Audio Showoffs

[iceman inc.]

Among the numerous brands of stereo systems i am determined to find the best one...or the one the most suitable for me..so far ROCKFORD has taken my decision by storm..with their killer p3 and punch speakers

[Vanilla Sky]

what's your price range, and what are you wanting to do with your soundsystem? are you looking for pure loudness, or do you want something that sounds good?

and i wouldn't go so far as to call rockford fosgate "killer."

[Mike's89AccordLX]

Rockford's a ok if you can't afford to spend a lot.

I personally like Boston speakers and subs.

[Vanilla Sky]

if you can't afford to spend a lot, rockford still isn't the best. you can get much much much better stuff for the same price.

[Sabz5150]

Rockford and Alpine == Nike. Fair quality, but you wind up paying for the name.

Clarion, JL, MB, Nakamichi... those are names worth paying for.

[Gemini2003]

I have never been disappointed with Alpine I've been buying it since I started my stereo... They arn't the loudest but that have the best sound quality in my opinion... (which is based only on my personal experience)

[Vanilla Sky]

alpine is overpriced for what you're buying.

dayton audio, elemental designs, resonant engineering, adire... those are much much much better values.

[Mettle_86LXi]

I used to be fond of Rockford Fosgate subwoofers, but my oh my have they changed their style! The old style black cone with the RF on the center cap, now that's style. But this whole plastic cone? I saw one at best buy, and the sucker had a crack in it. Yes, this may have been a fluke, and probably was, but that turned me off right away. The RF amplifiers on the other hand, true rms rating instead of giving you the peak, I enjoy companies that do not attmept to decieve. I still give Rockford Fosgate my vote for amplifiers, but I'm stickin' with the old style subs, or moving on. My pair of pennies.

My number 2 choice would be Kicker. Used to have 2 Kicker Comps, and I might as well have given them away I sold them for so cheap. :-(

[Hash_man_Se_i]

IMO... best brands out there... amps = audison ... speakers and subs = Focal ... Nakamichi makes some amazing souding decks but I have been doubtfull of their quality lately.

Eclipse also makes excellent decks, they sound wicked.

I think Alpine is just a name now... they used to make some kick ass products, but in the past couple years, with switching the location of their manufacturing, they seem to have gone downhill big time.

[Vanilla Sky]

focal is really good stuff. still overpriced, though. vifa mid drivers and tweeters are great, and when you're looking at raw drivers, they're much much much much much cheaper.

[MessyHonda]

yeah i heard that JL audio is a good speaker... my friend has 2 10 inch JL W0 in his truck and they sound good and it only has like a 380 watt amp to them...i would go with high end stuff. i would get a 12 inch W6v2 cuz i dont have all the room in my trunk to put 2 big subs i just want one good one

[iceman inc.]

the main reasons i wanted fosgate was bc the p3 blew the crap out a alpine...i mainly am looking for something with good sound...but i would also like competion sound too..

[LiTtLe xOx BitT]

I have a pair of 12" boston acoustic rally series subs with a 1000 watt amp and they work great. They are in a kicker box with tweeters and i have pioneer components.

[Vanilla Sky]

the main reasons i wanted fosgate was bc the p3 blew the crap out a alpine...i mainly am looking for something with good sound...but i would also like competion sound too..

yes, and i've heard sub systems using 6.5 inch drivers that sounded better and extended lower than a system using a 12 in driver, but wasn't nearly as loud.

and when i think "competition sound" i think "sounds like it came out of my ass after taco bell night."

[Sabz5150]

Yeah, most competition systems are about making lots of noise and moving lots of air. Your typical bass-off. The cars that look like something out of Looney Tunes as the trunk, door panels and roof flex in and out. And that's great if you are looking to compete in the IASCA events.

But when you want a system for good listening, that much bass gets in the way of the actual music. More power doesn't mean better quality. WHY do you need eleventy billion watts pushing speakers the size of satellite dishes in your trunk for day-to-day listening? I push less than 400 watts across six channels and people tell me it sounds incredible.

Subs are there to add to the music, not drown it out.

Just my twopence. I come from the SQ side of the fence which explains the hair of bias I have

[Hash_man_Se_i]

I very much agree with sabz on that one, except for the power aspect, I think to have an excellent sounding sq system you still need ample power. But ya, I think insane amounts of bass are retarded, and a total waste of time and money in cars where you want to listen to music, and not just one note/.

Once I get my system in my car, I will have 400watts running to just my front channels.
However... I now have an amp which was filled with water the other night... and she was taken away... now I'm sad.

[Vanilla Sky]

they key here isn't raw power, it's headroom, which is what both of you are hinting at.

personally, i find that most audio systems, including stock ones, sound tons better with a real amp. this is largely in part to the amp headroom. with your hu's amp, you'll get 22watts RMS at best, and that's riding right at the point of pretty serious distortion. install a weak amp and you'll get a little headroom to play around with.

generally, unless you have some serious speakers in the front, 400 watts is a lot, assuming we're talking RMS here. if we're talking the speakers that i think you're looking at (focals, right?), then 400 watts is about right if you want ample headroom and serious SQL going.

[Sabz5150]

I very much agree with sabz on that one, except for the power aspect, I think to have an excellent sounding sq system you still need ample power. But ya, I think insane amounts of bass are retarded, and a total waste of time and money in cars where you want to listen to music, and not just one note/.
Once I get my system in my car, I will have 400watts running to just my front channels.
However... I now have an amp which was filled with water the other night... and she was taken away... now I'm sad.

The key word is 'ample'. Yes, not having enough power is just as bad as having too much power. The problem is most people are of the mindset that you can never have too much power. They stuff these foot-and-a-half long amps pushing some 2000 watts in their trunk wired to a set of 15's that can barely handle that much power and think they're king of the mountain because they can wake me up at 4am driving past my apartment.

That's not audio, that's annoying.

I hear way too many systems that sound like factory mids ready to give up the ghost in the front and skeletons fighting on a tin roof in the back. Makes no sense! Not only are they wasting money on a half-assed system that sounds like crap, they're putting a HUGE strain on the car's electrical system. Of course what do they do? They mask that problem with huge capacitors. Pouring more money down the drain, masking problems that will only get bigger over time because they think that "the honeys dig my fly ride".

Alright, I will end my rant there.

[halxi]

cant go wrong with some Diamond mids/subs and a kenwood deck

[86lxinva]

i got everything pioneer and it sounds good amp,deck,mids,highs everything

[Ludi Mali]

kenwood excelon(regular kenwood isn't that great) are awsome sounding mids. I have 1 set of component 6.5s 2 sets of coax 6.5s and 1 set of 6x9s in my lxi. Sounds really really good from low to high levels. Diamond makes killer subs and eclipse is all I buy for decks now.

[iceman inc.]

well no doubt im getting a kenwood excelon head deck..and from what im hearing diamond is a good sub so ill def check them out..

[iceman inc.]

i agree with yall out the whole TOO MUCH BASS now...bc i mean why the hell get a good system when you cant hear the whole thing working together..but thanx for the help..

[ivanfbi]

head units - alpine, jvc, kenwood, clarion and pioneer are good brands to get, usually quality stuff, i would rely on.
speakers/components - DLS, AVI, PG Elite are good expensive ones, JL, PG(xenon), Alpine, are good affordable ones, Boston and MB QUart are quality, but harsh for me.
subwoofers - Image Dynamics, JL, Alpine, Infinity Perfect are good SQ and SQL ones, XXX, Treo, Kicker, RF are mostly SPL pointed
amps - DLS, Audison, Tru Tech, Zapco, Memphis, ARC Audio are the ones to get, but usually expensive as hell, PG, Xtant, Pioneer, Kicker, RF, JL(yes, JL is not on my top 10 list) are OK
processors - Kenwood, PG...the big names
wires - as long as they are good ones, i don't really care, I just buy them from ebay, so far so good...
the main thing is always installation. I know some people who can make $4000 sound system sound like shit.

[Vanilla Sky]

the main thing is always installation. I know some people who can make $4000 sound system sound like shit.

exactly, and none of us can emphasize this enough. you can have $100 or $5,000 invested in your soundsystem, and end up soundnig about the same. look at sabz's install. i think he's still around $1000, plus he has a sound processor and a DVD deck. it's all in the install in his case, so why not spend the money on the install or learn how to do it yourself and build a killer system on the cheap?