Good Kenwood Audio Setup? Options

[Komail]

zz

This post has been edited by Komail: Sep 29, 2015 - 11:54 PM

[kerosene]

kenwood sucks ^^ hahahah no good kenwood system exists....if you want to spend that much money you should look into higher quality...the headunit should be one you will be happy with for a long time, not one because its cheap....go to your local Audio shop and listen to the headunits, and i dont mean like best buy, go to tweeter....

[Komail]

Hm...I have used Sony, Alpine and JVC before...the JVC sucked, the Sony was awesome and had a nice built in amp, the Alpine was easiest to use...

I really wanted to go with Kenwood because they make double din units which are fairly cheaper...

Could someone recommend some single and double din units?

[CelicaST_CALI]

alpine makes really good head units,idk about double din,wat exactly does double din mean?

[soven]

why do you want double din?

[CelicaST_CALI]

wat does it mean!!!

[Komail]

double din = the unit that fills up your whole cd space...like the size of the OEM unit.............

aftermerket cd players are single din....

so yea can some one reccomend a good setup in my price range for me?

[peterkos]

why do you want double din?

wat does it mean!!!

Double-din \ two-din


Single-din \ one-din


-----

To topic-starter: Is price a limitation?

[lubu]

Dont buy some cheapo that you will regret later. Generally headunits with built-in amp wont reproduce high SQ due to the fact that the internal amp will cause alot of interference along with some other little minors like display inteference..

If you are into SQ then save up for some serious head unit like clarion HXD2, McIntosh MX406, Nakamichi or Pioneer P9. If not, still consider brands like, Alpine, Clarion, Eclipse and Pionner. Those will give you features plus decent sound reproduction.

But still, it's really up to you and ur budget.

Just my 2 cent.

This post has been edited by lubu: Aug 26, 2007 - 12:25 PM

[Komail]

hm...can any one recommend a paticular setup?

[kerosene]

all depends what you are into, power or quality, headunit wise you have to decide, same goes for speakers...you need to go to a Audio Shoppe and listen to what they have... you have to keep in mind the more $ you put in, the better in the longterm, and you dont have to buy everything at one time..... my headunit costs 400 bucks, one pair of speakers costs 1300, and i bought those at seperate times..its easier you will just have to deal with it temporarly...

[applejax]

If you are into SQ then save up for some serious head unit like clarion HXD2, McIntosh MX406, Nakamichi

Hey, I like this guy.

[applejax]

Back to the original question, though...



$300 to $400...so let's say $350.



Use that Kenwood amp and one or two of those subs. Subs done.



Don't worry too much about a high end head unit. On such a limited budget, you're better off putting the money into a decent amp and good speakers. Look for a unit that has a built in crossover. A unit with a built in crossover will have an output for your fronts and a seperate output for your sub, and, obviously, will take care of the crossover. I'm going to guess $50 - $75 here. My personal preference here would go to Alpine. I scanned some Alpines that closed on eBay recently and found a bunch that sold for just over $20, and I saw a 7940 (nice unit!) that sold for $42 including shipping (Although, admittedly, I forget if that unit had a crossover in it. I think it did). Let's go with an estimate of $60. Leaves us with $290.



Get a small, good amp. Just stick to a decent name brand like your Kenwood. Something like the older Coustic amps or the PPI Sedona series pop up now and then - they are examples of really nice amps that you could snag at a (probably) excellent price. I would think you could nail a good amp on eBay for $100. Leaves us with $190.



A random search for speakers quickly turns up a pair of CDT Classics, new, for $100.



Which leaves you with a bit less than $90 (counting shipping for those CDT's) for wiring and other installation materials.

[CelicaST_CALI]

so DIN doesnt stand for anything..lol

[mneal2_92788]

DIN doesnt mean anything. its like a den, an area of space. and our car can hold a double din w/o any modification, just the brackets provided with the OEM stereo and space under for those that have it.

[applejax]

DIN stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung, the German standard organization that defined the discussed standard for car radio sizes.

[CelicaST_CALI]

ok thanks

[Komail]

Hey Applejax, good advice, but whats a crossover? I am lost on that, cant I use a newer headunit?

[soven]

Some amps will come with "onboard crossovers". Headunits can come with them too. So... you can either do the crossover settings on the headunit or the amp, depending on which one you have access to.

What they do is split up the frequency range that will be sent to your speakers.

For example. An amp might have a "LOW PASS FILTER(LPF)", This filter will filter everything above the set value. "HIGH PASS FILTER(HPF)" will filter everything below the set value.

Why you need them?

Subwoofers are for low frequencies. You do not want someone's voice being played form your subwoofer as it will sound like crap. So, what you do is set a LPF of 80Hz so that the subwoofer only plays 80 hertz and below.

Now, you dont want your front speakers to play subwoofer frequencies because you would blow them easily. So what you do is set a HPF of 80hz.

so, finally... subwoofer plays 20hz - 80hz and your fronts play 80hz to 20khz.

hopefully gives u a good idea.

This post has been edited by soven: Aug 31, 2007 - 2:22 AM

[applejax]

It was already mentioned that a crossover basically splits your frequencies for your speakers; i.e., sends your lows to your sub, your mids to your midranges, and highs to your tweeters. We could have quite a discussion on crossovers themselves, but not now. We'll stick to the basics.



You can get crossovers pretty much in any component in your system. While you can get some amps with crossovers, my personal preference is to have them adjustable from the driver's seat. Granted this isn't always possible, but given the choice between one in an amp and one in a head unit, I'll typically choose the one in the head unit. Most head units will do this digitally, which presents some technical advantages in and of itself.



If you are looking at a newer head unit as you said, most newer head units (even cheap ones) will have a built-in crossover. The drawback is that you woni't have the flexibility in frequencies, phasing, or slopes that other devices (or more expensive head units) will give you.



If you want that flexibility, don't worry about it in the head unit, but get a seperate crossover. I didn't mention that earlier to keep things simple, but it is a good time to mention the option. You can pick up decent three-way crossovers (two highpass for front/rear, and a lowpass for sub) for under $50 in eBay all day long. Most of these crossovers will offer much more flexibility than one in a cheap head unit or one in an amp. Disadvantage is that it's one more thing in your signal path, and one more thing you have to install.