Car Audio Advice from the Audio Gurus: Use "Search thread" before posting a new Q!

[polo107]

Originally Posted by aseem

plan to do this by next SALARY

me too waiting for salary..post some pictures after you have done with.

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by Selective

All,

I visited few shops for the audio configuration for my swift with respect to my requirements. I am listing the shops (shortlisted) who gave their quote for my likings. I need your feedback and recommendations on my findings.

1. Car N Style (J.C.Road)
Alpine 9830 - 12k (without B & W)
Boston FS60 - 5.5k
Boston F6 - 3k

2. Sound Factor (Lavelle Road)
Alpine 9830 - 14.5k (With bill, not sure abt W)
JBL 606e - 5.5k
JBL 636e - 3.5k

3. Sachin's Autoshop (Kormangala)
Alpine 9830 - 13.5k (without B & W)
Or
Blaupunkt Senilla - 14.7k (with B & W)
----------
Boston FS60 - 5.4k
Boston F6 - 2.9k
Or
JBL 606e - 5.7k
JBL 636e - 2.9k

Now tell me, is it better if I go for Blaupunkt with B & W rather than going for Alpine without B & W. I found Blaupunkt Senilla (it is advanced too) decent enough. He says it is on par with Alpine 9830 which I am not sure of!!

Which is better choice between Boston and JBL? With price there is not much difference, so, need your help to decide on one thing.

Waiting for you input, eagerly!

Selective.

advise u to go in for the alpine HU and the JBls with the bill and warranty..this setup will suit the car really well..well i insist on B&W as ur spending a trifle lot on the HU compared to the sonys and the pioneers,so makes sense to go in for B&W..ur deal with sound factor seems pretty decent so go ahead with it..

[aseem]

Selective I dont think you will be able to get an Alpine 9830 for 13k with bill and warranty . I couldnt even get a B&W for my Sony 8800 for 13k. If I had gone with b&w Sony 8800 would have costed 18k.
My suggestion would be to go with Alpine 9830 for 13k without bill and warranty, as Alpine makes the best sounding HU's. You can get the Boston FS60 for 5.3k or JBL 606E for 5.5k for the fronts, and co-axials in the rear. Listen to both the brands before you make the final decision.

[Steeroid]

Hi Guys

My Safari's sound setup is in a state of flux ever since I bought it...

OE consisted of a Blaupunkt Monte Carlo MP34 Tata + basic Blaupunkt speakers.

Replaced these with a Pioneer 7650 Head Unit, Blaupunkt 2-way speakers for the front and Sony Xplod 3-way coaxials for the rear. Plonked in my old Pioneer 12 CD changer under the front passenger's seat.

Despite the theoretically better speakers on the rear, sound at the rear was pathetic and was distorting whatever good sound the front speakers were putting out.

Took this to my car audio shop, where the chap said the Sonys wont work well when door-mounted as they require volume to get the best out of it. These speakers used to be great on my Accent, but then they were rear mounted with the bootspace volume to back them up.

After checking out an entire range of speakers that the audio shop chappie took the trouble of fitting on one after the other, a pair of Boston FX5s were chosen (FX6s were available, but again the sound wasnt upto the mark).

Now the output is much better, but the sound's got a tinny edge to it. Probably the Pioneer head unit...

So should I put my original Blaupunkt head unit back in? Any other recommendations on the speakers (I'd like to get the speakers sorted out before I go in for a sub-woofer)?

I now have the following extra bits of equipment:

2 headunits (Blaupunkt Monte Carlo MP34 Tata & a Mercedes OE HU) and 3 pairs of speakers extra (2 pairs of Blaupunkt and 1 pair of Sony Xplod 3-ways) + 2 pairs of surface mounted tweeters (OE Blaupunkts and a pair of Pioneers)...what would be the best combination from the available equipment at hand?

Another big question - if I change my Pioneer head unit will I still be able to use the Pioneer CD changer? There was some talk of Pioneers working only with Pioneers, or else one has to use the FM channels etc etc....

As you can see, am totally confused...I have decided on a small Blaupunkt sub-woofer with a built-in amp as I like the soft bass on it. However, I'd like to get the Head Unit-Speaker combo sorted out first.

HELP!

[aseem]

Originally Posted by Selective

Which is better choice between Boston and JBL? With price there is not much difference, so, need your help to decide on one thing.

I have heard both JBL 606 and Boston FS60. I would say go for JBL if you like Hip Hop, R&B etc. If your choice of music however is more sober like pop, classical, etc than go for Boston.
JBL components are a tad bright compared to Boston. They are both very good brands, JBL just has a better retail network and after sale support in our country.

[Buffetfan]

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

advise u to go in for the alpine HU and the JBls with the bill and warranty..this setup will suit the car really well..well i insist on B&W as ur spending a trifle lot on the HU compared to the sonys and the pioneers,so makes sense to go in for B&W..ur deal with sound factor seems pretty decent so go ahead with it..

I would suggest forget the BnW, buy a Pioneer 5750 for abt 6.5-7k and buy the JBL cs50.4 amp for abt 9k.(total 16 k compared to qbt 15 k you are spending just on the HU).

this will make your system really ROCK...Pioneers generally are pretty decent and dont have many realiability issues compared to Sony's which according to my knowledge have lot of lensissues...

7 k is really not much....you can buy another system later if required...

[lancer_mania]

do special wire come with the jbl speakers please help.how are they better than the normal onees

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Hi Guys

My Safari's sound setup is in a state of flux ever since I bought it...

OE consisted of a Blaupunkt Monte Carlo MP34 Tata + basic Blaupunkt speakers.

Replaced these with a Pioneer 7650 Head Unit, Blaupunkt 2-way speakers for the front and Sony Xplod 3-way coaxials for the rear. Plonked in my old Pioneer 12 CD changer under the front passenger's seat.

Despite the theoretically better speakers on the rear, sound at the rear was pathetic and was distorting whatever good sound the front speakers were putting out.

Took this to my car audio shop, where the chap said the Sonys wont work well when door-mounted as they require volume to get the best out of it. These speakers used to be great on my Accent, but then they were rear mounted with the bootspace volume to back them up.

After checking out an entire range of speakers that the audio shop chappie took the trouble of fitting on one after the other, a pair of Boston FX5s were chosen (FX6s were available, but again the sound wasnt upto the mark).

Now the output is much better, but the sound's got a tinny edge to it. Probably the Pioneer head unit...

So should I put my original Blaupunkt head unit back in? Any other recommendations on the speakers (I'd like to get the speakers sorted out before I go in for a sub-woofer)?

I now have the following extra bits of equipment:

2 headunits (Blaupunkt Monte Carlo MP34 Tata & a Mercedes OE HU) and 3 pairs of speakers extra (2 pairs of Blaupunkt and 1 pair of Sony Xplod 3-ways) + 2 pairs of surface mounted tweeters (OE Blaupunkts and a pair of Pioneers)...what would be the best combination from the available equipment at hand?

Another big question - if I change my Pioneer head unit will I still be able to use the Pioneer CD changer? There was some talk of Pioneers working only with Pioneers, or else one has to use the FM channels etc etc....

As you can see, am totally confused...I have decided on a small Blaupunkt sub-woofer with a built-in amp as I like the soft bass on it. However, I'd like to get the Head Unit-Speaker combo sorted out first.

HELP!

now that u have already purchased the pioneer HU stick to it..can u tell us where u have mounted the rear speakers..is it on the door or on the body below the baby seats,if in any other way then pls describe as it will help us solve ur problem easily..awaiting ur response..

[lancer_mania]

do special wire come with the jbl speakers please help.how are they better than the normal onees

[aseem]

Originally Posted by lancer_mania

do special wire come with the jbl speakers please help.how are they better than the normal onees

I think Sam is in a better position to answer this, but since he is not online right now, so let me chip in. The wires that come with JBL speakers are pretty standard and nothing extra ordinary about them. I think Sam also had mentioned this earlier.

[Buffetfan]

Originally Posted by aseem

I think Sam is in a better position to answer this, but since he is not online right now, so let me chip in. The wires that come with JBL speakers are pretty standard and nothing extra ordinary about them. I think Sam also had mentioned this earlier.

I agree...I had got one pair of JBL wire std with the monoblock amp...the other one I bought was monster audion cable (gold) ....I did not fing any difference apart from the fact that JBL wires were in a transparent plastic coating

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by lancer_mania

do special wire come with the jbl speakers please help.how are they better than the normal onees

well im sure sam will be able to answer that query efficiently..as far as my knowledge goes the JBls do come with wiring and i remember sam quoting that they are better than the ones used in our local accessory shops when there was talk about belden wires..though not quite sure whats the speciality with these JBL wires though..but better quality wires help in transmitting the sound effectively from the HU to the speakers without that much of loss during transmission..hope im right,so better materials u use in these wires better is the transmission..so obviously going in for good wires does make sense..

[lancer_mania]

thank you all for the information.i will also wait for sams input.

[navin]

Originally Posted by karthik247

heres what i came up with:
Alpine 9831 HU
Kicker sub (15") and kicker amp
now i'm a lil confused with the speakers...thinkin abt Alpine or JBL or Kicker(??)
also would u guys recommend compos?

and should i get a 2nd amp(4ch) for the rear speakers or will they work fine with the HU

15" kicker in the NHC. hope you are putting them in a box.

speakers are quite simple:
I would listen to the follow brands: Alpine, JBL, Boston, Infinity and if your budget does not include these I hear Blaupunkt is a bit less expensive. Obviously components are nicer sounding than co-ax speakers but they also lighten your wallet more. so I would specifiy a budget.

You should get a nice 4 channel amp to go with these speakers. Again the Blaupunkt GTA450, JBL 50.4 and Alpine 340 can be considered. If budget does not permit these then the Sony 504Z seems to be real "Paisa Vasool".

Budget atleast 2K for nice wires: power cable for the amps, interconnected from HU to amp, and speaker wire.

Hope this helps.

[navin]

Originally Posted by zzzehar

However being an entry level Unit It doesn't hv much tweaking option as you would find in Sony 5510....

how much tweaking do you need. almos tall amps have LFPs and HPFs and these are quite usable. some amps even have bass tuning options which where many of the problems lie and if one really is into tweaking one can tinker with the XO of the speakers.

I prefer to have a HU that was sober. All those lights cost money and i'd prefer the money go into better ICs and Power supply. Old saying "if you want lights get a christmass tree" I think Edgar Vilchur (father of the Acoustic Suspension loudspeaker and founder of Acoustic Research said that). Anyone remember the AR 3a, 2ax, and 2a from the late 60s early 70s. Driven by an Avery Fisher TX100 (25W rms) those speakers made music. Yeah and the Saul Marantz model 9 tuner. now i'm hallucinating again.