Originally Posted by PopcornPlaya

The basslinks are severely over priced for the under performance they offer. As for teh Sony deck, no, no, no, no, no again. Do not buy sony I.C.E product ever.

For your headunit, I'd look into brands such as Pioneer, Alpine, Eclipse, Nakamichi.

For your subs, you may want to take a look as Adire Audio;s Shiva, Elemental Designs subs, Resonant Engineering subs, etc. Rockford's punch line has gone down severly in quality since it's inception. Furthermore, the stage 1 and stage 2 subs are utter garbage.

For your amps, there are a lot out there that will get the job done at an affordable price. I won't even go into detail going over decent brands, I will however say that for the money, JBL offers some great entry level power in their BP series.

What does an amplifier do? It does many things. Bare basics that I'm sure you're wondering is it takes the level of a signal by and increases it by increasing the current or voltage. They can also be used to isolate or control a signal and even decrease the level as in a line output converter.

I might recommend going into the sticky at the top and reading through diskreet's thread in there. Some of the original post is inaccurate, but there is good info through out the thread that's very useful for beginners.From there, I'd browse the tutorials at JL Audio's site, especially their section on boxes and subs located here: http://mobile.jlaudio.com/support_pages.php?page_id=141 . It goes into great detail describing the characteristics of all box types, as well as describing the benefits of each type, explaining subs, etc. Their amp tutorial has good info as well, but it is based around their product line. It's located here: http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_a...php?page_id=30 From there, you might want to go to www.the12volt.com and look at their tutorials, glossery, etc. Good information there as well. Lots of this is covered in diskreet's diy though, as well as the links. Hope this helped some.

Originally Posted by PopcornPlaya

We're not making it too difficult. I can't, in my right mind, justify telling this guy a single thing in each category to go out and purchase because it may or may not suit his wants, needs, budget, etc. The best advice I can give would be to go to an audio shop and listen to everything you can, then go to any other shops in your area. Listen to every piece of equipmentyou possibly can, then narrow it down to what you like best. From there, decide which would be best accomodating to your budget and then get what you like. No one but the person purchasing the products has to be happy with it. I could sit here and rattle off product all day long and name stuff that he might be pleased with. Fact of the matter is, they're just opinions and ideas.

One, we do not know the music he primarily listens to. Two, we don't know exactly what the budget is. 3 we don't know how he prefers to hear his music. Some folks like ghetto boom, thanks much in part to mtv and tv shows on their, among other networks. Some like crisp clean sounding music. Some like their highs bright, their mids soft, and the subs as an accent piece. It's all a matter of personal opinion, but to say to go with one certain thing whether it be a deck, sub, amp, etc is ludicrous.

I'll say this as for recommendations, other than letting the budget determine what you buy. There are a lot of brands out there that will accomplish your desires. Some have good reputations, some have bad reputations. Some are in between. And some are unheard of by the vast majority. Find the one that best suits all of your tastes, wants, needs etc the best out of them and purchase that.

Originally Posted by DipshifT

first determine your price range:
if your on a budget what u picked out will sound, ehh, fine. but if u actually want to hear your system with the windows down, goin 70 on the freeway, you should be looking at about 500-1000rms for your amp, and that 500-1000rms total for your subs. look at speninding atleast $200-$300 on an amp and about that much for subs. u might also be spending about $200 on a decent head unit.

this help?

Originally Posted by brandengump

just got to best buy and make them cut you a package deal.. they CAN do that, and as previously stated, go with Alpine Pioneer or Kenwood deck NOT SONY and hook yourself up with the Rockford subs of your choice, best buy has the NEW versions of the amps, which are not bad at all. then just buy the 4 year service plans on everything and youll be set. if you want the new model of subs or amp, blow it and take it in for the new one. P.S. the Alpine 9847 is awesome and employees get it for $133.. so offer them 170.. and then tell them since you are buying tons of stuff to give you a discount. i've worked there forever.. i know.
good luck

Originally Posted by gearbox

you guys make this way too complicated. Get some good entry level stuff. My $200 alpine deck sounds better than the old $900 pioneer deck anyway. Then get an alpine amp for speakers $200. Get a sub and an amp for that. Then some speakers. I bewt you could have a really nice sounding system for under $1k.