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well first off, exactly what does an amplifier do? does it make the sound clearer or what? ok so i want to get an mtx audio monster 4244 amp. only 100$ so from what i know of amps (which is for all practical purposes nothing) its a pretty good deal. does anyone know what the power on this amp is? also, what kind of speakers would you recommend getting so they wont blow? i dont play my music too loud, but still pretty loud where youll be able to hear it a few cars over. also, what size are the speakers in the civics, front and rear? thanks. also, if i dont know much about wiring, would you say its better for me to have bestbuy or some place like that install my amp/speakers, or is it easy enough where i could do all the wiring myself?

edit:
maybe its an mtx thunder 4244, cause thats the only thing i could find online. and is this a good setup? can anyone recommend anything else? i only want to upgrade speakers, and maybe get an amp, i dont want an entire system weighing 500 lbs. in my car.

 
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Sedan

6.5 inch all around

Coupe

6.5 front, 6x9 rear I believe

You can do all of it yourself. It's easy and the car just comes apart like legos. If you have wiring questions, ask away on the forums. There's basically speaker wires to connect, power, ground, remote wire, and rcas. That's it. You just have to run all the wires and it takes time.

Adding an amp will make the speakers sound cleaner at both low and high volume. I have a small 4-ch amp and it does help, even without tuning yet.

 
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Heres an analogy of what an amplifier does to a speaker. Slap your hand on the table. Now slap is way harder. Same sound just louder. Thats what more power does to a speaker ..... generally just makes it play louder.

Now every speaker is made different though ..... so you can't say speaker x is better than speaker y just because it can take more power. There are lots of things that factor into which speaker is better and for what reason.

 
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what kind of upgrades would you guys recommend? should i change my speakers and get an amp? just speakers? just amp? what companies are good for performance/reliability ?

 
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an amplifier takes electricity and makes it stonger. thus the AMPlifier name.

a good analogy of this is a stun gun. u put a 9v battery in a stun gun and on the other end 10000v comes out.

ur car's electrical system can only put out so much power, which is not enough to power a huge subwoofer and run ur car at the same time. the amplifier takes the power from the car's battery and then amplifies it through coils, caps, and all that good stuff. so u can say that the amplifier makes sounds clearer.

theres a lot of factors when it comes to sub, amp, and box combinations so ur gonna have to search for that one youself. but heres an amazing webpage that goes above and beyond everything electronics...........http://www.bcae1.com/

have fun and get ready for an empty wallet and a headache


i have a coupe and the front speakers are 6.5 inch and the rears are 6x9. im installing my 6.5s tomoorw because they will be here in the mail. i already have a HU, rear 6x9s, 2 12'' subs and a 400.1 amp.everything is Pioneer with the exception of the amp which is a Planet audio 400.1

installing car audio isnt really that hard but if ur not secure with your car audio skills go to best buy or wahtever. BUT make sure u WATCH every thing they do or else u might get a duck tape and rope 25 cent job. Better yet talk to a 7thgen member in your area im sure they would help u out on the audio install

 
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Yeah man, I could help you with the install if you come to the Chicago meet.

 
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yeah ill be there gearbox, for certain now. like i said ill bring all that stuff i had for sale on that other post. heres another question, if i play music at a decent volume in the car, where you can still hear people talking w/o having to yell, would an amp really do anything for me? or would it just be wasting cash?

 
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I would suggest upgrades in this order:
1) HU
2) Front Components
3) Amp for fronts
4) Subs and amp

(for the best imaging .... skip rears altogether, many here don't run them)

Speaker brands:
- JL
- Focal
- Infinity
- Boston
- Diamond
- Alpine

Amps:
- JL
- Alpine
- Kicker
- Diamond
- Rockford
- MTX
- Hifonics
- JBL
- Soundstream

Subs:
- JL
- Adire Audio
- Elemental Designs
- Alpine
- Rockford
- Kicker
- Diamond

 
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If the volume is very low, you probably won't notice too much difference. I have tweeters up front as well, so it sounds better at all volumes. The main reason I got an amp was the speakers would tend to distort even at mid volumes. Now it sounds good, but I still need to set the gain correctly for it to really work how it's supposed to. I'm pretty happy with it now.

 
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Good point. For some reason the sound coming from the back made the entire sound field fall apart. I faded the volume towards the front a little and it sounds SO much better.

 
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hey gearbox, how hard was it to install those tweeters? also, what is a good watt/voltage rating for speakers/amps? dont forget that i know practically jackshiznit about this so if this question is stupid just tell me that . also, what exactly is meant by a "head unit"?

 
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HU = Head Unit = Aftermarket Deck = a new cd player = one of these



As far as power, remember me saying this .......

How much power a speaker handles doesn't mean much. More isn't always better.

Answer all this and we can offer suggestions ....
1) Whats your budget?
2) What stuff do you have in your car now?
3) What type of music do you listen to?
4) Can you build a box on your own?
5) Do you plan to install this on your own?
6) How loud do you want it?

 
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It's a combination of everything. Dynamat in the doors will make the speakers sound much better. I've got some $100 per pair infility speakers and they're amped with only 30rms watts. Still sound really nice. Having a head unit with equilizer and other cool stuff helps, too.

The tweeters were a pain cause it was at night and I spent alot of time with mounting and running the wires to the deck (they're not amped). It's a big improvement in the sound stage. Tweeters are infinity as well. I think they were $89 for a pair with builtin crossovers to filter out bass.