To amp or not to amp (and sub)?!

[red_onion]

Hi there,

I'm looking to upgrade the stereo in my 81 Devon conversion, Rico. There is currently no working stereo in the van and there are two 12cm(ish) speakers in the cab door cards. I popped into one car audio place who suggested 16cm speakers in the cab doors and two 6x9s in the back (probably under the rear seat). I listen to loads of different stuff including dub, rock, jungle and loads of electronica and I want to be able to listen to it LOUD with well defined, crisp sound (not just extra dirty bass).

So the question is, do I need to get an amp and sub involved to achieve this, or would the 6x9s do? Bear in mind I haven't owned a car in 10 years, have never had a decent stereo set up and know next to nothing about it! Any help/suggestions much appreciated...

(Any reccomendations for car audio places near Brighton also welcomed!)

Thanks,

Tucka.

[Fumar]

I have 2 6x9s in the front and 2 12cmish speakers in the back.. its ok.

I have an amp and a sub.. Makes allot of diffrence.. Allways subs and amps going on Ebay cheap.

[kap]

I had 2 x 15" subs in my first bus.. got rid when my first son was born .the bus I sold recently had a 12" I custom built into the r and r bed and ported. It was amp-le

[kevtherev]

I found that modern head units supply ample power for 6's and 69 speakers and I only need an amp for the 12" sub.

amps need amps and will suck leisures dry
my tunes ran off a separate batt

[Graham81]

Ive put a pair of Vibe slick 16cm in my front doors and they are bloody good, pretty good bass up front now.
Im looking to put the same again in the back but i cant figure out where to put them yet so its a bit odd at the mo with the sounds at the front only.
I wouldnt put an amp and sub in as Kev says they pull too much from the battery and a decent headunit will output 50w a channel.

[Nij]

FLI audio do decant cheap speakers, JBL IMO are the best you can get without the price being stupid.
As for the amp & sub debate, only you can decide, but personally I think some decacent front speakers and a set of 6x9 or 8" are more than adequate, but you need a decant head unit (as Kev said, most modern head units have ample power).

Oh and i was a giddy kipper back in the day with ICE (Peugeot 205 GTi with 3 subs in boot and 10 sets of speakers (both 6X9, 8", 6" and components) DD player PS1 etc.........) and I do like my music loud and as much quality as I can get.

[red_onion]

Thanks for the replies. Went to Huets car audio in Shoreham at the weekend and by fluke they had another T25 there that they were half way through fitting out with a similar set up to what I'm after! I'm going back in a week to give it a listen when it's finished and should be able to make an informed decison off of that (the decision being what size sub to stick under the back seat!)

[mike_gee32]

I've got some 6" JBL components in the front doors just running off the headunit (a decent kenwood of unknown vintage) at the moment and it sounds surprisingly good unamped, it needs a bit more oomph for the motorway so I'm contemplating a 10" sub for under the bench seat and installing one of my amps this summer. I've got an old rockford fosgate punch amp in the garage from my younger days when I had big installs in my cars and I picked up a massive 4 channel alpine v12 amp for £40 off ebay a year or so ago in anticipation of doing the install.

The most important thing to do is install some sound deadening in the doors (I used a couple of layers of bitumin flashing tape it's similar to dynamat and a fraction of the price) and mount the speakers properly, I'm still on my mk1 pods which are just a bit of 18mm mdf screwed into the metal of the door and the speakers mounted in them. mk2 will be a couple of layers covered with vinyl to match the door cards and the speakers recessed enough to put a grill on.