Welcome to the North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club Thursday March 28, 2024
Home Forums Images WikiNASIOC Products Store Modifications Upgrade Garage
NASIOC
Go Back   NASIOC > NASIOC General > Car Audio, Video & Security

Welcome to NASIOC - The world's largest online community for Subaru enthusiasts!
Welcome to the NASIOC.com Subaru forum.

You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our community, free of charge, you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is free, fast and simple, so please join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.







* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 
* Registered users of the site do not see these ads. 
 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 08-11-2005, 08:45 PM   #1
offset
Scooby Guru
 
Member#: 32636
Join Date: Feb 2003
Chapter/Region: MWSOC
Location: Dayton, OH
Vehicle:
2004 Impreza STi
Silver/Silver

Default offset’s Car Audio Manifesto and FAQ

offset's Car Audio Manifesto and FAQ

This is my attempt at organizing and informing people on all basics of car audio; and the ways in which it applies to a Subaru. I hope that this can serve as the starting point for any car audio related question. If you are considering posting a general question, you may want to take some time and jump through some of these links as it will most likely answer your question. For anything not covered or something more specific however, feel free to post as there are several very helpful and knowledgeable people in these forums. I am including in this post the links to the primary Buyer's Guide and FAQ posts that I have created; as well as several other links that cover various topics. If you have any suggestions, comments, or criticisms of my FAQ postings please use this thread instead of the others to post in so that they may stay clean and this thread can see all of the activity. Also any requests on FAQs please post in here as well.

Also, many of the most frequently asked questions on NASIOC can now be found in the third and fourth posts of this thread.


Primary Car Audio Buyer's Guides and FAQ
Car Audio System Design and Selection FAQ (This one may take a while to get done, but I think when it is ready it will greatly help. For now try this link instead...)
http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/S-...ealSystem.html
Active versus Passive Crossover FAQ FAQ
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=1479380
Head Unit Buyer's Guide and FAQ
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=824987
Cabin Speaker Buyer's Guide and FAQ
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=824998
Amplifier Buyer's Guide and FAQ (includes Big 3 and alternator type of info)
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=713891
Subwoofer Buyer's Guide and FAQ (needs some revision now)
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=618889
Sound Deadening Buyer's Guide and FAQ
(Coming soon, but for now these are excellent posts...)
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=712026
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=642962
http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/
Car Alarm Buyer's Guide and FAQ
(I hope to convince netZ to work with me on this one, it may take a while, until then these are the best posts for info...)
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=111553
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=308992
Other Electronics(CB, police scanners, radar detectors, laser jammers)
(No idea when this will happen, but it would be worthwhile I think)
Fiberglassing tutorial/FAQ
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=1168388
The GREAT thread all about the stock head unit
(includes great info on speaker connection, antenna adapter, CD changer connector, aux jack, and stock subwoofer)
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=749402
Great install threads for Subies
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=1261005 (2005 aftermarket headunit)
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=1264018 (fully detailed component speaker install)

Car Audio shopping -
First and foremost if you have the option of buying from a local car audio specialty shop I would recommend you considering that. This helps to promote local business, gives you good opportunity to see and hear the equipment in person, and it is generally easier to get support on any items purchased that way. However you should be a little cautious of Best Buy and Circuit City in terms of installations as their salesman and installers know less than they should (there are some exceptions, but there have been plenty of bad install stories about either of them).

This is a listing of some Internet retailers who deal in car audio products. The first two listed are the only two who offer only authorized products. The rest are considered more ***8216;grey market', which means that the manufacturer's warranty may not be valid on an item purchased through them. However people still continue to buy from them due to the tremendous savings on the items they carry. Most do attempt to give their own warranty on products sold though. I have dealt with some of these retailers and have not personally had any problems yet. Just remember that it is like gambling, you pay less for an item but you also have less support and no factory warranty in case you run into problems.

Of course there is also eBay which is a wonderful place to buy both used and new car audio equipment. I have bought stuff that way and have had no major problems as of yet. A lot of that is being an informed buyer and knowing what to look for in an auction to insure everything will work as expected. That comes with lots of experience in car audio.

Also don't forget that there is a Private Classifieds section here on NASIOC. I have bought and sold with people on here and have had great results this way as well. Not to mention that there are a lot of us here who can be used as free support if you run into problems. Just be careful as there is less protection in case of a scam. At the least make sure the person you are looking to buy from is a regular poster, has been registered for a decent amount of time (at least a year usually works), and has bought or sold other items before.
http://www.crutchfield.com (a little pricey, but still good service with factory warranty)
http://www.sounddomain.com (every bit as legitimate as Crutchfield with all of the same perks)

Other typically reputable online shops***8230;
http://www.hookedontronics.com
http://www.ikesound.com
http://www.woofersetc.com
http://www.cbrstereo.com
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com
http://www.sonicelectronix.com
http://www.darvex.com (wires)
http://www.knukonceptz.com (wires)

Last edited by offset; 04-29-2008 at 11:05 AM.
offset is offline   Reply With Quote
 

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
FS: Car Audio Stuff and WRB Wings West Body Kit dman918 Private 'For Sale' Classifieds 13 05-01-2005 04:57 PM
FS: IL: Tons of car audio/video and electronics up for grabs ScoobyInc Private 'For Sale' Classifieds 3 01-27-2005 11:05 AM
FS: Concept Audio Car audio Amp and subs WRXShawn Canada Region Forum 2 08-26-2004 11:55 AM
PG car audio amps and xover jeffg Private 'For Sale' Classifieds 2 08-05-2003 11:23 AM
Car Audio 101 and beyond? UncleMeat Car Audio, Video & Security 2 04-28-2003 12:16 AM

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 02:19 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Powered by Searchlight © 2024 Axivo Inc.
Copyright ©1999 - 2019, North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club, Inc.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission
Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.