Has anyone bought an amp off Ebay? I have found the amp I want new on several "shops" but I am not sure who is ok to buy from. Obviously I can check feedback, but I was looking to see if anyone here has had success with someone on Ebay. It would save me about 50.00 on the amp alone.
feedback speaks for itself... Car audio is huge margins, even at the low-cost box stores (best buy etc). You'll almost always find car audio cheaper online, where they don't have hte same overhead cost.
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Has anyone bought an amp off Ebay? I have found the amp I want new on several "shops" but I am not sure who is ok to buy from. Obviously I can check feedback, but I was looking to see if anyone here has had success with someone on Ebay. It would save me about 50.00 on the amp alone.
I had once bought a $1000 amp from a private owner if that make you a bit more confident.
I've delt with a few people on ebay...one IIRC is indocaraudio or something like that...they had the best prices as i could see
as far as setups, I am huge on Alpine Decks & JL Audio Amps & Subs...as far as interiors, you can't go wrong with infinity kappa perfects for price but my car came with MBQuarts so i'm gonna keep them
Holy crap. I have heard that the mark up on audio was pretty high, but I didn't think it was that crazy. My order for an amp and all the stuff to wire it came to just under 300.00 on Crutchfield with free shipping. Buying the same exact stuff even with all the individual shipping cost came to 215.00 on Ebay. That is almost a 33% saving even with all the extra shipping. /ubbthreads/images//graemlins/ooo.gif
I guess I will start looking for people with good feedback and the stuff I want. Thanks for the help guys. Judging by shipping times I should be building the box sometime next week and the first weekend in Nov. the sub, amp, and wiring will all go in.
there's also the option of going sans HU nowadays, with all the MP3 + FM players out there. You can run line-level inputs straight from the device to the amp, if your amp is running all spkrz.
It's not for most people, but can make for a slick install. You can get a ZUNE for $99-150 and have 3" LCD, 30GB MP3, and FM in your ride.
even worse is, try to compare that price with u walking into a store. I would say you will be looking to pay 400+ in stores like best buy or circuit city.
car audio is not the only one that's marked up crazy, the same goes for high end TVs, and home audio. if you don't mind ebay or online stores, get it there, otherwise prepare to pay uber premium for it.
Here is what I have done so far. I am pretty excited and a bit upset at the same time. I got the box built and I decided to make the bottom of the trunk falt with a new floor piece, since I don't use the spare. I just have to seal the box with caulking, but I wanted the wood glue to dry overnight before I try and seal it. Then I just have to cover them with fabric and of course wire it all up. I am a bit upset because I over looked a simple measurement. The box it just a **** hair to tall and the torsion bars for the trunk rub ever so slightly on the top of the box. It will obviously only get worse once I add the thickness of the fabric into the mix. I will have to find a solution even if it is a box that is an inch shorter.
Here are the pics of the process.
Tweeters in the stock mouting space on the dash with custom brackets. Nothing fancy.
The sub I am using. It's a Kicker 10" L7.
Me laying out the plans on the MDF.
The new flat flooring I made. It is till just a rough fit I need to smooth out the edges and of course cover it with fabric.
a few tips for the box (if you haven't already.): when you go to seal it, run a few deck screws through where each panel joins, it will pull it tighter than glue/clamps. less for the sealant to actually seal.
get yourself about 1/2 lb of fiber fill, and pull it apart and stuff it in the box. you can usually find adequate fiber fill in a fabric store. they use it to make pillows and stuff. what it does is bounce the sub's sound waves around before making contact with the box walls, essentially making the sub think the box is bigger than it is (thats the best way i can explain it) allowing the sub to generate lower frequencies within the box wothout sacrificing the smaller boxes higher 'pressures'...... like so
not the most accurate description, but you get the idea. /ubbthreads/images//graemlins/grin.gif
Haven't looked at it in a while but there's two possible positions for the torsion bar. Not sure if the second position gets you more clearance or not. You need a special tool or build yourself one to get the torsion bar into the second position which is supposed to get you more trunk lift force.
I have made some more progress, but my camera was dead for a part of it. I ran the wires for the amp, but didn't get to take pictures. I will check on them in the near future to make sure they have stayed in place and will take pics then. I also bought some fabric for my new floor and decided to do the entire trunk over in black. Tonight I started with the new floor and it came out awesome.
I also tried to make my amp rack and failed miserably. To my rescue came kcpaz and his amazing fab skills. The piece I was trying to make wasn't very hard, but he had the right tools and skill to get it done in a quick and precise manner. Thanks again to you Kent I really appreciate it. These are the pieces he made for me.
Those were the basic shapes I need and with some minor trimming and drilling of all the mounting holes I had a slick amp rack.
With all that done I could finally get this all installed. I also decided, because I am a bit anal, to change the trunk color to black. I couldn't find a grey cloth that matched the stock color so I was going to do the box and floor in black. It would end up bothering me if the colors weren't the same so I started another project, the color change. I ran out of fabric about half way thorugh and will need to get more, but you get the idea for now.
I think it looks really good and am pretty proud of the end result. I just have a few small things to do, like hide the wiring, and it will perfect.
wow, looks good so far. Do the trunk springs still function normally?
Another option to make it black would be to use fabric paint. It works quite well for applications like this cause of the cardboard type stock trunk lining material. It worked great for me on this type of stuff. If you don't feel like recovering it all, use the paint.
I especially liek the amp rack. The ground you have might not be the best though. I'm sure it probably works, but the bolt you have it on goes to the plastic grill. Probably won't make a difference, but if you can find a better spot closer I'd switch it.
Yeah the trunk still works perfectly. The strut only rubs the top of the box when the trunk is open and even then it is just a slight rub. I will change the ground when I put the front piece of carpet back in. I just did that one to "bump" around this weekend.
So far the weekend has been fun messing with settings and getting it to sound the way I want. It is really nice to listen to music and here the low side of it the way it was intended.
5.25" components in front (tweeters mounted in the stock dash grills), and 6.5" 3-ways in the stock location on the rear deck under the stock covers. Add a 12" Kicker tube all being run off a 5-channel "refurbished" Kicker amp mounted on the trunk floor and my 10 year old Alpine deck spinning the discs. It sounds great.
However, what can I use to replace this huge fracking bass tube? It's too damn big and was bought 9 years ago because tube-style subs don't need lots of power to sound good. Now that I've got a decent amp, I'd like to downsize the bass box so the trunk is somewhat useable.
I was thinking more along the lines of a single 10" sub/box but don't know where to start. I'm not interested in building my own box, but want a sub/box combo that is designed to work together.
If you don't want to build a box then just find a sub already build into a box. Hit up Ebay or Crutfield to get an idea. Honestly I haven't really been impressed with most of the already put together stuff. For the most part the boxes are ok but, but they fill them with crappy speakers to keep prices down.
You can also purchase the sub and box speratly but make sure that the box will be the right size for the sub you are using. If you go this route pick the sub first so you have an idea of what box will be needed. Soem subs need more space than others. My Kicker needed from .66 to 1 cubic foot of space, but something like a 10" W7 will need 1.25 to 1.5 cubis feet of space.
Personally I would build my own box, well I did, that way you know exactly how big it is and how well it will fit in the trunk. It isn't that hard at all and can easily be done in a day with some MDF and a table saw.
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