Heya guys.

Well the SQ bug has starting sinking its teeth in and its time to spend some more money.... hehe . Not long into the car audio scene and went the cheapest path to a decent sounding stereo. Cheap 4 channel (4x70 Sansui.. yes dont laugh) amp, Jaycar 15" venom but spent a bit on splits, with a set of HSK 165's. Now I love the splits, but I know they could sound a lot better.

The car is an 87 Celica hatch, I'm deadening and sealing the doors in the next couple of weeks. My thoughts are the next best money conscious step for SQ will be a new front stage amp, as any sub-bass upgrade would need new sub/monoblock/electrical system upgrade. would you guys agree?

anyway, been looking at the audison/hertz line as I'm very impressed with the splits and Phil from RM lives 20 mins away Do you think there would be a decent difference with the HSK 165's running off say the Hertz H-210 (2x80) or goin up to the Audison LRx 2.150 (2x80) or even up to the LRx 2.250 (2x120). Just wondering what sorta quality amp (not necessarily audison/hertz btw) would reach the splits potential as I know they're good splits but not the best. On a side note, my car has stock alternator/wiring.. Do you think think this would need an upgrade running one of these new amps and the old sansui? (I know jap cars aren't known for beefy alternators )

Sorry bout the long post
btw - budget up around 700ish
Cheers

Andy

You should be able to get a very decent amp to run the splits on that budget. The wiring would definitely need to be upgraded, i'd say 2/4 gauge would be perfect. The alternator wouldn't need replacing unless you installed a really big sub setup. The most common thing to do once subs are installed is to upgrade the stock battery which usually craps itself anyway.

yeah, i think a new front stage 2-channel amp is a very reasonable next step.

then spend the time, as you mentioned, to sound deaden the doors and work on the installation, including solid woofer mounting (eg: mdf baffle), and angled tweets.

i think ~80WRMS per channel from a high quality amp like a hertz or audison would be excellent, and be a perfect match in terms of quality. the hertz may be better value (i can't remember price of LRx), and no doubt make an excellent match!

your stock electrics should be fine. use a multimeter to see what voltage is on offer. if your battery's really old, it may warrant upgrading in the near future (eg: odyssey deep cycle from CAA webstore).

otherwise, just ensure you use adequately thick powerwire. i expect 4awg main powerwire, fused next to the battery, feeding into a distribution block near the amps will be ideal. then run 8awg from the DB to each amp, and 8awg groundwires.

4awg main powerwire will be plenty thick enough to allow for an upgrade of the subamp too. it's rated for 150A, or ~1000WRMS system total. and bear in mind for normal listening volumes, you may only use less than 50% of the total available power your amps can provide (meaning the powerwire is very unlikely to be stressed).

other excellent value amps worth considering include coustic and cadence. although i consider the hertz/audison to be better (excepting the expensive cadence A series).

good luck

Thanks for the quick response guys

I'll get onto phil about some prices on the Hertz amp although the jump from one the 2x80 to 2x120 audison is less than $100. So could be a tempting purchase for futures sake if i decide to upgrade splits after I've done the sub-bass upgrade.

Shiny, I'm gonna spend a lot of time on the installation as I know it makes all the difference. I have the splits spaced out a country mile at the moment with plastic spacers which I know is far from optimal . Was gonna build angled door pods for em. Sorry bit new to it all but what what do you mean by MDF baffle?

Another quick Sound deadening question I know I could prolly find an answer to in previous posts but do you just paint the thin metal behind the trims? Or do you try and get through the service holes and do the inside of the actual door panel? if that makes sense

Cheers

Andy

a baffle is the surface you mount a speaker onto. ideally it should be very solid and not resonate. and mdf is excellent for this, for it's cheap, easy to work with, and readily available in different thicknesses.

the baffle plays a more important role for bigger speakers which obviously move more; so it's less important for a tweeter. but instead of mounting your 6.5" woofers onto the metal doorskin, mount some mdf onto the door, then the speaker.

as mdf is not waterproof, worth coating it first with some paint-on primer/undercoat.

to sound deaden a door, the more the better. but concentrate on the area immediately around the speaker baffle/mount and inside (as you suggest), directly behind the speaker.

i've done all my doors extensively, and if you haven't seen the pics, view them here: picturetrail: install

have fun.

Ah, such quality advice from the shiny_boy

Makes it hard to contribute.....*cough*....it's definitely worth looking at sealing up the service "holes" in the front doors as per Marc's Tech article "Sealing up Lancer doors" which is a good guide.

Keep the mid/bass to tweeter spacing inside 20cm as a general rule to avoid separation issues.

Any of the front stage amp suggestions will serve you well and provide a quality upgrade and 2x80 good healthy watts is likely to be plenty.
And yes, for the installation you are looking at 4 guage will be fine, but do it thoroughly.

Have fun with it!!

Thanks for refering me to that lancer door guide critter, very helpful when combined with the pics

I've found a couple of door pod construction guides through searching the forums/web, but if anyone knew of any good ones I'd love to have a read before I begin making them.

Another quick question, whats the recommended minimum size hole to cut in your trims for the pods to sit over. Obviously wanna make it as small as possible without restricting air movement.

i guess there's no rules/recommendations per se, but if your aim is to vent the back of the speaker into the door cavity through the hole, then the bigger the better.

i'd probably have at least a 10cm/4" hole behind a 6~6.5" driver.