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  #1  
Old 12-26-2008, 02:38 AM
Cesar Vargas Cesar Vargas is offline
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rolleyes which audio system is best.

can anybody tell that which audio system is best for car.
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  #2  
Old 12-26-2008, 10:07 AM
peg leg peg leg is offline
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A hundred different answers to that question!
My personal choice is Alpine. I put one, a CDA9886, in my Demon, with Alpine speakers. I like it so much, I put the same one in my pickup, whose CD player quit working, after 9.5 years. Absolutely flawless sound quality, and just as important, really easy to use. One knob control of all options, good tuner and lots of power.
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  #3  
Old 12-27-2008, 04:18 AM
Walkercolt Walkercolt is offline
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How much money you got? Alpine is good. Most Pioneer is good. Blauplunkt is good. Mark Levinson is very good, and very exspensive. I like Cerwin-Vega speakers and MB Quarts', and several other brands(like Boston Acoustics and Mark Levinsons' and Nitto's from Japan) but the last 3 cost serious bucks. A vehicle is a terrible audio enviroment, even at rest. Look at Crutchfield.com and you'll see lots of choices. Right now, $200-up for a "head unit"(radio and CD player) should get you a good sounding system, then add speakers and additional amp if you feel you need it. An FYI, more exspensive speakers, that are usually multi-piece(woofer, seperate tweeter and often a special "cross-over" board) take more power to "drive" ie: produce a certain sound level(db's@ 1 meter per watt) but sound better. Good speakers are as important(actually more, since they really make the sound) than the head unit, so don't "cheap-out" on speakers.
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  #4  
Old 01-07-2009, 05:27 PM
Dr. Righteous Dr. Righteous is offline
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I'm an audiophile (to a certain degree) and the real reason I lost interest in car audio was because I NEVER was able to achieve the sound quality and the linearity in the system I was use to in my home equipment. And I had much more invested in the car audio gear.
Now since the audio gear blocking device was installed in my home (wife) I really have not be able to get back into it like I would like.

One BIG plus is that today's head unit have feature built in we could only dream of back in my day. Like Line level out with 5v P-P output. Subwoofer out with variable output level. All in the head unit.
I have a Panasonic MXE series head unit with said features and maybe one day I will do another system.
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  #5  
Old 01-08-2009, 01:42 AM
Walkercolt Walkercolt is offline
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I'm with you Dr. My broker's wife's new Lexus LS470 with the Mark Levinson sound system is by far the best I've ever heard. I can't tell you exactly how many speakers it has, but they put small(but very, very high quality) speakers in each headrest, so you can hear the music, and not have to shout over the sound either. It's a very quiet vehicle anyway, and the Levinson system has adjustable compression(good for CD's in a car) and automatic volume control, that you can adjust the range on. Now the price tag on the sound system is almost as much as a Kia, but it's very, very good. Would I spend that much on a sound system in a car? Maybe, if I could afford the Lexus.
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  #6  
Old 01-08-2009, 10:01 AM
Dr. Righteous Dr. Righteous is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Walkercolt View Post
I'm with you Dr. My broker's wife's new Lexus LS470 with the Mark Levinson sound system is by far the best I've ever heard. I can't tell you exactly how many speakers it has, but they put small(but very, very high quality) speakers in each headrest, so you can hear the music, and not have to shout over the sound either. It's a very quiet vehicle anyway, and the Levinson system has adjustable compression(good for CD's in a car) and automatic volume control, that you can adjust the range on. Now the price tag on the sound system is almost as much as a Kia, but it's very, very good. Would I spend that much on a sound system in a car? Maybe, if I could afford the Lexus.
I use to be a HiFonics man. And I mean the Hifonics of the 80s when the gear was American made. I had a Hifonics Ophelia parametric crossover/EQ.
With that thing I was able to come very close to the ideals in sound I was looking for. And that is mainly the definition in vocals and instruments. I was not much of a loud bass fan. What the call bass now days is all distortion.
I had some contemporary Jazz Albums that I "benchmarked" the system by. I listened to hear the bass players fingers on the strings and many of the hard to reproduce elements. Actually the results were very good on certain program material. But if you changed to a different kind of music the results were bad. You needed a different EQ curve.
It was very frustrating.
Now they have totally programmable EQs for the car. That is why I would like to take up the mantle again.
BUT, like I said, the wife is against it. My own fault.
When I cracked the drywall with the Peavey Low Rider sub that pretty much made her mind up. My toys were dangerous.
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  #7  
Old 01-12-2009, 02:58 PM
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Heminow Heminow is offline
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Does anyone sell upgraded dual-wheel radio/cd for 69 dodge, I've looked all over, can't find one
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  #8  
Old 01-12-2009, 03:54 PM
Dr. Righteous Dr. Righteous is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Heminow View Post
Does anyone sell upgraded dual-wheel radio/cd for 69 dodge, I've looked all over, can't find one
Upgraded how?

I had an AM radio in the '69 Coronet I had. I just cleaned the control and replaced the speaker and I had crackly AM sound.
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  #9  
Old 01-19-2009, 10:01 PM
Lt.Dan Lt.Dan is offline
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Hello all,
This is my first outing in Moparchat....I used to sell mid-high end audio. You can't go wrong with MB Quart 3 way component speakers. We used to judge car audio with a spectrum analyzer and the MB's are VERY nice!
If you would like tight bass, go with either JL Audio or Cerwin Vega! woofers to round out the system. One final recommendation...too much power is better than too little....your speakers will thank you.

On the thumbwheel upgrade....there is a vendor that advertises in the Mopar magazines. It's expensive and servicing could be problematic. It's easier, less expensive and better quality if you hide a deck in the glove box... get one with a remote, Pioneer comes to mind.
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  #10  
Old 01-20-2009, 08:08 PM
DonCarr DonCarr is offline
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Nakamichi ? Ebay has units over $1000 shipped directly from Hong Kong.

Imagine they're pretty good.
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  #11  
Old 01-27-2009, 09:06 PM
Lt.Dan Lt.Dan is offline
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I used to have a Nakamichi Dragon @ home and it was THE best bar none.
However, not all Nakamichi products are manufactured in house; they ended up farming out most of their operations and lost quality control...they're not as highly reguarded as they once were. If you can find one of their mobile units from the late '80's-'90's, you'll have a nice deck!
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  #12  
Old 01-28-2009, 03:03 PM
Century Cp Guru Century Cp Guru is offline
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Custom Auto sound is supposed to have upgraded stereos with more power and features and a stock looking face. I just got a car from My Brother has a KENWOOD cd and Siruis radio, and it says Moffset 45w/4 sounds nice to me, even got a remote to tune with.
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  #13  
Old 08-07-2009, 11:31 AM
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MoparCzy MoparCzy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Century Cp Guru View Post
Custom Auto sound is supposed to have upgraded stereos with more power and features and a stock looking face. I just got a car from My Brother has a KENWOOD cd and Siruis radio, and it says Moffset 45w/4 sounds nice to me, even got a remote to tune with.
Unfortunately Custom Auto Sound mainly caters to the Chevy crowd, I have never seen a radio of theirs that said it was for Mopars. Not saying they won't fit, but just saying that is what I have seen on their website.

As far as which system is best, that has to come down to personal preference and money. Mine is Pioneer for both home and car, good sound without too high a price. Since I like crisp high notes I stay away from Infinity speakers, they sound like someone poured mud in the tweeters to me.
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  #14  
Old 08-07-2009, 05:25 PM
DonCarr DonCarr is offline
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Default Mopar Guys

Our day has come.

Ego aside, it was all in fun.

It's all music to my ears.

Infinity and beyond,

Don
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  #15  
Old 05-18-2010, 12:46 AM
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For anyone still looking for a radio for their car, my wife found this company for me: Radios for old cars is their name. The offer mostly GM radios, but they do offer both the 70-74 E-body and 71-74 B-body radios. These are new reproductions. They also have a list of vendors who can convert any old radio to modern circuts and add a input for CD/XM.
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  #16  
Old 06-01-2010, 02:18 AM
sm1lodon sm1lodon is offline
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1) The first thing you might consider is how much money you have to spend. Engage in whatever legal activities will lead to acquiring as much as you need. Eliminate people from your life who don't Approve. Watch the movie American Beauty for inspiration.
2) Decide how badly you want a system that doesn't sound like a hundred drunk yodelers shouting down a cardboard tube while beating up instruments with clubs.
3) If the answer to (2) is "I want great sound very much" then proceed to next point
4) Decide: are you going to keep this vehicle a while?

Having established these and some other points, such as, "Do I live in a thugged-out ghetto where my car will be stripped to the primer the moment I turn my back on it?" you can proceed.

Phase 1:
The basic system should be a nice deck that handles whatever format of music you prefer, Ipod, CDs, Radio, whatever. Cassettes, anyone?

Having gotten the deck, get a relatively inexpensive pair of 6X9 3-way speakers and stick them in your doors. There. You now hook them up to your deck, and you have a sound system.

Phase 2: (Final phase of Ghetto Fabulous approach)
Having realized how badly a pair of 6X9s produces sub-bass, you will want to move up to the above system, PLUS the addition of a subwoofer amplifier and a subwoofer. If you are truly Ghetto Fabulous, your subwoofers will be the cheapest watts-per-buck set of subs you can find, with an amp where sound quality is just laughed at in the brochure, but produces lots of power. Run the RCA from your deck to the subwoofer amplifier, wire up your subwoofer box with your "40 in a paper bag" brand subwoofers and go out rattling your license plate in true style. It isn't sound quality that matters, it's "lethal radius". Brothaz can't fear what brothaz can't hear, 'no'msai'n? (kNOw hat I'm SAyINg?)

Phase 2: (Sound Quality approach)
Get a high-quality subwoofer and a high-quality 2-channel amplifier that you will bridge and run into the subwoofer box (sealed, as bandpass boxes tend to fart at one note only, no matter what frequency note is put in them) to your quality subwoofer.
See my post on the Importance of Capacitors, grab a 1 Farad capacitor and wire it right by your amplifier. Your entire system will thank you.

Phase 3:
Remove subwoofer amplifier from subwoofer, and use it to power the two 6X9 door speakers. Buy bigger amplifier, a couple more subwoofers of the same type as you already have, and put them in a 3-speaker box powered by the bigger amplifier, still a 2-channel amp bridged to power all three subwoofers in parallel. Use more than 1 Farad of extra capacitance, again, mounted right by the subwoofer amplifier. Make sure all three subwoofers have individual airspaces of identical volume. This will help you notice if one of them is blown because it won't just be going back and forth, pumped by the other subwoofers. Ask me how I know this.

Phase 4:
Buy a 3-way crossover, install it on the outputs (L and R) of the deck, unhook subwoofer RCA cable to the subwoofer amplifier from subwoofer RCA cable from the deck and feed subwoofer amplifier from the RCA cable hooked to the the low-pass channel of the 3-way crossover, feed the 6X9s from the mid-high part of the crossover, and leave the third output of the 3-way crossover for now. Cancel separate subwoofer output from your deck's setup menu and run all the signal through the left and right RCA cables. The 3-way crossover now will determine what signal goes to what amplifier.

Phase 5:
Install a 1/3 octave equalizer between the deck and the crossover network, so the L and R RCA cables go into the equalizer from the deck, then into the crossover from the equalizer. You will find such a gigantic difference in sound quality when you can tune the frequencies that are emphasized or reduced that you will wonder how you ever got along without an equalizer. It will go from "smurfs shouting from a box of pillow fluff" muffled sound to "Luciano Pavarotti sitting in the back seat, live" sound quality. When you keep looking over your shoulder to see if the Rolling Stones are, in fact, in session in your car unbeknownst to you, you are obviously using an equalizer.

Phase 6:
Replace door 6X9 speakers with 6.5" mid and 1" tweeter separates, and mount them in kick panels in front of the doors. Power these from the amplifier that was powering the 6X9's.

Phase 7: Put 2 8" mid-bass drivers in each door, and use another amplifier to power them. Feed the signal from the heretofore unused second channel of the three-way crossover. Adjust crossover to remove the top of the sub-bass spectrum and the bottom of the mid-high frequencies and and feed that through the mid-bass drivers, thus giving crisper response to the high bass, and more power handling for the low-mid sounds.

Phase 8: Acoustic Terrorism
Install gigantic (Jackhammer-class) subwoofer in a very sturdy box, firing towards outside of vehicle, down through a huge hole cut in the floor of the trunk is an example, and install a 5000W RMS or higher amplifier to power it. Install bank of five extra Optima yellow-top batteries plus a few hundred Farads of capacitance all wired with 750mcm or larger welding cable (welding cable is extremely limp, more so than standard stereo power wiring.) Be careful, as this level of electrical power availability could electrocute a full-grown African elephant. An alternator/generator that can reliably crank out 10,000 watts of power would be in order, or a separate Honda portable generator mounted in trunk sipping fuel from the car's gas tank with a transformer and rectifier setup to get the voltage down and current up to what the amplifier will need.

Drive by neighborhoods in countries with whom you are presently at war where there is an abundance of buildings with large, plate-glass windows. Explain that you are in a global war on windows and that unless your demands are met, you will exterminate their evil windows. If they do not meet your demands for laughing, put in earplugs, acoustic earmuffs, and switch on the Jackhammer, then play some bass-heavy tracks of your favorite gangsta-rap artist(s). It will add insult to injury if the artist in question vilifies whoever your enemies' favorite person is.

As you turn up the volume marvel at how the windows shimmy then burst in a cloud of small glass fragments as they are yanked back and forth in their frames by the acoustic might of your Ghetto 2 tha Extreem sound system.

Run away swiftly before they can get your license plate number and exult in the fact that you, like Thor of legend, are a true god of thunder.

At any time during this process:
-Upgraded alternator/generator to easily handle the wattage of the system
-Optima yellow-top battery, as these are made specifically for just such a system and they have an exceedingly long life.
-Wiring that is overkill in thickness for power to the system and for the speaker leads
-RCA cables that are twisted-pair and shielded for best signal quality and reduced interference
-Large-capacity hybrid capacitor to smooth out the voltages even more
-A new wife who knows you are cool for being into this stuff. Cancel old wife, first however. Do they have a return depot?
-A car that is worthy of such a system
-Soundproofing and sound damping to reduce the invasion of road noise into your car, so your system has less to compete with.

The "Acoustic Terrorism" part was something I thought up after I was doing bodyguard work for one of the Bone Thugs'n'Harmony in Tulsa Oklahoma in the late nineties. His other bodyguard said he was there when they fired up the system that had just been installed in his car and blew the windows out of the front of the stereo shop that installed it, outside of which they were sitting when the stereo shop owner encouraged them to crank it up on a test run.

Let there be sound!
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  #17  
Old 08-31-2010, 03:47 AM
primal primal is offline
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The best sound system i have ever heard in a car is the roar of the engine. Anything else is just wishwash.
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  #18  
Old 10-22-2010, 05:19 AM
jims72 jims72 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by primal View Post
The best sound system i have ever heard in a car is the roar of the engine. Anything else is just wishwash.
Agreed no stereo beats the sound of an open headered heavy cammed big block at WOT!
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  #19  
Old 10-23-2010, 04:41 PM
princeh princeh is offline
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I just might have to try the POR15. Right now it's just surface rust, but I don't want it growing. Plus the truck floor is full of dirt/sand that's about 2" deep. I'm pretty sure that won't look good when I get to cleaning it up! I want to thank all of you for your replies. There are some nice people here!
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  #20  
Old 10-23-2010, 04:58 PM
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MoparCzy MoparCzy is offline
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Quote:
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The best sound system i have ever heard in a car is the roar of the engine. Anything else is just wishwash.
Be that as it may, there are times when I want to hear music of the non-engine variety. For now I would love to hear my engine running. Hopefully soon.
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  #21  
Old 10-27-2010, 06:13 PM
ResQ91 ResQ91 is offline
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I went with McIntosh in my Challenger. I am really impressed with the clarity......
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  #22  
Old 10-27-2010, 09:54 PM
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MoparCzy MoparCzy is offline
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Never heard of that brand, for the Road Runner I plan on getting one of the reproductions that my wife found. looks just like the factory 71-74 unit but has modern tuning in it. www.radiosforoldcars.com is the website I believe.

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I went with McIntosh in my Challenger. I am really impressed with the clarity......
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