[tktran]

Hey all.

I've been thinking of getting a car stereo installed. Does anyone know of any good forums for car sound?

And as good as Head-Fi is for headphones?

 

[dhwilkin]

Here's a couple that I've found so far:

- Elite Car Audio

- Sound Domain

 

[becomethemould]

elite is prob the best?? my bro goes there, well used to, he goes to car audio australia now.

 

[Audio-Me]

Just get a Clarion deck, Kenwood amp and Infinity Reference speakers.

 

[methnen]

Car audio can only get so good. It is not like you are in the best listening area. You have road noise, street noise, and the shape of the sound space is all irregular. Picking car audio has a lot to do with what you listen to most. If you are a radio listener I would recomend a Blaupunkt (the tuners on these things are amazing), if you listen to CD's a lot or sit in your car a lot without moving and want incredible sound then a clarion is a good though expenisive way to go. Sony's have some reliability problems, I haven't had much experiance with any other players. The guys at elite car audio will be able to help you I'm sure.

Jamie

 

[Paul_A]

i agree with methnen in that its harder to get great sound in car audio. while there is a vast difference sound quality between a well designed/installed audio system and a factory one, the odd speaker locations, listening positions and all of the factors that methnen named make for an area not very receptive to good sound. i spent lots of time and money trying to emulate my modest home stereo system, and couldnt do it without really tearing into my car. the only advantage i'd say is the ability to pressure because of cabin gain. dont get me wrong, its by no means bad sound, and i find car audio to be a great investment (and extremely addicting as well). its just harder to set up a decent soundstage in a car.

i've been a member of elite for about four years now, and the members are great. there are VERY knowledgable people on that board, and they'll point to towards great stuff no matter the budget. one tip: install is everything. IMHO low end equipment + great install > high end equipment + mediocre install.

if anyone cares, im saving for a new car soon (hoping for a porsche 356 replica), and this is the system i plan to put into it. nakamichi CD-45z headunit, imagedynamics CD2 horns under the dash, IDQ6 6.5 midbass in kickpanels, and an adire audio shiva 12 inch sub, all powered by a helix HXA500Q 5 channel amp.

try www.mobileaudio.com for a list of manufacturers if you want to check out various equipment. sorry for the long post.

 

[becomethemould]

isn't pioneer/premier any good? my bro is faithful to them

we are getting a holden (opel) astra. he is planning to get a blauplat headunit. a kicker amp for the 2 12" jl audios. a pioneer amp for the orion splits.

 

[Audio-Me]

BP subs are ok, but I would choose two Optimus(RadioShack) 10" and four 6½" Orions if I couldn't afford the Infinity Reference (not joking).

I'm not real big on car audio, so my knowledge in this area is close to none, I just know what I've heard and which of those that I liked.

 

[morphsci]

Quote:

Originally posted by becomethemould isn't pioneer/premier any good? my bro is faithful to them we are getting a holden (opel) astra. he is planning to get a blauplat headunit. a kicker amp for the 2 12" jl audios. a pioneer amp for the orion splits.

Premier DEX-P1R. Very nice tuner, Cd and DSP, including time alignment, which really makes a difference in the nasty acoustic environment of cars. Even though it is an older unit it still performs better than most other units I have heard from Alpine, Kenwood, Panasonic, Sony, Eclipse and Blaupunkt. That's why I still use it as my headunit. I also use a JL audio sub. But it is a single 8". Don't really need more than that in my CRX.

 

[tktran]

Ok I've settled on my headunit.

Now for my speakers. Has anyone had experience with high-end drivers eg. Scanspeak, Vifa and Peerless instead of the off-the-shelf speaker products like Focal, MB Quart, JL Audio?