What is "SQ" these days?

[beak81champ]

If you are looking for close in money to those sets, you’re probably better off going with raw drivers and full active, maybe Scanspeak, SEAS, SB Acoustics. if you want super high end, look at Audiofrog GB, Focal Utopia, Hybrid Audio, Sinfoni, Micro Precision, ZR Labs, etc. High end amps would be Sinfoni, Revelation, Tru, Steg, Zapco AP or LX series.

 

[ThxOne Premium Member]

If you are looking for close in money to those sets, you’re probably better off going with raw drivers and full active, maybe Scanspeak, SEAS, SB Acoustics. if you want super high end, look at Audiofrog GB, Focal Utopia, Hybrid Audio, Sinfoni, Micro Precision, ZR Labs, etc. High end amps would be Sinfoni, Revelation, Tru, Steg, Zapco AP or LX series.

Thank you. A wonderful list. Good for research for sure. Raw drivers? Like mix and match drivers?

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Thank you. A wonderful list. Good for research for sure. Raw drivers? Like mix and match drivers?

every speaker is a speaker, you dont really need to match the same brand or anything of the sort. In fact people are wasting their money buying component sets nowadays since most head units/DSPs that can go active network crossovers where you can perfectly set the slope to match vehicle acoustics rather than taking a chance with a pre-set crossover point and slope with passive crossovers. You also get more power to the drivers with them wired directly to the amp with no loss in energy though a passive crossover. every vehicle has its own acoustics and every crossover point wont work with the vehicle thats why going active crossovers is key in order to achieve next level kind of sound quality. A budget properly tuned active setup can outright destroy a high dollar component setup, seen it happen way too many times lol.

Its a whole new dynamic nowadays on how setups are done vs back in the days where you just throw a pair of components and coaxials on an amp with some deadener and call it good.

 

[kr15 5,000+ posts]

Hertz and Audison pieces can be purchased a la carte. Which is pretty neat for piecing stuff together. For example if you wanted a voce tweet, XL mid and had an active HU

 

[ThxOne Premium Member]

Man that really opens up so many options... À la carte and active. I am only aware of the Pioneer DEH-80PRS having active crossover options... any chance there is a Kenwood? Or is the DSP going to handle the active stuff? Ok, so basically you're gonna need a DSP, An active HU, speakers that sound good to you, amplifiers with headroom... I am assuming the DSP's mic is going to handle the cars acoustics? Not everyone is going to have O'scopes and RTA's.

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

Man that really opens up so many options... À la carte and active. I am only aware of the Pioneer DEH-80PRS having active crossover options... any chance there is a Kenwood? Or is the DSP going to handle the active stuff? Ok, so basically you're gonna need a DSP, An active HU, speakers that sound good to you, amplifiers with headroom... I am assuming the DSP's mic is going to handle the cars acoustics? Not everyone is going to have O'scopes and RTA's.

I'd get a Helix DSP if it's within your price range, or even a rockford fosgate DSR1 would be better than using the 80prs as great a headunit as it is. 8 channels and more customization with a full blown DSP.

Absolutely run active. The mic and RTA can be done with the DSP if it has that feature or you'll need to buy an RTA mic and get software for a laptop. Time alignment is really done by ear (but i honestly **** at it myself, so just do it by distance at first) and the EQ is based off the RTA response.

There's a lot of reading and time you're going to need to invest if you intend on tuning the car fully. You have to fix the EQ of each speaker, then do pairs of l/r, and then some other stuff i cant even remember lol

Just minor EQ adjustments and time alignment alone will impress you if you deaden the car properly and make sure the front stage is taken care of as far as placement and driver choice

 

[ThxOne Premium Member]

I have had my eye on the Audiocontrol DM-608... any reason one would not want to use it? I have yet to win the lottery so Helix is out of my reach at the moment. Just waiting for my numbers to hit.

 

[beak81champ]

If you have facebook, join the Sound Quality Classifieds page, and the Inexpensive Car Audio:Sound Quality page. Great deals to be had. Randy Bagby has a Helix DSP listed right now for $300! Look at Parts Express, Madisound, and Meniscus for ala carte drivers that will fit your application. Jason Winslow on Sound Quality Classifieds has a nice set of Eton comps for sale, as well as a bunch of other stuff. Welcome back to the rabbit hole, bro!

 

[ThxOne Premium Member]

....Welcome back to the rabbit hole, bro!

No doubt. lol. I know I said I have "some" disposable income but this thread is gonna put me in debt!

 

[MmatsDude 10+ year member]

SQ comes down to the perception of what you think and actually is SQ to you.

What might sound amazing to you might not sound to others.

That’s why I always say and will always say this when it comes to SQ. Build an sq system that sounds good to you.

I love bright detail highs. Others don’t. Don’t get caught up in all it’s complexity.

 

[MmatsDude 10+ year member]

From the day I walked into Columbus Car Audio in Columbus Ohio way back in 1990 and stepped into the room with all the subwoofers in it, I was hooked. The guy let me listen to two iconic 10" subs - The Kicker Comp 10's. Not long after that I was in a buddies Fox Body Mustang and it was the loudest thing I had ever heard. 4 Punch 12's in the hatch with a Punch 150 on each sub.
Some time later I moved back to Clearwater Florida and car stereo shops dotted the landscape. Two of my favorite shops were Stereorama and CarTunes. It was at Stereorama where I began to lean towards the overall sound of the system. At the time, JL Audio and Focal were the main items sold there. I was told to listen to two component sets and tell the guy which I thought sounded best. As weird as it sounds, the Focal 5 1/4" components got better midbass while the JL 6 1/2" components with their silk domes sounded smoother. This is also where I fell in love with JL subs. At CarTunes I was just awestruck at the early 90's white Corvette demo car LOADED with PPI everything.

My roots have been firm from the beginning with Kicker, Rockford Fosgate, Focal, JL, Zapco, PPI, Soundstream, and MB Quart. Back in the day, (90's) you couldn't really go wrong with any of them. Well, times change, companies sell out, sometimes quality turns to crap and here we are. So, over two decades later and I have to ask... What is SQ these days? What is/are considered to be the best way(s) to go as far as speakers and amplifiers for sound quality? Just the speakers and amplifiers please. Prep, installation, enclosures, sound deadening and tweaking should be considered a given.

You never had experience with MMATS Pro Audio equipment living in Florida?

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Man that really opens up so many options... À la carte and active. I am only aware of the Pioneer DEH-80PRS having active crossover options... any chance there is a Kenwood? Or is the DSP going to handle the active stuff? Ok, so basically you're gonna need a DSP, An active HU, speakers that sound good to you, amplifiers with headroom... I am assuming the DSP's mic is going to handle the cars acoustics? Not everyone is going to have O'scopes and RTA's.

You dont need both active head units and a dsp, you only need one or the other.

you only need either an active capable head unit or a standard head unit with a DSP because the dsp can go active. No kenwoods are active capable on the market currently. Only JVC, pioneer and one or two models of alpines and one model of clarion. 80% of pioneer and JVC offerings are active capable around 90 and up price range just use crutchfield's details section and they should list it in the audio portion.

DSP has no mic, you normally just get something like this on a budget that works pretty well

https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-imm-6-calibrated-measurement-microphone-for-tablets-iphone-ipad-and-android--390-810

and use it with REW (room eq wizard) a free RTA software as you tune on your laptop. Tuning will be done by ear and RTA. There is no autotune because most of all autotune softwares are garbage exception of the JBL MS8 which is out of production atm.

You can shell out money for an expensive dsp or you can try some of these other budget friendly offerings that do most of what the higher end ones do, the rockford one has bugs that you gotta live with tho. So technically you dont have to spend 600 bucks or buy a new head unit, you can just add one of these to your kenwood and be able to have up to 8 channels of output easy so it'll be a pair of channel for tweets, a pair for mids, a pair for rears a pair for subs. Just need another 2 channel amp and you can do pretty good, you can even go active with your current setup.

https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-dsp-408-4x8-dsp-digital-signal-processor-for-home-and-car-audio--230-500

https://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Fosgate-8-Channel-Signal-Processor/dp/B076CY59YX

 

[beak81champ]

If you do the research, and buy the right pieces, you can sound awesome on whatever budget you want, provided the proper install techniques and tuning is done.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

honestly think even his current setup if ran active with more power to the midbass and tweeter, then fully SQ tuned with a DSP, he'd be pretty happy.

 

[ThxOne Premium Member]

You never had experience with MMATS Pro Audio equipment living in Florida?

Seen it around, never interacted with it. No clue how to properly pronounce it. lol