Hey all, I've been reading the forums and trying to put together a car audio system on paper and have some questions/thoughts I hope some of you wouldn't mind processing for me.


From my research, I've read the different things people have had to do to put 6-1/2" fronts (drilling/mounting/spacers), and how the rears take nearly anything(drilling), and that you want tweeters 1" or less (1" meaning you dont get to use the stock grill) and some other installation and size tips.

I believe I want to go with 6-1/2s front and rears, 1" tweeters and a single 12" sub. I don't want to deafen the neighbourhood with 2x12s, and I understand that a single 10/12 in our hatch-body (open cabin) is a solid sound system, which is all I'm looking for.


Here are my specific questions:

1. If I grab a component system for the front, (which means usually its a pair of 6-1/2"woofers+1"tweeters+crossovers) am I looking for 6-1/2" "full-range" speakers in the rear (ones with tweeters and woofers) or trying to find the just the "woofer" part of what I see in the component systems online.

2. What are your overall opinions on rears anyway? Do some of you not bother upgrading them? Or do you put in maybe 60W 120$ JL instead of 100W 200$ Alpines, because if you rarely have people in the back (like me) then it doesn't really matter?

3. What are your preferences on 1 vs 2 amps, ie. one for all or one for sub and one for speakers? On this cep3 thread "kaotik78" was very happy going with just one amp instead of two. I like the idea of compactness personally over being a true audiophile, but I need your input.

4. If I go with 2 amps, then for the head-unit, do I want to make sure I get one with 3 preamp outputs, front/rear/woofer, so that I can have seperate lines to each amp? Or can/do you "split" a 1pre-amp output to both amps? Whats the rule of thumb here?



If you're interested, I've made this cart for myself so far on crutchfield.ca as a baseline, with no amp selected yet. They don't have as much selection or as good prices as crutchfield.com or onlinecarstereo.com, but shipping costs dictate I look to my own country:



Direct links (crutchfield.ca):
- Alpine CDe-136BT HeadUnit - selected for 3 preamp outputs, but would go down a model number if possible
- Alpine SWR-1223D 12" Sub
- Alpine SPR-60C - this is the component system
- Alpine SPR-60 - this is a pair of "full-range" for the rears