Sub...have a look at the Phoenix Gold Titanium's.

Superb sub, reasonable price.
I have 2 (just because....) and having had 3 different subs in the car in 4 enclosures, I won't be parting with these any time soon.

Cables. Jury is out on that one and will be forever.....

What I can say is this:
Some months ago we ripped all of the cables in the car which were "all sorts" from crap to half-decent, through the car's loom, some not yada yada......

All replaced with pretty much best of everything, Stinger Expert and Dream - power cables,rca's, speaker cables....in a clean install everything wired direct, into the doors, by-passed the loom etc. Done the way you like to.....

Result.... the system performance is certainly a level or 2 up from what it was.
What made the difference? Something did.

hey guys,

i was just wondering will SQ be affected if you put rear speakers in the back?

I have been hearing alot on people saying that you just have to concentrate on your front stage.... but i just can't help but feel that i'm missing something without the rear speakers. I find i get a fuller sound with them around. Not sure if its just me....

Let's say on a 200sx... i know its a rather small car but I am thinking of getting my rear speakers done. Although my front stage is already pretty strong. Running 240GT Dyn splits in the front. I am thinking of getting 2 rear speakers just to get a fill in... something not harsh on the ears ... Not looking for something expensive. Just something to give a more surround sound.

What would be good? I don't wanna spend more than $200 for my fill in sound that i am looking for.

Hope to get some opinions. Thanx!

Joa

the thing about rearfill is that it will 'drag' your soundstage rearward cos your ears will localise music from behind as well as infront. to most audiophile nutters this is not ideal; instead, your soundstage should appear infront of you only, and if the front splits/sub are installed/tuned appropriately, they alone will recreate the ambience intended by the recording.

that said, rears can add a 'niceness' to a system which is pleasing to the ear. and you can fade forwards/backwards to achieve the results you're after.

does your car already have rears in place? if so, then an upgrade would be easiest using better quality speakers of the same size for a 'drop-in' replacement.

if you have the inclination, best results will be attained by using the same attention as you do for the front speakers:
*solid speaker mounts; maybe replace any flimsy plastic baffles with mdf ones
*sound deaden
*minimise big air leaks around the edge of the speakers, like using a foam-rubber gasket to seal the front with the parcel shelf so that sound only travels out forwards and not behind around the edges as well

if you don't do this, you may end up with rears that sound very 'hollow' and not blend nicely with the dyn's. and in the end, you'll fade them right out, and it's a waste of time and money.

in terms of speaker quality, a nice set of splits would be nice. but for $200, you're probably looking at some 2-way coaxials. better ones have better drivers (obviously) and also better passive xovers, which may be 'separate' boxes hooked up by speakerwiring (as opposed to a simple hidden cap inline with the tweet to HP it and letting the woofer run fullrange).

not sure on prices, but consider:
*boston accoustic
*focal
*hertz

so you'll probably need to visit your specialist car audio store for something. problem being they rarely have much on the demo board unfortunately. but given the low priority for them, you can probably rely on their reputation as a brand.

other stuff to consider would be alpine and polk audio if you can find them.

good luck

To answer your original question, my experience over many years has shown that cables will have different effects on the sound in the system that they are in.
Sometimes it's a very subtle difference and then other times it can be quite noticeable.

One thing that you will learn is that peoples' opinions on this issue will vary and so the only real way to know for yourself is to try some of the "good stuff" for yourself. Obviously many companies make cables for car audio but I like what Monster Cable have done with their products. I'd suggest that you try some of their interconnects and speaker cable to see what happens.

Winno and Shiny_car have answered ur question both with different veiws and none are wrong either, the question of cables making a large difference in SQ in the car and at home is obviously a very disputable thing. I believe that it depends on the system the cabling is used in aswell, as Shiny_Car said 16awg is fine for splits up front since it's reccomened that 25ft is the maximum length 16awg should be used for IIRC. For the average sub I think anything more than 12awg is not needed and the run of cable from sub to amp is normally very short also, but if u have the cash to burn go for thicker stuff, it's ur taste and choice

Also when u said the wiring was the stuff the shops use do u mean its the stock wiring or wiring used by an installer?

Mike

what 'niceness' ?

How come with some not ideally setup front stages (where imaging isn't perfect), fading a little bit to the back can centre the vocals to a more ideal position?