JETkoten

Hi All,

I'm a Canadian living in a big city in the US... part of my welcome upon arrival here was to have a car break-in. My used 1997 Rav4 came with an aftermarket Panasonic CD player in it installed by someone else before I got the car. I left the faceplate on the night before the break-in and for some reason it got taken, but not the radio itself.

I've been living without in-car music for a couple months now, due to personal finances and work and holiday travel and I haven't gotten a chance to sort it out yet. Soon I'll likely be able to though. Being without has made me want to do it up right when I get the money, with a new SQ 1-din HU, 2-way SQ components up front, mid-bass in the back and an amp for those speakers and a sub with its own amp too.

I love deep, clear, low, low bass and the music I listen to mostly is African and Caribbean songs that often have fast, bouncing bass notes in the music with a fairly wide range of pitches of musical notes in the basslines. I'm guessing I'd probably prefer a sealed enclosure, or bandpass? (don't know much about bandpass and how well it matches my kind of music) because I'd like a powerful range of bass with emphasis on the deepest notes but solid all around though I'd like my sub to only take care of the lowest low notes, not much activity at all above 70 Hz and maybe hardly any above 50-55 Hz. That's where I'd like the mid-bass to kick in. Also a small box because I'll have to camoflouge it in the back of my RAV4 somehow to avoid it being stolen.

I don't not care in the least about SPL numbers, setting off car alarms, vibrating my eyes in my head so much that it becomes hard to drive, or my system being heard through 3 meter thick concrete walls 10 kilometers away or anything like that that a lot of people seem to be into. I simply want to be inside the music and feel it inside me.

With that in mind I have been spending plenty of my free time researching potential system components and also reading posts on here. You all seem to be very knowledgeable and so I'd like to pose to you my ideas and ask for advice please.

For HUs I'm looking into Alpine 9835 (hard to find new, I do want a new HU only), 9855, 9857 and 9860. It appears the 9860 has a much higher signal to noise ratio than the others in the CD section at 115 dB compared to 105 dB, so if I used that with store bought professionally mastered CDs there could be more of an SQ opportunity there, no? Although, I think its D/A might not be as nice as other manufacturers'? Which one makes for better SQ please, D/A or S/N? 9835 and 9855 have Bass Pro and time allignment and parametric EQ, right?, all of which I would like to make use of, as I couldn't afford a processor right now.

Also looking at the Premier 880 (SQ is supposed to be good, but couldn't hear it as it wasn't hooked up right in the store that day... complicated menus and plasticy hands-on feel I thought), unless I'm mistaken only auto time allignment and graphic EQ? but if it has the better SQ maybe I could live with it), and I've tried to consider Eclipse too, but I find their units and speakers and subs ugly looking and that nav stuff on their 1-dins is something I'd never use or want because it seems too small to use to me, and I have a standalone GPS anyway.

I'd have to do their top of the line 1-din because removable faceplate is a must for me (though it costs more than I'd really like to spend by far), maybe I'd like it better if I saw it in person, but by pictures alone the visual design is so bad to me that I'd have a hard time going with Eclpise even though the specs look pretty good on paper and I've heard the sound is good. My first choice right now is Alpine.

For components and midbass, I'm thinking of Alpine Type-X... 2-way up front and midbass in the rear, both 6.5". I haven't been able to find them in person to hear them though. I listened to the Type-R components in a car audio store and they sounded foggy to me, was thinking of them but now no. Someone there tried to recommend some Boston Pro components but they sounded too biased toward high frequencies to me... to tinny sounding.

Also, since finding out about Focal and Image Dynamics and AVI (Canadian one? I may forget the name) on here I'd like to consider those speakers and subs but don't know which models are comparable to Type-X with them and as affordable or more, or which would be good for my kind of music.

For subs, I listened to Type-R and again found it foggy. I heard a Type-X 10" that sounded really good to me, but I'd be looking for a 12" in Type-X, and am not sure how the sounds between 10" and 12" would vary.

I've heard that the ID Q15" is a wonderful sub, and as I am on a budget, being able to power it and their components with less powerful, less expensive amps and still get the real low notes coming through more clearly and good SQ on the components and mid-bass might be a winning solution for me... one site said it goes down to 10 Hz, never heard that sub either in person though.

Speaking of amps, I'd probably go with an Alpine V12 MRV-F345 and MRD-M605 combo if I go with ID and maybe Alpine PDX-1.1000 and PDX-4.150 pair if I go with Type-X. I would want to mount all of these under my seats for stealth, any reason why that wouldn't work?

I'm also thinking of doing Dynamat Extreme, at least the doors, and maybe elsewhere, don't know yet. My car is really pretty rattley already, over bumps at least, even with no deep bass going on.

My aim is to have wonderful SQ on a budget as much as possible, and stealth/removeable faceplate. Low-end to "mid-end" SQ. Last thing for you to consider is that I like the idea of not having unmatched (different manufacturers') system parts as much as possible. I know that irritates some people from what I've read, but that's how I'd like my system to be. I would be fine with doing the Alpine/ID combo though because their smaller V12 amps seem to match the specs ID reccomends so well.

If I end up going Pioneer or Eclipse, I might like to use their comparable to Type-X speakers, subs and amps and have looked at them, but don't remember model numbers right now. The idea of ID or Focal is interesting to me, though don't know how affordable they are and I haven't found enough info on them or any reccomendations, but if I went Focal, I might try to use their amps and subs too? Can someone comment on Focal relative to my goals? The K series looks nice, but prob. too $$$ and does it match my music well?

Thanks for reading this long post and please let me know what you think in the thread here and I'll reply back too as we go along.

Thanks,
JET

surround sound

iTrader: (3)

sounds like a car alarm would be your first option.

why do people discuss brands , which one to get. your choice is always based on price and application. do plan to run rca or go optical from head unit to amp.

your purchases should be stuff you will keep for 3-5 and slowly build your system. few guys can drop 5 g on new stuff.

IMO design your system and the products will fall in place. some stuff l would go used. l picked up 4 rockford T1 for 400 refurbished. good luck

Brad-S.A.

iTrader: (35)

Have you considered a Nakamichi CD-500 or CD-700II for your HU.

Staff @ CAFz

iTrader: (5)

I agree, in terms of head units im torn between a Alpine DVA-9861 or Eclipse CD7000.

I like the functionality of playing mp3s from a burnt DVD disc, and alpine has never failed me.
Eclipse on the other hand locally here has always had a reputation for making incredible head units.

I’m just thinking now, is it overkill for a car driven once a week to show (and not to even compete). The Alpine DVA-9861 at $599 us is fairly pricey for a unit that will likely get less than 50 off/ons in a year. Another option to cut some costs may just be to get a Alpine CDA-9857.


I guess it has to do with what functionality and price balance you can find. Because i feel ive found 2 head units comparable in features / price, i will now just looking for the better customer support and price.

JETkoten

I'm looking into car alarms... they're $$$ though and people here are so used to them. I think if a thief saw something they wanted, they would still smash and grab even with the alarm going off. I'm thinking of trying to buy a refurbished last year's model and have it installed though.

Optical vs. RCA is not something I'd considered before your reply. Now that I have, optical is what I'll choose, and a deck with 24-bit D/A. Thanks for that and the time line of 3-5 years.

About Nakamichis I looked at the 10 best SQ decks thread right after I posted, so I learned of the Nakamichis there too and am checking them out, thanks.

9861 and 7000 both look good to me too, and what you said about features and price really makes sense. About customer service though, I was going to probably buy my deck w/o warranty to save money, so... is that worth reconsidering, how often do decks go bad these days?

Sorry if my post was too long. If so, it's because I've been thinking this over for months now and just wanted to put it all out here on the SQ forum to see if anyone's got anything to suggest, or resources they could point me to so I could learn more and create a good system. I'm thinking I might try to do some more research and design a few variations of systems and then maybe post them for comments. I do still have questions about the speakers, subs and amps in my long post above, but I don't blame anyone if they get bogged down in the reading. Still, if anyone could have another look up there and have a go at answering/commenting on things no one has yet, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks,
JET

Hardwrkr

iTrader: (5)

I much prefer the 880PRS over the 9835 with many of the features bieng pretty equal except I feel the Pioneer's EQ is much much better than the one in the Alpine (Alpine's para-EQ doesn't scroll through a wide enough frequency range for each adjustment IMO). Plus I and a few others have found that the 9835's had a noise issue that no matter what tuning could get rid of.

If you're on a budget forget the Alpine PDX amps unless space is of major concern. There's literally tons of other amps out there for much cheaper that are just as good if not better.

For components you'll have to go with your ears and budget on those.

Sub wise, a single quality 12" ported with adequate power will likely be enough. IDMax or Oz Matrix Elite 12" both sound better than the Type X and can usually be found cheaper. Will get louder also as they are both much more efficient than the X. One of these two with 600-750rms on it will get quite loud and sound very very good.

theif

I run the 880 . It has auto eq , time correction , independant left and right 15 band eq that can be used on top of the auto features , 3 way xover net , independant speaker level control , independant speaker xover settings , the ability do turn off the internal amp and the display , dual 24 bit DACs and pretty damn good sq . It has alot more features than this , I listed the ones I consider important for good sq . FYI , NO audible noise with a 0 bit track at 4/5 max volume meaning it clips before any noise appears . Not to bad in my book . I,m not being biased , these are facts , IMO I don't think anyones gonna win any sq chapionships with it because of slight flaws in the tonal response , all tho I think it would take a pretty well trained ear to pick up on it . Oh yeah , it only cost me $435 USD .

JETkoten

Hi Everyone,

I'm very grateful for the input. I'm really thinking deeply now about what surround sound said about running an optical system. I think that's what I'd like to do.

Any opinions on Alpine's MRA-D550 5 channel amp? It has an optical input, plus it has built in manual time correction and mega adjustable crossovers, para EQ. Basically everything I wanted, and was looking for in a HU like the 9835... but in the amp instead. Seems like as long as I pick an Alpine deck with an optical out I might be in pretty good shape for getting started with learning about SQ without having to spring for an H701 right off the bat. Any input from the forum?

Thanks,
JET

JETkoten

Hardwrkr... please tell me what are your top picks of those good if not better than pdx amps for a sub amp?

Thanks,
JET