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Cheap car stereo subwoofer

  • 03-07-2009 3:47pm
    #1
    ogriofa
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 353 ✭✭


    Hi,

    I love music and want to improve my stereo system.

    I've a 96 Mazda 121, the speakers are surprisingly good! But I would like a subwoofer to take care of the base, leaving the other speakers to do the rest. (I have JBL at home for my PC - the quality is near perfect)

    Im looking for a cheap solution (its a cheap car after all) I don't want to blast music out, I just want to take the sound quality up a notch. Reliable aswel.
    Any shops in Dublin (ideally southside) that would sell and wire this up for me?

    Its a stock radio in it.

    Any help/links would be great!
    Ta


Comments

  • #2
    GTE
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,915 ✭✭✭GTE


    Being guy in sound engineering I am very very warey of car stereo brands and speakers in general.
    I fear that the cheaper you go they are more geared towards the look then the sound.

    As for a woofer, try messing with your EQ on the radio and see if that works before you commit to a woofer.

    I think because of the fear I mentioned above cheaper car speakers cant reproduce the bass that they really should.

    Either way some advice I can give is: (This goes for ANY kind of speaker buying)

    When you get to the shop demo the woofer with some other speakers.
    Play YOUR OWN music through as you know it the best, your ipod, no one elses. You know how your favourite music should sound.
    It could be worth also bringing a CD instead of plugging an ipod into the system. CD's have better quality then MP3. That could be a tad overkill anyway.

    On a technical note:
    Just because you put a woofer in the car doesnt mean the other speakers get off doing the bass and can work at doing the mid to high with greater detail. Unless there is some kind of crossover system (which I doubt there will be in a car ever) in the radio itself and a special socket for the woofer all speakers are going to try and reproduce the same thing.
    The woofer wont be able to reproduce what the other speakers can but the other speakers (since they are designed to work without a woofer) will still be dealing with the bass which is good. You dont want to just hear the bass behind you and annoying mid to high frequencies on front.
    It will remain reletively even.

    Another note on the EQ. If taking up the bass doesnt work leave the bass where it is and bring the treble right down and if you have an option for mid bring that down too. If you find something you like and you are happy then great. Its very easy to have too much bass and things ending up horrible and muddy.


    This will make you system very bass heavy but you could compensate for what you want by slowly bringing up the mid followed by the treble in small increments.
    Im all for doing everything you can before spending money lol

    Kevlar is good. I have some speakers, not car speakers, with just 6inch kevlar cones and the bass is tight and precise. If you can find a Kevlar woofer Id say thats pretty rockin!

    However, if you are after genuine sound quality changing the speakers first would be my advice. Subwoofers when not used to blast peoples heads off are generally for filling in the gap when QUITE GOOD speakers cant do it, say for cinemas and PA systems or home cinema systems.

    As for brands, Pioneer, Boss and JBL would stand out out of the brands I know.


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