need some help. i thought i did an ok job with my cavy with my audio.
sounded good to me. but now i have an S10 extened cab. and have no idea
how to do audio in that thing, because its soooo different that a car is!

questions would i have:

subs, i have two 10" planet audio's that i wanna use.
they have a 400 watt peak power, double stacked magnet.
RX series. 200 watt RMS each.

the question on these is.
for in a truck, what would be better? i LOVED my sealed box in
my cavalier. dont know what to do in the truck. sealed or ported?
second question would be, i know EVERYONE at audio shops told me
to "downfire" them. will i not hear them if i dont? i always liked the look of
actually seeing the subs pound in the back of a truck [having them face the front
of the truck] fore the looks, if they downfired, all i will see is a box with no subs.
so, will i be able to hear the subs, if i face them front-ward? and will it sound good or crappy?
last question on these, is about amping. should i get a 1000 watt 2 channel, and run about 400 to each?
only get a 5-600 and run 2-300 to them? get a 600 watt class D mono? whats the best style,
and watt amp to run these things?


also this thing, being the extended cab, has 6 speakers.
[starting from front of the truck to rear]

in the dash: 4x6's
doors: 6.5's
rear sides: 4x10's

questons for speakers would be:
should i stick with 4x6's on the dash?
what else will fit? 4.5 rounds? 5.5 rounds?

doors im sticking with 6.5's

rears. keep the stock ones in there?
dont really wanna replace with low-end brands
[which are the only brands that make a 4x10 speaker]
what can i put in there? two 4.5's on each side?

and my biggest question would be, amping speakers:
there are 6 of them, possibly more if i replace the 4x10s with something diff.
what speakers should i amp?
all of them?

im kind of leaning towards getting just a 2 channel and amping the 6.5's in the doors,
and leaving the others to run on factory power.

what will sound the best?
and if amping just the 6.5's is best, should i replace the 4x6's and the 4x10's
with aftermarket? or keep stock for stock powering?

someone please help! would like to getthis project started!
but dunno what to do in a truck! ive done audio before, im no pro,
but know how to do it all....in a car!

thanks so much for the help!

point the subs up and keep it sealed for the simplicity factor. i really dont think you wil gain much going ported. also build sealed box to manufacturers specs.





click sig for my car audio videos

I did a ported box in my friends Dakota. I wasnt really happy with how it turned out. Lot of cancellation or something. Just sounded bad.

anton. when u say up, do u literally mean face them up towards the roof??
im looking to have them point towards the front of the truck, like, so if u were looking
into the truck from the front window, you would see [if there were no seats/anything blocking
your view] two subs. would that be ok? what do u think?

sundown. first, i am very disapointed you didnt use my siggy i made for you! lol.
jk. dont worry about it. looks like yur still lookin for a new one tho, aye? well, judged by
what the two of u guys said here, im going with a sealed box.

you guys have any:
fitment advise on the speakers?
like what should i put in place of a 4x10 speaker?

any advise on what type of amps to use?
also what speakers to amp? all? just certain ones?

as for the subs, specs are above. 200 watt RMS
and 400 watt peak. what should i run to these?
just what the RMS is? or should/can i go higher?



also, my biggest question is. i saw that the radio/dvd player
im looking at [JVC] has an option for recognising a 5.1 suround sound system.

will 5.1 sound better for music and movies?
or just movies?

and if i wanna do that, is it had to set up? and is there additional speakers
i have to mount? or does it use speakers already put in the car?


thanks again for all the help.
lookin to make a nice build for the new truck.
im going for a mild show truck with it, and am not the most
experienced person in any field, i know the basics for alot of things.
but wanna expand and get as much info/advice on the build before i jump into it.

so again, i thank you guys.

[would ask this at S10forum...but its real confusing there, and they dont have alot of
topics posted up there....real lack of info from what ive seen. and i know you guys are quite
talented in the audio department here..have gotten lots of info from you guys in the past, just by
reading old posts and such for the cavy, just lookin for some help with the S10 now!]

i would point them up (towards the roof). to me just because i dont think having the subs hitting your seat would sound that good. i dont know from any experience at all. im just stating from common sence that if the subs would be right behind the seat that they would lose some output fromt he interference of the seats. but you can try it how ever you want. the thing you could do is build the box so you can put it any way you want in the truck, you could try it all, down firing, up firing or even fire the subs toward the front. just try them all, its really the only way to find out what is for "you". as for an amp for the subs i would try out a alpine mrp 500 or somthing equivalent. 500 wrms on those subs should do fine in a smaller sealed box.

as for the speakers and speaker amps i have no clue about that stuff.





click sig for my car audio videos

You cant do true 5.1 with a car. Youre seated in an off axis listening environment.

ok... doing a TRUE surround sound in a vehicle is a lot more complex, hard, and costly than you think. Completely scratch that idea.

If you are looking to upgrade your sound system, keep in mind that music is recorded in stereo(2 channels). That is left and right. The reason a lot of audio guys(like myself) will tell you t stick to upgrading your fronts and sub(s) and not worry much about rears is all about the sound stage. You want the music as clean, crisp, clear, and real as possible. Rear speakers will be "fighting" the fronts so to speak with cancellation and be dragging your sound stage behind you where you don't want it. Subs play such low frequencies, they are far less directional, and because of that, and the size of enclosures, they are ok to be behind you.

I say focus on your doors and dash speakers. Maybe an idea for you would be to unhook your rears completely, keep the fronts stock and upgrade the @!#$ out of the door speakers and amp them. Or even ditch the dash speakers(because you can't fit any decent speaker size in there).

Just get a nice 2 channel amp for the door speakers, get a nice set of components in there, and call the speakers done. You are also working in a truck, which has a small cabin, you don't gotta worry about speakers for rear passengers.

After that, build your box and get your subs/amp in. As for box design, for sound in a pickup down firing will be optimal. If you can't fire them downward or backwards(coincidentally the 2 ways they will sound best, to you are the opposite of what you want to do lol), fire them upward. Into your seat backs will be the worst option.

As for power and such... if your subs are rated at 200 watts RMS each, keep them right around there. Giving or taking 50-100 watts won't kill you, but try and stay in their recommended RMS range.

Find the impedance of your speakers(sorry if you mentioned it and I missed it), and figure out what the lowest total impedance(resistance) you can get, and find a mono amp that will provide 400-500 clean watts RMS to them at that impedance.

If your subs each have a single 4 ohm voice coil, they can be wired as low as 2 ohms. If they each have dual 4 ohm coils, you can wire them down to a 1 ohm load, which will provide you with cheaper amp options as 500 watts at 1 ohm is cheaper than 500 watts at 2 ohms by general rule. Get the coil configuration info, and I or anyone else knowledgeable should be able to help you find a reliable, well built, and affordable amp.


On the other hand....you have other fingers.

In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart

JLAudioCavalier wrote: If they each have dual 4 ohm coils, you can wire them down to a 1 ohm load, which will provide you with cheaper amp options as 500 watts at 1 ohm is cheaper than 500 watts at 2 ohms by general rule. Get the coil configuration info, and I or anyone else knowledgeable should be able to help you find a reliable, well built, and affordable amp.

when u say 1 ohm is cheaper amp than 2 ohm, do you mean like cheaper, like crappy?
or good quality, just cheaper price than other amps? i was kinda looking at a rockford amp..
thats what my local audio shop is promoting, and the other local audio shop promotes soundstream
[where i got all my cavy stuff from] not sure what to get.

as for what you said with my speakers. im not sure if i would wanna just unhook my rears. or any of them really.
should i just keep the 4x6's in my dash, and the 4x10's in the rear stock, then replace the 6.5's in the door and amp those?

or would it be better [to get the sound further up front] to amp my dash speakers?
...im thinking that the 6.5's would sound best amped.

lemme know tho. what would be good brands for speakers.
and good amps to power everything.

...i have at home a 400 watt planet audio 4 channel.
dunno if i could used that for anything. [like if its good enuff for speakers/subs]

does JVC have quality cd decks? ive heard mixed results.

some say they are amzing. some say they are crap.

im looking to get this: http://signature.crutchfield.com/s_105KDAVX77/JVC-KD-AVX77.html?c=3&tp=20217&avf=N

because a full double DIN does not fit, and i HATE the look of flip outs!

what do you guys think?

JVC makes good decks.

Now for your dime. You can sneak 5 1/4's in the dash with some slight modification and you can do 6 1/2s in the doors.

I'd also fire the subs up, and I wouldn't go much more than rms for the subs.




Your car may do 13 sec @ 103 mph, but my car does 146db @ 35 hz.

well let me explain what I meant by 1ohm and 2ohm costing different...

If an amp theoretically puts out 200 watts at 2 ohms, that means it should theoretically put out 400 watts at 1 ohm. You are cutting the resistance in half. So if you find an amp that puts out the rated power at 2 ohms, that means the amp is built a little beefier and such, simply in the fact that it takes more work to put out a certain amount of power through a higher resistance. Amps stable down to 1 ohm are usually cheaper to find what you need, simply because the resistance is far less, so it's easier and cheaper to built a good amp to put that kind of power out at the lower impedance. That is a fairly simple way of explaining it.

RF makes good amps, but on a budget, SS can put out some decent stuff too. I wouldn't steer you away from either.

HOWEVER, get the model number off your subs, and off your PA amp that you say you have. You might be able to put that amp to use, and save some money.


On the other hand....you have other fingers.

In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart

the model number for my subs are: RX2104

and the 4 channel amp model number is: TQ404

both the subs and the amp are made by planet audio.


but to hook up the amp [if it will work well] to these two subs.
would i take channels 1 and 2 and hook them to sub 1, and then channels 3 and 4 to sub 2?
ive only hooked up monoblocks and 2 channels to sets of two subs before.

or would that amp be good to use for door speakers?

and any recamendations on brands for speakers that will not
be louder/over power the subs i got? [the 6.5's for the door]

Ok on the subs:

Those appear to be dual 4 ohm coil subs. That means you can get them wired together down to a 1 ohm load. So finding a mono amp to power them will be very affordable! Looking for about a total of 400 watts RMS into a 1 ohm load is not expensive! Big plus there.

99% of 4 channel amps out there are only stable down to 4 ohms when bridged(which is what you are asking about running each sub off 2 channels), so you can't do that. Each sub would be either an 8(not enough power getting to them), or a 2(will fry your amp), ohm load. However, if you run them off say their own channels individually, such as 2 of the 4 channels, or off a 2 channel amp without bridging, you can do it with ease as they can get down to 2 ohms each.

I hope I am not losing you

Now more about that amp and what I would do with it:
It doesn't seem to have a whole ton of power available. So running your subs AND some speakers might not be the best idea. If you want to keep that amp and your subs matched up, it looks like you couldn't because of the coil configuration as I explained above.

BUT that amp would be great to bridge to some high powered components! It claims to put out 200 watts into 2 channels when bridged. That is plenty of head room for even some really high end components. My advice would be to save for a good set of 6.5" components in your door locations(s-10s have a TON of mounting depth luckily!), so your options are blown wide open. Once you find the right pair, use channels 1+2 bridged to one side, and channels 3+4 bridged to the other. You then can tune it (or have it tuned if you can't do it. It's not something I would attempt if you don't know how to do everything right. You don't want to damage your new speakers).

Then the only thing it seems you need to look out for is an amp for your subs. If you want to keep everything with your amps matching(which is something I usually like to do for aesthetic reasons), it looks like the PA TQ402 would be ideal for your subs. If you can get that amp at a low price, it will leave you more cash to put into the 6.5" components which is where you want to focus as much cash as you can. Keep in mind that 80% of the frequencies your ears will be hearing come out of those, you want the best you can afford and power.

As for the speakers that you don't want to get rid of, go ahead and leave the stock dash and rear speakers in, just keep em hooked up like stock too. No need to amp them.

I hope this helps, btw, if you need help getting into the direction of which 6.5" components are going to work best for you, why don't you let me(or us) know what kind of budget you are willing to work into the speaker purchase. Also any rough ideas of what kind of music you prefer, what kind of sound you are looking to get out of them can all help. I will never recommend anything from hear-say, it's all experience. So if you want something that has a bit more snap and crisp highs, I will find a speaker that I know has that. If you want things more smooth and mellow and naturally meshing, I can help with that as well. Just give us an idea of what kind of sound you really want out of your mids and highs.


On the other hand....you have other fingers.

In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart

dont worry JL, im following ya pretty good so far!

but, speaker wise. i could deff need some advise.
there is so many different kinds of speakers out there!

when im looking at speakers, i see:

componants, coxial, three way coaxial/components,
full range, mid bass, mid range, and some just labled speakers.

not sure what to be looking at.
[im sure this is where i let ya know what i listen to, lol]

i listen to alot of music.
rap/hip-hop, alternative/modern rock,
70's/80's rock, techno, metal, emo/screamo
lol...u name it, i prolly listen to a little of it!

but i was in, again, one of my local audio shops.
the one that recamneded the rockford amps.

and they showed me [what i thought sounded nice]
set of speakers. they were O2 or oxygen brand.
and where about $90-120 [dont remember] for just one 6.5
they didnt have a tweeter on them like a coaxial, and were not a component set up...

would those be a mid bass, or like full range or something?

and well, are they a good brand, and work best for my listening of such many types of music?
if i want to add a tweeter, they said [at the local shop] that i, since im adding my own wires to power my 6.5's
off an amplifier, that i can leave the stock wiring in there to power a tweeter that can be mounted on the door.
[i did that in my cavalier, and sounded pretty good -
but i have coaxials in the cavy, so they have a tweeter in the center of them as well]

is there advise pretty good? with the tweeter and like i said what do you think about the O2 speakers?
or, if there is a better choice for me to do than O2, what do you reccamend?

and lastly, you said that i would need to find an amp for my subs, if i decided to go with RF,
do you have a model number you would prefer/recacmand for me to use for those subs?

Ok about speakers:
What is your price range? There are actually some really nice budget component sets out there. I would advise against just adding tweeters to an existing stereo. Components have a crossover that gives each driver(woofer and tweeter), just the frequencies they are built to play the best. It is the ideal way to go with replacement speakers.
You would be surprised to see what $150 can get you. Then you would fall in love with what I could get you for $250-300

And I believe the speaker brand you are talking about is OZ Audio. They make some good stuff. They, like anyone else, have some low end stuff, but even their entry level stuff isn't TOO horrible.

Now as far as the current RF amps that are out, to power your subs(again, you would want right around 400 watts RMS at 1 ohm), here is my suggestion on model numbers:
P500-1bd
P400-2

That is a mono putting out 500 RMS at 1 ohm. Or a 2 channel that will give you 200 per channel at 2 ohms. So either one where you wire the subs together and run a mono amp, or where you simply run each sub of it's own channel with the 2 channel.


On the other hand....you have other fingers.

In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart

OZ is a different copany.

they are called oxygen audio.

here is the kink to the ones they were trying to sell me:
http://www.o2audio.com/powermidranges.html

but im looking for something that would work perfectly with that
planet audio tq404 four channel i have laying around.

lemme know what will work best for that in all the price ranges.
lemme know what you would recamend [like a no limits price type thing]
and whats my best bang for the buck.

im not really looking for something such good quality it will make my RF amp, and planet audio gear
look cheap or anything. so maybe kinda like the same quality and such..

also i dont wanna over power the vocals above what the subs can handle.
[if that makes sense] i wanna system that sounds good/even with the amount of bass
and the vocals/mids/highs.

before i just name out a price tho. if the more expensive one is the one i feel is better for my interest in the truck,
i could always save up a lil longer. so dont be afraid to throw up the cheapies but goodies, and the expensive ones! haha

Seriously, you sound like you have a lot to learn about car audio lol.

A good quality set of front speakers is a must. Like I said, the component speakers are where you want to focus as much of the budget as possible.

In all honesty, I would look into the Rainbow SLC components:

The SLC 265.25 Kick's sound great and I can attest to that from experience.


On the other hand....you have other fingers.

In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart

you sir, are correct. i have LOTS to learn about audio.
i only know the basics about how to put a basic system together.
im like the audio section at walmart, hahaa. and you guys here are like
the big time car audio shops! lmao!

i deff wanna good set of speakers for my money, and will definatly look into
the Rainbow's! thanks alot!

im guessing those O2 ones are not that great, huh?
oh, and these SLC's will sound good playing any type of music as well?

I don't think you will have one complaint with the Rainbows I suggested. When you are ready to commit to dropping a little money on some speakers, I can call my Rainbow rep that I deal with personally and talk pricing. If I remember right the SLC Kick's are in the $200 range. Maybe a tad higher, but $200 is roughly the area they are in. Once I talk to him and work around what works best and is priced best for you, I can let you know. That way you can have the comfort of buying some very high end German speakers, and get them with full FACTORY warranty from the United States' biggest authorized dealer of a lot of the high end equipment companies such as Tru, Sinfoni, Rainbow and a lot of others! (I wouldn't deal with the guy, unless he was the best ).

Your 4 channel amp would be perfect to bridge to some front components such as the SLC's also. Just try and find an amp for the subs to match. I personally like matching my amps so I can do some neat and clean installs. It's tough to make a good high quality install with mismatched amps.


On the other hand....you have other fingers.

In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart