Head unit so many choices

thumpin07

Also im going to upgrade my alternator and battery as well, what battery would you all reccomend to give my audio gear ie two polk pa 1200.1 mono blocks, a polk 4 channel, head unit and neons and lights, what would a good battery and alternator be, Ive always heard optimas were the best, but my friend said to go with a kenetic supposed to be a car stereo battery. i need help on this issue i dont want to buy all this gear and not have the poer to run it at full potentiol.

Fongolio

Optimas are good. Two optimas are better if you can fit them. Many guys (and gals) run two batteries. I only have one but I keep the battery on a tiny automatic (shuts off after charge is full) trickle charger when not driving the car. Extends the life of the battery huge. As for alternator, the highest amperage output you can afford.

thumpin07

yeah my friend said kinitic car audio power cell was what i should get, but my god thats a 419 buck battery, when i can get a optima yellow top for around 200 bucks thanks but i just want to make sure i have enough power to run this stuff, and my friends are saying get this 419 dollar battery, and im like why well you need it. thats too much for a dang battery in my opinion.

eloplayspolo

the technology the kinetic uses allows it to function also as a cap... thats my understanding at least.

thumpin07

oh i gotcha so its like a cap under the hood instead of the trunk, i just do not see paying that much for one, if i can run optimas, what would you reccomend eplay

eloplayspolo

a yellow top prob, i guess running 2 batteries can be kind of expensive to be done correctly. reason being that if u put it in the drunk.... prob not enough room under the hood for 2, u are going to need to run the positive feed the length of the car. some other guys will be able to give u some better info.

have u decided 100% on ur gear yet? we can take a look at your wattage and see if a second one will really be needed.

black magic

I hear yellow tops suck in cold weather, but I haven't had any experience with them yet.

thumpin07

eloplayspolo wrote: »

a yellow top prob, i guess running 2 batteries can be kind of expensive to be done correctly. reason being that if u put it in the drunk.... prob not enough room under the hood for 2, u are going to need to run the positive feed the length of the car. some other guys will be able to give u some better info.

have u decided 100% on ur gear yet? we can take a look at your wattage and see if a second one will really be needed.

yes i have eplay two polk Pa 1200.1 mono blocks one for each sr124dvc 12 inch. A polk PA 500.4 to power the polk momo components, and my head unit and eq. plus some led lighting and stuff

thumpin07

black magic wrote: »

I hear yellow tops suck in cold weather, but I haven't had any experience with them yet.

well what do you reccomend for power

thumpin07

I thinking about putting in the alpine H605 imprint processor are they good or should i jusy go with the pioneer deq model

MacLeod

thumpin07 wrote: »

this is a question for MAC, hey mac what do i need added to my setup to stand even a slight chance in a sq competition? and is the pioneer eq a good choice i have the kenwood x792 picked out but i could easily switch to a alpine unit. help me mac i would love to be able to fair decent in a sq competiton

First thing I spot is the speakers. While Ive used and love the Momo line, the SR's are head and shoulders above them and if youre wanting to compete in SQ, your front stage speakers ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR SYSTEM. Dont skimp. If you cant swing it budget wise, skip one of the SR 12's and get a set of SR6500's or 5250's. The SR5250's are some of the best speakers on the planet. Beautiful midrange, great detail and clarity and nice and smooth but my favorite thing about them is they image great! They were not hard at all to get focused up and I hit almost perfect imaging scores last year at finals. The SR6500's have great midbass and overall tonality but are harder to get focused up imaging wise. Its taking me a while to get them dialed in and while Im getting there, theyre still not as good as the 5250s are however the added midbass energy makes them sound a little better. Either one would work. Id have no reservations of taking either into a world finals.....actually I have. the 6500's in '06 and the 5250's last year.

Another thing, Dynamat and foam and LOTS of it. Dampen the **** out of your doors. I used a Dynamat door kit on each door and wouldve used more if Id had it. Same with the door trim panel - one of the first negative things I notice when listening to somebody's car is when a strong note from a stand up bass hits in the 80-125 Hz range and the whole door panel vibrates and buzzes. It draws all your attention right to the door. If you keep your speakers in the doors youll never be able to get rid of all the noise but do the best you can. Like I said, Ive got 4 layers of Dynamat on the door panel and 1 on the door trim panel not to mention modeling clay and a **** load of foam and Ive STILL got buzzes!

Foam is a great tool in improving SQ. Youd be surprised how much resonance goes on inside a door panel, especially the door trim piece. Fill in any large openings inside there.

Your speakers are the most important part of your system but the EQ is a close 2nd. Make sure you get the best you can and the Alpine H701 or Pioneer P9 are the best. Invest in a Radio Shack SPL meter and a CD that has 1/3 octave filtered pink noise. If you can afford it, pick up an Audiocontrol RTA for best results but theyre around $1500. Yikes.

Most importantly - start competing as soon as possible. When I first started out I asked a lot of questions and read a lot of forums cause I didnt know **** but I learned more in the first 3 shows I hit than in the previous 3 months reading forums! Listen to as many SQ cars as you can and talk to the competitors and get their opinions on tuning and what sounds good. Most of them will have a lot of insight - some will be full of **** but youll learn with experience to separate the BS from the legit tips.

Youre in Virginia and youve got one of the best SQ guys out there in John Vrooman. He's a MECA SQ judge, event director, former competitor (and I think he's got a world championship or two under his belt) and he knows his stuff. He's one of the best SQ judges in MECA and could teach you a lot. Chances are he'll be at most of the shows in Virginia. Seek him out. Let him listen to your system and pay attention. He doesnt sugar coat things so when he tells you your system sucks, dont get mad cause EVERYBODY's system sucks at first (thats why youre there to learn - cause you dont know **** - and dont feel bad cause we all started out not knowing **** ) rather listen to his advice and go home and work on what he said needed working on. Go to another show and find out what the judges didnt like - go home and work on that - go to another show and so on.

Here is the event schedule for MECA. Get your stuff installed and start hitting shows. $20 for a membership (not required to compete only to earn points) and $20 for entry.

http://www.mecacaraudio.com/eventtable.aspx

thumpin07

MacLeod wrote: »

First thing I spot is the speakers. While Ive used and love the Momo line, the SR's are head and shoulders above them and if youre wanting to compete in SQ, your front stage speakers ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR SYSTEM. Dont skimp. If you cant swing it budget wise, skip one of the SR 12's and get a set of SR6500's or 5250's. The SR5250's are some of the best speakers on the planet. Beautiful midrange, great detail and clarity and nice and smooth but my favorite thing about them is they image great! They were not hard at all to get focused up and I hit almost perfect imaging scores last year at finals. The SR6500's have great midbass and overall tonality but are harder to get focused up imaging wise. Its taking me a while to get them dialed in and while Im getting there, theyre still not as good as the 5250s are however the added midbass energy makes them sound a little better. Either one would work. Id have no reservations of taking either into a world finals.....actually I have. the 6500's in '06 and the 5250's last year.

Another thing, Dynamat and foam and LOTS of it. Dampen the **** out of your doors. I used a Dynamat door kit on each door and wouldve used more if Id had it. Same with the door trim panel - one of the first negative things I notice when listening to somebody's car is when a strong note from a stand up bass hits in the 80-125 Hz range and the whole door panel vibrates and buzzes. It draws all your attention right to the door. If you keep your speakers in the doors youll never be able to get rid of all the noise but do the best you can. Like I said, Ive got 4 layers of Dynamat on the door panel and 1 on the door trim panel not to mention modeling clay and a **** load of foam and Ive STILL got buzzes!

Foam is a great tool in improving SQ. Youd be surprised how much resonance goes on inside a door panel, especially the door trim piece. Fill in any large openings inside there.

Your speakers are the most important part of your system but the EQ is a close 2nd. Make sure you get the best you can and the Alpine H701 or Pioneer P9 are the best. Invest in a Radio Shack SPL meter and a CD that has 1/3 octave filtered pink noise. If you can afford it, pick up an Audiocontrol RTA for best results but theyre around $1500. Yikes.

Most importantly - start competing as soon as possible. When I first started out I asked a lot of questions and read a lot of forums cause I didnt know **** but I learned more in the first 3 shows I hit than in the previous 3 months reading forums! Listen to as many SQ cars as you can and talk to the competitors and get their opinions on tuning and what sounds good. Most of them will have a lot of insight - some will be full of **** but youll learn with experience to separate the BS from the legit tips.

Youre in Virginia and youve got one of the best SQ guys out there in John Vrooman. He's a MECA SQ judge, event director, former competitor (and I think he's got a world championship or two under his belt) and he knows his stuff. He's one of the best SQ judges in MECA and could teach you a lot. Chances are he'll be at most of the shows in Virginia. Seek him out. Let him listen to your system and pay attention. He doesnt sugar coat things so when he tells you your system sucks, dont get mad cause EVERYBODY's system sucks at first (thats why youre there to learn - cause you dont know **** - and dont feel bad cause we all started out not knowing **** ) rather listen to his advice and go home and work on what he said needed working on. Go to another show and find out what the judges didnt like - go home and work on that - go to another show and so on.

Here is the event schedule for MECA. Get your stuff installed and start hitting shows. $20 for a membership (not required to compete only to earn points) and $20 for entry.

http://www.mecacaraudio.com/eventtable.aspx

appreciate the help mac you really know your ****. What do you mean by foam what kind of foam? and what about the head unit mac do u think it would be good to go with the alpine 9887 or another model alpine, and can the 9887 be used with the h601 audio processer? and i want you honest answer to clear something up, my friend aqua she told me that in meca your judged on spl level, is sq judged seperatly from spl?

MacLeod

I mean plain old foam. The kind you find at Hobby Lobby. It absorbs soundwaves pretty well and can be used to dampen things also.

The best head units to use with the 701 are the DVA units because they have an optical output which has zero signal noise. If you cant afford one, then you can use a standard Alpine head unit with the Ai-Net cable. This may have some hiss in it but with proper level settings both on the amp and the processor it can be made very minimal to the point of not being a problem.

MECA has 2 groups - SPL which are the bass heads and are judged solely on their sound pressure output. Then the sound quality (SQL - sound quality league) which is judged solely on their sound quality. You can compete in either one or both if you choose.

thumpin07

oh ok i know the foam your talking about, now what would you suggest for power i was thinking upgraded alternator 220amps, and a optima yellow top battery, any suggestions as far as power goes? one of my friends told me to buy a kinetic battery, but i dont see spending 419 bucks on a dang battery

MacLeod

The Kinetic batteries are the best for car audio. They should be $250 if you buy them from your local shop. Thats how much they are here at mine.

An Optima Yellow Top would be the next best thing and they run around $180.

Honestly tho, so long as youre listening to everything at a MUCISAL level, a OEM battery would be just fine. Look under the hood of all the SQ cars and youll see Duralasts, Diehards, Interstates and so on. Im about to upgrade mine and Ill be going with a Diehard.

I know what youre thinking but with my 1200.1 and 500.4 Im drawing a MAX of 180 amps. My stock battery is 400 amps. And since SQ judging is done with the engine off, thats plenty of juice. Even with the headlights on and driving around my lights dont dim when Im listening to music but Im not listening to it at ear splitting levels with a lot of bass either.

thumpin07

well mac i love my chest pounding bass when i want it if im listening to hip hop i want to be kicked in the chest by the bass, if im listeing ot toto or something i want it more refined, and my wife love hard hitting bass too, so with that in mind would you say go with a optima , and a high output alternator so my lights and stuff dont dim while im driving, bear in mind i will also be running leds and such at some point.

thumpin07

hey mac silly question how did you get the polk logo in front of your gear listed, i thought it was cool, any nifty way to do that

eloplayspolo

thumpin07 wrote: »

hey mac silly question how did you get the polk logo in front of your gear listed, i thought it was cool, any nifty way to do that

i would imagine html...

thumpin07

i still dont know anything about html? lol and mac like i said earlier i love me hard hitting chest pounding bass when i want it. my wife loves the hard hitting deep pounding bass too, but depending on the music im listengin too i want a more sophesticated sound, so that ebing said would you suggest a optima and a high output altenator

MacLeod

Yup. A high output alternator and good battery would be what you need.

In your profile under the signature you can choose the style of font, the size and the color of it.

thumpin07

oh ok gotcha; and ok ill go with the high output alt and optima bat. I had a question yea another one lol, The alpine h701 processor looks great and i bet its killer, but how does it compare to the H650 processor with alpines imprint technology? and how to you adjust the settings on the 701 do you do it from the head unit or do you have to have the external controller? i want to do this right the first time so i have what i need to compete, and after i get everything all i should hopefully have to do is tweak this and that maybe add a line conditior or two little stuff.

MacLeod

The Imprint does the tuning for you. I believe you have some manual tuning options but I dont think theyre as extensive as the 701's.

If you have the right HU you can control the 701 from the HU but you wont want to. Using the remote is 10 times faster and easier and you can sit back and listen from your normal listening position while making adjustments and you can pause, fast forward and reverse in the track while youre tuning. With the HU, you have to back all the way out of the 701's menus before you can adjust track, volume and so on.

thumpin07

Also would it be possible to mount the cda-9887 and the control unit for the h701 both in my factory hu location together, i have a double din unit right now so shouldnt there be room if not where would be a good location for it ?

thumpin07

MacLeod wrote: »

The Imprint does the tuning for you. I believe you have some manual tuning options but I dont think theyre as extensive as the 701's.

If you have the right HU you can control the 701 from the HU but you wont want to. Using the remote is 10 times faster and easier and you can sit back and listen from your normal listening position while making adjustments and you can pause, fast forward and reverse in the track while youre tuning. With the HU, you have to back all the way out of the 701's menus before you can adjust track, volume and so on.

well you have me convienced about the control unit for the 701, so what you are saying is nothing beats good old fashioned tuning with a spl meteri was looking at the imorint system because i heard it was awesome. but i guess for a sq comp one would want the best audio processor there is.

thumpin07

i would install kick panels in my car but in the vic the parking brake lever would get in the way so im forced to stick with door mounting them bummer

black magic

thumpin07 wrote: »

Also would it be possible to mount the cda-9887 and the control unit for the h701 both in my factory hu location together, i have a double din unit right now so shouldnt there be room if not where would be a good location for it ?

The actual processor unit (PXA-H701) is typically installed beside the amps, but the controller (rux-C701) is mounted in the dash. If you have a double-din dash, then I think both the cda-9887 and rux-c701 should fit.

thumpin07

thats what i was wondering about was the controller, the processer will be in my trunk with my amps, and yes i have a double din dash. but how would you mount two things in the same opening i dont think they make a dash kit.

thumpin07

i just dont knwo how i would mount two units in one opening do they make a special mounting kit how is this done

MacLeod

The remote for the 701 isnt a full sized head unit. Its basically just a face plate so you can mount it in a lot of different places.

thumpin07

MacLeod wrote: »

The remote for the 701 isnt a full sized head unit. Its basically just a face plate so you can mount it in a lot of different places.

oh ok but is it possible to fit both of them in a double din opening cause i think that would look cool and my friend had the nerve to say to me polk makes decent speakers, but not so good subs and amps, i bout punched him out i think polk makes top notch gear