What is the best brand to get for car audio?

angimark
angimark Posts: 1
edited January 2011 in Car Audio & Electronics
I want to completly redo my cars audio system. Subs, Stereo, Speakers. What brand has the best of the best for car audio?
reckless driving virginia
Post edited by angimark on
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  • exalted512
    exalted512 Posts: 10,735
    edited January 2011
    Polk, obviously.
    -Cody
    Music is like candy, you have to get rid of the rappers to enjoy it
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  • EndersShadow
    EndersShadow Posts: 17,579
    edited January 2011
    Very Very subjective question.....

    Best idea would be to give us a list of your current gear, a budget, tell us what you dont like about your current setup (headunit, speakers, ect) as well as what your goals are (i.e. very quality sound, massive bass, very loud, ect)

    Most folks will tell you if you have a 4 speaker setup to just replace the front 2 with quality speakers, amplify them with a quality external amp and then get a sub with another quality amp and maybe replace your headunit.

    But without a budget we really cant point you anywhere since we dont know if we have enough for super high end, mid range, or budget gear....
    "....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963)
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  • MacLeod
    MacLeod Posts: 14,358
    edited January 2011
    Best of the best for speakers would be Scanspeak. $200 per tweeter and $350 per mid and you have to build a sealed enclosure for the mids.
    polkaudio sound quality competitor since 2005
    MECA SQ Rookie of the Year 06 ~ MECA State Champ 06,07,08,11 ~ MECA World Finals 2nd place 06,07,08,09
    08 Car Audio Nationals 1st ~ 07 N Georgia Nationals 1st ~ 06 Carl Casper Nationals 1st ~ USACi 05 Southeast AutumnFest 1st

    polkaudio SR6500 --- polkaudio MM1040 x2 -- Pioneer P99 -- Rockford Fosgate P1000X5D
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  • Vital
    Vital Posts: 747
    edited January 2011
    1. What's your budget
    2. There's lots of good brands, and lots of different product lines from the same brands. Again, budget would come into play here
    3. In a lot of cases having amps of one brand and speakers of another (or sub or ESPECIALLY headunit) is better then simply loading everything with same brand products.
    4. What are you going for - sound quality or spl?
    5. What's you budget?
    2008 Nissan Altima
    Kenwood DNX 5140
    Arc Audio IDX and XEQ
    Polk Audio SR6500 active and SR124-dvc sealed
    Polk Audio PA500.4 and PA1200.1
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  • decal
    decal Posts: 3,205
    edited January 2011
    That's akin to asking what the best beer is.
    If you can't hear a difference, don't waste your money.
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  • eprater1
    eprater1 Posts: 175
    edited January 2011
    mac, have you compared their tweets to the legatia pro ring radiators by hybrid audio? if so what did u think? just looking for an honest opinion dont need to play up the HA just bc i have them.
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  • MacLeod
    MacLeod Posts: 14,358
    edited January 2011
    The Scanspeak are the best tweeters on the market as far as Im concerned. They can play down WAY low and still sound good. The Hybrid tweets are along the lines of the SR tweets. Even look similar.
    polkaudio sound quality competitor since 2005
    MECA SQ Rookie of the Year 06 ~ MECA State Champ 06,07,08,11 ~ MECA World Finals 2nd place 06,07,08,09
    08 Car Audio Nationals 1st ~ 07 N Georgia Nationals 1st ~ 06 Carl Casper Nationals 1st ~ USACi 05 Southeast AutumnFest 1st

    polkaudio SR6500 --- polkaudio MM1040 x2 -- Pioneer P99 -- Rockford Fosgate P1000X5D
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  • MacLeod
    MacLeod Posts: 14,358
    edited January 2011
    They should be pretty similar. The large format RR's work better with smoother response curves that go way low. Scanspeak has a RR but I haven't heard it but I'll bet it sounds pretty great.
    polkaudio sound quality competitor since 2005
    MECA SQ Rookie of the Year 06 ~ MECA State Champ 06,07,08,11 ~ MECA World Finals 2nd place 06,07,08,09
    08 Car Audio Nationals 1st ~ 07 N Georgia Nationals 1st ~ 06 Carl Casper Nationals 1st ~ USACi 05 Southeast AutumnFest 1st

    polkaudio SR6500 --- polkaudio MM1040 x2 -- Pioneer P99 -- Rockford Fosgate P1000X5D
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  • arun1963
    arun1963 Posts: 1,797
    edited January 2011
    Mac, what do you prefer? A tweet that plays low, or a mid that starts rolling off at 5-6khz? Crossing high (5khz) with the tweet on a shallow slope, seems to give the gives the sound more depth, more open sound. Crossing low 2.5-3khz gives better solidity but you lose the 'open / depth' feel........I'm just greedy and I want to have my cake and eat it too :smile:.
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  • MacLeod
    MacLeod Posts: 14,358
    edited January 2011
    Well as a rule you want as many octaves as possible coming from as few drivers as possible so you want the mid to handle as much as you can get.

    The reason Id want a tweeter that can play down low is for imaging. Since your mids are more than likely in the doors at different axes, its harder to get things focused up. But you can put your tweeters up high and on axis much easier so its easier to dial them in and the lower you can get them to play, the more you can get your image focused.

    So itll depend on your application and what youre after. If youve got the processing power to dial in your image really well but your mids are in the doors, you may want to look into some low playing tweeters. But if youve got a basic 5 band EQ and not much else, then youll want to keep the mid playing as much as possible and shoot for better overall tonallity.
    polkaudio sound quality competitor since 2005
    MECA SQ Rookie of the Year 06 ~ MECA State Champ 06,07,08,11 ~ MECA World Finals 2nd place 06,07,08,09
    08 Car Audio Nationals 1st ~ 07 N Georgia Nationals 1st ~ 06 Carl Casper Nationals 1st ~ USACi 05 Southeast AutumnFest 1st

    polkaudio SR6500 --- polkaudio MM1040 x2 -- Pioneer P99 -- Rockford Fosgate P1000X5D
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  • arun1963
    arun1963 Posts: 1,797
    edited January 2011
    MacLeod wrote: »
    Well as a rule you want as many octaves as possible coming from as few drivers as possible so you want the mid to handle as much as you can get.

    The reason Id want a tweeter that can play down low is for imaging. Since your mids are more than likely in the doors at different axes, its harder to get things focused up. But you can put your tweeters up high and on axis much easier so its easier to dial them in and the lower you can get them to play, the more you can get your image focused.

    Took a few days, but I finally worked it out. Yaaaaaay!!! :smile: The tweet is cut at 3khz on an 18db slope with the mid at 4khz on a 24db slope. The mid is playing about 6.5 octaves the tweets about 3.5 octaves and there is about an octave of overlap. Had to change the TA a bit and basically reset the eq between 500hz-8khz. Things fell into place when I got rid of the following mindsets:

    1. RR can't play down to 1khz, they are better suited for upper end extension.

    2. Overlapping xovers dont work. This was a big one :rolleyes:.

    Nutshell, the imaging is at an all new level without the loss of tonality.
    MacLeod wrote: »
    Man its a burden being right all the time. :biggrin:

    :tongue::wink:
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