Texotic

Hey guys, I'll be up front and say that I don't know a whole lot about car audio.

Long story short: I'm a seasonal employee at Best Buy and am getting laid off with all of the other seasonal employees this Saturday, but figure that I may as well do some car audio upgrades before I lose my employee discount. If there is anyone else here that works for Best Buy that can lend some advice on the best deals we get I would appreciate it.

First Part:
I want a Double DIN, Touch Screen deck. I'm trying to decide between two Pioneer units: the AVIC-F700BT and AVH-P4000DVD. One has nav and one doesn't and I think the price difference is around $200 and can't decide if it'll be worth it. I already have a Garmin Nuvi 660, but think it would be cool to have the nav integrated into the unit without a stupid windshield unit. I think I could recoup the extra cost by selling the Garmin, but I've read numerous reviews that say you can't change the address or anything unless you have the parking brake on. Is there a way to leave a wire unplugged or something so that it doesn't know the car is moving? Just seems pretty useless if I have to pull over to the side of the road to put in a new address.

Second Part:
I want to upgrade my speakers. I've listened to the Infinity Reference speakers and the Alpine S-Types in the store and like the clarity of the the Infinity speakers a lot. I haven't found a place near me with the Infinity Kappas out where you can listen to them, though. I hear sometimes their highs can be overpowering, but is it so bad I should do the References instead of the Kappas? Also does anyone have any input on the new speakers that Pioneer has come out with that have the Basaltic cones? Also, will I need to get an amp for replacement speakers to sound a lot better than stock? If I do get an amp, it'll be the Alpine PDX-4.100, but I'm just not sure if I really need it and I'd like to spend as little as possible.

Third Part:
Bass... I am thinking about doing a slimline in the trunk behind the rear seats. What would be the best for this? I've found a slim sealed pioneer box that will hold one of their slim mount 12" subs. Rockford also has a 12" sub in a slim sealed box. I'll use a PDX-1.600 if I do it. I don't need a ton of bass, but I do like a little thump and the ones in the doors sound like ***, but BBY doesn't sell anything that I could replace them with, so to the trunk I go. I need it to be easily removable (preferably the amp as well) as I AutoX and enjoy track days. Any info I can get on this would help out a lot or if there is a way to take out the subs (if you can call em that) in the doors and replace them with a mid-bass component to help fill out the sound, I would like to do that.

I would normally take the time to research everything really in depth, but seeing as I have to buy it all within the next few days or else it will cost twice as much. Also a list of whatever kind of wiring and install accessories I will need would be helpful. Sorry for all of the questions, I work Home Theater, this isn't my thing, lol.

epictwist

Hey man,

As far as the deck goes the 4000 is nice since it is a dvd player, the only downfall to it is that it only has 2 pre-outs so if you wanted to get 2 amps it wouldn't work as well. The 700 is quite a bit more but since you already have a gps you wouldn't really need that feature. So I would probably go with the 4000, you shouldn't need an amp for your speakers unless you just really want one. I personally like the infinity speakers over the alpine's, but you should just listen to them and see which ones you like best. The kappa series is nice but sometimes the highs can be really bright. Rockford's shallow sub will give you a little bass, nothing to major. You should check the price of the kenwood kac-8104d amp, it's a pretty strong amp for a good price.

As far as wiring your installers should be able to help you out. You will need a double-din dash kit (which is normally in the same package as the regular kit), the audiophile harness for the shaker system. You should atleast get an 8 guage amp kit depending on which amp you get.

Hope this helps some.

Texotic

so if I wanted to eventually have an amp for the speakers in addition to the one for the sub(s), I would need 4 pre-outs? That helps some because I thought that the number of pre-outs was the number of amps you could run off of it.

Which reminds me... I think I read that the Pioneer shallow mount 8" subs fit our doors. If I did 2 of those, would I need a mono amp for each one or should I get a 4/3/2 amp and run them both off of the same one?

I won't need a capacitor, right?

epictwist

Nah you would only need 3 preouts for a 4ch and sub amp. Those subs might fit in the door, I haven't really checked into that, I know a lot of people switch it would for a 6.5" component set. If you did get them it would probably be best to run them off of a small 1/2 ch amp just so your not running to much power to them. You shouldn't need a capacitor, but with the discount it would be hard to pass up.