Audio build for beginner: Advice needed

6243 Views 27 Replies 9 Participants Last post by jd31, Oct 29, 2013

Ultravox

Discussion Starter · Aug 27, 2013

Hi guys,
The time has come for my 2011 Jeep’s audio system to be upgraded. To put it mildly I am not quite knowledgeable about this stuff so I would really appreciate your comments here.
The proposed set up is as follows:
Speakers:
Front doors: Hertz HSK 165
Back doors: Focal IC 165
Amp: Alpine PDX-v9
Sub; JL Stealthbox or custom made enclosure with one of slim line Phoenix Gold subs (I have not decided which way to go yet.
I do not have any experience in this field so the installation works will be done for me. The guys I contacted with this request suggested installing PAC SOEM-4 4-Channel Premium Line-Out Converter. I am not quite sure if it is really needed as I have not seen that anybody mentioned this thing here. On the other hand the installers are one of the best in town and obviously know their trade. I also read a ton of woeful reviews for this converter with complaints about adding noise etc. So, I am a bit lost here if it is really needed and if yes what should be used instead of this particular model.

The guys also suggested doing doors deadening which I guess should improve sound quality. Could anybody please tell if the results of the deadening are really worth it?

Finally, I am wondering if anybody ever dealt with Phoenix subs. I understand that they are inferior to JL. However, it may be possible that in custom made enclosure it will be possible to go with 12” slimline sub which may bring sound to a better level. Just a thought…

Could please anybody help me with this questions? It looks like the project is going to blow a hole in our budget of almost $4K so I do not have room for mistakes.

PS I have Laredo with basic 6 speakers (no sub or Alpine gear) and factory 430 unit which I am going to keep.

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Radknight

· #13 · Oct 3, 2013 (Edited)

You should tune that Bit 10 first. It will take a bit of time but once you get it right you'll feel good about spending the dosh. With the Bit 10 you should be able to keep your head unit.

Keep in mind that in a lot of modern cars the Head Unit has equalization set to the cheap stock speakers. When you install a new amp and speakers, the head unit is still putting out the same signal so it will sound like absolute crap. When you tune that Bit10 it will sum all the inputs, normalise (de-equalise) the signals and should give you a nice flat output to your amps. You can then set your gains on your amps and your speakers should sing. Check out posts by VoyagerX, 1stJeepGC and others. They have a lot of good advice and threads here. Also check out the YouTube series called Amplified where they use Hertz Speakers and Audison Bit10 Processor in a Jeep SRT8.

Also, forgive me if I'm out of line but where did you get your Hertz speakers from? I only ask because there are a lot of Hertz fakes out there especially ebay (where I do most of my shopping). Check out the Hertz website hertzaudiovideo>technical>fake products for more details. I was going to go down the Hertz path myself but am being extra cautious at this point.

What part of Oz do you live? If in Sydney there is a killer shop in Caringbah called FHRX Studios or Lifestyles in North Parramatta that can help you out.

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Radknight

· #16 · Oct 3, 2013 (Edited)

Subbie is right though. You can get a killer aftermarket head unit from Pioneer, Kenwood, Clarion or Alpine that will be half the size of the stock HU and not be tuned to you stock speakers.

Edit: plus you can get a double DIN size with SatNav and everything else.

Thanks for the Hertz info. I might hit them up. I still have some time up my sleeve and looking at DLS, CDT, Helix an Hertz but I'll probably find something else too by the time I'm done.

Good luck with the Bit10 tuning. I would've thought they'd do it for you considering they did the install as well.

Edit: I just checked out Phatt Audio. Holy crap they do some good work. I'm going to stop by next time I'm in Melbourne. They wouldn't be cheap though. Did you buy all you stuff online and bring it into them?

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Radknight

· #22 · Oct 7, 2013 (Edited)

Well put. People don't seem to realise that MP3's are worse quality than CD's and of various and questionable quality. To find out how bad they are you can go to iTunes an select Bit Rate and Sample Rate when you right click in the titles columns or if you right click on the song and click the Summary tab where you will also see the Sample Size. High Resolution (that won't play from an iDevice) will be 24 Bit/96 to 192 kHz with a Bit Rate of about 3350 Kbps (that's from my Rush Sectors music). CDs are 16 Bit/44 kHz but iDevices only output 24bit/48 kHz( some say only 16 bit) so you have to use a DAC that bypasses the iDevices internal DAC with something like a Pure I20 or similar. Still. The best way to tune any system is with music you are sure is pure.

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