brands to buy or not to buy?

[sr20de4evr]

hehe, nah you just have to look at it right

here ya go, it's a little flash thing that shows you where it comes from and how to look at it (very bottom of the page):
http://www.adireaudio.com/TextPages/...eFrameText.htm

[93-240SX-COUPE]

Alright Im about 4 years late on this thread but just found it. I used to work at Good Guys in Car Audio so I kinda know what Im talking about, no not the same as Circuit City (Circuit is lower end shit). Here is my list of quality things(only mentioning my favorites and the best) in order of best to the rest:

Head Unit:
Nakamichi (Probably wont get it cuz it cost too much but by far the best), Eclipse, Alpine, etc.

Speakers:
Boston Acoustics, MB Quart, Infiniti (Perfect Series)

Subs:
JL Audio (W7 series untouchable, deep clean bass), blah blah blah (no other choices)

Amps:
Alpine (F1 series[cost like 3 g's per amp]), JL Audio probably the best u'll find in the market(slash series, 1000/1, 500/1, 450/4, 300/4, 300/2), etc.

Cables:
MONSTER CABLE everything people!!!! It works! No joke we went to seminars and training and the shit works good!

EXTRAS:
DYNAMAT Extreme ( u'll need it for all the extra noise ur gonna be making with ur door rattling and trunk bouncing off)

[sr20de4evr]

Sounds like someone who knows the best stuff at local shops but that's it. Just to clarify,

Headunits:
yes Nak is good, but no it's not "by far the best", McIntosh is also very very good and from what I've seen they don't have near the amount of cd reading problems that Naks have.

Speakers:
no thanks, I'll take at least 10 other brands before I even touch anything by any of those companies

Subs:
JL is good, and no the w7 is not untouchable, it is very "touchable" and it has been "touched" by many other subs out there such as the IDMAX, Brahma, XXX, Magnum, etc.

Amps:
Alpines are decent, their monoblocks are pretty nice for the money actually, and JL makes nice amps too (extremely overpriced though), but again there are at least 10-15 other brands I would take before getting any amps from either of those companies.

Cables:
NO - Monster is a complete waste of money. Not only do their executives lack any sense of moral responsibility whatsoever (just do some searching if you don't know what I'm talking about), their cables are not that great. In most independent tests Monster is actually near the bottom as far as resistance, inductance, and capacitance goes. Add in the fact that they're twice as much as most of the expensive stuff out there (that grossly outperforms Monster btw) and we have another Bose on our hands.

Extras:
Dynamat is good, but there are others out there that perform just as well or better for less than half as much money

[93-240SX-COUPE]

Yeah sorry guys my bias comes out quite a bit since I forget that the majority of the people dont get discounts on some "overpriced" goods. Cuz ur right if I couldnt get a discount I would be right there talking shit about how much it cost and how its not worth it, but when u can get almost 55-60% off its not that bad right?

[sr20de4evr]

yeah JL for 50% off wouldn't be bad at all as far as subs and amps go, and neither would dynamat for that matter. For the speakers and cabling I would still go with many other companies though even without price taken into account. God I hate infinity....

[93-240SX-COUPE]

U really dont like Infinity? Not even the Kappas or Perfect Series?? And dont get me started on the 75% off u get for monster cable. *Totally Unrelated* I bought a $200 video cable for my big screen for $50. What a bargain!

[sr20de4evr]

I own the kappas and a friend has the perfects. Zero midbass, terrible tweets, crappy xovers...no thanks. Mine lasted in my car about a month or 2 before I got rid of them, they've been sitting in my closet since. I used them for gain setting a few times after that since I didn't care if I blew them, but other than that they've been unused for almost 2 years since I took them out. I replaced them with the Focal Polyglass components which were worlds better in all ways, but I still wasn't too happy with those, so a year later I replaced them with the Adire Kodas and haven't looked back. Just for comparison's sake, the single pair of Focals with no rears had more midbass than all 4 Kappas did, and ONE of the kodas (just 1 mid/tweet) utterly slaughters the pair of Focals in midbass and low end extension.

[93-240SX-COUPE]

U my friend are an audiophile. U will never be completely satisfied with more than two speakers. U could have the surround sound setup but u would only "prefer" two speakers if u could. Oh Yeah, u have alot of money to throw away, can i have some. j/k. Speakers cost alot, and u just kept buying new and better and more expensive ones. Expensive hobby huh??

[sr20de4evr]

hehe, tell me about it

I didn't really spend much more money on the new sets though. I mean obviously I spent more because I was buying another set of speakers, but they didn't cost much more than the ones they were replacing. Kappas were $150, Focals were $220, Kodas were $280, so slight jumps in price but not too bad considering the improvement. I actually think I'm done with car audio, I'm finally happy with my system and I'm probably going to leave it as-is (it took a lot of time and money before I could say that). Head-fi is almost done too, just need one more set of high end cans (Grado RS-1) and maybe a DAC and then that will be over. I'm running out of hobbies....

and you're right, 2 > *

[93-240SX-COUPE]

I think the only list better than your audio setup is ur performance setup. SR (stock) what I would give for a SR, or a ka-t, with Hot Shot Headers, HKS exhaust, TEIN, and short throw.

[ngsm13]

Originally Posted by sr20de4evr

Sounds like someone who knows the best stuff at local shops but that's it. Just to clarify,

Headunits:
yes Nak is good, but no it's not "by far the best", McIntosh is also very very good and from what I've seen they don't have near the amount of cd reading problems that Naks have.

Speakers:
no thanks, I'll take at least 10 other brands before I even touch anything by any of those companies

Subs:
JL is good, and no the w7 is not untouchable, it is very "touchable" and it has been "touched" by many other subs out there such as the IDMAX, Brahma, XXX, Magnum, etc.

Amps:
Alpines are decent, their monoblocks are pretty nice for the money actually, and JL makes nice amps too (extremely overpriced though), but again there are at least 10-15 other brands I would take before getting any amps from either of those companies.

Cables:
NO - Monster is a complete waste of money. Not only do their executives lack any sense of moral responsibility whatsoever (just do some searching if you don't know what I'm talking about), their cables are not that great. In most independent tests Monster is actually near the bottom as far as resistance, inductance, and capacitance goes. Add in the fact that they're twice as much as most of the expensive stuff out there (that grossly outperforms Monster btw) and we have another Bose on our hands.

Extras:
Dynamat is good, but there are others out there that perform just as well or better for less than half as much money

I agree 100%...brainwwashed by main-stream overpriced bullshit. I boycott Monster Cable...they can eat my ass...even at 75% off I'd tell them to go fuck themselves...period. peace

NG

[bjboertje]

what is a class d amp?

[mjshort18]

Originally Posted by bjboertje

what is a class d amp?

a class d amp is a single channel amp that usually is stable at lower ohms which can produce more power.

[Mannyb18b]

uhh, no. Class D is the type of circuitry used, best for subs because they draw far less current than A/B class amps, but there SQ isnt always as good. As far as goin into how the circuitries are different or how they work, im no electrician

[Zachp911]

This is the setup I plan on doing, tell me what you think and if I should change anything.

Head Unit- Alpine
Subwoofers- Audiobahn
Amplifier- JL Audio
Speakers- MTX or JL?