Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeM7
Because it's ugly and dated looking, has 4 background colors to pick from that are all dull and ugly, and I don't see any benefit to the touch screen. I'd rather just have a button i can feel rather than trying to steady my finger over little touch screen buttons while bouncing down the road.
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No arguments here. I did not care for the stock HU, but until this post I hadn't seen a compelling reason to ditch yours. Now I do. For what it's worth, a better design on the touchscreen makes a night and day difference with trying to hit the right spot on the screen while bouncing down the road. The interface on my Pioneer is 1000% better and totally usable whereas I was constantly hitting the wrong button on the stock.
So, out of the 3 radios you linked to, I like the Sony. It has a 10 band EQ, active HP/LP crossovers, and is bundled with a digital 40x4 amp. That saves you the cost of adding a small amp to do the exact same thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeM7
As for the storage space comment.. I just meant an extra cubby for my ecig/juice/phone/keys/wallet/work badge etc.
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Nawwww, I hear ya. I just thought it was funny that we're so starved for usable space inside that car that a pocket under a single DIN radio actually matters in our world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeM7
I'm not worried about trunk space I just figured if I were getting really nice door subs it wouldn't be necessary to put a sub in the trunk.
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So... "door subs" is a bit of a misnomer, you really won't find such beasts except in very rare cases. Kicker makes a 6 3/4" "subwoofer" but in 99.9% of cases, a door speaker is a driver (sometimes called a "woofer"), suitable for mid-bass and midrange, where the vast majority of your music frequencies are. The tweeter fills out the very top, and the sub fills out the bottom.
Of course you can certainly get by without a sub, but for the type of music you like and wanting some "punch" -- a sub would be a good idea.
How about something like this:
http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...e-R1675X2.html
Before you say "Geez, those are cheap!" -- the reviews are very good, if we're to believe the Internet masses' ears.
I chose those specifically because:
1. Power handling. The Sony's amp puts out 40W RMS x 4 channels. If you pair that with speakers that want 90 or 100W RMS, you're going to get less audible sound output than speakers matched to the power that's driving them. They also have a 91db sensitivity, which is quite good, meaning you're going to get more efficient performance for wattage. Two speakers, everything else exactly the same, but one with a 91db sensitivity and one with an 88db sensitivity, for example, are going to have an audible difference in sound output.
2. They're coaxial. You may end up having a different experience, but I don't like having the tweeters in the dash. The factory tweeters are so underpowered you don't notice that they suck up there. Put a set of real tweeters up there and the highs are likely to get very harsh. I just confirmed this in my own car, the JL C5's have a very smooth sounding tweeter, and I even set them down -3db on the crossover, made a mounting bracket so that I could angle them away from the windshield, and they're STILL abusively bright sounding. I think my next Saturday project is probably going to be taking the tweeters out of the dash and cutting small holes in the door kick panels to put the tweeters next to the drivers -- where they belong. It's never recommended to have tweeters that far away from the drivers, I don't know why so many car manufactures insist on doing it. Might be one reason why nobody has any respect for OEM audio systems.
3. They're wicked affordable. Don't like 'em? You're only out $40. Pull 'em out and sell them to someone else. Try something different. At least you're not eating multi-hundred dollar investments if you don't like it.
Note the frequency response: 52 - 20000 Hz I wouldn't send anything lower than 80Hz to them, really. Just because the cone will move at 52Hz doesn't mean you're going to get any respectable sound out of those speakers at that frequency. Most of your synthesized bass in electronic music is going to be under 80Hz. 80Hz can be called a "woofer" frequency, more commonly referred to as mid-bass. Anything below 80 is going to be below, or "sub" the woofer. Hence, you need a subwoofer.
With the budget you've saved, you can spring for a JL Stealthbox and power it with one of these:
http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...NVX-MVPA1.html. 300W RMS at 2 ohms is precisely the sweet spot to get magical musical bass out of the Stealthbox.
The beauty is, if you decide one piece is lacking (maybe you don't like the front speakers...) you can swap out parts to make it to your liking.
If you think you might want more power to the speakers, you can always add a separate speaker amp like that NVX 4 channel mini amp I linked previously. Those things are super nice from an ease-of-install perspective and they put out a truly astonishing amount of clean power for their size. I'm really impressed by them.
I just saw your other post, so I'll respond to that one separately...
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeM7
For the record, the other day I made a trip to home depot and came back with 11 12"x12" concrete slabs, 2 bags of sand, and a several tools in my trunk.. so it can carry more than you think  |
Your poor little BRZ!!!! Was the muffler dragging?
