quick question

[priapus]

i know alot of you have truely high end stereo equipment in your house, but what does someone with a real appreciation for music put in his car? i'm currently running infinity all the way around, with a nice but pretty basic sony head unit, no subs, and im looking to upgrade. thanks for any info!

[jkjome85]

I would go for Infinity Kappa or Cove Audio speakers inside, and I personally would go for Audiobahn subs beacuse of their high-quality, awesome looks, and high sensitivity, meaning they will go louder with less power. As well as Audiobahn amps b/c they look awesome and would match the subs. As far as a head unit I would pick the Pioneer DEH-P8500MP. Thats what I would do.

[Frzninvt]

A good system is only as good as its weakest link. Start out with a used Alpine CDA-7949 Head Unit, one the best they ever produced, copper chassis, digital out, etc. These can be had on eBay for around $200. Forget all the regular car audio companies speaker offerings, get some Morel or Macrom coaxials for front and rear, these things feature 3" Hexatech voice coils, have a soft dome that is somewhat horn loaded, these things have an FS in the 40Hz range for a 6 1/2" speaker. a/d/s's older speaker offerings are nice as well, if you want to go the component route use some Vifa raw drivers and just add a crossover. As far as amplification, I don't like much of the new offerings most are geared for SPL and not sound quality. I would get an older Orion 225 HCCA for the front and rear's and a 250 HCCA for the subwoofers if you plan on using subs. The 225 HCCA is .5 ohm stable in stereo and can take anything that you can throw at it with ease. Even better than that but difficult to find are the older HiFonics Series VIII Platinum Series Amplifiers "Isis" and "Ulysses" these were the cream of the crop. There is a ton of subwoofer choices and it will depend on your musical and listening tastes when choosing them. Make sure to properly wire everything using 4ga wire from the battery with a fuse holder or circuit breaker no more than 18" from the battery. For help with transients a stiffening capacitor can take some of the load off your battery and charging system usually 1 farad of capacitance is enough unless you are going real high power. I competed professionally in the IASCA circuit in the Northeast region in '95-'96 in the novice and amateur 1-150 watt class. If you vehicle has a spot a Vifa 3" soft dome midrange controlled by an L-pad makes a nice center channel and you can dial in how much center channel presence that you desire. I appreciate high quality sound in my vehicles just as I do in my home. My competition days are long gone, but I still maintain a very nice system in my minivan. There are many options available and alot of it depends on what you are willing to spend to reach a certain level of sound quality and trust me it is not happening with Infinity or Pioneer.