Descent Car Audio, Does it exist in North America?
 

Hi guys,

I recently moved to Canada, from South Africa. I own a 1993 Mercedes-Benz 190E, which had once upon a time an amazing Dolby Digital setup of 6 speakers. 2 on the dash, 2 in the doors, and 2 on the rear deck. I got the car with almost all the speakers burnt out. And I need car audio!!!

I come from a land, of Alpine, MTX, Kicker, Sony, Rockford Fosgate, MB Quartz.
I don't know too many places in Ottawa, but i've been to BestBuy and Futureshop and its just covered in mainstream crap, half of which i've never even heard of before, like Infinity, Phoenix, Diamond, Clarion etc...
Anyways I was optimistic so I thought maybe this is all elite north american stuff. So i asked the guy at the store to play some of his Coax components. He went and switched in a pair of Infinity 6.5Inch coax, that cost phewwwwwww $400+ It was probably the cheapest, low budget, no sensitivity, most pathetic frequency response, set of 6.5s i'v ever heard. The whole thing sounded like the thing was out of phase even.... Made the $60 pioneer's look elite. I just kept quiet and walked out.

I want to start of modest with this car, cos I dont know how long i'm gonna keep it for.

I'm looking for a pair of MTX TXC 5.1 Components, a Sony amp (cant afford anything more than that at the moment) and a double din deck with usb support.

Anyone know where I can get this stuff from?

The big box stores of Canada (and the US for that matter), cater to the masses that are after pricepoint equipment for the most part. As such they carry the brands that move to the masses and not the equipment for the rest. Nothing wrong with that at all, they have their place. To me it sounds like you are looking for a car audio specialty shop that will order or find the equipment best suited to your application. If I can help you out further, pm me.

thanks I appreciate that.

Buying car audio by spec alone is really difficult. It might be alright for a head unit. But for amps and speakers, you have to listen to it. So i really hope there are car audio specialty shops around town.

just click on the right of the screen, there are a bunch of active vendors here on this site

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I would look in the phone book I am sure there are multiple stereo shops in Ottawa, I don't know what they would be listed under in the yellow pages but look through for car stereo or electronics - car audio or something there will be some in there. As far as the brands you listed those are all available in Canada, you shouldn't have a hard time finding them in Ottawa you just gotta not go to Futureshop/Bestbuy they only stock low end and charge alot for it

http://www.shamuscustomz.com/

they look promising, but they are really far away....still looking.

for the most part, Infinity, Phoenix, Diamond and Clarion are pretty decent brands.

we have a couple pretty nice shops in brockville only 45 mins souh of ottawa and the one is and alpine dealer

I would say Diamond is descent...I really think infinity is very over rated, Phoenix is alright but they ahve gone downhill in recent years. Clarion has and still is pretty entrylevel gear

you're in ottawa, they're in ottawa. how is that far away?

also, check out derand in ottawa http://www.derand.com/