All new audio

[mckillio]

So I'm going to be getting all new speakers and a DVD touchscreen for my '98 SH. Right now I'm just doing my research and I'm looking for everyone's opinions. The only real criteria I have are that it sounds better then my stock speakers and 6 year old pioneer head unit, that the speakers aren't incredibly heavy, especially the ones in the doors. Also I don't plan on getting subs or an amp, unless the amp will make the "regular" speakers sound better. I don't want to spend a ton of money on the speakers, so lets try keep it under $200 per pair. I plan on spending close to $1000 for the DVD Nav system though.

That's about it, spend my money for me.

[PreludeBoy95']

well get some component speakers such as kicker...thats a good brand and look into rockford amps possibly to power 'em.

[yogi_pahl]

The only real criteria I have are that it sounds better then my stock speakers and 6 year old pioneer head unit,


that can be done for about $100 buck total for the speakers. But if you want to spend the $400 for the doors big pick any name brand and pick one with the wattage that goes good with ur dvd/nav. What kind of dvd/nav you getting?

[Brash22]

Alpine. Best bang for buck speakers around. Type X drivers are relativly cheap and sound far better than anything else available for the money.

As for touchscreen, what do you want - do you want a double DIN in dash unit, or do you want a fold up screen? Are you going to hook anything else up to it? eg Playstation, sat nav, etc. Are you willing to pay a little more for a better unit? And probably the biggest question of all, can you install it yourself or will you be paying somebody to do it? Because installing the DVD touchscreen units is a huge exercise. I've been installing car audio for over 5 years, and I'm not sure I wanna attempt it even!

[mckillio]

Alpine. Best bang for buck speakers around. Type X drivers are relativly cheap and sound far better than anything else available for the money.

As for touchscreen, what do you want - do you want a double DIN in dash unit, or do you want a fold up screen? Are you going to hook anything else up to it? eg Playstation, sat nav, etc. Are you willing to pay a little more for a better unit? And probably the biggest question of all, can you install it yourself or will you be paying somebody to do it? Because installing the DVD touchscreen units is a huge exercise. I've been installing car audio for over 5 years, and I'm not sure I wanna attempt it even!

No, I don't plan on plugging anything else into it, I do want it to have navigation though.

I was planning on going for the double DIN in dash unit, it fits perfectly in the Lude plus it looks a lot sleeker and makes it look similar to a Type-S. What are the advantages/disadvantages between it and the flip up?

I definitely plan on having it installed by a shop.

[Brash22]

Almost purly personal taste...and you lose that almost useless tray area by the factory deck.

[BadMofo]

X2 on the alpine. Alpine makes some of the best quality stuff I've seen in the A/V world. I'm a huge fan of their head units, amps, and subs. For component speakers, however, I like Polk personally.

[mckillio]

What size are the speakers in the doors?

[mckillio]

As long as 6.5"s fit in the front doors then these are the speakers I'm thinking about going with. The Alpine SPS-600C, here's the description from Best Buy,

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8699438&type=product&id=1199494646675

And the Alpine SPS-69C3 6"x9"s here's Alpines description,

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=SPS-69C3

I'm still trying to choose between the Alpine and Pioneer 2 DIN Units, Navigation isn't that important to me.

What do you think?

[nevrdun]

Thats not a bad buy and will be a pretty good upgrade over stock. The fronts may give you some trouble. They look to be pretty large and theres not a lot of room to work with in a prelude. You may also wanna look at Boston SX series. Very nice, smooth sound from silk tweeters. Rich mid range. There about $160 pr. No install issues. Nearly drop in.

Check out the Kenwood DDX512 or DNX5120 w/nav. GREAT price points and a very nice unit.

[mckillio]

The fronts may give you some trouble. They look to be pretty large and theres not a lot of room to work with in a prelude.

Do you mean large as in the diameter or depth?

[nevrdun]

Both. What year is your car? Some companies define their speaker's as the actual cone diameter and some go by the accepted size of a standard 6.5" speaker by OEM manufacturers. Some companies make a 6" speaker. That will fit a Japanese 6.5" speaker location. Not all speakers are created equal.

[mckillio]

I've got a 98', I have no qualms about going with a 5.25" speaker if need be.

[OEM~KaOs]

I just installed 6.5" Alpine Type-R's into my car and it required minor modification to the hole. It fits, i had to cut a tiny chunk of the metal on the bottom to get it to fit, but nothing horrible. And beware of this warning: If you get components (WHICH YOU WILL!!!) when you mount the crossovers you CAN mount them in the door, right above the speaker hole, but use mounting brackets AND beware of how deep the screws are, it WILL hit your window, which happened to me. Luckily nothing got scratched, and when i heard the most horrible and spine tingling screech i immediately pulled the door panel off and got smaller screws.

I have a '97 btw...

Also, IMO, the Type-S speakers arent the greatest to get, they are alpine, so don't get me wrong, they are great speakers, but you can go on eBay and get the brand new Alpine Type-R 6.5" AND 6 x 9 speakers (rated at 660 watts a pair RMS, 200 watt peak meaning 100 straight watts a speaker) for about the price you would pay for a pair of Type-R 6.5" speakers from, say, Best Buy or Ultimate Electronics... i paid about $100 for my 6.5" and about $150 for my 6 x 9's

[mckillio]

As long as they're better than stock I'd just prefer to save the money, audio isn't that big of a deal to me. So, the 5 1/4" will fit fine though?

Also, should I have new speaker wire put in or no?

[OEM~KaOs]

As long as they're better than stock I'd just prefer to save the money, audio isn't that big of a deal to me. So, the 5 1/4" will fit fine though?

Also, should I have new speaker wire put in or no?


The problem with putting 5 1/4" speakers in means that they wont fit or will need modification as well because they are smaller then the stock speakers... maybe im wrong, i have no idea because i have never done it, but i can only assume that the speaker screw holes wont line up at all if its smaller.

I didn't run speaker wire for mine, at least not for the woofer part, the tweeter part i did bc u have to run wire to the crossover, and then from the crossover to the woofer part... its kinda confusing to write, it might not make sense, but i try. When i run an amp THEN i will run speaker wire, obviously, because the stock speaker wire probably wont work very well at all.

I can get any wire except RCA for free and power and ground wire for extremely cheap, one of the many perks of knowing the whole install bay at ultimate electronics, so if your fine with paying shipping from MN to wherever you are then it would be pretty cheap.

[vabapesta]

i got the pioneer d3 double din nav in my 01 sh... i love it ... it has a touchscreen interface for the i pod which is sick, you can put your own backrounds up there ...u can make the buttons light up any color u want.. it plays dvds and the parking brake safety is easily bypassed.... u can pretty much do nething u want with that unit and it fits so very nicely in the lude....and its only around 600-800 depending where u get it ..and its ot a vechile dynamics kit that tells u speed, acceleration, angular velocity, slope, voltage, or a clock..its digital and it looks nice....as for speakers i would go with some components up front...i have kicker....and i would add a small sub tooo....

[mckillio]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the Pioneer AVH-P6000DVD, mostly due to the larger screen and the fact that it looks much sleeker. Although, I am intrigued by the Navigation aspect. How much do you use the GPS feature?

[mckillio]

So I've decided to go with the Alpine Type-R's. I'm going to get the 6x9's first. I was just wondering if there are any installation facts/suggestions I should know about. I believe I've read about some special hardware in the trunk, do I just toss these or what?

[OEM~KaOs]

So I've decided to go with the Alpine Type-R's. I'm going to get the 6x9's first. I was just wondering if there are any installation facts/suggestions I should know about. I believe I've read about some special hardware in the trunk, do I just toss these or what?

These just plop right in man, a direct fit. When you disconnect the old ones, there will be a resistor block that is bolted to a different part, so it will not come off with the speaker. I just left them on there, it's not doing anything, it's bolted down on one side and tucked away on the other, so it's all good. Secondly, realize this, as I am starting to notice:

Your factory speakers are awesome, we got lucky, but they are rated at a WHOPPING
20 Watts... The Type-R's are rated at 660 Watts a pair, roughly 330 a piece, BUT that's RMS,
the REAL magic number is 100 Watts. If you go my route, which is get all Type-R's all around the car
then you want to find a 400 watt 4 channel amp to power those babies perfectly, and do this
before you install, they sound good, but i just KNOW that they will sound 173489 times better
with a nice amp powering them.

[mckillio]

These just plop right in man, a direct fit. When you disconnect the old ones, there will be a resistor block that is bolted to a different part, so it will not come off with the speaker. I just left them on there, it's not doing anything, it's bolted down on one side and tucked away on the other, so it's all good. Secondly, realize this, as I am starting to notice:

Your factory speakers are awesome, we got lucky, but they are rated at a WHOPPING
20 Watts... The Type-R's are rated at 660 Watts a pair, roughly 330 a piece, BUT that's RMS,
the REAL magic number is 100 Watts. If you go my route, which is get all Type-R's all around the car
then you want to find a 400 watt 4 channel amp to power those babies perfectly, and do this
before you install, they sound good, but i just KNOW that they will sound 173489 times better
with a nice amp powering them.

Thanks for the advice. I do plan on getting an amp, That's the next thing I need advice on. I plan on going with the Kenwood DDX812 that Nevrdun has for my head unit. After that it's sound dampening the cabin and I'll be done with the audio.

[OEM~KaOs]

For an amp, any 400 watt 4 channel amp will do. Personally, anything and everything that i can get from Alpine, I will, so I will be going with either the Alpine PDX - 4.100 Amp or the MRP-F450, but I'm leaning towards the MRP-F450 even tho it's a little bit more expensive, it is one killer amp.

Keep in mind, this is also if your gonna have all of your speakers the same (probably the best idea) so if your like me and my 5th gen, I did 6 x 9 Type-R's in the back and 6.5" Type-R's in the front, so they are all the same and same power rating. You can mix n match speakers, but i find it more comforting to know everything is the same, but that's just me :smile:

[nevrdun]

Good call on the sound damping. It will make a world of difference. When I get the cabbage and time Im gonna do the whole car. Just make sure your car is something your going to hve for a while because it is expensive, a PITA, and it doesnt go with you to a new car. Dont skimp on the amp. Its easy to pick up a cheapo amp but there is a lot of things that make a big difference with how the car will sound with the quality of the amp. It will make more of a difference than the speakers. A good recommendation would be Kenwood KAC-X40. Reasonalble price (around 300ish0 and great quality. You could run that amp, pull it out and throw a JL 300/4 in and have trouble finding a difference. Super clean! Even the non excelon stuff is good. Like the I think KAC-8404 is great bang for the buck.

[mckillio]

My plan is to try and have my car for another ten years, so it should be worth it. Besides the doors, where else do you put the sound dampening? I assume in the back beneath the c pillars and next to the rear seats. Do you do the roof and a pillars? I do want my exhaust to be less noticeable.

[nevrdun]

The roof it good and as much of the floors as possible. The road noise is coming from resonating sheetmetal primarily so large unbroken sheet metal such as outer door skins, roof trunk lid etc. For the floors you can use a thin mat such as dynamat or cascade audio and retain the factory insulation or get rid of the insulation and use a 4 or 5 mm. neoprene material. Cascade audio has a great line of everything. Pricy but worth it. I installed the material in my old chevy at about 40 degrees and you need a screwdriver and scraper to get any off. It is great. VB-2Max is the name I believe.

[vabapesta]

i got the pioneer d3 which is sick and u can get the illumination to match the amber dash lights which looks really well and the i got kicker component 6.5 kicker 6x9 and kicker cvr sub and kicker400.1 amp...its sounds really clean