car audio

[icarus]

As someone who spends alot of time in my car i am just mortified by the terrible sound quality of my speakers, the person who owned the prior to myslef put in a cheep sony sound system and it sounds about as bad as the speakers that came attached to my TV . Are there any good car speakers out there, or is it just some place we have to suffer???

[basite]

there are alot of car speakers out of there, in different price classes, but even then it's still a place where we have to suffer.

what is your budget?

[icarus]

less than 2000

[basite]

welll, i don't know too much of it, i'm sure alot of other people here do know something about it, you might wanna look at mtx i do know that mcintosh also makes car audio, but i'm not sure for the budget.

[basite]

i believe Gmichael once said that 'he upgraded his wife's car audio system', so he might know something about it too,

[audio amateur]

i don't think there is much point in spending 2000$ in car audio, unless you really don't mind spending money for something that will only ever be as good as mediocre. If you want some advice, there is a better place to ask- car audio forum:
http://forums.carreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17

but you have to sign up for that.
what exactly are you looking for? What type of music do you listen to? I can probably help you if you if you give me a few more details. Do you want a sub..? things like this.

[Dusty Chalk]

I would not go to carreview.com, they treated me like carp in there.

No, you are not doomed to bad sound. Because of the background noise, you will never get as good sound as in your home, but you should be able to get full-frequency response and decent tonality, at least.

Pretty much any aftermarket upgrade will be an improvement. I am fond of Pioneer speakers for the car, relatively cheap at a couple hundred dollars, and a reasonably high wattage indash unit (I think I had a JVC unit with detachable faceplates in my previous car).

I should also mention Clarion. I have a surprisingly good factory system in my Suzuki Aerio SX. I actually looked at improving it for a while, but quickly gave up, as all the high-end shops were of the boom-boom variety. I am now perfectly happy with my Clarion system -- it's really well designed, with tweeters up top, and midranges in the doors, and a small powered sub under the driver seat.

That said, I've heard good things about MB Quart. If I had to do it from scratch on a budget, I'd get one of those equalizers that lets you adjust phase (having all the drivers in phase at the listening position is crucial) and MB Quart driver units.

I'd suggest going to crutchfield.com to see what will fit in your car, getting the appropriate drivers, then finding a local shop to do the installation (check with them first -- some of them will do installations of stuff you don't get there, but you might have to pay them in cash).

[icarus]

I mostly listen to rock, some alternative, and blues. Subs aren't the most important thing to me, sound clarity is more what im looking for.

[Mr Peabody]

I was also going to suggest MB Quart, they should have an amp to drive them properly. With no amps and all around good gear, you can't go wrong with Alpine. Alpine amps are good for satelite speakers but I like high current American amps like Rockford, Precision Power or Orion for bass. Actually, Precision power is my all time favorite amp, it sounds excellent for bass or full range. The only thing that may be better is high end, extremely expensive Phoenix Gold. I also like in speakers the Infinity Kappa series which also should have amplification. Infinity also makes some all in one package subwoofer systems that are worth a listen. I've used the Infinity Perfect series subs and they kick butt. I had a single 10 in a sealed enclosure and it hit hard enough to move my rear view mirror. It was tight clean bass. In head units, good quality sound can be had from Sony ES, Eclipse and Alpine, I'm sure there are others but these are my favs. Clarion makes a Pro series I haven't heard that is supposed to be good.

[eisforelectronic]

Nothing less than Dynaudio

[KaiWinters]

I prefer MB Quart loud speakers over any other in the car market.

They have an open sound with clear mids and nice highs without being tinny or harsh.
I have inexpensive 6 1/2 inchers in front door panels with a 10" sub in the back seat hehehe, I do not use my rear window speakers at all and never really have, all powered by a decent Eclipse amp and Alpine head unit. I have been an Alpine owner for over 30 years without a single problem. I have tried some other units, Pioneer, Clarion and Sony, but always got rid of them in favor of another Alpine unit.

I prefer Rockford Fosgate amps but at the time I did not have the money for the one I wanted and got a great deal on the Eclipse 4 channel amp so I went with it and am rather happy with it, though it nothing like the Rockford unit I had (stolen with the rest of my system...bastards). I use the front channel for the front speakers and have the rear channel crossed to the sub. It sounds great and is a nice surprise when a rattle can wanker pulls up next to me with his 1000 watt metal shaker he calls an amp/sub system to make the old guy wince and I pop in my AC/DC Hells Bells cd and start those bells a'ringin' at near clipping levels hehehe. The look is usually priceless.

Anywho I also stongly suggest the MB Quart brand. If you have that much to spend try their "Q" line. It is mainly used in shows, wons many awards, and is a tad pricey lol.
Let us know what you decide.

Head: Alpine CDA-7892 $280
Amp: Eclipse 36401 50 watts per channel $250
Front speakers: MB Quart Discus DKD-116 2 way $180
Sub: MB Quart RWC-254 10" w/box $225
A bit over $1000 for a great sounding system back in April 2002

http://www.mbquart.com/en/
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-kcA7iEr...brand=MB+Quart
http://www.alpine-usa.com/

[eisforelectronic]

I've always thought MB Quart was rather harsh sounding. Maybe I just never heard them installed correctly? I've always thought the Dynaudios sounded much closer to a home system than other car speakers.

[N. Abstentia]

One of the main factors in car systems is amplification. Relying on the head unit for power is rather useless, get a good clean amp and replace the factory speakers. Adding a sub makes a huge difference also, I couldn't imagine a car system without a sub. Car doors make poor speaker enclosures so don't expect your door speakers to make any sort of bass...and if they do it will just rattle your doors. You want to run them high pass which will clean them up a ton and leave the bass to a sub.

Personally I've never heard better car speakers than Boston Acoustics Pro Series, but that was back in the day. I'm sure there are lots of good sounding speakers out there. I use the old school (pre-MTX) Xtant amps which are the way car amps are SUPPOSED to be. For a sub I run an Image Dynamics IDQ12 which pretty much leads the pack in sound quality still.

[Rock789]

just like home audio, the head unit will make a big difference...
about 10-12 years ago or so I was looking for a car system, and listened to several cd players in the ~$200 range, then the salesman switched to ~$800 cd player... it was night and day... with the same amps and same speakers... just had a better DAC and analog outs...
at the time I wasn't going to pay that much for a cd player when I just wanted something loud, but it did make a big difference...

for speakers... I have a set of JL Audio component speakers in my tacoma, and they sound a lot better than my stock components but are rather bright...

bet bet... find several car audio dealers in the area and audition equipment to find what you like...

remember, you have to be able to work the cdplayer while you're driving, so find one you are comfortable with using...

for amps, ppi used to make nice amps, I have heard good reviews from jl audio amps...
if you look, you may be able to find an old adcom car amp... they were very good, but were only manufactured for a few years in the late 90s...