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  #1  
Old 04-14-2009, 10:22 AM
NiftySVX NiftySVX is offline
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Sound system recconmendations

So I've been fighting a horrible resonance in my svx since i put my aftermarket boston speakers in it back in 1999. I have since owned 2 lexus vehicles and really want to do something that will bring the sound up to a "premium" level. I don't need it to be loud, I just want full, powerful sound that will have a natural, balanced tone to it. I think this would be possible considering the speaker size and location offers a bit of flexibility. Are there any other audiophiles here that have found a good setup, without adding a sub or amplifiers? I know it's not possible to get anything that could even touch the Mark Levinson in the Lexus, but maybe something that could approach the JBL systems in Toyotas and still be less than $1000?
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Old 04-14-2009, 10:30 AM
1986nate 1986nate is offline
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

Quote:
Originally Posted by NiftySVX View Post
So I've been fighting a horrible resonance in my svx since i put my aftermarket boston speakers in it back in 1999. I have since owned 2 lexus vehicles and really want to do something that will bring the sound up to a "premium" level. I don't need it to be loud, I just want full, powerful sound that will have a natural, balanced tone to it. I think this would be possible considering the speaker size and location offers a bit of flexibility. Are there any other audiophiles here that have found a good setup, without adding a sub or amplifiers? I know it's not possible to get anything that could even touch the Mark Levinson in the Lexus, but maybe something that could approach the JBL systems in Toyotas and still be less than $1000?
Without adding a sub, very much so, without adding an amp to drive a set of components? possibly.
A good set up would be to go with a solid set of component 6.5" speakers up front with a set of quality 6x9 coaxials in the rear. To really fill the sound better, even something like a single 8" or 10" sub would really help while not taking up much space at all in the trunk. To do this without a sub you could easily get some good sound for around $400(component/coaxial/amp) and if you included a quality sub and amp add another $300. I'm dead serious about the price too. Also what would help is some dynomat or similar stuff in the doors to help rid you of any annoying resonances.

Don't get caught up in the name brands in car audio. There are some unknown brands that have been able to produce great quality stuff without the big name price because they don't spend on advertising, and also, most only sell off their own sites so that retailers aren't jacking up the price to "get their slice".

Last edited by 1986nate; 04-14-2009 at 10:35 AM.
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  #3  
Old 04-14-2009, 10:33 AM
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

I have been quite happy with the MB Quart Reference Series speakers I have installed in a few of the SVXs I've owned. Generally I have used them with a newer Subaru headunit, but I have also run them on an aftermarket one with good results.

Using an MB Quart crossover, part of a component set, and connecting aftermarket tweeters in the stock locations have yielded good results. The stereo in my last Pearlie sounded great. If I really wanted to bring it up to the next level, I would have installed an amplifier, but I did not feel the need to do so.

Edit: I highly recommend those speakers as they are reasonably-priced as well.
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Old 04-14-2009, 10:35 AM
NiftySVX NiftySVX is offline
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

I don't care what brand they are, I just want to know what everyone is running and who thinks they have found a good set of speakers. I have had good luck with MB Quart in the past, as well as polk.
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Old 04-14-2009, 10:38 AM
NiftySVX NiftySVX is offline
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

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Originally Posted by Mike621 View Post
I have been quite happy with the MB Quart Reference Series speakers I have installed in a few of the SVXs I've owned. Generally I have used them with a newer Subaru headunit, but I have also run them on an aftermarket one with good results.

Using an MB Quart crossover, part of a component set, and connecting aftermarket tweeters in the stock locations have yielded good results. The stereo in my last Pearlie sounded great. If I really wanted to bring it up to the next level, I would have installed an amplifier, but I did not feel the need to do so.

Edit: I highly recommend those speakers as they are reasonably-priced as well.
How much wiring modification do you have to do to install the crossover between the door speakers and the remote tweeters?
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Old 04-14-2009, 10:40 AM
1986nate 1986nate is offline
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

Quote:
Originally Posted by NiftySVX View Post
I don't care what brand they are, I just want to know what everyone is running and who thinks they have found a good set of speakers. I have had good luck with MB Quart in the past, as well as polk.
Another good brand that is relatively unknown is Cadence Audio. I just ordered a set of 6.5" components for $90 with free shipping and a 2 year warranty. I can let you know how they sound both with and without and amp when I get them and install after Reading.
MB Quart were another set that I had considered when I bought speakers because they were also a good price for some of there speakers.
I would stay away from Polk. There home audio is some of the best but there car audio is not the greatest other than their top end stuff which is high priced.

Last edited by 1986nate; 04-14-2009 at 10:45 AM.
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Old 04-14-2009, 11:42 AM
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

I concur with pretty much all the recommendations given so far, and just wanted to add to it.

Generally, the better brand valued names in car and home audio are going to be the names you haven't heard of (B&W, Rotel, Kef, Celestion for home audio or Cadence, Diamond Audio, Focal, CDT etc). The only thing is that there are a lot of unknown names that actually are junk, so just make sure you do your reading. The mainstream brands do have their high end lines as well, but you're going to typically pay a higher premium for them.
Aluminum and titanium dome tweeters are much louder, but can become more tinny and harsh. Silk dome tweeters are smoother. If you are going to upgrade the speakers to higher end ones, you should definitely amp them. Running them on head unit power is often insufficient in getting them going.

The SVX has a few minor obstacles to get across but is much better than most cars of its age.

- Spacers need to be used on some setups in order to prevent the window from hitting the back of the speaker magnet.
- Breaking clips off will cause a lot of buzzing, so its important to not break the clips.
- Components are recommended due to how low the door speakers reside. Passenger's feet can block the higher notes, so the tweeter helps it out.
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Old 04-14-2009, 12:13 PM
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

i had a diamond audio sub, and it was better than the alpine type r that i also had, and it was much cheaper.

basically,

repplace all 6 of the stock speakers and add an amp + head unit (most important, i would only go name brands here), combined with new wires (if you really want quality) and some dynamat... and you will have a smooth and loud system that will outshine most new stock "premium" systems.
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Old 04-14-2009, 12:45 PM
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

About the MB Quarts, you have to be careful about what you buy. Any of the new stuff is junk. MB Quart was a top of the line brand for years, highly regarded as one of the best names in speakers. They hit hard times, though, and were bought by Rockford Fosgate in late 2001. This isn't a terrible thing, as rockford makes decent products (I own 3 of the Reference series amps made under the MB Quart name while owned by Rockford, decent enough). What's bad is what happened next. In Oct. 2005 RF sold MB Quart to Maxxsonics. You know Maxxsonics, the brand they sell at the super sales in the convention centers all over the country. Let's just say that Maxxsonics doesn't make the best audio equipment, and that's putting it nicely.

The point here is that MB Quart did make great speakers, and you can still find the good stuff if you do don't mind buying used gear or buying something that has been sitting in a box for 8+ years (you can still find the good old MB Quart stuff on ebay unused sometimes) but do your homework and make sure you're not getting the new Maxxsonics junk.

Other than that Focal, CDT, Diamond, Image Dynamics, all good stuff. Sundown makes a good amp at a decent price for its quality. If you're really into sound quality the old Eclipse 8053 is a great deck that will let you go active, but it's a dead head. If you want a powered HU than the 8443 is the same as the 8053, just with the speaker outs. Downside to these units is they are picky about burnt CDs and you can't play MP3s. If you can't live without mp3 or burnt CD support, I've always liked the Pioneer Premier 880 (I think the new version is called the 800).
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Old 04-14-2009, 01:00 PM
1986nate 1986nate is offline
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

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Other than that Focal, CDT, Diamond, Image Dynamics, all good stuff. Sundown makes a good amp at a decent price for its quality. If you're really into sound quality the old Eclipse 8053 is a great deck that will let you go active, but it's a dead head. If you want a powered HU than the 8443 is the same as the 8053, just with the speaker outs. Downside to these units is they are picky about burnt CDs and you can't play MP3s. If you can't live without mp3 or burnt CD support, I've always liked the Pioneer Premier 880 (I think the new version is called the 800).
If you look careful enough you can find the older Eclipse HU's with mp3 support. Or if you're lucky enough to find the 550xx(can't remember numbers right now) it is a DVD player dead head with balanced line 16v outputs that you hook up monitors to actually play the DVD movies but it will play DVD audio discs(like mp3 but on DVD so a TON of music).

Oh, and one thing to note, these are 5+ year old HU's and still sell for $200 and the DVD for about $250 used But well worth it, they literally are the best decks.
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Old 04-14-2009, 01:18 PM
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

I just performed an install for a friend's Durango. We ended up going with a Pioneer Premiere DEH 410. It was a really good head unit for the money.

For $150 it came wiht a USB cable to plug in external devices for flash drives and Ipod controls, 3 sets of 4 volt preouts, and 3 band parametric equalizer.
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Old 04-14-2009, 02:23 PM
NiftySVX NiftySVX is offline
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

I know about Focal and B&W, but I've not seen either with an aftermarket mobile line. I don't want to spend that much though even if they did, because it would cost much more than the car is worth. Does anyone know about McIntosh's line? I have some of their home stuff and it is pretty good, but isn't their mobile stuff done by clarion now or something?
To be precise, I want a set of 6 speakers in factory locations that aren't going to cost more than about 750 $, and I'm not buying another head unit that is not nav. I am considering components for the rear and not using the tweeter section as I would prefer the highs be localized to the front, and I am hoping someone makes some kind of active equilizer in the aftermarket world so i can boost the low frequency response at low volume levels. As far as what was said about the high frequency drivers, I would give priority to a dome unit as this provides the most natural sound to me (with the execption of a heil air motion transformer, mind you) and would never consider a system that incorporated any sort of compression driver. Nothing is worse than a jagged, harsh response from the high end.
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Old 04-14-2009, 05:21 PM
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

I've had good results with JL Audio speakers and the TMA speakers (owned by JL Audio).
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Old 04-14-2009, 07:03 PM
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

Last time I checked not spending a lot of money on a system and buying McIntosh were complete contradictions. But yes, they do make great products. They were bought by Clarion and later sold to the same company that owns Denon (look up the Denon Z1, talk about expensive), the products are still top notch (top dollar, also).

I agree with skipping the highs in the rear. The last couple cars of mine had no rear speakers, gotta preserve that front stage!!
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Old 04-14-2009, 07:49 PM
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Re: Sound system recconmendations

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Last time I checked not spending a lot of money on a system and buying McIntosh were complete contradictions. But yes, they do make great products. They were bought by Clarion and later sold to the same company that owns Denon (look up the Denon Z1, talk about expensive), the products are still top notch (top dollar, also).

I agree with skipping the highs in the rear. The last couple cars of mine had no rear speakers, gotta preserve that front stage!!
I run no rear speakers as well since I don't have passengers in the rear anyway. It also allows for bass to travel into the cabin more easily from the subwoofer.

You can still find a lot of the older McIntosh amps on Ebay, along with the older Zapco and Soundstream. Those still hold their value.

Focal does make a mobile line. I havent heard them myself. I'm a big fan of the CDT Audio Components because I feel their imaging is quite seamless and have very smooth tweeters. I have the classic series but from what I've read the HD series and Eurosport series are even better.

http://www.woofersetc.com/p1117/HD62...t-Speakers.htm

Have you ever considered 6" subwoofers running infinite baffle on the rear deck? You could cross them over from 60-100 hz and then run a normal sized sub for 60 and below. That should give you a smooth transition. I've thought about it myself but ended up sticking with what I have. Elemental Designs is one of those internet brands that have been around for about 6 years and they are equivilent to Resonant Engineering (RE), Adire Audio (recently halted operations).

http://www.edesignaudio.com/product_...products_id=33
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