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I currently have a Pioneer DEH-7000BT and I love it, just not the way it looks. I think I am going to scrap that, replace the cubby and do a factory radio signal processor like a clean sweep. Does anyone have experience with these. I am looking for suggestions.
I am happy with the sound quality, for what I spent, but I also wish I had more thump. I would like to increase the level of bass without a sub because my Dad is being a Nazi and will not allow me to get one. I may replace speakers depending upon what you all say.
My Current Speaker Set Up:
Front
Polk Audio DB651- 180 watt Peak, 60 Watt RMS, Frequency Response 35Hz-22KHz, sensitivity 92dB, impedance 4 ohms (6.5")
RearPolk Audio DB691- 300 watt Peak, 100 Watt RMS, Frequency Response 35Hz-22KHz, sensitivity 93dB, impedance 4 ohms (6"x9")
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated for sub, amp, wiring, speakers, anything really. I want to spend $1000.00 max. I don't mind if I get to spend less though....
Thanks
Pictures, not that they really matter.
(http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd296/wtcii/Car%20After/DSC03204.jpg)
(http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd296/wtcii/Car%20After/DSC03207.jpg)

Anyone? Cough....Tim...cough

I'm not Tim but, I've seen his answer to this question a couple of times. He's probably going to suggest the Audio control LC7 or LC6i which can be found here.

http://www.audiocontrol.com/t34/17612/O ... ation.html (http://www.audiocontrol.com/t34/17612/OEM-Integration.html)

As for Bass it's tough to increase the low end without adding a sub.

Replacing your aftermarket h/u for the OEM h/u with a LOC/audio processor is definitely a downgrade.  If you do this and expect to improve sound quality, you're going to be disappointed.  Usually, people do the opposite of what you want to do because they realize the sound quality from the OEM h/u sucks donkey dick.  But, you can go ahead and do what you want with this.  If you are seriously asking for an honest opinionn and are willing to take advice given, instead of just looking for validation on something you want to do, don't replace your aftermarket h/u.

On the topic of using aftermarket speakers in the factory locations and improving bass without a sub, there are a few things you can do, but you will never get the response that you would if you were using a subwoofer.  What I would suggest is to dynamat your doors and seal any of the holes in the actual door frame with the dynamat.  You should do the same with your rear deck also.  The next thing you can do is to seal the speakers with a gasket of some sort.  You can use double sided tape, strip caulk, or closed cell foam (never use open cell foam) to seal the speaker.

You continue to amaze me! What a lame Tim type response by me. Did I at least suggest the right product?

You didn't really say anything wrong Mike.  For anyone that is starting out with an OEM h/u, the AudioControl stuff is pretty nice.  It's just not as good as an aftermarket h/u.

With that said I will be keeping my h/u and learn to like it. If I upgraded my front speakers to components will that improve bass. I planned to do the dynamat but will I notice a difference with the upgraded speakers? Thanks!

If you re-read my post, I never said anything about upgrading your speakers from coaxials to components.

I know. I was asking. I guess you would have mentioned it if they would. I'm just trying to think of anything to improve my bass. I figured since components had a dedicated Woofer and tweeter I thought that the bass might be improved.I am probably just showing my ignorance though. I will definately do the dynamat, I just am trying to think of something. It seems like when I put any bass on the speakers it just gets really distorted. I figured that it was the speakers. Maybe my settings are just screwed up, I use the preset ones though.

It's probably the way you have your stereo set up and they may be underpowered.  Component speakers are definitely better than coaxials for imaging.  A good 6.5" midbass woofer is definitely ideal, but most people don't actually want to invest the time and money into a good high end audio system.  Instead they want a simple drop in solution to replace the factory equipment, which usually means they just reuse the factory location.  Factory location means that your speakers are aimed at your shins.

I don't really want to reconfigure the position of my speakers. If I was able to coherse my Dad into a small sub, what would you all suggest. I'm think definately powered if that helped. I noticed Rick had a Bazooka. Maybe he will chime in at some point, not sure if he gets on much, about what he thought about it. I have also heard of the infiniti basslink. Any other suggestions/recomendations? I think that a small sub would cut it for me and it would have a better chance getting by my dad because it has less capabilties.

Most people aren't willing to add kick pods in their cars, so I assumed that already.  I know that Rick is very happy with the stereo set up he had in his Accord.  You could do that, or you could go with a small sub like a single 8" or single 10" sub in a properly built enclosure.

Well I spoke with my dad today and I have a snow balls chance in hell of getting a sub. I'm just going to do the dynamat. I think I'm going to put dynamat every where. I'm going to put extra on the doors and speaker deck. I doubt I'll do the head liner though. Thanks for all the help!

I found 72 square feet of Dynamat for $289.00. Is that a good deal? I am almost positive that is more than enough to do doors, floor, and under the rear seat. What else is required to do the installation? Is the install easy? Will I actually be able to tell a difference?

I have Dynamat throughout my car (doors, trunk lid, rear deck, and the rear-view mirror mount to keep it from rattling) and am going to start getting deeper into sound dampening soon. I have the Dynamat Extreme skin. I'm going to be adding Dynaliner and possible Dynapad. I highly recommend Dynamat products I did notice a difference not inside of my car but outside. There are a lot less rattles and a lot of the sound gets blocked out.

However, many of Dynamat's products are designed for high SPL systems and only when you have a system that is pumping out a lot of watts with high sound pressure levels will you truly notice a difference. Dynamat in itself will not improve the bass from your speakers.

Don't spend the money for the Dynamat name.  You can go on eBay and buy B Quiet Extreme and Ultimate for way less directly from the company.  The seller is acurael on eBay.  They sell Extreme (45 mil/1.15 mm thick) 50 feet for $89.99 or 100 feet for $134.99 or Ultimate (60 mil/1.6 mm thick) 50 feet for $134.99 or 100 feet for $239.99.  It's shipped for free and it comes with a roller.  If you were closer, I would help you out with the install.  I can give you pointers on doing this though.

Supposedly Dynamat is 10x more effective than "copymats", but that's just what it says on the box...

use live and save 12%

Ahh Tim, Mississippi is to far. J/k. Ill take you up on the pointers though. I'll probably do the 100 ft of ultimate. I take it you have the "copy mat", so it must not suck, or you wouldnt be suggesting it., I hope...

According to the B Quiet Ultimate listing on ebay its more effective than dynamat....

Yeah, it's just a nice marketing ploy.  It doesn't make sense that it could be 10x more effective when it's the same exact thing and uses the same exact principles.  When it comes down to it, you "dynamat" panels to increase mass and lower their resonant frequency and also absorb unwanted noise (backwaves from the speakers and external road noise).

One company is going to say the other company sucks and blah blah blah.  They're all the same product.  Get the least expensive sound deadening material available.  Make sure that it's designed for an automotive application though.

How did that work?  My rear-view mirror vibrates and rattles like crazy and I've been trying go think up an easy way to fix it.  Wouldn't happen to have any pictures of it would you?

I think I might have just solved my bass problem. I did some research and found out what each setting did on the Audio adjustment menu. I found the HPF setting. It is if I have a sub and dont want bass coming out of my speakers. I'm sure you all knew what that was, but back to what i was talking about. For some reason the HPF was set really low so that only the high signals would go to my speakers and the lows would go to my mythical sub. So when i would try to turn the bass up on the h/u, it would put more bass to the high signal, hence the distortion. I think that is right. Regardless of if my theory  is correct i have all the bass that i want now. I will still probably do the dynamat if it will cut down on road noise.

I don't even know where to start on this one.  To put it as simply as possible, your h/u was not set properly and you changed the crossover point on your speakers.  Not sure what you changed it from or to, but hopefully it's better now.

+1.  Stay away from the extreme, but the ultimate is pretty good.  I have it and the company that makes it is based in Lethbridge, AB, Canada.  I picked mine up directly from them.  The foil is really thin on it though so you'll have even better success with Second Skin Damplifier Pro.  Second skin probably makes the best sound deadening/insulation products you can buy at a reasonable price.  They are not only better than dynamat extreme, but cheaper.  secondskinaudio.com is the place to get it and I highly recommend it if you can afford it.  The b-quite is a really good alternative though as is sticks really well and is very good value.  You can order it from http://www.b-quiet.com (http://www.b-quiet.com) or ebay, but you'll likely need twice as much b-quiet as damplier pro to accomplish the same amount of deadening.  In sharp contast, you need ~1.5x as much b-quite as dynamat extreme to do the same job.



For road noise, look into a noise barrier for on the floor.  Put lots of dynamat/b-quite ultimate, damplier in the doors and rear quarter panels, rear deck, and fenders, and put a noise barrier on the floor(It's damped pretty good already).  Some noise barrier to look into include:
Luxery Liner:
http://secondskinaudio.com/noise-barrie ... ategory=72 (http://secondskinaudio.com/noise-barrier/luxury-liner.php?category=72)
V-comp:
http://www.b-quiet.com/vcomp.html (http://www.b-quiet.com/vcomp.html)
Linolium (whatever kind you can find cheap) glued onto a foam or cloth underlay.  You can make this yourself.  I'd recommend using nothing thicker than 1/8-1/4" as my 3/8" underlay made it difficult go get some the interior back in properly.

Put a lot of sound absorbant material behind the kick panels.

Sound aborbers include:
1. Pretty much any foam designed for the purpose (ensolite, etc)
2. Sound deadening carpet underlay.  This is the multicoured stuff that is found in most older (and many modern) cars and is very effective at reducing airborn noise.  It is also cheap and can probably be found at your local hardware store.  This is what I used in my car in 3/8" form.  I then purchased some linolium roll ends and glued it on top of the underlay..  This acted as an extremely effective noise barrier for a very reasonable price.
3. low expansion expanding foam.  Only use this if you know what your doing as using two much will result in metal/plasic bending or breaking.  Don't ever use high expansion foam in your car as then your definatly run into problems.  This is ideal for use behind your kick panels.

It's more effective than dynamat, but not dynamat extreme.  2 layers is more effective and still cheaper than dynamat extreme though.

Took off the rear-view mirror by sliding the base forward and then stuck some dynamat under the little metal bars that hold the circular part of the mirror base to the windshield clip. I don't have pics but I could take some and post them up.

I would appreciate it if you could.