Dave,

Here is a system to fit your listening profile and budget. Let me know if you have any questions/comments.

HU - your choice. (I have been using eclipse units for a few years and really like them. Also look at alpine)

Front Speakers - You should have 6x8's in the front and it is really easy to build an adapter to run 6.5's in thatlocation. I am also assuming that the other two speakers are tweeters andyou will wanttoreplace those as well.
http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?...roduct_ID=4418$150

4 channel Amp (mids and highs on channels 1-2 and 3-4 bridged for sub): http://ikesound.com/product-product_id/4351 $150

Sub: http://www.edesignaudio.com/edv2/pro...products_id=31(It is really a 12") $125

That leaves you $75 for sound deadening, wires, and box construction.

 

PReal..... thank you. I do have a few questions.

1 - Head unit. I stoped by a local shop last night and they recomended Kenwood for ipod functionality. They say that they are the better choice for menu control, and have the slowest "delay" between head unit and ipod. I would trust alpine, as I have had good experiences in past, and have heard Eclipse is good quality.

2 - Front Speakers. Okay, ive never heard of CDT. Reputable? Quality? It says power handleing 130watts... is that RMS?

3 - Amp. Hifonics, lol, those were fairly new when I was in car audio back in the day. Will that amp be a good match for the front speaker capacity and be able to push a sub well enough on the rear channels bridged? (looks like 340w RMS bridges on a 4-ohm load)

4 - Sub. Single sub is all i really need, and this eD 13Kv.2 sub seems decent. Small enclosure, decent power handeling - again, with the other speakers, what is there reputation/quality? Ive never heard of them. Does the dual 2 or dual 4 voice coil affect wiring/draw from amp? (if so, what would be preferred?)

Thanks for the help.
Dave

 

HU - I cannot stand kenwood units. They are bottom of the barrell units in my opinion. I have not used any of the Ipod connectors from any brand of HU (My wife has an eclipse cd3000 in her car and she would rather have an aux input that is standard headphone input) I have heard alpine has a very nice interface.

Fronts - CDT is top notch on a budget. I have installed 4-5 sets of thier speakers ranging from $100 to $800 comp sets and have been amazing at the value and sound quality of these speakers. The tweets are laid back, some people like harsh tweets better, and the mids have strong midbass and smooth midrange. I purchased a pair of comps earlier this week for my wife's bmw and I currently have a set of CDT's in my car as well.

Amp -Hifonics amps are not quite as nice as they used to be, but they are reliable, put out decent power, and are cheap. I have installed 4-5 of these amps. One caught fire due to a manufactoring defect and was replaced under warranty, but all others have been great.

Sub - ED has been around for a few years and is an excellent company for all your car audio needs. They have excellent customer service, are based in the US and have steller products. They have very very few storefronts and do the majority of their business online. You will need to get to dual 2 ohm in order to run the vc's in series to wire them up to 4 ohms. The amp is not 2 ohm stable bridged.

 

In addition to P words of wisdom....

Eclipse units have by far the cheapest iPod adaptor for their headunits on the market, and for the money, the new CD3100 is awesome. If you have the $$$ though, the CD5100 is a wise decision as well. I also would not suggest Kenwood decks. I hate how they operate and they have nothing that even comes close to the functionality of Eclipse or Alpine.

Just to back up what P told you about CDT, I bought there $100 set of componets for my daily driver, im amazed at what I got for $100.

eD is great. If you want to hear about who they are and how the operate, check out my experience and review of there company in this thread. https://mustangforums.com/m_3147567/tm.htm
Also the K series woofers of theirs, as just about everyone has heard JL woofers before these are comparable to the performance of their W3 line. And with the 12W3 pricing out at $250 each, and the eD 13Kv2 at $125, it's no comparison and a no brainer. One is plenty if what you want is a strait forward good sounding all around and loud but not so much breath taking bass.