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Good sound starts with the head unit. Fair enough and this is really easy for some quality tunes. If you have already gone to a local car audio store they probably told you that you need a whole bunch of things you don't understand. (Not trying in insult your intelligence) They are salesman too. I have owned a $2000.00 sound system and only later realized that i can get the same at only a fraction of the cost and get the same great sound. DO NOT be afraid of doing car audio yourself, it's not at all complicated. Everything comes with directions and with the internet your resources are limitless. Your head unit( cd player) is where all the magic begins. The better the head unit the better the signal is going to your speakers, now with that let me say this, no head unit can do great things with factory speakers. You need to upgrade your head unit first. I have used several different brands and can advise you that they ARE NOT all the same. The three best brands that i have personally used are: 1. KENWOOD: Has many great options and is moderately priced. This brand was very user friendly and received many compliments on it's apperance. 2. PIONEER: Very user friendly and very well priced (low). They are the most stylish out of the three. Most have a great equalizer that can be custom tuned. 3. ALPINE: They are kinda plain but they will rock FOREVER! They are simple to operate as they don't have much to them ( without advanced audio equipment). They are a little higher in price, which is truly their only downfall. Your head unit is like your PC, it controls everything. It doesn't matter if you have the best monitor in the world, if your PC tower is junk then the rest is no better. Installing a head unit takes nothing more than attention and patience, If you decide to save yourself $75.00 and install it yourself then here are some pointers: Your going to need an adapter so that you can wire your new head unit in your factory stereo system. You can get the complete kit at Walmart.com and they have these kits for almost all makes and models. this will run you about $25.00. Now your going to have to take your dash apart...sounds scary huh? it's not that bad for most cars and your can find instructions for that on the internet. Now for the bass issue in your factory speakers. Factory speakers are made with a high quality cardboard( thats what i call it) and they are very easy to make distort and possibly pop. Now if your wanting a good crisp sound then your speakers are an issue. Replacing your speakers is very affordable. Once again i have used several different brand and there are two that i recommend highly. PIONEER AND VISONIK Now with replacing your head unit and speakers there are some other things you should put your attention to, like the watts. When you purchase your head unit look at how many watts/channels it has. This is important because you will not have an amplifier to push your speakers so you want a head unit that will be able to do it by itself. A good general watts/channels is 50w/4, this equals up to a total of 200 watts put to the speakers or 50 watts to each speaker(four speakers). Something else to watch out for is something like 50w/2, this means that you only have 100 watts, which again is only 25w to each speaker(four speakers). See how this works? You want your head unit to push your replacement speakers correctly so when you purchase speakers look at their total watts. You want your watts to be as equal as possible without overloading your speakers. (Yes you can do this with only a head unit) Speaker size is important because you will have to find out what size are currently installed. EXAMPLE: You find a head unit that reads 60w/4 (240w), then you find speakers that come in pairs(2) that are 150w total output, and you need four so now you have 300w total output. This is a good find cause now you can push your speakers properly without overloading them. Now where to go to purchase these. Believe it or not Walmart.com and amazon.com is a great place to start. There is nothing wrong with purchasing their equipment, it is just as good as everyone else's. Plus their prices are very competitive and you can get your adapter, head unit, and speakers there. You should go by there and maybe a local car audio dealer and try some of the head units out and see what you like best. This whole project can be as cheap as $177.00, and can run up to and even beyond $378.00. Good luck and short of knowing what the make and model of your car is this is as far as i can advise you. For more information about DIY car audio, please visit our website at: http://diycaraudio.weebly.com. Resources: Askville
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do it yourself car audio, diy car audio, car stereo, car video, in dash receiver, speakers, amplifier, subwoofer, head unit, digital signal processors, bt,
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