Recommendations for the show truck. Fi, Polk, Diamond...???

[genxx 10+ year member]

You might try 3.5max6spd on http://www.DIYmobileaudio.com send him a pm. I am not sure what all he is handling now, I know he does rainbow. He will PM you back usually in about 48hrs or less. Just depends how busy he is. Try Aaron again to.

 

[Mystic Knight 10+ year member]

I actually msg'd him on here last night. He's already msg'd me back and we're working on it now. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/clap.gif.178cba2c538c68e720c727fcb024b19c.gif

 

[rlcowboy 10+ year member]

Jl Audio's 12W6 is one of the best sound quality sub wooders you can buy!! If u wanted SPL I would tell u to listen to XXX, but for SQ the W6 is sweet! Focal does make some nice comps, no doubt about it, the Utopias r maybe the BEST,but they're around $1,000! As far as comps go u need to go listen to them yourself! I did A-LOT of listening to a-lot of dif. comps before I went with the JL XR's. I had narrowed it down to the JL Audio XR'S,MB Quart Premiums, & the Alpine type X. Then I went back to all three one more time & listened again. All three of these r around the same price range,$400-$440. I use to installed Memphis but I just did'nt consider them for the SQ I wanted. Finally I went with the JL XR components because they sounded better than the Alpine type X but pretty similar with the MB Quart Premiums. The reason I went with the JL XR's over the MB Quarts is because,like u, I really wanted to match everything up & JL Audio's 12w6 sub is the best sounding SQ subwoofer I've heard, and if u read the reviews u will see a-lot of the big names & magazines say the same thing about that sub! Plus thier 500/1 amp gives u very clean power & puts out over700w rms. It also has a regulated power supply & another thing that pulled me in is that the 500/1 has a seperate parametric EQ just for the bass. So u can boost any particular frequency going to the sub & increase or decrease the bandwith of the boost. In other words u can tighten up your bass as much as u want, u will have total control over your bass & how it sounds vs. just hooking up a sub to an amp and just having a gain setting & a crossover to set. I'm in no way trying to talk u into going with JL, just sharing what I chose after doing a-lot of listening and research.

There r some real good manufactuers out there today who make some nice audio eqipment who u should listen to before spending a couple thousand dollars! Everyone has diferent preferences in what they like so it would'nt be right for ANYONE to say who u should & should'nt go with. I mean there r some brands that I call Pawn Shop brands witch I would tell u to stay away from but u sound like u can tell the diference between crap & quality. Good luck with the install and post some pictures as go along!

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

You said you wanted to hear from someone who worked in a shop. I've worked for a few, including a little company called JL Audio.

Polk SR Series:

The reviewer from CA&E said it's the best components he's ever tested. I can't ignore great reviews like that.

- Read a little further into that article. The Focals and Polks are super speakers, but in my opinion, they are overpriced. Note where he complains about it in the article... and he knows. Notice also that he is a speaker designer himself... he even mentions that he submitted a bid to Polk to design their speakers. Near the end, he said he would design speakers like that for his next customer. Guess who just a few of his customers are?

Cerwin Vega

PPI

Kicker

MTX

Orion

- and that's just a few... note the new Cerwin Vega V-max 65 and PPI 356cs top of the line components... designed to be used as a full-fledged component set or a coax. Note the felt treatment around the center of the mid... designed to combat reflections and smooth the response from the tweeter when mounted coaxially. Sound familiar? Do you smell what I'm cooking?!

These components are designed to compete with the Polks and Focals... and do it at half the price. The companies' amps and subs I mentioned are equally good bang for the buck products. They have some stuff that sounds as good as it looks.

But of course, his products are not the only best values in town... check out Pioneer (TS-720PRS) and Diamond's (6 series) lines before you buy.

 

[genxx 10+ year member]

YES CA&E said that. But the 720PRS achieved a better subjective score through the same testing and Mag. So why are they not the best or tied with the Polks, it is subjective, it depends on every person. Everyone does not like the same thing. I will look at speakers a Mag says are good but would never buy them based on a Mag article. The user reviews have been mixed on the SR6500's. I have seen no bad user reviews of the 720PRS. Draw you on conclusions.

Yes I do like Polk. My entire home theater is Polk so don't even go to the you do not like Polks thing. The SR6500 are nice but for the price I would take the 720PRS or a Rainbow, Focal, Dyn set over them and others.

Scores by CA&E:

Subjective:

Polk-80 out of 100

720PRS-80.5 out of 100

 

Music Selection:

Polk 81 out of 100

720PRS 40.5 out of 50

 

[DejaWiz 5,000+ posts]

note the new Cerwin Vega V-max 65 and PPI 356cs top of the line components... designed to be used as a full-fledged component set or a coax. Note the felt treatment around the center of the mid... designed to combat reflections and smooth the response from the tweeter when mounted coaxially. These components are designed to compete with the Polks and Focals... and do it at half the price.

That is very interesting indeed. I'm going to have to find a Cerwin dealer so I can audition them. And those PPI mids are frickin' tanks! Wouldn't mind auditioning those as well, but PPI dealers with good stock around here are about as scarce as can be.

I've auditioned the Diamond D6, the SR6500, just about every JL comp set (even from their TMA line), almost every Kicker comp set (except the SS), and almost every Alpine comp set.

D661A/S - were both a bit harsh on the highs (I could hear no difference), but overall quite detailed.

SR6500's - sounded like audio magic.... I'm really impressed with this set. I would have chosen them if they weren't priced so high. And the price seems to be their only drawback imo.

JL's - they start to sound good the more expensive the set, but then they become too pricey for what you get, IMO. Not really impressed.

Kickers - DS was eh so-so... kinda flat sounding. KS was much better than the DS in terms of midbass, but the highs seemed a smidge harsh. RS was pretty impressive on the lows and mids but not so much on the highs, I don't think they blended well, but pretty accurate overall with reproduction.

Alpines - (06 models) Type S actually surprised me...the lows were detailed and blended with the mids and highs rather well. Type R had much more midbass than the S, but the highs didn't seem to blend well. Type X blew me away... crystal clear from low to high and not in-your-face. (07 models) Type R impressed me since the ring tweets from the old X line now come with them... midbass seems softer than 06 model, a balanced set overall that reminds me of the X with more pronounced midbass. Wish the new SPX-17PRO set would hurry and make it to dealers..I'm very anxious to hear this set.

If I had the money to throw around, I'd go for some Germaniums. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif

 

[Mystic Knight 10+ year member]

Thanks for the input guys. Feel free to keep the conversations flowing. It all helps. Work has been killing me lately but I guess it's what pays the bills and allows me to have the fun I do. I'm hoping to hit a few local shops this weekend and do some listening. There's not a great deal of shops around here with a lot of high end equipment set up to listen to. I have a few in mind though that should allow me to listen to a few so I can either look into them further or mark them off the list.

 

[Mystic Knight 10+ year member]

Spent the afternoon listening to Diamond, Boston, Alpine, and even Kicker at CarTunes. All run by a JL Audio 300/4 except a set of D9's run by a 500/4.

The D9's sounded great. The best of the bunch. The "overstocked discount" price they were running of $799 was still a bit much for me though. The xovers were works of art. They're freakin HUGE though! I was looking for a suitcase handle on them. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

The Boston Pro 60's and the Diamond D6's were a close second. Both had a nice even sound and a great midbass. The Pro's were $499 and D6's were $399. I was really leaning towards the D6's until... PZT! One of the drivers blew. Oops. That doesn't leave me with a great impression of Diamond. I have no idea what those things have been through though.

Beyond that the others all left me wanting more. Even the PRS series from Pioneer.

After that we started talking about subs and amps. They're no longer carrying Diamond amps because they had so many problems with them. They're going to try a limited run of the new series coming out soon to see if they've improved. They're not carrying the Diamond subs anymore due to lack of sales, not quality issues. He recommended a JL Audio 12W6 run by a JL 500.1.

Final recommendations and prices:

Boston Pro 60's: $499

Boston SL60's: $249

JL 12W6: $459

JL 300/4: $399

JL 500/1: $449

That puts me a little over the 2G mark. I know I could get better prices online if I really wanted to go with this setup. It was good to get out and start listening though.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

Car tunes in Detroit?

if you could get avi i would those things were sweeet. becarefull about falling in love with what you hear on a demo board...time you get it in your vehicle they could sound 100% different.

 

[Mystic Knight 10+ year member]

HO-LEE SHIIIIIZT!!!! I USED TO HAVE THAT SHIRT! You just made my night man. I TOTALLY forgot about that thing! Where'd you get it? That has to be from like the early to mid 90's.

I know what you mean about the boards. Half the people say "Don't listen to the reviews. You have to lisen to them yourself". The others say "Speakers on a board never sound like they will in a car". Well if someone can show me a shop that has all the speakers installed in cars in their lot I'll be more than happy to go there. Until then reviews and listening to speakers on boards is all I have.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

reason i say that is the "best" stuff is put into position to sound best. if you want to hear it get out of axis with it and play material you are used too. (i used to set up sound boards at a couple shops i worked at) i got that shirt at a sound off their in 97.

 

[Mystic Knight 10+ year member]

Their board was pretty high so almost everything was off axis. The D6's were almost 6' apart from each other and a couple feet above my head. The D9's about 4' and 1 level lower, The Bostons were even farther apart. The room is only about 5' deep so it's difficult to be on axis with anything but the ones directly in the center. After standing in the center I stepped off to one side to put myself directly in front of one side. I don't know if I could have done anything more.

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

If the Bostons' have metal tweets, sounds like you like metal tweeters.. I know the D6 are metal. The Cerwin Vegas' would be a step up from the D6.

 

[Mystic Knight 10+ year member]

Adding a new piece to the puzzle here. I was looking at some of the talk about the Mags and the Sundown Audio amps. I'm not real familiar with the brands but I can't seem to find a complaint about them. Anyone have some input on these?

 

[tmoney 10+ year member]

Adding a new piece to the puzzle here. I was looking at some of the talk about the Mags and the Sundown Audio amps. I'm not real familiar with the brands but I can't seem to find a complaint about them. Anyone have some input on these?

i see lots of people here likes the sundowns. seems to be very strong. im sure some owners will chime in.