Car stereo opinions

[FalconGuy016]

Hey everyone

Whats a good car stereo and speaker brand? Is alpine a good choice? I was looking at the CDA 9807, but I still dont know what speakers to buy (other than their website system builder). Whats a good place to buy stuff online too that isnt full price from their main website?

Edit: Front Door 6-1/2"
Back Panel 6"x8"


Thanks

[jdev]

personally,

i think that alpine and pioneer are the 2 best options for car audio head units. both great manufacturers.

if you are to get anything for speakers, I would say either infinity, polk or boston acoustics. I assume you are talking about just plain ol' interior speakers.

for subwoofers. i am a fan of kicker, orion and mtx.

percision power instruments and kicker would be my amp of choice.. then again, these are things of my liking

your best bet is to find a local stereo installer, and just hang out there and check out other peoples cars. you can get a feel for what you may like based on what you see in other peoples vehicles.

[splat15k]

Yeah, you can't go wrong with alpine... I am looking into buying an alpine system myself. Try www.crutchfield.com They seem to have excellent customer service and their prices are amongst the lowest on the net.

[Miscue]

For decks, Alpine and Clarion are good. I get Clarion because it's cheaper than Alpine for the quality you get... and love my current deck.

http://www.mmxpress.com/clarion/cd_mp3_players.htm : The 835 or 735 would do you just fine. Clarion tuners are really good. Damn... I bought my older 700 series for same as that 835 with 24bit dac. Grrr...

http://www.mmxpress.com usually has good prices... there are others.

As far as speakers go... my first question is: Are you going to get an amp? I personally shop for speakers last. Deck, amp, and other things are more important as they are the foundation of your system.

Screw Crutchfield! Don't use them unless for some reason you get a great deal.

Edit: Now I know why it cost the same... I have the 800 series with 24-bit... duh. I forgot. If you can swing it, get the 800. It's commonly thought of as equivalent to the high end Alpines as far as SQ and quality go.

The 700 series Clarion is similar to the Alpine you listed. It has a parametric EQ you can play with, that I don't think the Alpine has. I normally suggest to disable all deck sound-coloring features for high end competition systems, but they work great for the typical system for typical person.

[FalconGuy016]

Thanks guys

I have no doubt the alpine will be good (sorry miscue ), so im set on that. I was just making sure it hasnt changed in the past few years or something

But what im worried about is speakers. I appreaciate the speaker reccomendations already, but id like more just to get more opinions.

[Miscue]

Alpine is perfectly fine dude, they just cost more. I might get the top end one eventually.

Are you going to have an amp?
Do you want components?
How much you want to spend?

[FalconGuy016]

Originally posted by Miscue
Are you going to have an amp?
Do you want components?
How much you want to spend?

Whoops sorry, I do have an amp. Although, I do not need a subwoofer. What are components? I can spend relatively high end, but please give me options incase they are too much

[Miscue]

Components are where your driver is separated from the other speakers, like the tweeter... as opposed to coaxials. Components sound better, cost more, and are harder to install... typically come with a crossover.

What are your amp's specs?

[FalconGuy016]

Originally posted by Miscue
Components are where your driver is separated from the other speakers, like the tweeter... as opposed to coaxials. Components sound better, cost more, and are harder to install... typically come with a crossover.

What are your amp's specs?

Oh im sorry... could you explain please? whats the driver? How is the driver related to coaxials? what are coaxials? And is a good amp required for components?

[Miscue]

http://www.thezeb.com/caraudio/specials_speakers.html

I'd recommend those CDTs for $150... that's a steal price.

[FalconGuy016]

Thanks miscue,


Whats the BEST I could do with this?
Two 6 1/2" speakers front
Two 6"x8" rear speakers?

[Miscue]

Originally posted by FalconGuy016


Oh im sorry... could you explain please? whats the driver? How is the driver related to coaxials? what are coaxials? And is a good amp required for components?

Well, the link I provided is an example of components. The speakers are separate pieces. Coaxials have multiple speakers bracketed together as one piece... this is typically what you find.

Well, a nice amp with good SQ (and not necessarily power) helps your speakers shine. There's a reason why you see these 35x2 watt amps going for hundreds of bucks. If you didn't have a decent amp, I could hardly recommend that you spend a lot of money on your speakers... you might be disappointed. How good your speakers can sound largely depends upon the amplifier. A decent pair of speakers on a good amp can sound better than an expensive pair of speakers off the deck or off a crappy amp.

[FalconGuy016]

So an amp will actually improve the quality of the sound, not just the level of volume? Is all the quality improvement because of the equalizer (is that what SQ means?) of is there some other component of the amp to improve the sound?

[AssassN]

I'm going Pioneer, but I can get them majorly cheap.

[Miscue]

Originally posted by FalconGuy016
Thanks miscue,


Whats the BEST I could do with this?
Two 6 1/2" speakers front
Two 6"x8" rear speakers?

Yeah, 6.5 is peachy. There are different philosophies on how to go about rear speakers. This is the one I suggest: You don't need expensive "rear fill" speakers, and you can run them off your deck if you only have a 2-channel amp. The object for good rear fill is... to turn them up with your fader just enough so it fills in the gaps to get that sound encompassing thing going on. You should fade them such that they are transparent to the rest of your system, which means they should not stand out, should blend in... that's why they call them "rear fill."