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Post by thachng on Dec 18, 2005 8:43:48 GMT 10
Hi All I am looking to change my speakers setup and on the weekend I went to WOW to see their selection and I heard sony, pioneer and kenwood brands. And to be honest they didn't impress my much and my uncle told me to check out Alpine at Nothfield.
Even though I didn't want to go because I knew it was going to be expensive. I had to say when the guy gave me a demo of some s - type speakers (the cheapy ones) I couldn't believe the difference in sound quality I was hearing.
The only problem was that for a pioneer set it would cost me around 800 installed but for the alpine set it is setting me back 1300.
A set I mean front spilts, sub and amp. Now 1300 is 300 over budget but I would rather spend more for better sound.
Now what I want to know is are there other brands that sounds as good as alpine but are cheaper? Jerry was suggesting JBL but is that a good quality brand?
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Post by vividjazz on Dec 18, 2005 13:40:52 GMT 10
Alpine while better than Sony and Kenwood aren't renouned for
1) making speakers
2) making natural sounding speakers
There speakers are certainly better than stock and play loud but they most definitely do not naturally reproduce music. I find them painfully shrill. I've had plenty of Alpine equipment over the years and are still running one of their V12 amps at the moment in the Jazz.
Alpine amps are gutless. They use 14.4V RMS ratings with higher than other brands THD so their figures look better than they are.
Alpine make fantastic head units and no one car audio brand does everything well.
Have a look at the audio brands from companies that make speakers as their bread and butter. You won't find these brands at auto outlets, kmart or JB HiFi but from proper car audio places. Brands include Focal, Rainbow, Eton, Hertz, Boston, Crossfire, Morel, Phoenix Gold, Vibe, Phass, Digital Designs, Image Dynamics, Dynaudio. The more speakers you audition the more you'll get to know what type of speaker you like. Speakers are very personal, what sound good to you might not sound good to me and visa versa.
Soundproofing will also make any speakers sound many times better. If the place your going to have the install done says oh you don't need that sound proofing stuff then it really shows how much they know and how good a job they are going to do. These places also join wires with electrical tape (which falls apart) and don't properly run cables through grommets causing them to wear and sever. A lifetime warranty on shoddy workmanship is worthless.
When upgrading your wiring make sure to upgrade the earth as your electrical system is a loop.
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Post by vividjazz on Dec 18, 2005 16:32:28 GMT 10
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Post by vividjazz on Dec 18, 2005 17:58:59 GMT 10
If your open minded the Jaycar stuff is heaps better than Alpine and a fraction of the price. The Response kevlar stuff and their amps too.
Response 4x100WRMS AMP $300-
6.5" Precision Response Kevlar splits $150-
10" Profile Metal Coated Cone Subwoofer $140-
This leaves enough for cabling, sound proofing of at least around the front speakers, a sub box and a decent professional install.
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Post by thachng on Dec 18, 2005 18:59:09 GMT 10
where can you buy this stuff?
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Post by jazzie on Dec 18, 2005 20:05:35 GMT 10
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Post by jazzie on Dec 18, 2005 20:11:29 GMT 10
vivid is onto something.
Alpine is good at HU and the digital stuff eg sound processing but certainly not speakers.
in fact, i will go as far as no Japanese brands are any good with speakers.
car speaker isn't something u need to replace all the time. i still have my infinity splits in my car which i bought about 7 years ago and it's been in 2 previous cars. a good speakers will always be a good speaker and they don't wear much if u look after them. so i'd spend a little bit more on them.
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Post by thachng on Dec 18, 2005 20:58:33 GMT 10
Do Jaycar do installations.
The reason why i wanna do it all at one place is so i can get interset free.
At northfield the price was 900 for the speaker set and 400 for installation. If I get it at one place i get 1 year interest free.
or I also know jb, wow and strathfield can install too and have interest free I was wonder are there any speaker brands you can recommend there?
As when I asked the wow guy he quoted me 155 dollars for full install. Should I buy the alpine set go to the wow guy for install?
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Post by vividjazz on Dec 18, 2005 21:27:49 GMT 10
vivid is onto something. Alpine is good at HU and the digital stuff eg sound processing but certainly not speakers. in fact, i will go as far as no Japanese brands are any good with speakers. car speaker isn't something u need to replace all the time. i still have my infinity splits in my car which i bought about 7 years ago and it's been in 2 previous cars. a good speakers will always be a good speaker and they don't wear much if u look after them. so i'd spend a little bit more on them. Phass (Japanese) are supposed to be good but very expensive and ultra light speakers. One set of speakers that last a long time work out less than a lot of cheaper sets that wear out. Definitely worth spending a little more on the speaker part of the setup but that's not to say a $7,000 set of spilts are necessarily going to sound 7 times better than a $1,000 set of splits. |
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Post by vividjazz on Dec 18, 2005 21:52:28 GMT 10
Do Jaycar do installations. The reason why i wanna do it all at one place is so i can get interset free. At northfield the price was 900 for the speaker set and 400 for installation. If I get it at one place i get 1 year interest free. or I also know jb, wow and strathfield can install too and have interest free I was wonder are there any speaker brands you can recommend there? As when I asked the wow guy he quoted me 155 dollars for full install. Should I buy the alpine set go to the wow guy for install? Jaycar are an electronics company for ethusiats much like thingy Smith started out as. They are very much DIY oriented. My quite basic setup took over 3 days to install. Head unit, battery, wiring, sound proofing just front doors, front splits, sub already in a box, 2 amps and staging. Do you honestly believe a $155- install is going to be any good? That lifetime install warranty isn't much good if you spend a lifetime going back. There's good reason why some places throw in the install because their install is not worth anything. You can have the best equipment in the world but if its not installed properly much cheaper equipment will sound a whole heap better. $400 install is starting to sound more realistic but I bet that didn't include sound proofing. If you don't have the money for a system just wait a little while and save up until you do. Interest free really isn't interest free. If you buy stuff without finance its amazing how it can suddenly be bought for less than with finance. Cutting structural metal in cars with angle grinders to make systems fit is scarey stuff. Step away from Strathfield, JB and the like. There is good reason why those places are not allowed to sell most of those brands I mentioned earlier and thats because those brands still want to have their reputations. Those places are also not allowed to sell Alpine because they fail to meet Alpines standards. In Melbourne try someone like Raw Audio - www.rawaudio.com.au. They come recommended by other car audio professionals. The install price will most certainly won't be $100 but neither will the end product and they won't do interest free (conscrewmore finance). |
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Post by thachng on Dec 19, 2005 6:52:51 GMT 10
Thanks for the advice Vividjazz you seem to be the master of car sound  If I come down to where you are i will have to buy you a drink Well Northfield in Brissie is where you buy expensive sound stuff. Do you think I can bargin there? as I feel its like going to bmw to buy a car if you can't afford it you just don't go. the price break down was 900 for the set which is apparently a 300 discount as alpine is having a sale. 50 for sub box, 100 for rca converter, 50 cabling and 200 for labour. I will have to ask about soung proofing. Yeah I thought about jaycar and I can save prolly 300 dollers but in the end i would like all in one service. Also the sales guy (he owns a done up skyline so I think he knows his stuff) told me the tweeters were better at front of car near the small side window for the "front on sound" but I was in my uncles Audi a4 and his factory tweeters were in the top front corner of the car door, I also noticed you put them on near where the feet are. Just thinking if i ask them to drill a hole and put in the front corner of the door do you think thats a good idea? In the end I intend to sell the car to my mum and sis in a year's time. i wont be taking the sound system with me so I am not too worried about leaving a hole in the trim. lol sort of why i want to buy now then later so i can get a years worth of car audio pleasure |
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Post by cameltree on Dec 19, 2005 9:50:20 GMT 10
Another vote for Jaycar amps and splits if you are on budget build.
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Post by vividjazz on Dec 19, 2005 19:15:55 GMT 10
Thanks for the advice Vividjazz you seem to be the master of car sound If I come down to where you are i will have to buy you a drink Well Northfield in Brissie is where you buy expensive sound stuff. Do you think I can bargin there? as I feel its like going to bmw to buy a car if you can't afford it you just don't go. the price break down was 900 for the set which is apparently a 300 discount as alpine is having a sale. 50 for sub box, 100 for rca converter, 50 cabling and 200 for labour. I will have to ask about soung proofing. Yeah I thought about jaycar and I can save prolly 300 dollers but in the end i would like all in one service. Also the sales guy (he owns a done up skyline so I think he knows his stuff) told me the tweeters were better at front of car near the small side window for the "front on sound" but I was in my uncles Audi a4 and his factory tweeters were in the top front corner of the car door, I also noticed you put them on near where the feet are. Just thinking if i ask them to drill a hole and put in the front corner of the door do you think thats a good idea? In the end I intend to sell the car to my mum and sis in a year's time. i wont be taking the sound system with me so I am not too worried about leaving a hole in the trim. lol sort of why i want to buy now then later so i can get a years worth of car audio pleasure I hate the fact that there are suburbs of the same name in multiple capital cities makes it hard to know where people are at. OK if your in Brissy then the place to go is Advance Audio and Electrical. www.advanceae.com.au. This crowd can sell you the same Jaycar "Response" gear and hook you up for the install. They also have alot of the tasty real audio brands. If your not going finance then you can bargain to a certain extent anywhere. Personally I like places which don't muck around and pretty much give you the best price upfront. The accoustics in each type of car are different. Thats why the top notch guys run spectrum analyizers over the interior of the car and spend ages repositioning the tweeters till they get the best position for that particular car. You want you highs and lows arriving at the same time and your soundstage front and centre just like a live concert. Different crossovers which come with different splits also allow for increased flexibility. For example my Crossfire X6 have a selectible 12db or 6db on the lowpass for phasing. When the tweeter is mounted within 6 inches of the mid woofer on the same plane the drivers will remain in phase with each other at 12db. However if the distance between the tweeter and the midwoofer is greater than 6 inches or on a different plane as would be the case with high mounted tweeters then in most cases they would be set to 6db. If your splits are only 12db like most of the entry level splits then they should be only mounted according to the former guidelines. Then you have attenuation allowing you to further tailor the sound arrival based on your speaker and seating position. By using a 0db, -3db or -6db adjustment on the tweeter in the case of my splits you can compensate for high mounting of the tweeters and the greater distance from the passenger side to the drivers seating position. Again different splits give varying degrees of flexibility in this regard. One solution doesn't fit all situations. A top notch installer will tailor the equipment to the particular car taking full advantage of the equipments limitations as well as its capabilities. |
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ahcash
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Posts: 1,463
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Post by ahcash on Dec 19, 2005 21:54:24 GMT 10
Yo Vividjazz... Raw Audio - www.rawaudio.com.au link doesn't work !!!! You sure they are in Melbourne? |
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Post by vividjazz on Dec 20, 2005 20:57:30 GMT 10
Yo Vividjazz... Raw Audio - www.rawaudio.com.au link doesn't work !!!! You sure they are in Melbourne? Site must be down or something. You can email johna@auscaraudio.com. |
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