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silly "audiophile" thread
- Thread starter 01blacks4
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Are you talking about just having expensive equipment in the car or having a car that sounds great? Exotic equipment really isn't going to do you much unless it's installed properly. Some of my favorite cars used off the shelf components and sound better than the cars that were trying to stuff home audio equipment into them. Chad Klodner's Mustang and Skeep come to mind. While I've also heard many cars that had fortunes spent on equipment and custom installation that sounded like disasters. But if those people came on and posted what they had in their cars, people would be drooling.
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now come on you and i both know what i am asking for its not only what you have but how you use it. install is 99.9% of the whole thing but since sound is subjective and the 2 cars you mentioned not being excited about happen to be some of the most revered cars in the industry (at least that side of it) it reinterates the fact of subjectivity. so again i ask " whats the best system you have had" i want the details...
I also have had great results with Ok product but i have had WAY WAY WAY better results with better product.
as far as your coment about the custom install disasters, i can only agree, i like to say there are installers and fabricators, and it is very rare that you find someone who is both.
All of the installs i have done in the past have always been "custom" but where focused on sound. any one can pull glass or paint a panel. not everyone understands what happens to air as it leaves a speaker, and how our ears preceive that.
sounds like you have been into car audio for awhile (chad mention) ever play in IASCA and all that? any magizines?
I also have had great results with Ok product but i have had WAY WAY WAY better results with better product.
as far as your coment about the custom install disasters, i can only agree, i like to say there are installers and fabricators, and it is very rare that you find someone who is both.
All of the installs i have done in the past have always been "custom" but where focused on sound. any one can pull glass or paint a panel. not everyone understands what happens to air as it leaves a speaker, and how our ears preceive that.
sounds like you have been into car audio for awhile (chad mention) ever play in IASCA and all that? any magizines?
01blacks4 said:
No, I did not say I was not excited about those cars. Those were 2 of my favorites! I like everything about Chad's mustang, I was just saying they used off the shelf parts and sounded awesome. I thought you were referring to high end as some of those guys that took apart B&W Nautilus speakers and incorporated Milbert amps into the cars.
Did you know Skeep's owner used to participate on this forum?
01blacks4 said:
I worked on some of the cars and I'll just leave it at that.
They are embarassing to mention in wake of what's out there now. I was really into it when the Alpine 7909 was the deck to get and when were modifying Rane and Alesis equipment to work in the cars.My best sounding car I thought was my Civic with kickpanels. Incidentally I used the first (green) HEX Diamond Audio's which people were mistaking for Etons. This was when Matt Overpeck at Diamond hooked me up and I even ran one of the first sets so he gave me these un-covered prototype crossovers which I had to return back to the office in Santa Monica. They were bulky kind of goofy drivers but they sounded great and owned female vocals! The tinsel leads kept breaking on me so I just went with something more durable. 3 JL 10W6 subs in the trunk, Alpine 7939, 2 Rockford Punch (gold and silver) amps, PPI FRX456 Crossover, EQTs and USD Audio midbasses. Face value, simple install and sounded really good.
I spent a lot more money on my Grand National. I blew a bunch of money on these Veritas accuwave horns that I thought sucked and I went through equipment on that car like a madman. The imaging was great with 4" Boston Proseries in the dash. I ran Orion HCCA and then Autotek amps. I think I might still have the MTX Black Gold 10s somewhere. I tried to incorporate home audio equipment into that car and discovered the hard way that they weren't made for the car.
That big ole Dynaudio dome midrange, I tried that! Plus some of the drivers Dynaudio and Morel sold when you used to be able to buy the drivers raw.
15 years ago I had a nissan 300 Z twin turbo with 2 - 10 inch bazooka tubes in the trunk powered by an alpine amp pushing out 200 watts to each tub. Holly shit batman, i just barely fit them in and only cracked my rear hatch glass twice.
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sounds like you where from the usd speakerworks crew.....
as far as chads being off the shelf... HAHAHAHAHAHAH nothing in his car was stock regardless of what he may have said new op amps in the amps, all the RF noise circuit taken out, the rane stuff, the modded changer, etc,etc etc. sweet car though. he built a car that I used to tune back the day, a black integra for julian nieh. nice car but sub system never worked (it worked just did sound like it was the same system)
yeah i miss those days. i lived on the east coast and lived close to drew williams and all the PJ's crowd. started a little team for the shop i ran called team ohio...ended up doing pretty well
the B&W milbert car was in my area also, he was an ass but his car sound ed great from the driverside, prolly the best car i have ever heard even to this day, just only from that side. as far as over all it was cool, but ANYTHING can sound good from one side.
couple cars that i built back in the day that i still like are a red 911, with 3 xtant 2200 in the front on a motorized amp rack, 3 brax caps, ppi deq 230, ppi phase tool, ols green diamonds in the floor w/ the tweeters in the door all firing at the windsheild. all kinbercable pure silver wire w/ WBT connection. car was awsome, great stageing sick depth and so smooth... (fwiw it sounds like your old diamonds were the ones eton was building...all the early ones broke tinsel leads, that why we started making them ourselfs) that 911 was in car audio..cant remember when, guy never wanted to take it to a show....he would rocked.
i also had a gti that competed w/ in the expert class. best i ever did was 3rd w/ that @ finals behind mark eldridge and wilson adcock. i actually beat one of them in shound but man i was going with the BASIC install. still beat alma gates and a bunch of other people. same kinda set up as the 911 xtant, ads PE speakers, jl sub sony 910 w210 all kimber silver wire (still have 15K in wire in a box in the garage)...
maybe i should use that someday....
as far as chads being off the shelf... HAHAHAHAHAHAH nothing in his car was stock regardless of what he may have said new op amps in the amps, all the RF noise circuit taken out, the rane stuff, the modded changer, etc,etc etc. sweet car though. he built a car that I used to tune back the day, a black integra for julian nieh. nice car but sub system never worked (it worked just did sound like it was the same system)
yeah i miss those days. i lived on the east coast and lived close to drew williams and all the PJ's crowd. started a little team for the shop i ran called team ohio...ended up doing pretty well
the B&W milbert car was in my area also, he was an ass but his car sound ed great from the driverside, prolly the best car i have ever heard even to this day, just only from that side. as far as over all it was cool, but ANYTHING can sound good from one side.
couple cars that i built back in the day that i still like are a red 911, with 3 xtant 2200 in the front on a motorized amp rack, 3 brax caps, ppi deq 230, ppi phase tool, ols green diamonds in the floor w/ the tweeters in the door all firing at the windsheild. all kinbercable pure silver wire w/ WBT connection. car was awsome, great stageing sick depth and so smooth... (fwiw it sounds like your old diamonds were the ones eton was building...all the early ones broke tinsel leads, that why we started making them ourselfs) that 911 was in car audio..cant remember when, guy never wanted to take it to a show....he would rocked.
i also had a gti that competed w/ in the expert class. best i ever did was 3rd w/ that @ finals behind mark eldridge and wilson adcock. i actually beat one of them in shound but man i was going with the BASIC install. still beat alma gates and a bunch of other people. same kinda set up as the 911 xtant, ads PE speakers, jl sub sony 910 w210 all kimber silver wire (still have 15K in wire in a box in the garage)...
maybe i should use that someday....
Cheers to the old school! :wink:
Elridge had a nice 4Runner, I'm a big fan of dash speakers and he's the one who ran his horns in the dash I'm pretty sure.
Yes I'm from the west coast so I do know a lot of the Speakerworks crew. That Grand National was my dreamcar and my own GN would have been at that level if it didn't get stolen.
I just found this old picture of when I was getting started on the Civic. I ran that same DEQ230 too but I opted for the EQTs so I could could do both sides. It's amazing how much installation space I could have saved using something like the Audio Control DQS or DQX.
When I look back though, I figure I spent way too much money and the systems were way too complex. All for what now? Ah well, for now I'm just gonna keep it real, or as real as I can keep it.
Elridge had a nice 4Runner, I'm a big fan of dash speakers and he's the one who ran his horns in the dash I'm pretty sure.
Yes I'm from the west coast so I do know a lot of the Speakerworks crew. That Grand National was my dreamcar and my own GN would have been at that level if it didn't get stolen.
I just found this old picture of when I was getting started on the Civic. I ran that same DEQ230 too but I opted for the EQTs so I could could do both sides.
It's amazing how much installation space I could have saved using something like the Audio Control DQS or DQX.When I look back though, I figure I spent way too much money and the systems were way too complex. All for what now? Ah well, for now I'm just gonna keep it real, or as real as I can keep it.
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Pioneer Head unit.....probably not the best, but it was the most powerful and user friendly at the time....didnt' even use the amps on it.
Kicker ZR series amps (ZR600 for subs and ZR360 for highs/mids)
Kicker SoloBaric D series Subs ( the best kicker subs made imo)
MB Quart Component system. 1 inch Tweeters and 6.5 inch mids.
Used shitty interconnects, but what are you going to do, I was 17.
This was in a 300ZX btw. Sounded fantastic.
Kicker ZR series amps (ZR600 for subs and ZR360 for highs/mids)
Kicker SoloBaric D series Subs ( the best kicker subs made imo)
MB Quart Component system. 1 inch Tweeters and 6.5 inch mids.
Used shitty interconnects, but what are you going to do, I was 17.
This was in a 300ZX btw. Sounded fantastic.
My Last system consisted of Tru Technology amps with CDT EuroSports 3 way system on an Old school Hifonics 10 Band Quasi Parametric eq.
I used to run the Older Hifonics Zeus/Boltar Series VIIs and still run Old School Lanzar Opti Drive amps to this day.
My NSX set-up will be tru technology again and CDT 07 series components on maybe a P9 Combo or the DRZ Clarion...We shall see.
Mike
I used to run the Older Hifonics Zeus/Boltar Series VIIs and still run Old School Lanzar Opti Drive amps to this day.
My NSX set-up will be tru technology again and CDT 07 series components on maybe a P9 Combo or the DRZ Clarion...We shall see.
Mike
My last system was in a '90 Miata. It ran well for 3 years before I sold it. Of course I only drove it 750 miles a year so not a lot of use on the system.
I learned that more is not always good, and I plan to go very simple on my NSX install. They system was sort of fun, though. Head unit was ALPINE CD running through an Eclipse DSP. Also had a Kenwood 6042 equalizer with parametric bands (cool EQ). Power was a/d/s PQ10 running mids and highs on the door (Boston Acoustic). Also a/d/s PS5 runing rear channel speakers - Rockford Fosgate 5" mids and separate tweeters (behind the seats). And another power amp to run the surround speakers also located behind the seats. And an ALPINE amp to run sub box located in the trunk (2ea. BA 8" .4LF subs).
With all those controls, I was always tweeking the sound for every CD I played. Sort of fun, but seemed complex in hind sight. And I'm sure the imaging was crazy awful.
Really looking forward to my straight forward install on the NSX! Good sub, good set of door speakers and adequate clean power from the trunk! I think it will rock! All I have to do is turn it to eleven.
Shaun
I learned that more is not always good, and I plan to go very simple on my NSX install. They system was sort of fun, though. Head unit was ALPINE CD running through an Eclipse DSP. Also had a Kenwood 6042 equalizer with parametric bands (cool EQ). Power was a/d/s PQ10 running mids and highs on the door (Boston Acoustic). Also a/d/s PS5 runing rear channel speakers - Rockford Fosgate 5" mids and separate tweeters (behind the seats). And another power amp to run the surround speakers also located behind the seats. And an ALPINE amp to run sub box located in the trunk (2ea. BA 8" .4LF subs).
With all those controls, I was always tweeking the sound for every CD I played. Sort of fun, but seemed complex in hind sight. And I'm sure the imaging was crazy awful.
Really looking forward to my straight forward install on the NSX! Good sub, good set of door speakers and adequate clean power from the trunk! I think it will rock! All I have to do is turn it to eleven.
Shaun
Ill kick this one back off cause Im a noob here!!
2003 Silverado SS with 15k worth of audio in the car!
3 12" subs in a "blowthrough"
5 Phoenix Gold Amplifiers
3 monitors one was a 15" flip down
Diamond Hex components
3 optima Batteries
300 amp alternator with outboard rectifier and regulator
....
...
On top of that the truck ran 12's in the quarter mile with over 600 hp! It was a fun truck to have for 2 summers. It did well on the show scene here in Chicago as well as killed most cars on the street as my Dailydriver
Here is the link to pics..
http://www.sounddomain.com/ride/652077
2003 Silverado SS with 15k worth of audio in the car!
3 12" subs in a "blowthrough"
5 Phoenix Gold Amplifiers
3 monitors one was a 15" flip down
Diamond Hex components
3 optima Batteries
300 amp alternator with outboard rectifier and regulator
....
...
On top of that the truck ran 12's in the quarter mile with over 600 hp! It was a fun truck to have for 2 summers. It did well on the show scene here in Chicago as well as killed most cars on the street as my Dailydriver
Here is the link to pics..
http://www.sounddomain.com/ride/652077
The best sounding system that I've ever owned consisted of a McIntosh MX406 cd receiver, 2 Butler Tube amps (1 for front left/1 for front right), Focal Polykevlar K2P components, JL500/1 sub amp, and 3 JL 6" subs. Front soundstage and subs only!
Do you guys think kick panels would sound good in the NSX? Also, is it even feasable to put in?
Years ago, I did a Toyota 4X4 xtra cab in the 100 watt category. I used 2 Hi-Phonics amps, one ran stereo at 1/4 ohm, the other bridged at like 1 ohm. The amps where so strong that I never clipped them or had them shut down from heat!
The only thing you could see was the bass box in the back with one 12" and two 8". I pulled the dash to put two 5 1/4" mid range at the defroster vents for imaging. Put soft domed tweeters in every A/C vent, 3 6 1/2" mids in each door in custom panels, Ribbon Tweeters in the side window columns, also hidden. If I remember correctly I had like 25 speakers in the car, only seeing the bass!
Used an audio control to set just about every frequency. The system sounded unreal! Friends of mine could not sit in the truck at about 1/2 volume. The bass was so strong on deep songs it was hard to breath, it was great :biggrin:
The total system was about $16K. Never should have sold that truck!
The only thing you could see was the bass box in the back with one 12" and two 8". I pulled the dash to put two 5 1/4" mid range at the defroster vents for imaging. Put soft domed tweeters in every A/C vent, 3 6 1/2" mids in each door in custom panels, Ribbon Tweeters in the side window columns, also hidden. If I remember correctly I had like 25 speakers in the car, only seeing the bass!
Used an audio control to set just about every frequency. The system sounded unreal! Friends of mine could not sit in the truck at about 1/2 volume. The bass was so strong on deep songs it was hard to breath, it was great :biggrin:
The total system was about $16K. Never should have sold that truck!
+1 for the MX406.
I paired my MX406 + Power Meter with an HELIX(BRAX) Competition amp and speakers. Transparent and crisp vocals, its the JDM way
for these high end installations - was dynamat ever used?
I can't even begin to compete with some of you. My best system was in my 91 Integra that used the Alpine 7618 headunit with a 5959S CD changer. Only had Polk Audio DB speakers at that time and ran Monolithic Dual Mono Class A amps as well as a prototype one off Monolithic Traid amp that had the 50W Class A mono amp on one side and a 2 channel 25W class A/B on the otherside of the chassis. Seiral number was 0001:biggrin: The Dual Mono powered the front, the 50X1 powered the subs, and the 25WX2 was for the rear fill.
Best system I've run was in my previous car, a 99 Eclipse: 3-way MB Quart front main speakers, 2-way "separate" (externally crossed-over) rears, JL subs, xtant amp... and multiple head units from Alpine to Pioneer because I was always changing out to something different.
About six months ago I auditioned an Alpine head unit, Audison amp and Focal separates (Holly Cole Trio as sample material) and I was blown away.
J
About six months ago I auditioned an Alpine head unit, Audison amp and Focal separates (Holly Cole Trio as sample material) and I was blown away.
J
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- Joined
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Currently in the nsx I have a Kenwood in dash touch screen dvd. Old school Mtx 5 channel amp. Focal Audio components in the doors and a focal 3" coaxle between the seats (was hard to fit) but well worth it. Also have a Diamond audio 10" sub on the floor.....
For my application, Dynamat was sparingly used; specificlcy applied behind speaker baffles. IMO, if you were to Dynamat, I would do the entire car.
To truly enjoy music, I highly recommend an audition of the following:
(In no particular order)
1. Lotus
2. Helix/Brax
3. DynnAudio (demands a lot of power)
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I built a custom diffusor in my roof panel like these:
I took apart a $15,000 set of speakers and used its componets:
Tuned it with something similar to this:
It was pretty absurd actually because I tried to mod the interior of the car a lot ... I even had little absorber panels made the shape of the windows that I velcro'ed on when not driving to get rid of the glass reflections.
It was the finest sounding car system I had ever heard but not practical at all. Then I decided I better put my energy into other things.
I took apart a $15,000 set of speakers and used its componets:
Tuned it with something similar to this:
It was pretty absurd actually because I tried to mod the interior of the car a lot ... I even had little absorber panels made the shape of the windows that I velcro'ed on when not driving to get rid of the glass reflections.
It was the finest sounding car system I had ever heard but not practical at all. Then I decided I better put my energy into other things.
I don't think its feasible for the woofers. The door speakers are almost there already anyway. But for tweeters in that area it can work as there is a nice flat surface to mount something on. But you'd kick it all the time. besides, the NSX's dash is pretty nice for getting tweeters on it without much obstruction.
