Anybody clued up on car audio

4743hudsonj

Just looking for an xmas pressie for myself from my work, im thinking of an active bass box. We have sold FLI (vibe) for a while and I've heard good things and some bad, we have also sold Fusion (encounter range) which are dirt cheap but leave alot to be desired on the specs.

Recently we just took on Mutant subs(autoleads) and these seem to be mid range between the fli and fusion subs, but i havnt a clue if its better than the others in terms of quality, so anybody else got experiences?

totalsolutions

The best thing to do first is to fit sound Dynamat to the complete interior.

By fitting out the interior and becoming a sound box on it's own, results in the whole car becoming a sub woofer just using normal speakers.

Oneday77

I will be honest it has been a while since I last looked into this kind of stuff. I am pretty sure Mutant get an ok press. What I would say is do you want mighty thumping Bass of good quality sound? What kind of setup have you got just now?
Unless you already have them I would look to upgrade your existing speakers with component builds, powered by a seperate amp from the head unit First. Positioning the speakers in a more prominent position and placing the tweeters more to dashborad level. This does depend on whether you want to disturb the existing layout of the car mind you.
remember Bass boxes rob boot space, can be damaged by anything you carry back there and steathly installs allways have that I worked hard to carry this out feel.
Also before going down a Bass route some panel lining like Dynamat, so when you get the boxes the car doesn't rattle like a bag of nails

Oneday77

Damn too slow

4743hudsonj

I have vibe space range component 6" speakers and their lower end, but still £50 a pop slick 4 inchers in the back. which aren't' exactly cheap so im good for quality on that front, as for the woofers i dont want to go OTT (FLI are the second lowest range from vibe btw).

I see all these rigs and just wonder how people can actually hear any "music" a simple woofer fits my needs but i was looking for built quality, ie the fusions seem to blow alot (even the higher range modeld), the FLI's seem solid but dont do much in the way of bass as far as i can tell, so i might take a punt with Mutant. Its got backing and sister companies with a good rep so hopefully the trend continues.

I would always choose FLI over Fusion but Mutants stirred it up, its a gold class 500watt rms im looking at btw)

Oneday77

I would seriously go with the prepare the car before you Woofer it up. It will make all the difference in the long run. Grab yourself one of the general car modding magazines and see how some of the ICE build features go about their thing.
Dynamat is a must have for any quality builds, it isn't cheap but highly recommended, especially if you intend to keep the car for a while. Seems like a boring purchase but just makes everything better. Less road noise, less sound leakage out the car, less rattles and more concentrated sound for you.

4743hudsonj

Oneday77 wrote: »

I would seriously go with the prepare the car before you Woofer it up. It will make all the difference in the long run. Grab yourself one of the general car modding magazines and see how some of the ICE build features go about their thing.
Dynamat is a must have for any quality builds, it isn't cheap but highly recommended, especially if you intend to keep the car for a while. Seems like a boring purchase but just makes everything better. Less road noise, less sound leakage out the car, less rattles and more concentrated sound for you.

Too right it ent cheap! lol

Im not planning on keeping the car that long, its only a rover214si. Besides i want it to be mobile enough to port over to new cars until i have enough money to sort out a proper system, hopefully with some discounted black death woofers.(i wish:rolleyes:)

Oneday77

4743hudsonj wrote: »

Too right it ent cheap! lol

Im not planning on keeping the car that long, its only a rover214si. Besides i want it to be mobile enough to port over to new cars until i have enough money to sort out a proper system, hopefully with some discounted black death woofers.(i wish:rolleyes:)

Fair enough
I must admit I never spend too uch on ICE as cars are fundamentally flawed for HiFi design, they make too much noise
Fix you budget and check out independent reviews. I assume your work sells the ICE so unless you get a good discount don't forget to shop about they maybe cheaper elsewhere.

4743hudsonj

Oneday77 wrote: »

Fair enough
I must admit I never spend too uch on ICE as cars are fundamentally flawed for HiFi design, they make too much noise
Fix you budget and check out independent reviews. I assume your work sells the ICE so unless you get a good discount don't forget to shop about they maybe cheaper elsewhere.

i get it at cost plus 5% of cost so its very cheap! by a massive margin, sometimes cheaper than second hand stuff on ebay.

c00kiemonster_2

Ive worked with and used alot of different subs over the years. From your list go with a vibe black air active sub its a brilliant sub for the money:cool:

I'm currently using the twin vibe black air active unit in my car which quite frankly is a beast lol

Fli subs I wouldn't touch with a bargepole they are cheap and nasty with poor sound quality for reliability check out audio repair centre on ebay, they are the authorised vibe/fli repair agent they have loads of fli kit for sale from warranty returns and not much vibe to give you an idea how reliable they are!

Mutant I would also give a wide berth, again cheap an nasty if their headunits are anything to go by!

Are your vibe space components running off an amp or direct from the headunit?

Also is your rover 214 the old or new shape as I had 2 12" subs in an old shape and the car rattled like a tin can lol

With the soundproofing there are alot of products on the market that do this job all of which entails alot of time and effort spent ripping your car apart to apply the stuff. A job I have only ever done on my present car!

What headunit have you got in your car?

Biggest mistake alot of people make when installing subs is set the gain too high, this will inevitably blow the sub or the amp, set it up right to the voltage output of your headunit and it will be fine;)

Good luck in your choice:D

4743hudsonj

c00kiemonster wrote: »

Ive worked with and used alot of different subs over the years. From your list go with a vibe black air active sub its a brilliant sub for the money:cool:

I'm currently using the twin vibe black air active unit in my car which quite frankly is a beast lol

Fli subs I wouldn't touch with a bargepole they are cheap and nasty with poor sound quality for reliability check out audio repair centre on ebay, they are the authorised vibe/fli repair agent they have loads of fli kit for sale from warranty returns and not much vibe to give you an idea how reliable they are!

Mutant I would also give a wide berth, again cheap an nasty if their headunits are anything to go by!

Are your vibe space components running off an amp or direct from the headunit?

Also is your rover 214 the old or new shape as I had 2 12" subs in an old shape and the car rattled like a tin can lol

With the soundproofing there are alot of products on the market that do this job all of which entails alot of time and effort spent ripping your car apart to apply the stuff. A job I have only ever done on my present car!

What headunit have you got in your car?

Biggest mistake alot of people make when installing subs is set the gain too high, this will inevitably blow the sub or the amp, set it up right to the voltage output of your headunit and it will be fine;)

Good luck in your choice:D

I'm not looking at anything near that price range lol, even the vibe slick sub and amp would be a stretch for my budget atm.

I know FLI do break down but we have one of their rigs at work and they sound ok tbf, plus if they go wrong i wont have trouble getting a replacement, as i said, i want it to be easy to move over.

As for the 214 its the bubble shape (ie an early 25 with different headlights).
MY Space components are currently run by the headunit (cant afford yet another amp!) and the headunit itself is a sony cdx-gt620u which outputs 52W down each line.

I am eventually aiming for black death as i get massive discount from the reps because we can get hold of ex-displays etc. What will rattle anything i put it in! But for now its FLI or Mutant who i have asked about and apparently their new range is a turn for the better compared to their last stuff.