Good Aftermarket Sound System

M

MCH86GN

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2008
Alright, I talked my wife out of buying a 79 buick with 350 in it. However, the compromise was that I get a nice sound system installed in our GN. Also, I have to get the windows tinted.

Just wondering if there are any recommendations from those who have put an aftermarket radio and speakers in.

Thanks
 
Focal K2 power 5.25 inch 2 way separates in the doors.

Class D amplifier, like a Alpine PDX 4 channel to drive the front speakers and a pair of 10's in the trunk, like JL audio or Boston Acoustics etc. You typically get what you pay for. Four channel amp so you can fade the subs down or up as you want.

For head units, I'm currently leaning towards just having iPhone/iPod only as the source of music, but you can get a cheap one that also has CD like the Alpine CDA-105 and buy the iPhone/pod extension cable to plug in the iPhone/pod.

Forget putting in dash speakers and rear shelf speakers and spend that money on the front door speakers and amp/subs instead.
 
Thanks the quick feedback. One question though, you can put a system together that allows you just to have an ipod/iphone as the music source and not even mess with a traditional radio unit? Not technically challenged, just technology challenged as I don't keep up with all the latest gadgets.

Thanks.
 
Still looking for a head unit.

I want all the upgrades: HD AM, bluetooth, satellite, & all my instrumentation are red. Red limits me to JVC & I'd like a little more choices. I can get a good head unit for about $100, however the 3 upgrades are close to $300.

Infinity speakers in the dash. I need concert sound in the doors.
 
It'd be nice to find a 1 1/2 DIN. The only one that I'm aware of is the Pioneer unit, which is way outdated.
 
Tint job

I can't help you out much with the sound system, however I can help you with the tint job.

After getting my GN tinted 3 months ago, and feeling awful after seeing the end results. I have restarted my high school job of tinting cars again. (just as a hobby)

I had my rear 3 windows tinted with 5% (limo) and the front roll downs 20% (dark). I have realized that while the exterior look of the car looks awesome, I can hardly see out of the thing. But, because my GN is not a daily driver this situation is ok.

What is not ok are the fingerprints and the dust marks between the tint and the glass. Also, this particular tint shop scraped off half of my rear defrosters while cleaning the rear glass. :mad::mad::mad:

:cool:My pain is your gain. :cool:

So I will chalk this up as a learning lesson on my part but I do NOT want this to happen to any other Turbo Buick owners so here are some of my lessons learned:

-Do not go with the lowest price shop, especially if tinting is not there specialty (stereo shop, ect)
- There may be a slight up-charge for our older cars. This is ok because a reputable shop will take there time and do the job right. Older cars usually have more dirt/dust then newer cars, so more steps and precautions have to be taken.
- Make sure that the tint being applied to your car has a lifetime warranty. Lifetime warranties will have the necessary paperwork attached to your receipt. 3,5, and 7 year warranty tints are dyed tint and will not hold up over the years, they will also turn the infamous purple sooner or later.

There are a handful of quality brands of tint out there. When you find out the brand of tint, please post it here or PM me and I will let you know if it is a quality brand or not.

I hope that this helps you out. Please pm me with any more questions or post it here.

-Busyman-
 
Re

Don't spend the 600 on the focals,or atleast I wouldn't..The last amp I would use for front staging is a class D amp.Ill keep it simple but class D's are only for low freq.I would look into A nice Class A amp like some old school PPI,Soundstream or Old orion.You can find them on e-bay once in awhile and their a-lot better then whats out their today.One of the best amps I know.As far as speakers I know a company dayton that makes speakers.They about like 35 each speaker and they are In my opinion a good overall speaker.There cheap and perform great.Another Company that makes good speakers is Hybrid audio,you might of heard of them.I've put them in a couple of customers cars and they sound great.They make one of the best soft dome tweeter I've ever heard.What I would do is a 6.5 in the door and the tweeter in the dash to give the car a good staging.When someone usually comes in with a G-BODY depending on what they want,insteaded of subs(space reasons and rattles) I usually put 4 6x9's on the rear deck and the car slams.Anyway good luck
 
I have the stock radio in place and use it for the clock and to show everyone my power antenna still works. My phone(HTC Evo) and my iPod control the system. I run them through the Clarion 7 band parametric equalizer. Then on to a Crossfire 4 channel for the dash and doors, Phoenix Gold 3.0 two channel rear deck, and a Fosgate sub amp. I use Memphis speakers and the stock dash tweeters. I have received many compliments and the are all old school amps. Look in the car and you don't see a bank roll head unit to excite thieves either . With the Powerlogger you can set an audible knock alert . At the track I plug the Jack into my laptop and can hear if it goes off loud and clear.
 
VMineo said:
Don't spend the 600 on the focals,or atleast I wouldn't..
Click to expand...

Of course don't spend $600+ on them! I picked up a set of complete 6.5 focal K2 power for $200 from a stereo shop going out of business. Deals are out there. I have these in my Z06, they sound absolutely amazing, almost as good as 3 way DyneAudio's my buddy had in his vette.

A/D/S amps are good too, I have a 625x sitting here from 150 yrs ago that I might use in my T, these are the cleanest amps I've used personally.

In my GN I pirated the 3.5 inch "twiddlers" from my factory vette Bose system and put those in my dash, Boston Acoustics 5.25 rally separates from 100yrs ago with an equally old fosgate 4ch amp and a single JL 10 in the trunk for fill, head unit is a cheap Eclipse cd player with a usb stick port on the front with a 2gb set of songs from itunes.

The new alpine head units can attach a alpine bluetooth adapter, sat radio adapter, and a simple 4x45w mini amp that goes behind the radio so you don't have to run extra power wires.
 
I have the Pioneer head unit and i love it...i have sirius hooked up to it, and it scrolls the artist across the screen and there is no external sirius unit...more than my factory Ford truck, and fits nicely in the the space...currently looking 4 ideas for speakers tho as someone made they're own concert sound speakers and not only do they no longer work but they look stupid
 
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