So I was at Pep Boys toay over another matter and noticed they had a 250 W 4 channel kicker amp for 150.00. That seems like a low price. Do Pep Boys and the like get lower quality equipment than a true Audio store?

don't buy a kicker amp

Suggestions? a kicker was recommended to me from crutchfield:

Kicker 11DX250.1

Mono subwoofer amplifier — 250 watts RMS x 1 at 2 ohms


Maybe because I was looking at the Kicker Comp 12" sub?

crutchfield is a rip off. take a look at amazon. I found the best price on speakers there.

Do you know if the guy with the Gold RX7 that was on here that did car audio professionally still has a store?

Still need a rec for what to look for though. I know nothing of car audio.

that is Al. http://soundimpressionsinc.net/default.aspx

RX-7 Chris wrote:crutchfield is a rip off. take a look at amazon. I found the best price on speakers there.

Crutchfield a rip off? Thanks to crutchfield, I got the $55 worth of installation stuff (dash kit, wiring harness, antenna adapter) that if I had purchased my head unit anywhere else, I would have had to pay for separately. They may not be the best for everything, but I wouldn't call Crutchfield a rip off.

Crutchfield is absolutely a ripoff. They charge full retail for everything. It'd be like buying a large TV at Best Buy (yes, Best Buy is a ripoff too). You can get way better deals on everything online. And did they tell you you were saving $55 on that stuff? Cause that's too high for just a wiring harness and dash kit for a head unit. So they're even probably ripping you off on how much they told you they were saving you. I made one purchase from Crutchfield when I was 18 and never bought from them again.

Kicker amps are awesome, as are Rockford Fosgate, but they are also some of the most expensive. My brother-in-law has been doing stereo work for nearly 20 years, ran an installation business for several of those years, though now he mainly runs a fence-building company. He used to enter competitions back in the day. He still does stereo work on the side though and I asked him about your situation. Kicker Comps are $60 and Comp VRs are $90. The difference is single voice coil vs dual voice coil.

For either sub you're going to want a 400-500 watt 2-channel amp. Most amps are rated at their output at 2 ohms, and a single voice coil sub is most likely going to be running at 4 ohms, so approximately half the power. The dual voice coil Comp VR would be able to bridge down to 2 ohms. He recommends not getting a cheapo amp, but not getting the most expensive ones either. Good name brand amps to look at that are reasonably priced are Kenwood, Sony, and Pioneer, that are in the $100-120 range.

As for boxes, he said he could build you a plain box for $60, carpeted for $100. Wiring kit is $20, and to wire everything and install the amp and sub would be $75, if you were looking for someone to do quality work for you since you aren't that familiar with car audio stuff. He's down here in the Springs and I can give you his number if you want.

The "box" I want, is going to be hugely expensive if someone else builds it for me, but i would appreciate running my idea for the box by him and getting reccomenations on what to put into it. I planned on building a box using fiberglass that would double as a deck covering the cargo space in my hatch. Was going to actually be some mdf with fibergalss overlay to get all the rounded shapes I want.

This may be one of those "it would be great to actually do, but so much work it never gets done" type of projects.

Would certainly be interested in having him do the wiring if he let me "help" (e.g. learn).

Al is the man, definitely go to him. He knows his stuff and he'll work with you. He's a good guy to boot!

sent an email to Al. Always like to cover my bases.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Crutchfield is a rip-off....they charge retail price on their products for the most part...just like most businesses do. They're not charging a ton over retail. That would be a rip-off IMO. And the fact that they provide free install parts and good instructions is a plus for a lot of people who wouldn't normally be DIYers. There's a lot of value in that stuff for what I would imagine is a good chunk of their customers. They offer awesome customer service and technical support and their people are usually pretty knowledgeable. Someone like me and others here obviously 'know better' and have better sources. But I have no problems at all buying from Crutchfield when I can find a way to buy at a good discount off their normal prices.

And to answer the original question, be careful of model numbers. Make sure the COMPLETE model number is exact. There are instances where certain manufacturers will make a lower cost (lower quality) version of one of their existing products that seems identical, but the model number will be slightly different. The first I read of this was Wal Mart and Sony. Also heard of Home Depot doing it with DeWalt. Just do your due diligence as a consumer and know exactly what you're getting.

i have a bose in my maxima....

Through one of my largest vendors I have access to car/marine AV stuff. I forget the brands but could check it out. You simply would not believe the markup on car audio/video. I brought in a fairly premium Pioneer deck with Ipod intergration, bluetooth phone, etc. for IIRC $120, and it was literally 3 or 4 times that everywhere else. I think the mark-up on car stereo/video stuff can be as high as about 200%, which is why they can "blow the stuff out" and still make a fair bit of bank. I believe I buy most of this stuff at around 45 points back, some higher some lower. If you want, I can see what my vendors have that you might want and how much it would cost. I know they carry Pioneer, Audiovox(never liked thier stuff) and Crossfire(never needed thier stuff) and the same Metra install kits that everyone else does. Let me know if you, or anyone else, want me to look into something for you and I will be glad to check it out. It helps if you have specific part numbers or requests.