pionneer,and some polk subs then i sold her and got my jimmy. infinity 4x6 plates in the dash. polk6.5,s in the doors,polk 6x9's in the rear panels. at first i put in some power acoustik amps.a 2ch and a 4ch. because they matched.along with a crap prefab box and the polk subs. put in my M44 for more power and realized it was more powerfull than my 100x4 amp.so i went on an ebay shooping spree and found an M50 and a few months later another.along with my kicker L5 10. i now replaced the 10 with a 6in bazooka tube for space.i'm not getting rid of the 10 cause i will find a home for it agian.i used to have it IN my spare tire and it sounded good to my suprise,and i will do it again soon and better. now along the way i had more stuff than was writen..... a small kenwood 18x2 amp a few jensen amps a pioneer cd changer i had while i useing some cassette players-a sony,coustic. i threw the targa amp out.she blew.not 2 ohm mono stable.what did i know about impedances..i was a kid then.lol i'm sure i missed some details.
