[Anglinfool]

I need help gents. In a moment of weakness, I bought the system below, not knowing a thing about car audio. Got it installed thinking I would not need a sub. Well, I need a sub. The place I bought it from wants $1000 to install a custom box with 10 inch sub. I think thats a little much.

My truck is a 2008 Ram 1500 Quad cab. The box is supposed to go under the rear seat. Searching around on the net, it seems like I can do this myself for ALOT cheaper.


Here come the questions....
Can you guys point me in the right direction for a box and a sub? Do I need another amp for the sub? Should I get a 10 inch or a 12 inch? Can I hook it up myself?

I'm not going for a booming system here, just something that will sound good in the cab, and outside when we are camping etc.

Keep in mind, I know nothing about car audio.
I would really appreciate your help.

Thanks!!

Deck
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/DIN/DEH-P600UB

Speakers 1
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/Speakers/D-Series/Premier/TS-D720C

Speakers 2
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/Speakers/D-Series/Premier/TS-D502P

Amp
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/Amplifiers/PRSSeries/PRS-D4200F

Cables
Stinger Elite 4 guage Amp
Stinger Elite 12 foot RCA x 2

 

[ceri]

I need help gents. In a moment of weakness, I bought the system below, not knowing a thing about car audio. Got it installed thinking I would not need a sub. Well, I need a sub. The place I bought it from wants $1000 to install a custom box with 10 inch sub. I think thats a little much.

My truck is a 2008 Ram 1500 Quad cab. The box is supposed to go under the rear seat. Searching around on the net, it seems like I can do this myself for ALOT cheaper.


Here come the questions....
Can you guys point me in the right direction for a box and a sub? Do I need another amp for the sub? Should I get a 10 inch or a 12 inch? Can I hook it up myself?

I'm not going for a booming system here, just something that will sound good in the cab, and outside when we are camping etc.

Keep in mind, I know nothing about car audio.
I would really appreciate your help.

Thanks!!

Deck
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/DIN/DEH-P600UB

Speakers 1
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/Speakers/D-Series/Premier/TS-D720C

Speakers 2
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/Speakers/D-Series/Premier/TS-D502P

Amp
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/Amplifiers/PRSSeries/PRS-D4200F

Cables
Stinger Elite 4 guage Amp
Stinger Elite 12 foot RCA x 2

Well the good news is you've got a decent mid level system. I don't know how much you paid for it, but it's not a bad set of equipment.

You can certainly do the substage for alot cheaper than $1000. They were probably looking to give you a custom fiberglass box, which can add up quick with labor.

The first place I'd start is with the sub enclosure due to the rather limited selection. There are a few popular styles for a quad cab ram. Just to list a few there's the probox, the hotbox, the foxbox, the stealthbox, the thunderform, the "mdf prefab crap", and fiberglass. The best type is a custom fiberglass box, simply because you can make it fit with whatever you want. The downside is that unless you know how to fiberglass, it's rather involved to do it yourself for a first time system builder. Of the others, the JL Audio stealthbox is a single sub enclosure, as is the "hotbox" style which pop up on ebay from time to time (and I think we might have a sponsor that sells them). It replaces your middle seat in the front, but is somewhat padded and CAN be used as a seat. You keep your middle flip down console/seat back and just replace the lower portion. The others are all made for 2 subs. Avoid the mdf prefab crap box. They show up on ebay, and they're built like crap. It's usually just a boxy mess and don't give your subs adequate airspace for almost any subs.

I run a foxbox. Joe is a sponsor and he has a subforum on this site. He makes single sub boxes, but I just checked his website and it doesn't look like he has them in stock right now. You might check with him when he plans to make more. It would be a very easy drop in solution, and they're built well. Once you've checked out those boxes, and settled on a particular one, we can proceed further. Until you know which box sounds like a good fit, you don't really want to pick your sub(s) out. Proper airspace is pivotal to a good sounding subsystem. In most sub systems you start with the subs, then match the amp, and then build a box that's appropriate. In our trucks, since the locations you can easily put a sub are limited, I'm saying start with the box.

You will need another amp and probably another full wiring kit, plus possibly power and ground distribution blocks. For those, here's a site to get you started http://www.knukonceptz.com/. That's not the only option, but it's good stuff, and competitively priced with the off the shelf stuff.

Based on what you describe, you'll probably be fine with a single 10" sub, and you can certainly hook it up yourself. The only "dangerous" part involves the battery. As long as you keep that in mind, you'll be fine. If you've ever jump started a car, you already know what not to do.

In leiu of overloading you with info, if you'd like to take it to private messages, I'd be happy to walk you through the process.

 

[RTDurango]

get rid of the amp if you can. We sell pioneer decks and speakers but not there amps, they suck. The speakers you have are really good we sell a lot of them. Try looking at soundstream amps they are really good and priced reasonable. As for the sub try a pw10s or a rw-10 bothe are very good. You should be able to add the sub for around $500

 

[Anglinfool]

Thanks guys. Looks like I'll need to pick a box first. The Stealthbox is pretty nice. Too bad I need another amp.

Id like to keep the one thats already installed, is it really that bad? I'm really going for more clarity then boom.

 

[ceri]

Pioneer isn't known for their amps, but I'd say keep it awhile and see if you're not happy with your frontstage. If you're not after a couple of months, you can look at swapping it. No sense in spending more money if you don't hear a problem.