Jump to content

car stereo for 2004 Toyota corolla


peshewah

Recommended Posts

My 17 year old son has the car, he has the girl, now he needs some sound.  I need some personal recommendations on some 6x9's and 6.5's. I will buy a Rockford Fosgate  Punch 3 12", 600 RMS. 2 or 4 ohms, not sure about that. I can get the sub for $130 and a pre-built box for $50. I will  get a 5 channel amp to push it. I hate to spend too much money but if I put money into a sound system and it sounds like crap then I fell like I threw my money in the trash. How about a amp as well? Can you help me out

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Head units can be purchased for a lot less than they used to.  Was just looking at a Pioneer model for a little over $100 that had tuner and digital interface only, no CD's.  Had a full complement of EQ's, filters, compatibility, etc. 

 

With the 6 1/2's try and find something with a tweeter that can be aimed.  Considering they'll be down in the lower portion of the front doors you want to aim some of the sound up and in front of the listeners.  Otherwise, a component setup would be needed.  With a component setup you could mount the tweets in the A pillars and the midrange 6 1/2's in the doors.  Better overall imaging.  But, requires some extra work.

 

With the 6 x 9's get the same brand as you select for the front.  You'll need to use the fader to turn them down, put the listening position more forward as they're in the rear deck and will overpower the speakers in the doors ruining the stage.  Make sure you can set a high pass filter, which most head units today can, to the front and rear speakers.  Drive the lows to the sub.  The amp should be capable of at least 50w RMS to the four corners and 400 - 600 watt for the sub.  It's a good starting point.

 

I would highly recommend a 1 farad to 2 farad capacitor between the battery and the amp.  Helps to keep the lights from dimming when he gets on it and helps the electrical system/amp with deeper notes and fast transients. 

 

As far as brands go, I'm not sure, haven't been in the car audio game for a while.  As we tell others, just go listen.  Don't go to Walmart, go to a dedicated car audio shop, explain the setup you're looking at, have them queue up some examples, and make a decision from there.  Hope this helps.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Schu, are talking about the girl? 

 Westcoastdrums, are you saying to get fronts 6.5 (door) and power it with a amp and leave the back (6x9) like it is, stock speakers and let the stereo power it. I got a Sony stereo( replacing stock) for him last week. It looks good but I can't really tell any difference in the sound

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With a component setup you could mount the tweets in the A pillars and the midrange 6 1/2's in the doors.  Better overall imaging.  But, requires some extra work.

 

YES! 

 

Drive the lows to the sub.  The amp should be capable of at least 50w RMS to the four corners and 400 - 600 watt for the sub.  It's a good starting point.

 

Agreed

 

highly recommend a 1 farad to 2 farad capacitor

 

Right on the money 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

No. I am saying compenent speakers up front, coaxial rear.   Run them all off the amp.   Components have separate tweeters.  I agree with mourning in A pillar.   Necessary IMO.  Run 4 AWG power AND ground wire.  Ground to a clean spot.  Run speaker cables on opposite side of power wire for reduced noise if you aren't tapping into factory wires.   Gain stage your system properly.  Turn head unit up to about 75% max volume and bring the amp up to the point of audible distortion then turn it down until that disappears.   Do this after you have figured out where to cut lows from speakers.  You can cut rears higher as you won't be hearing them much anyhow and then are used mroe as fills.   I used to leave a gap between the sub and speakers if you are gonna blast it. I have never blown a tweeter This way. Tune sub to 80hz, not higher IMO. Boomy bass sounds like S&#* and is obnoxious.  Sound deadening certainly doesn't hurt in a corolla.   One sub is a wise move otherwise that car will be a rattle trap. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lot of car stereo places do a terrible job tuning from my experience FYI.   Double check the tuning when it comes back. Go through ALL of the settings in the head units menus.   Try not to boost any frequencies as he louder you turn things up with lower power gear really stresses the amps and they will clip easily liek that and perhaps amoek the tweeters.   Let us know how it turns out.   What a dad.  Wish my dad did something like that for me.   He was my realtor to buy my house though.... Haha

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Westcoastdrums said:

Infinity kappas used to be pretty decent.   Look at morel speakers as well. Don't know what your budget is.... Go compenwnrs up front if the budget allows.  Rears won't matter as much, go coaxial and save money there.  

I'm with Westcoastdrums: no need for 4 full range speakers. Get a pair of coaxials up front and a subwoofer. Back seat passengers can walk if they don't like the sound!

 

I replaced a blown cassette player in my Saturn with a Sony head unit. It accepts an iPod (stored inside the unit if you want) or any thumb drive with digital files. Make sure you can make the type of digital files the Sony prefers; my Mac's iTunes does. The head unit runs the full-range speakers, has line level subwoofer outputs with adjustable crossover and level alleviating the full range speakers from trying to reproduce the bass. I paid a mere $100 for the unit from Crutchfield. My subwoofer is an SAS Bazooka, which has a built in amp and line level inputs.

 

Re: "I'm going to have the car stereo place install everything..."

 

I had the stereo shop where I purchased the SAS Bazooka install it. They claimed they did "World Class" installations. First, when I picked up the car, I had no dash lights. They shorted a wire to ground and blew a fuse. I immediately turned around and had them fix it. A few months later, I began experiencing a peculiar "fluttering" sound through the subwoofer when nothing was being played. I investigated myself and found where they tapped into the Saturn's speaker wires they didn't solder the connection nor did they even use a decent butt splice or, horrors, at least a "Scotch-Lok" connector. All they did was wrap the wires together and cover in electrical tape. "World Class" my butt. I rewired it properly.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

For Christmas, I bought my son a Sony DSX-A415BT.  It has 2 set of pre-out, 1 for left and right speakers and 1 for a subwoofer, which doesn't allow to fade from back to front. For speakers, I got Hertz Centro CPK165 components for the fronts and Hert HCX 690 for the back. Pushing them with a Rockford Fosgate R300x4, which is 50 watts per channel at 4 ohms, AB amp. The speakers are underpowered by 50%. I was kinda lost about the whole car stereo, but I went for Black Friday deal. I got a Rockford Fosgate Punch 3 sub and a Rockford Fosgate  r500x1D amp, which is a D class amp, again underpowered.  Being short on funds, my son paid 50/50 on the install. It sounds great. So much better than stock. It made him smile, hell it made me smile.

  Some say an AB amp sounds cleaner than a D amp( as in the amp that drives the speakers). But the D amp offers more power and not much more money.  Right now my son is smiling ear to ear, but can we get a cleaner sound, bigger sound stage for a little more money?

   At the time the car is not struggling from lack of power as in amps. Just a little dimming of the headlight on a hard bass hit

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...