Welcome to the forum, both of you!
1subs1amps, I suggest you check out
The $1000 Audio Challenge!!!!!
Members on this board have come up with lots of great ideas that keep the price under $1000. You may want to skip to the end for more recent submissions.
Most of us here also don't recommend rear speakers so be sure to read the
Rear Speaker Discussion. This will free up some money for the rest of your system.
Since grinner mentioned Rockford, I went to
www.crutchfield.com and threw together some items to see if they would fit in your price range. You could start with a
Rockford Fosgate Power Stage 1 12" subwoofer for $399. A perfect amp to power this would be the
Rockford Fosgate Punch P6001BD for $499. It is a 300x1 amp which puts out 600x1 at 2ohms. The sub is a 4ohm DVC so when you wire the voice coils in parallel you will get a 2ohm load. To power front speakers you could go with a
Rockford Fosgate Punch P325.2 for $219. This amp puts out 80x2 which is plenty for a nice set of front speakers. If you still want rear speakers then I would recommend the
Rockford Fosgate Punch P450.4 for $299.
So that would bring the current total to $1,119-1,200 leaving about $200-300 for speakers, and installation (wiring kit, subwoofer box, etc). This is where rear speakers can make the difference. Assume that it will cost you about $100 for wiring and installation materials. Now you could spend $200 on a nice set of front component speakers...or if you decided to go 4-ch you would be looking at $100 for two sets of speakers. You'd have a nice low end, but your highs would be bargain basement crap.
Of course you could always buy stuff on eBay with no warranty to save a few bucks but I'm not going to suggest you take that route. Its always better to have someone to turn to when things don't work.
Also, before you pick out speakers or any gear for that matter, I suggest you go to a few shops and listen to some stuff. Tell them you have exactly $1400 to spend and you'd like to have 600-800w for your sub. Write down the models they recommend and come back here and let us know what you picked out. If the prices are good...you might be better off purchasing everything from the shop. That way you can always stop by there if things are working right.
Oh, and by 'shop' I don't mean BestBuy or Circuit City. I mean a real car audio shop.
