I understand what you mean oldschoolfool. I didn't run my shops that way. If I had a customer that just wanted booming bass, I had 15" woofers and unregluated amps for that. But for the SQ guys I had the RTA and O-scope.

I have a 10W3v3 in my truck right now, running on a 300/2 bridged mono. Great sub.

 

school me on RTA and O-scope. apparently i'm younger and dumber than i originally assumed.

 

RTA is a Real Time Analyzer. It is a listening device that measure sound pressure level in decibels at different frequencies. Most popular used in car audio is a 30 band RTA. You can look at the frequency curve and with the combination of equalizers, gain controls, and speaker placement, you can properly balance the sound.

O-scope is short for oscilloscope. We will send a sine wave signal into a unit and measure it's output. What we are looking for a a smooth wave signal. When distortion (or clipping) occurs, then the wave will flatten at the peaks. You want that signal to be completely smooth in order to get the best sound and signal quality.

 

hmm this is all really good info.

my problems with the shaker 500 are

a) mid bass drivers are being used for midbass and sub bass, and they are in the doors.
to me bass needs to be below or behind
b) when turned up the highs get tinny
c) when im listening to music i should feel that bass or sub punch when a bass drum is hit. sometimes i like this really present sometimes i dial it back. but thats something i love with my home audio and my last car that this one doesnt have. i dont want people 5 blocks away to feel it but when in the car i like that kick in the spine.

when talking to the local guy he said put in a new headset and get a proper sub in there.
this will be able to take the headset and use the crossover to take those door drivers and squish them to mid bass, let the sub be the real low end, and make it so the highs arnt pushed so hard and get distorted.

makes sense to me. right now im used to it and am putting money into the engine and 3.73 gears.

Im more of a guitar and hi fi type of guy. when it comes to car audio im a bit lost. dealing with headphones and square rooms

also on a side note. in the end of this all i think im going to go with a pioneer headset. im thinking about this one ( http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PU...rs/AVH-P3300BT ) pioneer "says" it doesnt fit but it is a double din. im also going to have to make sure it has crossover, and is compatible with my mp3 (i dont use crapple, i go with cowon bc of the players fidelity) i really like to keep things looking stock but ever headset is a glossy black stand out box. going to the 4300 with a full face touch screen lessens the mismatch but it doesnt have built in blue tooth so screw that.

any other thoughts guys. so far this has been real informative.

if i just do the headset now is it unplugold, replug in new. and go? will i have to worry about incompatibility? will it increase sound quality or is it really just a base to start working off of.

 

Most name brands, as mentioned above aren't bad, but if you don't mind spending a little extra, looking at the not so popular name brands but true quality brands would be worth a look.

DLS Audio (absolutely great stuff)
Diamond Audio
Adire Audio
Focal Audio (higher end)
Polk Audio (higher mo mo)

And good stuff for a middle/lower cost
Hifonics (mainly amps)
ED (Elemental Designs) close to JL W1 and W2 series but less than half the price

 

i just bought that like a week ago. it is AMAZING. bluetooth works perfectly, and doesnt look out of place at all. sounds better than my panasonic did, and lots of input options. and no need to worry about cd skipping due to bass, mine hasnt yet on 2500 watts. vminnovations has it for 316 w/ free shipping and with the coupon code FACEBOOK it ends up being 303 and some change. its worth it.

 

i usually do look at and spend some more on lesser known but clearly better brands.(ths the cowon mp3, it has BBE and "studio grade" audio processing, EQ is not just the usual set db levels, you pick what frequencies and how wide of a band you want. i highly recommend cowon if you can deal with not-so-ipod UIs) but on this money is not just 40 bucks here and there its usually a couple hundred and its out of my league. that is unless they make some tube based systems. then im all in (looks at mcintosh's car audio line) also im not seeing headunits. right now im just going to look at those.

 

there you go. ED does have some good stuff for a real good price. im glad you at least looked at them. im not a salesman for them or anything i just like there stuff. the 7s dvc i was talking about from ED are 350 watts rms @ 4 ohms in a 1sf ported box. im pushing them with a 1000 watt amp at 1 ohm and they sound great in the car and can be heared from a few cars away. and from there forums i see there 10s are awsome. keep looking around and learn from what thease guys are talking about because they know more than me, lol.

 

depending on what kind of money your trying to spend, if you want to keep it in the 600$ range, i run a 12" rockford fosgate t0 sub ran by a kicker zx750.1 plenty of bass and leaves good trunk space with only 1 12" sub in the trunk. and trust me these T series subs hit VERY hard.