Finally bought a new deck!

[centaurus3200]

thanks to all your collective help.

i learned a lot. decided, to spend the average extra $20 per unit (over best buy and the like) plus the $50 installation fee to go with a respected bay area car audio store.

they did a top rate job. he told me of horror stories as manager of a good guys. also said none of these "free installation" joints are ever free. they usually demand $30 for some adapter that you don't need to just to get some cash out of you.

also spent a lot of time with me picking out the right deck for my purposes. he said flat out he can usually only get within $20 of good guys, circuit city, etc., but said if the $20 is more important to me than competence and service, than he's not doing his job.

he didn't have to sell me as i was referred to him by a friend who also said avoid the mass merchants like the plague, they will jack up your car!

so, i came in with the idea of buying a pioneer 4500 deck that plays mp3. also asked why he didn't carry alpine. he said his store used to spend $2,000/year just to carry alpine up until 1997 when they went mass market. said their quality went in the crapper and most of their decks don't last as long as even a jvc. said the only thing worse is sony xplode.

anyway, he vouched for the pioneer deck. he did say that he he likes rotary attenuated volume controls better. he also showed me that you have to flip the face plate down to insert a cd. LAME! that's just gonna break!

he agreed. he showed me to a REALLY nice deck. no gimmicks, no playstation graphics, no motorized doo-hickys.

it's a Clarion DXZ635MP. ALUMINUM faceplate, plays MP3, parametric eq, rotary volume control. the face plate weighs more than my whole 8 year old alpine unit. just felt really solid.

i got it for $249. probably can get it for cheaper, but i was there and he could put it in while i waited. besides, i know little about car stereos other than clarion bought McIntosh in 1994 and made their home stuff only better (more money for r&d) while bringing mac sound to car audio. good company in my opinion.

the sound is awesome! much better than my alpine cdm-7824 and i thought that was a HUGE step in quality over the stock ford headunit. the rest is still stock jbl, including the amps) he was suprised by the sound as well.

i'll let you know what i think in the coming months.

oh yeah, and the salesman/installer owns a 1975 BMW 2002 with a 325IS inline 6 motor. SCHWEET! when i pulled the car into the work bay, a 2 of the guys were kind of chuckling about a trick taurus (one had a modded wrx, the other an rx7). the salesman asked if he could pop my hood and schooled these guys on the history of the SHO and the yamaha motor! cool cat!

see ya,
Robby

 

[luigisho]

Nice choice. thumb I think Clarion units are a good value for the quality. Always had great sound from those units.
I have the aforementioned crappier than alpine unit. The quality of sound is ok but the only reason I keep it is the unilink setup. 3-10 disc changers (soon to add a 4th) so I don't have to keep taking stuff in and out of the deck. Compromise to get convenience

Anyway local guys are usually a good idea. Good install and someone to bitch to if things go awry. Word of mouth is very important to the indy guys.

 

[thebigjimsho]

With the good come the bad. The small shops are always of a very strong opinion. And usually any make they don't carry are crap. Now I don't talk bad about Alpine because I used to have Alpine in my '92 before it got ripped off. It was nice.

Rule of thumb is never listen to anything bad said by a shop unless you hear it more than 3 times from different shops. Now I know that Rockford Fosgate has not kept up as to how they were years ago. Mass marketing to Best Buy and Circuit City can make you do that. So it would not surprise me if Alpine let up a little. But I doubt it. They are a major player still in the car audio world. But I still think there are much better alternatives to Alpine when it comes to speakers.

It's the same for Clarion. I love Clarion. When my Alpine was stolen, I got a Clarion drx9170. A great unit. I now have one of the best sounding head units ever made for a car, the Clarion drx9255z. No bells or whistles. Just unbelievable cd playback. Anyone who saw The Italian Job when the kid dreamed about the sick stereo with Burr Brown digital to analog converters might be impressed that this deck has that. If not, then maybe you're the type who think that Alpine, Pioneer, Clarion, Kenwood and Sony all make good speakers. lol

Head units, yes. Speakers, no.

 

[centaurus3200]

good points jim. i have heard from many friends and a couple of shops (not to mention people on this forum) that alpine is simply not what it used to be.

the interesting thing is that i'm not really into car stereo. i'm more of a home audiophile guy. i always thought clairion was lower end stuff. of course this was when concord was the ultimate (yes, i'm getting old )

but, i just couldn't believe the feel and weight of that aluminum faceplate. makes my $450 1995 alpine look like cheap crap. it's pretty rudimentary, but there is something to be said about the look, feel and WEIGHT of a product.

as far as speakers, you said it brotha! i told the guy to ONLY connect the deck through the ford/jbl factory amps (or the speakers will blow). not to mention that's how they are supposed to be. anything different would jack up the sound. i've heard stock jbl speakers through aftermarket amps or headunits. sounds like complete ass.

there's something about the stock set up that i like. it sounds kind of mellow and warm. the clarion deck only accentuated it. the guy came up to me afterward and told me my stereo sounded better than a lot of decent entry level aftermarket stuff.

lastly, i have found that i can't stand most car stereo speakers on the market. sound like nails on a chalkboard. boston pro series being the brightest and most annoying.

if i had my druthers, i'd use all dynaudio speakers.

see ya,
Robby

 

[K-Dawg]

thebigjimsho:
With the good come the bad. The small shops are always of a very strong opinion. And usually any make they don't carry are crap.

That's what I've always found to be true. And the ones they sell are always the best.

Robby,
Nice choice on the Clarion. I don't know the exact model that you bought off the top of my head, but Clarion is known for making a high quality headunit. When it comes down to it, all that matters is that you're happy and like the way it sounds. thumb

 

[RStalveyARFF]

I'm a big fan of Boston Accoustics speakers. I just got the Alpine 9811 head unit and am very impressed with it. I replaced a JVC with it and the sounds clarity just between the 2 units is very noticable. For $233 it's loaded with features: MP3 & WMA playback, XM ready, 3 preouts (a must for me), and time correction on all 4 speakers to tweak exactly how the sound hits you. Internal crossovers, titling, the whole 9 yards. I am very impressed with the price and what I got from the unit. Next toy is a 12 disc changer to add onto it!

 

[Machspeed]

Nice! I got a pioneer p7300, ya you got to flip it down but its all good. The pioneer interior speakers is what i liek most. But sounds like you got yourself a good deck. I get confused when people go out and try to find another stock deck when theirs breaks, dont they realize theyre just buying another 10 year old deck thatll break soon? shrug

 

[centaurus3200]

if anybody's interested, i found my deck for $192.50 at autotoys.com.

i paid $249. oh well, i guess that's the price for wanting to get it over with in a couple of hours.

see ya,
Robby

 

[luigisho]

Told ya those places were cheap. $65? I would have waited a few days finger

 

[thebigjimsho]

centaurus3200:
lastly, i have found that i can't stand most car stereo speakers on the market. sound like nails on a chalkboard. boston pro series being the brightest and most annoying.

if i had my druthers, i'd use all dynaudio speakers.

see ya,
Robby

I hear you loud and clear. I know Erik said he liked Boston Acoustic. It's all your own opinion. I'm huge into a/d/s/. Their silk dome tweeters are my favorite. But, like you, if I had the dough(like kaotic), I would have dynaudio 3 ways right now. I also love Focal Utopias. But it's ashame they ditched their fiberglass tweeters for metal dome. They're not quite as rich.

When procured a/d/s/ equipment for my Accord, my installer, who doesn't own a shop and works for himself, had no problems at all working with equipment I liked and found myself. With fold down rear seats, I wanted to keep the utility of that and install the subs in each of the rear pockets of the trunk behind the wheel wells. And install the 2 amps along the back wall of the trunk. No small shops agreed with my potential design. Not only did my installer agree it could work but he made it work, and beautifully. He also was an employee at Boston Acoustics at the time and could've obtained newly designed speakers at cost. But he didn't push them on me.

It's not an easy world for people not in the know.

 

[centaurus3200]

who knows, you might be able to find them cheaper, but there is a place called madisound.com. they are an authorized dealer for those *******' euro drivers like seas, focal, vifa, audax, peerless, morel, scanspeak etc.

don't think they carry dynaudio any more, but there is a place in los angeles called ITC electronics that does. to my recollection, morel and dynaudio are the same. i could be wrong though.

they also are home of the cheapest kickass woofer on the market (at least when i had a bunch of audiophile mags in the late 80s), the madisound sledgehammer.

they are raw speakers for home audio, but as long as you know some theory on sound and can calculate VAS, you can get far superior speakers for a lot less than high end car audio stuff.

i think focal tweeters (silk dome) were like $30/piece or less.

jim, a/d/s is good stuff. from my experience with some late 70s a/d/s L810s and L910s. they are awesome rock speakers, but couldn't image for crap.really high quality drivers though, silkdome MIDRANGE. schweet!

see ya,
Robby

 

[Snellgrovia]

I paid $149 for my Rockford Fosgate CD/MP3 playerand it flips down too (I'm always afriad it's going to break too). I sound quailty is just crazy...I had to turn the highs way down because Cymbal crashes were almost causing me to crash.

 

[Aspect]

I am a hugh fan of Polk dB's and Infinity Kappas. Very warm tones, very destinct clarity and crip cracks of the high hat.

For Home equipment, I still love both of them for speakers, but I am partial to Onkyo and Harmon Kardon receivers.

 

[sideSHO]

I hate my system.Almost every part of it.I have great bass from the sub at all tones but the mids and highs a lacking.I bought the Bluapunkts becuase I had the Overdrive sub and really liked it.Do not judge a car audio companys products on what one of their lines sound like.Next time I rebuild my system I will get into some of higher quality stuff.