Car Audio Central - Ultimate Car Audio Forum and Community

Hi all,
Interestingly, I ended up here after reading Ryan's (from Ohio) posts over at CAF regarding the "copyright" issue. Just for the record, I feel Ryan's original request should be been honored and I was impressed with how maturely he handled himself. Anyways, I've been primarily a lurker on that forum for quite some time now, however I've always disliked the fairly "large" and impersonal nature of it. There's also that problem of the server always being full... but I understand it's hard to run a site that big.

Anyways, I'm 22 years old and my day job is a Sr. Linux Administrator/Engineer. I've been working with computers FOREVER (started learning how to program at the ripe age of 5). It was previously a hobby, but since I've turned it into my job - I had to find a new hobby for myself. I got into cars when I was 18 and have come quite a ways since. I've always liked having "bumpin' tunes", so car stereos became an interest to me. My previous setup was:

Some kenwood headunit (meh)
MB Quart QSD216s (i think that's what they were...)
Soundstream Reference 604 amp (the good oldschool stuff)
Kicker 600.1
Alpine 12" - Type R

For reasons I won't get into here, that vehicle went bye-bye and some of the equipment found its way into a friend's car. I made an '87 BMW 325IS my daily driver, and I've very slowly been upgrading the system on it. It currently consists of:

Some Alpine headunit (decent unit I got for free)
Lousy cerwin vega coaxs (came with the car)
Stock rear speakers
Kicker 600.1
Kicker Comp Free air sub @ 8ohm (oooh yeah, feel the power!)

I'm currently trying to figure out what I ultimately want to have. I'm thinking along the lines of:
Alpine DVA-9860
Zapco 360.4
Components - Undecided
eD - Nine.1
IDMAX 12"

And.... a pic for good measure... That's me in the foreground w/ an ex-girlfriend:

Your "thinking along the lines of" sounds fine, except I wouldn't use the eD amp. If you're thinking Zapco, just get a matching Zapco amp for the IDMAX. If you post a budget and an idea of what kind of sound you want out of your components, some of the guys on here can help you choose those.

Sounds like a good start... welcome to the board, we have a great bunch of people always willing to help out. So don't hesitate to ask any questions... we may rax ya a little, but give you some good advice in the end

^^ agreed with first reply, get a Zapco, Older zapcos(couple years back) are cheap on ebay! I know there are alot of do's and don'ts of the ebay theory, but I buy alot of stuff from there and various other forums!!I actually prefer used equipment! and Never buy from a sound board, cause it is WAY easier to make a room sound good then any car!! As for Components Right now Im rocking a set of DD's and to be perfectly honest I am disappointed, so now I am goiung to be buying some Focals soon and Ialready know how they sound!!

dd is only for subs.

Agreed, Im really disappointed with there comps, I mean the woofer part of the system is Amazing if running in Active, but with the xovers that came with it and the tweeter setup! EWWWW the tweeters that are stock in my lancer are way cleaner and have a way better response curve!

solacedagony wrote:Your "thinking along the lines of" sounds fine, except I wouldn't use the eD amp. If you're thinking Zapco, just get a matching Zapco amp for the IDMAX. If you post a budget and an idea of what kind of sound you want out of your components, some of the guys on here can help you choose those.

Good to know i'm on the right track. My reasoning for not getting a Zapco to drive the sub is because the amp I would need is slightly cost prohibitive and I heard Zapco's warranty doesn't apply unless you have the stuff professionally installed. The amp required to drive the front speakers isn't quite as expensive and I figured I'd take a chance.

Do you not like the nine.1? Those CAF guys are all over it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't know what they were talking about.

cargodz wrote:Sounds like a good start... welcome to the board, we have a great bunch of people always willing to help out. So don't hesitate to ask any questions... we may rax ya a little, but give you some good advice in the end ]

Thanks :)

lancer1978 wrote:^^ agreed with first reply, get a Zapco, Older zapcos(couple years back) are cheap on ebay! I know there are alot of do's and don'ts of the ebay theory, but I buy alot of stuff from there and various other forums!!I actually prefer used equipment! and Never buy from a sound board, cause it is WAY easier to make a room sound good then any car!! As for Components Right now Im rocking a set of DD's and to be perfectly honest I am disappointed, so now I am goiung to be buying some Focals soon and Ialready know how they sound!!

I'd consider that, I'm just worried about Zapco's whole warranty situation. I have absolutely no idea what I want to do for components. All I know for sure is that I don't like harsh highs. I was going to look into some CDT components with silk tweeters, but still unsure. My budget for components is $500 or under (just a front set). I'll keep using the stock speakers on the rear-fill for now.

Wow $500 for front fill, CDT's, Focals, DLS...Any of those will fit that budget and Rock nicely....

Finally another Linux guy/guru. I teach Linux/Unix for the Federal Government and a few times a year at the local Vo-techs. The OS' that I teach are RedHat, SuSe, Mandrake, SCO, AIX, Whitebox, Yellowdog, Solaris along with a few systems that feature UNIX. Good to hear that Linux is alive and well in LAX area.

As for Zapco...awesome...as for CDT, I saw one take a huge amount of voltage and besides the smell of rotten electronics, still played beautifully. I have a new found respect for CDT.

If you have a budget of $500 for components, look at the K2P set from Focal, Look at Zapco's components, Look at Morel's Elate series, and check out the JL Z series. All excellent, all in about that range. I also believe the Soundline series from Rainbow are in there as well.

Good luck and welcome to the board!

Joe