Would you all approve?

mbdyer12

I havn't been around in quite a while and I hate to just barge in... but I know you all will give me good advice. I've finally gathered the funds to get my system for my Subie..... Heres what I've decided to get:

6.5" RE series components
12" RE **** (ported, most likely)
PG Amp for components (80x2wrms) components supposedly only require 50 but cant find a spec sheet. Anyone know the power handling on these?
Hifonics amp for **** (1000wrms) *
Knukonceptz 0/1 install kit
Knukonceptz interconnects
Knukonceptz speaker wire
Knukonceptz battery terminal
Knukonceptz distrobution block
Knukonceptz 1 farad cap**
1-2 gallons of Second Skin Spectrum (B-stock, since I'll be painting and not spraying)

* Possibly going with a lower model (750wrms) to save my puny alternator. Rewinding/changing alternators is out of the question.

** This might be replaced with, or complemented with an optima yellow top...

I decided on the RE comps and **** because the group buy at caraudio.com. I can get the components and the 12" for ~475 shipped. I might get a Hifonics amp for the components too, but I've heard PG is pretty good?

As far as head units...I have an older model Premier deh-p760mp cd player (older than Cody's) that a friend wants to buy for $170. I don't know if I want to keep it or sell it and upgrade to a new one. If I get a new one, it'll probably be this one . I really want to try that auto eq feature... Plus its got colors. Ooooohhhhh...

I decided on all Knukonceptz because I've only heard good stuff about most of their products. I havn't heard anything about their RCA's so I'd give them a shot too. They look to be pretty high quality.


What do you think about it all?

MacLeod

First off I would rather see ya with a set of MMC6500's. I love the hell out of these speakers and think they would work better and for $250 at Sounddomain, Ill put them up against anything for bang for the buck. But Ill admit, Ive never heard RE comps.

Ive never heard RE subs tho but have heard nothing but great things about them so Ill support that one.

Those Octane amps are ok but Ive never been a big fan of anything with neon on it. Plus they dont seem to have a lot of headroom. If youre going with Hifonics for the sub, why not get a Hifonics Zeus for the comps as well and have a matching set?

Knuconceptz is a fine choice.

Overall tho, I think it would be a good system assuming a proper install.

exalted512

i havent heard a about the RE comps but they have xbl^2 technology so it would be interesting...and theyre only like $130 at the group buy. i honestly dont know what would sound better. honestly, i think the polks would sound better, but the re's would have better midbass.
if you get the RE, PORT IT. if you think theres a possibility that you wont port it, get the brahma.
id get hifonics all the way around, but purely for cosmetic reasons....
i would also keep your head unit, as its better than the one you listed. knukonceptz is definitely a good choice for wiring, but you might want to check ebay for your distro blocks and stuff, you might be able to get them for cheaper. ebay also have a much bigger selection.
-Cody

mbdyer12

I'd really like to get the Polk's but if I do that, I cant get the big discount on the ****... The group buy is that if I spend >100, I get 15% off any of their other items. The RE comps are the only ones on the list that I'd get and they're over that 100 limit. 15% off the **** + free shipping = a lot off.

**** + Momo's = $650-675
**** + RE comps = $475

Difference... $175-200. Thats a lot of dough. Haha. I think I'll try the RE comps unless someone says NO to that.

Going Hifonics all around for cosmetic reasons does sound like a good idea...

The reason I said all Knukonceptz for distro block, battery terminals, etc is that after shipping, Knukoncepts would be cheaper buying it all from the same place at the same time than buying bits and pieces from eBay.

swerve

just use that money to go to a strip bar...
i think it sounds great..... what u deadening with or have you already!?

yay for deadening yay!

-adam

oh yea: this is post 600

mbdyer12

Originally posted by mbdyer12

1-2 gallons of Second Skin Spectrum (B-stock, since I'll be painting and not spraying)

I'm gunna coat the doors, the floor, firewall and all the trunk...

swerve

Originally posted by mbdyer12


I'm gunna coat the doors, the floor, firewall and all the trunk...

oh god... how'd i miss that! hahaha

dnewhous

How do Knuconceptz cables compare to Streetwires?

MacLeod

Depends. Theyre as good as the low end Streetwires gear but I think the Zero Noise 3 and 6 are some of the best on the market.

That being said, If you want to pay $100 a pair for RCA's, get the Zero Noise 6. If you want great performance for about $20, its hard to beat Knu.

mbdyer12

The latter, please.


And to update, I've decided on the Premier version of the cd player I linked to up above. Premier has the 6.5v preouts, higher quality components (supposedly), 2 year warranty vs 1. It also says Premier!! I'm sure it does some stuff better/extra too, but I dont know what...

dnewhous

The Premier units are only $10 more than the non-Premier units. The advantage are

1) 6.5 V vs. 4 V
2) 2 year warranty
3) service and support

MacLeod

Good choice! I think the Premier line is about the best on the market right now, and Im an Alpine fan!

mbdyer12

I.... have.... your approval? HURRAY

mbdyer12

Second Skin Spectrum V.3 was shipped out today! WOOHOO!

Anyways, that required me to rush to order all my power cable and all that stuff so I could lay the spectrum down and run the wires at the same time this weekend, while I wait for my **** and RE comps to ship out I got all this from knukonceptz:

Shopping Cart:
Item # Product Name Quantity Price Per Unit Total
KAR2-6M Karma Kable 2 Channel RCA Kable 6M 2 $13.50 $27.00
KAR16BLS Karma 16AWG Speaker Kable 30 $0.30 $9.00
KOM2S Kompressed 2 Gauge Silver Power Wire 30 $1.89 $56.70
KOL8BKS Kolossus Kable 8 Gauge Black/Silver Power Wire 5 $0.45 $2.25
KOL4BKS Kolossus Kable 4AWG Black/Silver Power Wire 5 $0.99 $4.95
SB0 Snap Bushing/ Grommet 1/0 1 $0.30 $0.30
RT1/0516BL Gold Plated 1/0 Ring Terminal -Blue 5 $1.75 $8.75
FD1463BK Female Disconnect 14/16AWG Black 4 $0.35 $1.40
FD1463R Female Disconnect 14/16AWG Red 4 $0.35 $1.40
BT-104P Positive Battery Terminal 1 $12.00 $12.00
KOL1/0BLS Kolossus Kable 1/0 Blue/Silver Power Wire 2 $2.25 $4.50
KAR08BLS Karma 8AWG Speaker Kable 6 $1.50 $9.00


In addition, I bought 2 140a circuit breakers and a couple distro blocks from www.darvex.com. I'll be ordering a batcap 400 soon as well...
I'm moving up to a hifonics bx1500d thanks to reading a nice review on the batcap and how well it works. Everyone who hasn't heard bout it should look it up. I should be able to keep my alternator functional longer than a month or two with that much power. Woohoo..


Heres a quick question bout fusing this thing up. Should I do this? (B = battery, C = batcap, W= firewall, F=circuit breaker A=amp)

B--F---W

---

F--C---A

I would think there'd be need a fuse on each side of the firewall because theres two possible sources of danger on each side of the firewall...


I cant wait. Woohoo. I'm about to order my cd player from onlinecarstereo.com since they're down the street and IN STOCK unlike electronicscity.com. I'll only have a 1 year warranty since they're not authorized but I'll actually get it soon (free shipping and its almost down the street from me too).

I'll be starting on my glassed box soon too, probably starting after I get the spectrum and wiring in. I'll be taking lots of pics so stay tuned.

exalted512

everything sounds good except you need to put the batcap before the fuse for the amp
so battery, fuse, firewall, batcap, fuse, amp
or if you can fit the batcap under the hood, then battery, batcap, fuse, firewall, fuse amp
-Cody

PoweredByDodge

As far as cheap "good" RCA's -- Lightning Audio Strike series... you can actually buy bulk cable by the foot and just put radio shack connectors on the end yourself (with some mild soldering involved) -- you can get pretty decent interconnects for pennies that way.

truth be told - i'd be buying street wires ZN- 3's though... they're a good cable at good price.


.... i found some Esoteric Audio high end **** on the mitek factory outlet - i cleaned up... got all the cable I need for the blue truck now .... to bad the truck is sooo far from ready for it.

dnewhous

My concern with interconnects is handling the environment from running them through the A/C system ducts and enduring feet where they run over the floor.

MacLeod

I didnt know Esoteric was a Mitek brand.

Theyre primarily a home audio brand arent they? We have a "high end home audio" shop in town and Esoteric is one of the brands they boast carrying.

exalted512

mitek bought out esoterik like...4 years ago??
esoterik formed street wires(correct me if thats wrong)
-Cody

PoweredByDodge

Esoteric Audio's home stuff was called "esoteric"

... car stuff was "Streetwires" (high end) and "SWX" (low end).

Esoteric used to make car amplifiers (way long ago) under the "esoteric" name...

The company went under and was bought for peanuts by Mitek (mtx / xtant / dcm, etc) about 2 or 3 years ago or so.

The resultant "old stock" in Esoteric's warehouses became Mitek property and is not being hauked on the factory outlet for pennies on the dollar. -- power cable (some of the highest strand count in the industry) is being sold for 90% off. Speaker wire (12 and 14 gauge) is going for about 80% off what you'd pay at circuit city.

I personally bought a retail value of 3,750 dollars in various sizes of wire and cables and interconnects for a total of 400 bucks plus 60 bucks shipping (it was a HEAVY set of boxes).

exalted512

got any SW 5.0s in a 16' length?:D
-Cody

swerve

Originally posted by PoweredByDodge
(it was a HEAVY set of boxes).

Did You carry these boxes? and if so... do you want a cookie?
mwuahaha

-adam

neomagus00

ooh, i dunno if its too late to have any input, but i say yay to that premier hu... happy times with autoeq and time alignment (i found TA to be hit and miss, i ended up doing it manually, but the autoeq saved many many hours of tuning... but then, i'm the kind of person who'll listen to three hours of music to decide a single decibel either way on a single eq band... )

PoweredByDodge

I carried them up to my attic for storage

... and cookies rule.

As far as the "durability" of the line through the ducts - a good quality cable will give you no issues there, if you're really stressing it - go with something that has a braided jacket for added strength (ie. a zero noise 6.0)

swerve

Originally posted by PoweredByDodge
I carried them up to my attic for storage

... and cookies rule.

great... my mom makes good cookies! I'll give you an e-cookie soon!

-adam

dnewhous

Have you bought your CD player already?

IMO, if you are going high end enough to have separate power amps and comoonents you MUST absolutely get the reference level Pioneer CD player (the one with a MSRP of $1280). The difference is the DACs. The reference player uses delta-sigma DAC which is a fundamentally superior technological approach to DACs than the bitstream garbage in ordinary auto receivers.

bitstream = portable audio players

delta-sigma = medium/high end consumer audio grade

advance segment = audiophile grade (you won't see this in any car receiver, or ANY product from Pioneer for that matter)

If you've already bought your cheaper HU, I will vote to disapprove of your system.

A bitstream DAC is only a 1 bit digital to analog converter! The reason it works at all on CDs is by oversampling.

Jstas

Originally posted by dnewhous
Have you bought your CD player already?

IMO, if you are going high end enough to have separate power amps and comoonents you MUST absolutely get the reference level Pioneer CD player (the one with a MSRP of $1280). The difference is the DACs. The reference player uses delta-sigma DAC which is a fundamentally superior technological approach to DACs than the bitstream garbage in ordinary auto receivers.

bitstream = portable audio players

delta-sigma = medium/high end consumer audio grade

advance segment = audiophile grade (you won't see this in any car receiver, or ANY product from Pioneer for that matter)

If you've already bought your cheaper HU, I will vote to disapprove of your system.

A bitstream DAC is only a 1 bit digital to analog converter! The reason it works at all on CDs is by oversampling.

WOW! What an ****-ish post! You must be right in line behind Loud & Clear for that award, huh?

Honestly, I don't think mbdyer gives two hoohas about your approval at this point. I don't know of too many people here with the scratch to drop on a $1300 Pioneer head unit only to have it stolen. Disapprove of his system all you want. Just because his budget doesn't allow for such a head unit doesn't make it junk.

dnewhous

If he didn't want people's honest opinions then he shouldn't have ever asked if we would approve.

And, I just checked, the street price on that receiver is about $800 which is $400 more than the one he decided on. And the system he put together isn't cheap.

mbdyer12

I love you Jstas. You got it spot on.


I'm not going to spend all that extra dough. I'm going with a ~$170 set of components and $20 interconnect set but you're saying I should spend $800 on a head unit? The amps I got are mid-line amps, nothing fancy or even something close that would take advantage of that head unit's capabilities. The only thing that would stand up to that head unit is the **** sub.


Moving on, I did order the Premier (with 6.5v preout, autoeq, timing adjustment, and colors....all that I'll need for a while), I bought both Hifonics: the bx1500d and the zx2000 (50x2wrms). I'm told the comps aren't power hungry and they say 50wrms max, although I've read they can safely handle more.

Also, I'm going with XM RADIO!! You know, that <FM crapbox that spits out noise resembling cd quality music.

swerve

Originally posted by dnewhous
If he didn't want people's honest opinions then he shouldn't have ever asked if we would approve.

And, I just checked, the street price on that receiver is about $800 which is $400 more than the one he decided on. And the system he put together isn't cheap.

If he knew people responded like you do... he would have never asked... So next time before you try responding in badass mode I suggest you take 2 steps back and think of what you are going to say.

To have a high end car stereo doesn't mean you have to spend 800+ on a goddamn head-unit.

So either change your thought process or take it back to where is came from.

The only reason he asked is because he knows that the people here welcome others. I think half the reason people never get involved with CA is because people like YOU intimidate them. So in the end the industry dies because there were too many wannabe badasses running around with 1000 dollar head units and not educating others.

Sorry had to give my opinion -

mbyder, what XM model are you going with?

I'm really loving my MyFi right now!

-adam

mbdyer12

I bought the Pioneer xm receiver with the xmicro antenna...