Boss Audio?

[coheed]

Does anyone know anything about Boss Audio? If you buy their stuff straight from them it seem like a pretty penny.
But if you buy off ebay their pretty cheap. I've just never heard their stuff in person. :iono:

I'm considering this head unit:
http://theconsumerlink.com/BossAudio/detail/TCL+BV7970/100

One of these under both seats:
http://theconsumerlink.com/BossAudio/detail/TCL+BASS1200/125

And these speakers all around:
http://theconsumerlink.com/BossAudio/detail/TCL+CH6530/117

And these tweeters:
http://theconsumerlink.com/BossAudio/detail/TCL+TW-15/118

Any opinions on this stuff would be awsome guys.

[DuckinOut]

i had their 4 channel amp when i did an audio upgrade in my old car ... i liked it, got it off of ebay also

[coheed]

Did it ever blow out a speaker or distort sound?

[1NZYaris1]

:drool:Boss are world renownd for there home entertianment systems,
and i have been told by my step brother there car audio is just as good.
but i would take his word like a grain of salt ,as he is the BOSS customer services manager, for the south pacific :biggrin: :laugh::laugh:

[IllusionX]

he said BOSS..... note: this is not BOSE. BOSE is what you find in home sound systems and some higher end cars.

[The Architect]

boss is on par with lanzar, pyle, lightning audio etc.

so......yep

[talnlnky]

Boss is cheaply made stuff... SAME WITH BOSE too. One would do well to avoid either like the plague.

Boss: Distorts ratings (that "800watt amp will likely only put out 200w)

Bose: There's a reason why they don't disclose any of the REAL specs on their speakers. If they did, nobody would buy their products. Their is also a reason why they spend more on marketing than the rest of the Home Theater/Audio companies combined each year..... If they didn't, they wouldn't be able to maintain the false perception the public has, that Bose is Top of the line. You can produce similar sound out of some $250 JBL towers as you could $800 Bose.

[yaris-me]

Spend more for your speakers. The weakness in any system is usually in the speakers. You can save money on the amplifiers.

Stick to brands that have a good reputation.

[staypuft]

Spend more for your speakers. The weakness in any system is usually in the speakers. You can save money on the amplifiers.

Stick to brands that have a good reputation.

you got it the other way around, invest in good amps and less on the speakers, they power your speakers.

[DuckinOut]

^ agreed

and no it didn't blow out or distort my speakers in any ways

[_S7V7N_]

Depends on how much you want to spend, if you're looking to build a budget system there's other brands out there like power acoustik, Kole audio, SPL audio that make okay stuff, they're not kicker or rockford fosgate but sound decent.

[talnlnky]

you got it the other way around, invest in good amps and less on the speakers, they power your speakers.

both of you are wrong...

The order of importance in audio

1:Equipment is installed in correct enclosures, with correct crossover settings & correct amount of eq. (most car setups fall extremely short on this one).

2:Buy reliable equipment

3a:Quality Deck, (virtually any aftermarket deck over $100 is fine, refer to rule #2)

3b:Quality speakers (components are almost always best, see #2 again)

3c:Quality amps (basically, if it works properly, #2 yet again)

...

39:pretty wires

[coheed]

So would that setup be good? I'm on a miniscule budget getting ready for college, and it seems that I can get this stuff for pretty cheap?

[talnlnky]

Honestly, I think you're better off just going with a deck & some decent components right now, and then in the future adding a sub & amps for the speakers & sub.

That way you will be getting parts that SHOULD be more reliable, and will have a much better chance at getting good sound quality.



I've got 2 really big concerns with the parts you spec'd out.

1: The speakers you showed had tweeters already, Unless you plan on clipping the leads to the tweeter on those speakers, I highly suggest you don't add more tweeters. It really won't add more sq, and chances are, the tweets on those speakers are probably pretty bright.

2:Hoffman's Iron Law.... its a physics thing... why do you care about it? To sum it up, it says for a sub to play low it needs either a Big Box with lots of room to breathe, or a ton of power, or else it won't play low. That sub will not be able to withstand a lot of power, and the box is tiny. I'd be very suspicious of how much bass it will put out, and even more so, how low it will actually play. I'd bet a paycheck that it will peak a bit high, and thus the bottom end will roll off prematurely.

[coheed]

So how does Hoffmans iron law apply to subs with passive radiators? I honestly dont get how they make so much bass.

[talnlnky]

So how does Hoffmans iron law apply to subs with passive radiators? I honestly dont get how they make so much bass.

A passive radiator setup is extremely similar to a ported box setup.... the passive radiator acts as the port however, and thus, you save box space because they take up less volume than a port does... especially if you have a small box, or a box tuned very low (below 30hz) or a port with a lot of port area.

There are some downsides to PR setups, and they still require more volume than a sealed box.

[staypuft]

how is it wrong, if you were on a budget and can go either amp or speaker, the obvious choice would be the amp hands down, you can have crappy speakers and juice them up to sound ok rather than have good speakers and crappy amp to power it. sure it will sound awesome if he gets awesome everything but bang for the buck putting money in the amp is a way better decision than speakers. imo first upgrade would either be amp and sub or basstube. im totally happy with my setup and i spent more money on the amps than the speakers. everybody has their own brand but different budgets to play with. i do agree if he going with what he looking at that components are the way to go instead of tweeters and a set of coax.

[_S7V7N_]

Give us a ballpark figure of about how much you wanna spend for your budget system.

[Treyz]

Boss is what they call out here a "flea market brand."

Fits in the same category as Pyle, Coby, Audio Planet, and others.

[talnlnky]

how is it wrong, if you were on a budget and can go either amp or speaker, the obvious choice would be the amp hands down, you can have crappy speakers and juice them up to sound ok rather than have good speakers and crappy amp to power it. sure it will sound awesome if he gets awesome everything but bang for the buck putting money in the amp is a way better decision than speakers. imo first upgrade would either be amp and sub or basstube. im totally happy with my setup and i spent more money on the amps than the speakers. everybody has their own brand but different budgets to play with. i do agree if he going with what he looking at that components are the way to go instead of tweeters and a set of coax.


Dude... if you have a crappy speaker, and it doesn't sound good at 1watt of power, it will not sound better with 10watts, or even with 40 or 80 watts. Speakers don't work like that. A speaker will sound its best with the least amount of power. The more power you give a speaker, the more distortion it makes. There is a magic point for every speaker in which giving more power will not make it louder, but will in fact just make it distort worse and worse, and just decrease its life span.

The main difference between running speakers off a deck, and off an amp is that the amp'd setup can be turned up louder before distortion sky-rockets (distortion produced by the deck, not the speaker).

If he's fine with not cranking that volume, then better speakers. If he MUST get loud now.. yeah, an amp would be best.

[Spades]

i agree...cheap speakers with a good deck and or amp sound better than expensive speakers on a cheap deck or cheap amp.

the only time i have ever skimped on spending was subwoofer amps. if the amp has decent tone quality, can put out the power i am after reliably, i have gone with more in expensive amplifiers. however, i was not after perfect tone quality as much as hit.

i found that most aftermarket decks in the $200+ are quite comperable in sound and tone, as long as its just a CD deck, no bells and whistles.

I also found that its better to spend about 100 bucks on a set of quality 2 way components for the front, and buy cheaper two ways for the back and have fader mostly set to the front. this is where me and Tal differ on opinions. he belives rear fill is crap...either way, the points the same...get a set of decent components for the front, and worry about the rear later. the fronts are responsible for how it will sound, and the signal they get is from the deck...so you might as well plan on 300 for deck and fronts if you want good sound.

and yeah, on subs, if you wanna go cheap...the best way is to buy a driver with decent possibilities and build your own box around the subwoofer. if you are on a budget its the best bang for buck. if you dont care about tone or alot of "thump"...walmart ussually has cheapo sub and box kits available...and they prolly have enough bass for the average listener. just not for me.

[coheed]

Alright, change of plans. Not sure on head unit, but I'm deffinatly going with kicker subs and speakers; home built sealed box; and a good quality amp. Now the subs I'm considering are the Comp VR 12's. The min. recommended sealed box size is 1.0 cubic feet. The max recommended is 4.6. I plan on running two in the box and was wondering if a larger or smaller box would be better for lows, highs, responce, etc.I want to hit highs and lows, not so low it'll break any glass though. Also can you guys recommended me an amp?

[talnlnky]

Alright, change of plans. Not sure on head unit, but I'm deffinatly going with kicker subs and speakers; home built sealed box; and a good quality amp. Now the subs I'm considering are the Comp VR 12's. The min. recommended sealed box size is 1.0 cubic feet. The max recommended is 4.6. I plan on running two in the box and was wondering if a larger or smaller box would be better for lows, highs, responce, etc.I want to hit highs and lows, not so low it'll break any glass though. Also can you guys recommended me an amp?

box size differences don't impact the final sound of the sub in a sealed setup as they do in ported setups... Basically anything in that 1.0-4.0 range should be fine. the smaller the box the "punchier" it will sound. 4 cubes is a BIG box for car audio... and honestly, it'll be hard to do that for 2 subs (8cubes) in our cars without doing a wall. I'd say go with 1.0 - 1.5cubes each. and then go to walmart and pick up some of the pillow stuffing the synthetic stuff. The audio world calls it Polyfil or acousti-stuff. You put a bunch of that in a box and it actually tricks the sub into playing as if it were in a bigger box.

THUS... saving cargo room and weight.

[coheed]

So a 2' cube box with the "stuffing" in it, would be a good box? Cause I plan to build a box like tinygiant and can probably fit 2' cubic box in that spot.

[Return of the Yarii]

If your short on space you can always build a band pass box or as one person said a ported box.....first you need to decide on speakers. Some subs are more suited for one type of enclosure over another.....

[coheed]

Like I said, Kicker speakers. And a bandpass is basically the same as a sealed box right? :iono: And the ported idea wouldn't work cause Kicker says a ported box has to be bigger for these particular subs than a sealed box.

[talnlnky]

HOLD ON....

Bandpass boxes are nothing like a sealed box... Nothing.


NEVER NEVER NEVER go with a bandpass box... if you have to ask "why?" then its just too advanced for you at this point in time. Basically, they suck horribly in 99% of installs, and are very dangerous to the subs unless you build it perfectly.... which almost nobody knows how to do it seems. If you don't have a very solid foundation in acoustics you should not mess with bandpass boxes. Its like giving the controls to the nuke launchers to a 12 year old.... shits gonna blow up.

Ported & bandpass boxes are big...

Out of the 3 main types of boxes, Sealed is smallest, followed by ported, and then Bandpass (bandpass is like putting 2 boxes together... so they are huge).

That tire well you want to use... 1cube is more like it.

1Cuft = 12x12x12. BUT! thats before the displacement of the subwoofer, and you don't count the space that the wood/fiberglass takes up. If you make a false floor you could get 2cuft.

I think you should heavily consider doing a single 10" if you plan to do the tirewell box, and probably consider not doing the tirewell unless you are good with fiberglass, or have about $500 to pay a shop to make a box for you.


EDIT: Yeah, 2 cubes total, after sub displacements, plus the added fill should probably work fine. If you put the correct amount of fill in, you can effectively gain up to 40% more box space. I know this sounds like snake oil, but its true. 40% is optimistic, 20-30% is more realistic... so if you do 2cuft + fill for 2 subs... it'll be more like 2.5cuf which = 1.25cuft per sub.

[coheed]

So a sealed box with the inside measurements of 8"x20"x26", which equals 2.4' cube with fill is large enough? And I'm thinking of having part of the box recessed in the well and part on top. Like so...

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb207/acefoalltrades/boxidea.jpg

[talnlnky]

Yeah...should be.

If you use wood, be sure to use .75" MDF
Be sure there are no air leaks, you want it to be air tight.
Make sure there is at least 1" of clearance behind the sub motors (the big magnet) so it can breathe correctly.

thats about it.

[coheed]

Yeah I've thought about it and I've decided to do exactly what tinygiant did but with a Kicker insted of a JL (and no window pane). I'm probably gonna use a CVX 10, 600w RMS 1200w max. Just cause I absolutly love bass, I once knew a guy who had an 88-89 caddy, he had 4 15's; 4 12's; 2 8's and like 6 or 8 6 1/2's, OMG I loved sitting in that car with ear plugs in. :bellyroll: It was like getting a message.:headbang: