I just bought a 2004 Tahoe Z71 and I'm at the point where I can afford a nice setup. I have already purchased 2 Focal 165 K3P 3-Way Component Speaker System's and 2 Focal Solid Red 4 CHANNEL 400 WATT AMP AMPLIFIER's, 1 Red Top Optima Battery and 3 Stinger Power 2 Dry Cell Battery's. Componet setup is figured out. Where I get stuck is deciding on the head unit and the Subs/Amps. I am looking at the Eclipse AVN6600 Double Din DVD CD, or the ALPINE IVAW505 DOUBLE DIN DVD for the head unit. For the subs, I can't decide on either 2 FI BTL 18's or 2 JL 13.5 W7's. I want the system to bang hard, really hard, but I dont know if SQ is that important to me or not. I have never heard neither sub preform, I have only heard a 12 W7. I also have no clue what to get for an amp if I decided on the FI's. If you can give me some insight on these issues i'm having, it would be a great help to me. Thanks.
2 18" btls will hit way harder than 2 13.5 w7's. assuming proper power and enclosure.
w7 is way to expensive, u can find similar performance for mush less $ (Fi Q as suggested by others)
the money u save from not getting w7 you can probably buy amps for the btl's but u may need more batts and definitely one or 2 h/o alts
for 2 18" btl's ur lookin at ~6-8k rms worth of amp just for the subs. (2 saz 3k's is gonna run u ~$1000)
If you went with 2 18" q's you will need half that power ~3k. as well as if you went with w7's you would need about the same power as the q's.
i terms of a hu its a personal choice in my eyes, get whatever you like the layout of. ultimately your going to want something thats easy to use and setup. if your spending ~$300+ on double din hu (not dvd or nav, add $100 for dvd and $300 for nav) your going to get a quality product and as long as it has high preamp voltage the only other thing i look for is features and ease of use.
Thanks alot mark, what you said really gave me a better idea on what im getting. I found the HU, but still debating on the W7 or the FI Q's or even the BL's. I was doing some reading and it seems that the BL's are right in between SQ and SPL. I have never heard an FI sub period, but from what i'm reading they are very inexpensive and seem to bang out any application they are put in.
You could also look into RD Sonance 18's on 2K RMS or Possibly alphas on 3K RMS if your want more power. I have 2 Sonance 15" in a 03' Tahoe on 1K RMS right now ( soon to be 2K RMS) and its pretty loud with good sq.
So I have decided to go ahead and get 2 18" BTL's fully loaded. I am having a shop install and build the box. Now only thing i'm trying to decide is do I need 1 amp per sub? Do I get saz-3500's, saz-2000's or what?
You can get both of Jack Skellingtons 3250.1's which would save you some money for the upgrade electrical your going to have to get. Start looking into HO alts battery's won't cut it at that point.
If you have little experience with large systems like this I would start out with less power and work up.
Once you talk about giving a btl 3500 watts you need to have more of an understanding of your volume knob. Also upgrading to run 3-4000 watts is much cheaper than 6-8kw.
I would upgrade the alternator and do one amp with the charging system you mentioned.
If you don't mind doing a dual alt setup and twice the batteries get the 3250s.
i say go for it. get 3500's if you want to spend the cash.
the loaded btls will take 3k+ daily especially 18's just get used to them before whaling on them. were talking 150+db easily with this setup its not like hes going to be driving around blaring it full tilt for hours on end ;)
luckily you should be able to find a single alt worthy of the task for your vehicle. you may be good on the batts, which power2 model are they? if there 1700's or higher id say your probably ok
