OK title says it all for the most part. what i am looking at doing is getting better sound / fullness over the stock paper speakers. but the shop i go to sated i need a amp, speakers, and a sub. are they telling me a lie or could i just buy a better speaker and get better fuller sound? they told me they would set me up a system for around $8.000 give or take $100. witch is way more than i can afford to spend or want to spend buy $7000

 

They quoted you 7k or 700?! 7k is ridiculous, $700 is pretty reasonable for a full setup/install depending on the stuff they decide to use.

New speakers will help the sound, but to really get a full sound they're right on what you'll need. An amp to drive the door speakers (components would sound best, but tweeter placement is crucial), a sub (a decent 10" would get the job covered), and a amp for the sub. And then of course tuning it all so the right frequencies are played through the right things if that makes since.

If your on a budget though, buying used is your best friend, for my new build I'll probably be right under 6-700 for a system that would have ran about 1200+ new. But also it's easier to do it in stages, choose one thing and start with that and then when you have more money move on to the next thing.

 

Head unit is a must

 

Dang that completely slipped my mind, but now a lot of people on here are running full systems with the stock headunit. It's easier with aftermarket but can be done with stock and a bunch of signal processors and what not.

 

Yea', it really just depends on how far you want to go, before you draw the line. Car stereo's, like pretty much any other interest or hobbys, can be taken as far as you have the money and ambition to take it.

Speakers will help a little. Amps will help more. A seperate sub, will help a bunch more yet. You might scrape together something for $700 ($1000 would be easier) but for $7000, you could build something really nice

Personally speaking, I could drop $70,000 on a system right now, if I had money coming out my ears

Oh BTW though, I'd rip that stock head unit out right from the start. After market head units can be so nice, for so cheap, why screw around with that stock POS ?

Peace,
Fish

 

Done yourself you can easily do a very nice full HU/speaker/sub/amp system for under $1500, wiring included. Given a little patience and a keen eye on Craigslist and eBay, you could knock that down to under $1000.

You could do a HU/speaker/amp setup for under $600. It will sound substantially better than the stock system, just sans the hard-hitting sub-100Hz lows a woofer would provide. With the sub disabled and the mains set to full frequency range my simple setup sounds incredibly good - full, clear, crisp, and with more than enough volume potential.

Brad

 

i was thinking a grand to fifteen hundred but i almost $h!t my self when they told me 8 grand. i am all good with spending $1000.00 and was willing to even go up to $1500.oo for all the stuff, me and my bud were going to do the install. but dude at audio outlet i think he must of ben thinking he was donging install but hay even if he was thats still high i think.

 

$1000 is too much for someone just wanting more fullness

Yes you can just get new speakers and it would sound better, but not a huge difference. Next step would be an amp with component speakers in the front and coaxial speaker in the rear. then get a sub and obviously amp for it if you want some bass

Honestly unless you get a double din I would stick with the factory head unit mainly for looks and sync

 

I just built a very expensive car audio system at sonic electronix.com including the most expensive double din, with the most expensive (reasonable) boston acoustics speakers, the most expensive (reasonable) RE sub, matching amps for all speakers and sub, most expensive wiring kits.

Total was just over $4k....so assuming they are not selling you the parts I put together and add retail prices to that $4k MAX for parts so $3k for labor? HAHA what shop was this? they are way out of line asking for that much, show cars don't have that much money into their systems...

For someone like you looking for just a nice sounding stereo $1000 MAX and that better come with 4 speakers (2 being components) a 4 channel amp, sub and box with a mono amp and of course everything installed

 

There's a lot more higher quality stuff out there than what sonicelectronix sells though, I'd love to see the part list that shop was planning on using though ha.

On a side note, if you don't mind buying used and doing it over a period of time, you can build a pretty nice system for under 1k or so just by checking craigslist, eBay, and car audio forum classifieds every now and then. You just gotta wait for someone who's hurtin for cash and looking to move their stuff fast and cheap.

 

Yeah just figured a shop most likely would be selling him less quality stuff than that (rockford pioneer alpine....) and just went for the most part main stream name brand stuff besides the RE...

 

I disagree. Double din is a layout/look issue, not a measure of performance. Also, Sync is not standard equipment so compatibility may not be an issue.

Brad

 

Hello, I have a black 2011 fx4 supercab and i also want to upgrade the sound. My installer ( who is honest lol..8 grand! jesus)...he said with keeping the stock head unit i would only get a very small improvement replacing all the speakers. We agreed that the first thing to do would be to add a sub box and amp which I will do right away. I do not really want to replace the head unit because I like the sync etc...I just want to know if I can just get a cleaner, fuller sound out of the head unit if I replace the speakers. My installer had said it would be very small improvement due to the signal out of the head unit, meaning it is what it is and cant be improved. So should i just start with the sub and amp and try and dial it in and see if I can live with it? And can anyone suggest a good online site to get a good sub box please? I would like one under the longer part of the back seat with maybe two 8" subs. Your suggestions appreciated! thanks...Matt

 

They make signal processors to convert the sound coming out of the headunit, look around at the builds on here a lot of people have used them.

 

I tried to search for signal processors...not having much luck. Maybe a specific brand or something? I appreciate the help. I just ordered the Polk DB571 speakers...