school me on sound systems

I listen to rock, metal and jazz in the car. So I was thinking, at first, two 10" subs...

But now I'm thinking what would be easy to wire, clean and sound good is a single 12" sub and a 5 channel amp. Doesn't have to be stupid as F loud, my goal is to not have something clunky that takes up all the trunk space. Or a single 10" sub, which I think will have a faster response for the kind of music I listen to.

Highs in the upper dash, mids in the doors (whatever fits BEHIND the panel, prob 5"?) and some 9" ovals in the rear deck under the tray. Good quality speakers rated higher than the amp.

I haven't built a "sounds system" in over 20 years and I'm more into the quality of the sound than the loudness (it just needs to drown the exhaust).

I used to JL 10s, 5.25 mids, 1" tweets, all running of a Kenwood KCA 900.5 5 ch amp with some 5x7s in the rear off the deck and wow....very impressive. The amp is killer and really compact. Never overheated. The JL's are 10w1v3's 4 ohm and were wired to a 2ohm load. I have been playing with stereo's since I was 15 and cannot believe how good this sounded. Amp was under the passenger seat which helped keep things very clean looking.

will two 10's sounds better than a single 12?

I find smaller subs produce a punchy-er bass vs a more booming thud from the larger diameter ones. Much tighter for a variety of genres.

I have a single 10" sub running off a dedicated 500watt RMS mono amp, more than enough low end for me.

Dude! Just get yourself one of them old school Pioneer or Alpine 200 watt amps and a box with two 6"x9" speakers! Just like the ol' daze!

When it comes to getting good quality sound from car audio, install is key.

You can take the best components on the planet and have them sound terrible if the install is poor. Likewise you can get some pretty amazing results from some equipment that looks lackluster on paper if the install is done right.

For the types of music you have listed I would start off with the following:

Front stage - 6.5" mids properly installed in fully treated and sealed door ~250 Watts RMS. Running from 70hz to 3500hz
- 3/4" or 1" tweeter of your preference (silk or metal dome). ~100 Watts RMS. 3500hz +

Rear stage - None. With a proper front stage, rear fill only ruins the sound stage.

Sub stage - (If required). Depends on how much room you have to work with, but there is a lot more to subs than just cone area and power handling.

I don't like most 5 channel amp options out there because they are a one size fits all type solution that really doesn't fit. Too much power for tweeters, not enough power for mids and no where near enough power for subs on most options.

Right now I'm running 2 of the same 4 channel amps for my 6 channel system. I made a mount and stacked them on top of each other for ease of install. This gives me lots of power, and more importantly lost of options when I decide to modify my system (its a sickness).

If you like rock a 10” is much better than a 12”. The 10 will have much better punch for drums and quick bass guitar. 1 sub should easily be good enough if it’s decent quality.

Turn it up to 11.