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Well I think if I can swing it, I will be going for both the Mc and the Audison. Also I will be putting the KX in my wife's car sometime in the near future. There is better audio out there.

actually mr. unique would build his own controls in his garage with his own welder and torch like a real man....


as for car audio.....scott owens has the loudest truck in the universe but you dont see people flocking to buy pioneer subs....at least not the good ones..but i do see xplod subs in cars weekly....id imagine they way outsell jl...espescially considering the retail giant that wal mart is.....and believe me i hear every couple days about how great xplods are and people wont replace them but i do swap out jl subs for other brands fairly frequently.......now given the fact that wal mart practically owns the world and has decent customer service and sony as an overall company produces some good product.....not all of it in car audio and you may not like xplod but it does seem to be as durable as most other mass produced fast and furious styled audio equipment and better than most.....this doesnt mean that xplod is a better product than jl does it? simply because it is

raved about, the quality is highly regarded, and it comes from a trusted company with proven business practices.

because believe me these people rave about it....have the upmost regard for the quality of their xplod amps and subs and sony would not be the electronics giant it is if it were in the business of producing largley unreliable crap.....like daewoo


love this thread

fed ex the gravy they come earlier than ups...

you want some biscuits as well?

Sony wasn't always crap. They used to have some really nice gear. Mobile ES line I think it was. Why did they stop making the good stuff?

actually i have all sony source units in my car....cdx-c610 hu with changer of the same era ( iforget the model number U404 i think) and a ps2......its all about 10 years old but looks new still thanks to the wireless remote i never touch the buttons....

Smoker,

You have to consider the source when it comes to someone raving about a product. If Bubba has Sony in his car, he's not likely gonna rave about Pioneer.

Next consider the dollars aspect and ratios. You figure, it's (at least) probably ten walmart shoppers to every one custom shop customer.

Demographics... 16-21 year olds don't usually have $3,000 to blow on systems, which kinda rules out Alpine decks and JL amps/subs. Certainly rules out McIntosh, Audison, Focal etc..

Even though I'm older than the demographic, and majority of car audio consumers, I still have a budget to consider. Sometimes less budget, since I've got "grown up" stuff, like bills, to deal with.

Here's my story...
I enjoy playing with bargain stuff sometimes, just to see what it can do. Try to make alot out of a little. I'm good at that, never had alot of money, always had to "make due".

Some of my experiences include... a $60 CircuitCity advertised special cheapness Koss headunit. I had a Blaupunkt deck ignite in the dash before a road trip, needed a deck fast and cheap. That Koss worked good for 4+ years. When it started erroring, I sent it back to Koss (with a $40 money order) and they sent me a brand new HU.

So I combined that "Xtreme Sound" brand deck with some Lightning Audio coaxials from walmart. Sounded good off the HU, but really came to life once I added a 4x35 watt Sony amplifier, also from walmart. Up to this point I was pure walmart equipment and I was pleased with the bang I got for the buck.

Then I picked up a great custom enclosure with four 8" MTX subs. You can see it here. Only had an OLD Jensen 2x100wt amp for it, so that sufficed awhile. Bought that amp used (and already old) from a pawnshop back in the early 90s.

After awhile I ordered an Audiobahn Dub amp, 1x400w@4ohm which is ideal for the enclosure... I think it cost me $69 and at the same time, an upper-level Sony Xplode headunit for just under $200... At that point, I was very happy. The Sony HU will be with me awhile, it features Burr Browns, an excellent display, and really impresses me with features and SQ. The amp did exactly what it was supposed to, and did the job quite well.

This was a junk vehicle to begin with, not much sense putting $10K of audio into a $300 car. Bottom line is that, over the course of 3-4 years, this bargain basement equipment kept me quite happy. Best of all, it sounded good, got very loud, and could put alot of street-boomers to shame.

None of that equipment gave me problems. I never regretted buying any of it. Granted, it was all nothing to brag about brand-wise, but I feel what I accomplished on a budget is/was very respectable.


While driving my junk car, without any car payments mind you, I've been able to save up money... and just bought a brand new car... and some very respectable new audio equipment also. I'm movin' on up! but I actually miss my old system (packed up in the house here) since I'm stuck with a Pioneer Premium factory system in this new car for now. Its the single most depressing downgrade ever.


I think a key consideration missing in forum communities... is understanding. Coaxials and cheap decks are all some can afford. We can't exclude people simply because they have to go the walmart route. Everyone is capable of progression in any hobby... and everyone has to start somewhere.

If you have a budget of $400 to work with... and because of food/rent/school can't see having much extra cash anytime soon... You've got two choices:

You can get started with a complete walmart system, and then upgrade little by little...

or you can stick an Alpine deck in the closet, until who knows long, when you can buy good components, to put in the closet till you can buy an amp... on and on... someday you might have some audio in the car. Get my point?


On that same token, it sucks when people bash Sony and Audiobahn. I'm sure it makes the people who own this stuff feel like shit. (that alone is a very good reason not to bag on brands) And this is the exact reason I bought my Sony amp + HU and Audiobahn Dub amp... because everyone hates it, yet hearing my old system, you just cannot bag on it.

Granted, it may not be the best stuff, but it ain't Cuspid, Audiovox, or Pyramid either. I can't hate on something that delivers what its spec'd at.

Sorry for the long and somewhat off-topic post/threadjack. If anyone bothers to read it, I hope you get some insight as to why I'm the voice of unpopular opinion.

i thought i knew where that was going but in the end i didnt........im assuming you bought a scion and they are cool to upgrade.....i have all kinds of grown up things to worry about also...house, 3 kids, wifes car. my car has 181000 miles on it...still runs great and its rust free and waxes up pretty good so im happy.....i just get a bit jaded like i said, do what i do 6 days a week and see if you dont get tired of hearing about jl and audio bahn and xplod........

Well the 'Tard sold the McIntosh right out from under me, and I have a 500 dollar car with over $5K of stereo in it, but not quite $10k worth. My car has 203,000 miles on it, runs like a top, no rust and still shines up good. I did go the expensive route, and today it made me realize that it was money well spent. There were some SPL cars out here that used 8 15" Kicker Comps and that guy did a 153 on the TL. Also, in street beats, he produced a 145.6 to win that comp as well. All under 900 watts. There was a guy with a Blazer with 4 13w7's, 4 1000/1's, and a 300/4 going to some xr comps who hit "only" 148 in OUTLAW, and 139 in Street beats. There was an Audiobahn suburban with 8 Pioneer 12's and about 10000 w of Audiobahn, who ran a 144.1 in Outlaw, but only garnered a 141.1 in Streetbeat.

It doesn't matter whether someone used the lowest line of Kicker subs, The top of the line subs, amps and comps, or Audiobahn power going to Pioneer subs. They all hit hard, they were proud of their cars and accomplishments, and all but the JL truck went home with a trophy.

That sucks, I was kind of hoping you'd get the Mac!
(mostly because you raved about your positive experience with it.. and my experiences with the LRx - 1.400 in particular - has been summed up in the phrase "heat issues". I'll never do another install without at least their fan kit, if not a full-bore custom solution after a customers went fizz )

Is it mostly extra overhead you are looking for? (SQ-wise, I never found fault in the LRx's... or even the SRx's for that matter!!! )

or you can stick an Alpine deck in the closet, until who knows long, when you can buy good components, to put in the closet till you can buy an amp... on and on... someday you might have some audio in the car. Get my point?

That’s what I always had to do....and the accomplishment when everything is finally hooked up.....is probably the one of the best feelings you can have, especially if you hooked it all up yourself. Reason I don't go the wal-mart way is because I know they sound like crap, and I do not want to have that in my car. Cuz I know the person sittin next to me at the stop light with the "system" has the same thing I do. I know it's all in the install on how things will sound. But I will save up for high quality and wait till I have everything before anything walmart goes into my car.

On that same token, it sucks when people bash Sony and Audiobahn. I'm sure it makes the people who own this stuff feel like shit. (that alone is a very good reason not to bag on brands) And this is the exact reason I bought my Sony amp + HU and Audiobahn Dub amp... because everyone hates it, yet hearing my old system, you just cannot bag on it.

Reason why they get bashed....Because all the ricers have it, and think it's the greatest in the world, and that the more there crappy car vibrates the better the subs are. I'm sure you have heard the "sony is the best" "audiobahn is the best" That is why it gets bashed on here. If someone told me they had audiobahn and says it's enough for them, and they like it, but don’t rant and rave like they are some car audio god, and audiobahn rules over the nation, then I would accept what the person said. So I know what Terry means when saying what he says.

Sorry for the long and somewhat off-topic post/threadjack. If anyone bothers to read it, I hope you get some insight as to why I'm the voice of unpopular opinion.

We all have our voice of opinion, all different then others, that’s why this forum is the bestest :) lol. And no one gets bashed for it ether.

There was a guy with a Blazer with 4 13w7's, 4 1000/1's, and a 300/4 going to some xr comps who hit "only" 148 in OUTLAW, and 139 in Street beats.

ouch, that probably cost the most too. What do they do in outlaw class anyway? I've never been to a comp, so I dunno what they do and what not.