When seeking information relating to car audio issues . A search should be part if your initial research. Whilst many of the topics are relavant to all systems and all cars, where there is insufficient information you should post your own topic asking specific questions.

To improve the quality and speed of the answer you receive, endeavour to include as much information as possible about your car, your budget, and your needs. Granted, when you are a beginner, you do not always know what questions to ask or what information to provide, and may not realise how a trivial detail may impact on your choice or the appropriate answer. Those answering the question will often pose their own to extract further information, but provision of no information makes for a very tedious topic.

In essence, include:
*car
*budget
*existing components in your system
*proposed components for your system
*what your aims are and what quality you want

This is not meant to be a template, but more about making you 'think before you write'. And here is why they may be important:

CAR: unless the car (year, brand, model, series (eg: 1990 Toyota Corolla Seca CS-X)) is named, people cannot know what size speakers will fit, nor how much space there is to work with, nor any unique difficulties you may be required to overcome

BUDGET: unless people know how much you are willing to spend, you cannot expect an accurate, helpful answer about what to buy; you must have some idea of how much you are prepared to spend; it is pointless claiming you will "pay what it takes" or simply want "the best" when everybody's idea of this varies; some people would consider a $300 headunit as 'really good', whilst others would not look below $800 for that; if you want quality, spend as much as you can afford, and don't expect fantastic sound for small money; if your budget is way too small for your expectations, you will no doubt be enlightened of this

EXISTING COMPONENTS IN YOUR SYSTEM: especially if you intend to retain these components as part of an upgrade, be specific about the exact model of your components; having an "Alpine headunit" or "400W amp" tells us nothing of its features and connectability compared with telling people you have an 'Alpine CDA-9856i' or 'Alpine MRV-F345'; give details of the FULL system as this may impact on what additional components suit; for example, the size of the subwoofer you choose may depend on the size of your speakers to achieve best transition between subbass and higher frequencies

PROPOSED COMPONENTS FOR YOUR SYSTEM: as with the above, be specific; "I saw an Alpine sub I like" gives no indication of power handling, impedence, cost, or subbox requirement compared with referring to an 'Alpine SWR-1242D'; when visiting stores, write down the details of the models you like or have been suggested, and include them in your post

WHAT YOUR AIMS ARE AND WHAT QUALITY YOU WANT: there's 'loud' and there's 'LOUD'; most people want "as loud as possible", but is this for SPL dB Drag competitions (aiming to achieve the highest dB possible) with little to no regard on how good it sounds with music, or is it for cruising the streets with loud, penetrating subbass? Unless you are competing, you probably don't need 1000WRMS of power for the subs which means for your fixed budget, you should buy one of higher quality and lower power instead of a low quality amp with megawatts of power that you never utilise; of course 'quality' can be hard to appreciate unless you have at least some experience with car audio or even home audio; simply realise that quality costs money; I often draw the analogy with cars: if you are happy with 'Hyundai quality', no problems, but don't buy cheaper gear if you want 'BMW quality'

WHEN TROUBLESHOOTING: it is of particular importance to give as much information as possible when attempting to troubleshoot a problem you have with your stereo: who did the installation (if yourself, were you 100% confident of doing it correctly), has it been working before, have you changed anything that may have created the problem, what tests have you done, and what clues are there as to what could be wrong?

OTHER: there are many other factors that can influence your choices in car audio, so if you have specific requirements, state them: brand loyalty, where you live (regional = less choice), colour/cosmetic preference, new vs secondhand, self-install vs pro-install, etc

So take the extra time and effort to provide the necessary details. You may be surprised how this encourages people to reply with more detail and experiences of their own if they can relate to your needs.

And for the love of Tech Members sanity, please try and use some proper spelling, grammar and punctuation.

That and if something is suggested, make sure you follow the instructions specifically. For example 'check your grounds' means break out the multimeter, measure the resistance, check the grounding point is devoid of paint, rust, dirt etc and that it is nice and tight. Replying with 'I tried that' because you had a quick glance or did something that related to that component doesn't suffice and just wastes our time and yours.

ROCK ON
R~R

Just thought I'd give this a bump as there have been a few post of late which could of been better answered with more information given