Got a budget of £400-500 for a system?... Take a look here!
 

Lately I have noticed that members that come looking for advice have an average budget of around £4-500 for the whole system. Now, I have used many different products in regards to ICE and I try to recommend or suggest things that I believe would be best suited, as does Pred, Dave and many other members. Having this in mind I thought I would make a post and show you what my ideal system would be if I had a budget similar to that of above.

Up until a week or so ago I always thought that for that budget you could get an alright sounding system but not great, but having spent some time doing an install in a mate's car over the last month or so I realised it is possible to get a very good sounding system if a bit of research is done.

My mate came to me about a month ago with a budget of £700 and asked me to help him with his install, he needed everything even his head unit was OEM, most people already have a HU that's why I lowered the budget to £500. He left the choice of gear to me and he offered to help in the creation of the installation, after an hour of trying to teach him the basics I decided it would be easier to do it myself, but I spent 2-3 weeks racking my brain and trying to pick the best gear possible, wasn't going too well, I was going to go with all JBL and save him a bit of money. I then got a chance to listen to some gear that you wouldn't usually find in shops, like Hertz subs etc.



The above image is my draw up of the system, I was extremely suprised by the outcome of the system, it was crisp and clear, reproduced every type of music to great standard and for 1 sub being run off of a small 340w it had some great volume capabilities. The over sized slot ported box that I made for the sub definatly played a part in the volume it was able to achieve, I was initially going to go sealed but I was afraid it may have been a little quiet for his liking, the 10" version of this sub is available for £25 less.

Some people will be wondering why I used dizzy blocks with only 1 run of power and earth cable, this was because the amp didn't allow 0 awg to be connected, so I used a short cut of 4 awg on each run and ran the rest of the car with 0 awg. Obviously it is not vital that 0 awg wiring is used nor is it that 8 awg speaker wire is used for the sub, but I wanted to maximise performance so I went all out. The choice between the Rainbows and the Bostons was a difficult 1 but in the end I chose the Rainbows, they have always been my favourite out of the 2 but opinions differ from person to person.

Anyone looking at creating a system with this sort of a budget should highly consider this system, I never would have thought this sort of quality was obtainable on this budget, I always recommend a minimum of £1000 for a decent system, I have thought that for a long time and I proved myself wrong with this project.

Obviously this doesn't all have to be bought at once, but it is nice to know or have a plan as to what you next want to purchase as you save. I don't think there's anyone that would be dissappointed with this system and i'm sure Dave will vouch for the performance of the SRX3, the Hertz sub is 1 that probably not many have heard, or even heard of but I can assure you it is a very nice sounding sub and the reputation of the components speak for themselves.

Just thought people may be interested in this as I went into this project with minimal expectations and came out extremely suprised. Unfortunatly I don't have a camera to take any pictures of the install but a brief description is that it was put in a Impreza STI and as said above the sub was in an over sized ported box (around 1.25 cuft), in a simlar style to a stealth box on the off-side of the boot, the amp and dizzy blocks were placed under a false floor and soon there will be another box on the near-side of the boot to house an AudioControl EQ.

Hope this helps anyone with future purchase queries. Any comments or questions? Fire away.

thats a nice set up, although i think iwould have some different components, i look at them and they dont look much cop imo, may be wrong though, ive never heard them in real life

a very good diagram with some useful information!

every day there does seem to be a new post, with what spks should i buy or are these any good/worth the money ect.
so having 1 post with a good system in should help!

but you have missed a couple of things out of the overall budget!

you will need a decent wiring kit, some sound dampening would also be a added bonus! also how you install all of the speakers will have an affect on the overall system! location of tweeters, mount the comps on a mdf rings ect
Not to mention actual setting the amp up also!

also in the budget you didnt leave any for materials for the sub box , spk wire or wiring kit?

here is an even cheaper way but it is down the JBL route!

you can get an faily good budget system for:

front speakers: SPL Dynamics SD-5.2 £60
Amp: JBL GTO75.4 £100
sub: JBL GT4-12 with box £55 (ebay)
wiring kit: 4awg £30 - £35 (ebay)

Total £250

Also it will be well worth buying a sheet of MDF/ply, to make a good stable floor in the boot for the sub and amp to go on.
Also to make 2 round rings to mount the door speks on!
shount be that much to by a sheet!

By no way is this system going to be amazing or blow your socks off!
BUT it will be a whole lot better than the standard car speakers!


Additional upgrades
front spks: bostons £90

If you want to get the most out of your system then i would highly recommend a good % of your overall budget on:
sound deadening, as if the door/boot is just rattling away then all of the sub/spk energy is just being wasted and it wount be as loud as it could be!
also upgrade the door clips, seems to be a good option.

Great stuff

I could have gone into a lot more detail, but the post was designed as a system recommendation rather than an installation guide, there's plenty of them around thanks to Pred. As mentioned in the thread I contemplated the JBL set up but I thought i'd use the budget and get the best I could, i've done many installs with JBL gear and for the money they are brilliant but comapared to the performance of this system it can't compete.

I did leave £70 for installation meterials like MDF rings, MDF for the false floor and sub box, and new EQ box. I was able to get wiring, but I didn't get it in a kit, I bought all the bits seperate, like fuse holders, dizzy blocks, wiring etc.

That's the reason why I didn't put up a wiring kit, all my accessories came from a company called KnuKonceptz. Most people if they're willing to spend £4-500 on a system they will be fine with spending another £50 on the needed accessories to use all their new gear and get the best from it. This was simply a system recommendation. The mounting of the tweeter is currently in the door, but will be moving to the A-pillar, but as said tastes differ from person to person so i've left mounting suggestions and positioning to the reader's imagination.

I did have a fair amount of Dynamat left over from another install so that was used to deaden the inner/outer door skins, the boot floor, walls and boot lid. I didn't include this in the post because it's not really a choice of what to buy it's whether you want it or not. I.e in order to run a sub you NEED an amp, so therefore i've recommended the best one in the budget in my view, but you don't need Sound Deadening, it's an upgrade, granted 1 I wouldn't go with out but that's down to the buyer.

Cheers Scott for making this a Sticky.

this may help!!

http://www.saxperience.com/forum/sho...68#post1903168