Car Stereo Systems

in order,

speakers
headunit
amp
sub

Yeah that

Unless your stock speakers are run through an amp then speakers & amp first then the others

this is really weird i was looking up threads about this yesterday and i was gonna make one, and my name is ethan too

i'd say:

head unit
speakers
amp
sub

^in that order. but if you're not willing to do both a new deck and speakers at the same time you're kinda wasting money IMO.

X2. You don't need an amp on the speakers but it's nice if you run a small 4 channel to them.

since i'm going to be the only one who will probably be able to give you a legitimate answer besides telling you to put an alpine deck and 2 JL 13w7's in your civic, i'm gonna ask you a couple questions..

what type of car do you have, is it a coupe, sedan, truck, what? this will greatly influence what you're going to do, and get for equipment.

Think about it, what are you going to listen to? is it gonna be a bunch of rap? is it going to be predominantly rock music. What about jazz and easy listening? seriously, these questions are important.

Since you've given no baseline for the type install youre going to do, besides the fact you want to upgrade everything, consider the fact you can save yourself a lot of money by taking some simple steps.

You don't need to upgrade your deck. That's because there is NO need to adjust your bass, treble, and midbass levels, tweeter crossover, LP/HP filters, or any bull shit an aftermarket deck lets you do. Everything can be controlled from the amp, and by skipping this unnecessary step you can throw money into something else that matter. There is an adapter that lets your run a stock radio head unit. I'm not sure what it's called, but its an RCA input adapter, and it pretty much turns your stock radio into an aftermarket deck, for like 10 bucks.

Suggestions for what to get:
   -A 5 channel amp. if your gonna upgrade all your components, and add a sub, why not put it all into a contained package. Today's 5 channels are just as expensive as buying a separate sub and speakers amp, and are going to be half the size. While you may not get all that "power" you're looking for, you'll get an awesome performing amp that will be easy and head ache free to install.
   -Just get a 15. fuck it. There's no reason not to if you are getting a sub and have the room. 12's suck. 10's suck if you're not in it for sound quality. anything else is silly. if you have the room, find a 15 in a small sealed box, and you will be happy. i promise. i know because i've had multiple 15's all in smalled seal boxes, and i've been happy every time.
   -You don't need to get the top of the line speakers. do you know why? because you're running them on a HP filter. the only thing an expensive speaker does is play LP frequencies at high sound levels without distorting. But if you have a shittily burnt cd, or play old music that wasn't made in a basement (early wu tang is notorious for this), your going to send distorted signals to your speakers that might blow them anyway. go cheap, you won't notice a difference, and I really promise that.

That's pretty much it. if this is your first audio venture, don't worry about going as big as possible, you will be so impressed with having just a sub you won't care it sounds like shit. after a while if you still are into it, you might upgrade for sound quality instead of just trying to have the stupidest loud vibrating civic in eastern mass, but that won't come until you grow up a little bit.

but yea, any questions just shoot me a pm, i can guide you in the right direction.

This.  Although some stock speakers sound pretty damn good on a new HU.  Also, don't make the mistake of buying a sub to add bass.  I would have rather bought an amp for my main speakers than have bought an amp and a sub to add to my system.

Thanks for all of the legit reply's! +K to all.

I do...it's like getting back at all those shitty drivers. They cut you off? Blast Skrillex beside them for miles.

My dad has an RSX and we did a pretty basic stereo install (no sub). Some tips:

Uhh, definitely get an aftermarket HU if you are trying to upgrade your sound, especially if you are adding any type of amp or sub. An aftermarket HU will send better signals to your speakers, with a stock HU you are sending "dirty/dirtier" signals. Add an amp/sub and you will need a cleaner signal, not some $10 RCA converter, your stock HU is not built for this. You don't have to spend much either, check out Crutchfield.com for Pioneer, Alpine, and Kenwood HU's. I've always had good luck with Pioneer so that's all I've had in my vehicles. Either way, Crutchfield is expensive but they will send you free mounting hardware, wiring, and offer support if you can't figure something out. They also have good specs and explanations on everything on their site. Amazon will have everything but cheaper, no wiring harness' or support.

what i did was I got speakers and a deck. then a couple months later i got a 4 channel amp and a sub, ran the sub on that amp until i could afford a mono amp and another sub.

is there a car cult of some type? if so someone post the link. if not someone create one

and then it all got stolen