Best Components Under $800

[ILuvJDM 0]

To give you an example of a budget, my buddies expert Iasca car is ~ 16 grand not including any install costs at all.)

-John

[audio-neon 34]

another amp that I am sure you would love to have would be a diamond d7054 for fronts, and while it only does 50x4, it does it very well. I happen to know where you can get one of these bnib for ~400 plus shipping from an authorized dealer. I walk past it every day trying not to buy it.

[audio-neon 34]

To give you an example of a budget, my buddies expert Iasca car is ~ 16 grand not including any install costs at all.)

-John

When I asked him what it would cost me if I bought a camaro for him to build me the same set-up... including install costs and paying for things at cost... Not to mention getting image dynamics to build me a pair of 18d's (which aren't made anymore). He said I was looking at around 19 grand just for equipment, ~10 grand for the car, ~1800 for sound deadenning, and about 22,000 in install.

Grand total for a re-creation of his car is ~60,000 when all miscellaneous tid-bits are calculated. Ohh, and 6-8 months of him working on the car.

[b5i8 0]

When I asked him what it would cost me if I bought a camaro for him to build me the same set-up... including install costs and paying for things at cost... Not to mention getting image dynamics to build me a pair of 18d's (which aren't made anymore). He said I was looking at around 19 grand just for equipment, ~10 grand for the car, ~1800 for sound deadenning, and about 22,000 in install.

Grand total for a re-creation of his car is ~60,000 when all miscellaneous tid-bits are calculated. Ohh, and 6-8 months of him working on the car.

What on earth kind of setup costs upwards of $60k??? And what in the world kind of system takes 6-8 months to do. There are shops that can build a car from scratch in less than that time frame. If someone told me I'd have to spend that kind of money to get the system I wanted I'd order myself a set of Sennheiser headphones instead. Seriously though, that must be one krazy sound system he has in that car. Don't forget to buy yourself some earplugs to go along with that system.

[audio-neon 34]

When I asked him what it would cost me if I bought a camaro for him to build me the same set-up... including install costs and paying for things at cost... Not to mention getting image dynamics to build me a pair of 18d's (which aren't made anymore). He said I was looking at around 19 grand just for equipment, ~10 grand for the car, ~1800 for sound deadenning, and about 22,000 in install.

Grand total for a re-creation of his car is ~60,000 when all miscellaneous tid-bits are calculated. Ohh, and 6-8 months of him working on the car.

What on earth kind of setup costs upwards of $60k??? And what in the world kind of system takes 6-8 months to do. There are shops that can build a car from scratch in less than that time frame. If someone told me I'd have to spend that kind of money to get the system I wanted I'd order myself a set of Sennheiser headphones instead. Seriously though, that must be one krazy sound system he has in that car. Don't forget to buy yourself some earplugs to go along with that system.

It actually just breaks the 135 mark on its current set-up as it maxes out points at 130. The subs are in infinite baffle. Almost every panel in the car has been modified and or built for scratch. This is of course talking 6-8 months of his spare time. We are not talking about a shop of multiple installers working on said vehicle. We are also talking about 100 dollars an hour labor fee as everything is custom, all the way down to the headliner in his car, wiring done properly etc... Some people see a 22,000 dollar install rate and think...wtf. But if you think about it, that is only 2200 man hours. Not just building, but tuning, perfecting etc. We are also talking about all high end wiring, (pear-cable) which isn't cheap, a lot of glass work, custom door panels, custom rear seat/ amp rack, custom kicks, horn placement, custom dash work, custom center console, re-building the car from the behind the gas tank to support the torque of an ls1 motor and still be open enough to support infinite baffle and so on. I absolutely love his car, and quite frankly, if he ever does decide to sell it, I will probably buy it. If you think about it, it has been an ongoing project for him for at least the 3 years that I have known the car. Almost everything in his car isn't an off the shelf part, except for the h701 and c701, alpine head unit, and the tru amps. Some of the things I love about his car is just sitting in their and listening to a recording that was done in a live setting and hearing the guy sitting next to you sneezing, or the soloist tapping his foot as he is just cruising through his solo. AND let me not forgot single digit frequencies complements of pipe organs that shake you without hearing a sound.

[///M5 2,833]

Sean (///M5) has plenty of experience with Seas products

I am a big fan. In your case if it is a 7" driver you need the W18NX is stellar, I would prefer it to the Excels that I have in my car.

[Adrian_D 520]

Sean (///M5) has plenty of experience with Seas products

I am a big fan. In your case if it is a 7" driver you need the W18NX is stellar, I would prefer it to the Excels that I have in my car.

less break-up because of the cone material ?

[///M5 2,833]

Sean (///M5) has plenty of experience with Seas products

I am a big fan. In your case if it is a 7" driver you need the W18NX is stellar, I would prefer it to the Excels that I have in my car.

less break-up because of the cone material ?

Higher excursion motor than the Excel so it has better midbass potential, nearly the midrange quality but a bit "smoother" due to the paper cone, and easier integration since the breakup modes aren't as nasty. Don't get me wrong, I love the Excels but will be relegating them to some home audio bookshelves where the midrange clarity is more useful than in my off axis kicks. To me in a car the extra midbass and ease of integration are well worth the change alone. I stopped at Madisound to buy a set to replace mine but the blowout on the Rev's was too much for me to pass on.

[helotaxi 46]

Regardless of what amps I get I was going to "beef up" the electrical on my car anyway. I'm one of those that firmly believe in building a solid platform to work on in whatever you do. A weak electrical system makes for a weak sound system in my book. The first thing I'd do to any car is to sound deaden the entire car and to change out the alternator and batteries. I look at it as if I run a solid electrical system and the whole car has been treated for sound, I can put in a mediocre sound system and it would still sound pretty good whereas if I had a crap electrical with no sound deadening and a totally killer sound system setup in the car, it would sound pretty awful. This is probably the reason why my budget keeps going up and up and up because I really don't want to skimp on any piece of equipment going in my car.

I didn't mean to imply that you wouldn't beef up the electrical, we are in complete agreement on the need to do that regardless. But the degree of improvement required to support a 2kW Class A/B vs. a 2kW Class D are quite different. Then throw a completely wasteful tube amp on top of that...you won't need the heater in the car in the winter, your amps would keep it nice and toasty. Personally I'd go with DLS or Audison before the AX series if I was looking to blow a lot of dough. All said and done though, my pure SQ install at the end of the year is going to be Zed powered in all likelihood.

[brynm 0]

If your interested at www.poundthatsound.com there is a set of CDT's es 07.3 3 way components that you'd probably get in that price range.

He'd bought them for his set-up then got a soundstream sponsorship so he's going with all ss gear now

[b5i8 0]

**Update**

I went to talk to my local shop the other day and completely changed what I was going to do. I'm going with the following system that gets installed this Thursday.

Head Unit: Kenwood Excelon DDX8019

Navi: Kenwood KNA-G510

4 Ch Amp: Zapco DC360.4

Sub Amp: Zapco DC500.1

Components: Zapco RB-13.2

Sub: JL Audio 10W6v2

Rev. Camera: Boyo VTL300

I had a chance to listen to all of the above and for SQ it was amazing. It won't get super loud but in a 350Z it should be plenty enough. I was really impressed by the Zapco products. The DC360.4 makes it so easy to run the components as active. All you have to do is plug in a laptop with the Zapco software and you can do just about anything. I think they said they're going to run the mid bandpass and the tweeter as well. There is also an 11 band EQ built into the amp as well. I can't wait until this Friday when it's all complete. The only problem now is that I have two TC Sounds OEM 10's sitting in my closet that won't be used. I guess I have to sell them. BTW the single JL 10W6v2 is going in a custom ported box made to specs. I won't be setting off any alarms but it'll sound great quality wise playing just about anything. Thank you to everyone for your help and advice.