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