THE BEST AUDIO SPEAKER

[Mobius1]

Alien mantis, you need to sit in a true SQ car and i promise your opinions will change. There is nothing cooler than being able to close your eyes(in such a car) and hearing the music in all its rich and vibrant detail. With eyes still closed you could swear that the music is being played out in front of you, not being able to pinpoint where the speakers are in the car, sounding as if it was coming out of the windshield. If its a truly awesome system you can even hear a difference between where the instruments are being played on stage(with the proper music anyway).

Back to the original question asked: If you are not doing the install yourself just shop around to local shops and do a lot of listening and get what u can afford and like. It will save you a lot of hassle if you ever have any problems with anything if u just buy the equipment and have it installed at the same place.

[xen555]

http://onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/...e_SPR-17S.aspx

that will be my choice if you are looking for fidelity i have those in my last car and i love how they sound and those guy in onlinecarstereo have everything u need and they have really good prices!!

[Alien Mantis]

Originally Posted by Mobius1

Alien mantis, you need to sit in a true SQ car and i promise your opinions will change. If its a truly awesome system you can even hear a difference between where the instruments are being played on stage(with the proper music anyway).

I know what you mean.
I have experienced this several years ago.
This guy I knew was a manager at our local stereo shop. He used his car as an audio demonstrator for some of the products they sold. At the time, they were heavy into Clarion, Planet Audio, and Earthquake stuff. So he had all the top-of-the-line Clarion, Planet Audio, and Earthquake stuff in this car. Lots of Dynamat everywhere too. I remember he had four 10" subs in this thing, and they had such a tight hard hit, I couldn't believe the windows weren't breaking in this car. I have never heard anything like it before, or since.
The music was crystal clear across the whole spectrum, and the farther you cranked the volume, the louder it got while staying perfectly clean. I estimated he had around $7,000 worth of gear in this car, which was a fortune at the time. ( Early 1990's ). He didn't get to keep all the stuff, the shop was loaning most of it to him. Kinda sad though, he would play this thing for customers, then they were ruined for life. Once you have heard that, you know what can be done, and it's hard to be satisfied with a "mediocre" system.
They built custom speaker kickpanels for this car, loaded with top-end component stuff. I think it had two Earthquake amps, and maybe one or two Planet Audio amps in it, but I don't remember. I was shocked because it sounded like it had 20 amps in it. The thing that impressed me the most was, in spite of it being louder than humans can survive, it was crystal clean. I never heard that in ANY system before. The louder you get, the dirtier you are supposed to get. Not this system.
Technology has come a long way since then, but I still haven't heard a system that sounds better than that system did. I'm sure they exist, but I ask myself, what is the point?

I have a good home audio system, and a really nice surround sound system for my home theater setup, but I never could justify spending thousands of dollars on CAR AUDIO. It bakes in the sun out here where I live, and thieves steal that stuff. So I never saw the point in wasting my money. I will spend a few hundred bucks to make it sound acceptable, but beyond that, it's good enough for me. I love a SQ comp car system, but I will never do one for myself. I prefer to relax at home with a cold beer and listen to my good audio system in my house.

[Alien Mantis]

And while we are still on this subject:

FOCAL "Utopia Be" has got to be the most overpriced stuff I ever seen.

What some people fail to understand is, there are only so many ways/materials you can build a speaker/amp/crossover with. Once you use the very best materials and engineering, where do you go from there?

Is that $1,500 FOCAL sub going to play so much nicer than a JL W7 ?
Nah. Maybe slightly different, and in some cases, the JL might sound better. We all know so many other factors come into play when dealing with this stuff. So once you have good components and amps, it's the acoustics of the vehicle and other installation factors that will make the difference. Besides, it's all subjective. What sounds really good to one person, might not sound as good to the next person.
Sound is "art", and as with all "art", you got your "art snobs".

Do you really want to spend $4,000 on 1 set of component speakers when you can spend $2,000 on the whole car and make it sound like the sky is falling? At what point does it just become "spending money for the sake of spending money"?
Do you like bragging to other people that you spent $20,000 on your car stereo system?

Take your car to Will Castro at Unique Whips and let him LACE OUT THAT WHIP! REMY will tune that shit up for ya!

lol

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by Alien Mantis

Technology has come a long way since then, but I still haven't heard a system that sounds better than that system did. I'm sure they exist, but I ask myself, what is the point?

with the exception of DVD/MP3 decks, and Class D amps there really hasn't been much improvement in the electronics side of audio... As for speakers... the only thing that's happened is a few new motor topologies which have done wonders at reducing distortion on high excursion subs... but the speakers that use that technology are very few and far between.