In car hifi anyone?

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pauldixonuk

pmc & bryston
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I've recently aquired a very quiet car and thought it might be a reasonable environment for a spot of proper mobile hifi. I mainly want it for a long Euro trip next summer. The system would be compact and entierly hidden. I haven't been into this for over ten years and it seems things have moved on somewhat. After a couple of months research I found a few companies offering decent equipment. However I think I have settled on this little rig:

McIntosh cd player / preamp, Dynaudio two way front components, McIntosh power amplifier, JL 10w6v2 subwoofer in a small sealed cabinet.

http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/mcprod/...nters+&+CD+Changers&prodid=1077&product=MX406

http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/mcprod/...=Power+Amplifiers&prodid=1062&product=MCC404M


Anyone else looked into this?
 
I did, but in the end decided that my car is too noisy for it, and I don't use the stereo enough to be worthwhile.

I think Rory is going to be the man on this.

What car is it, if you don't mind me asking?
 
Hi

I went down this route a few years ago with a mix of Rockford Fosgate amps, JL Audio speakers and Alpine head unit. I really miss having decent car hi-fi but I hardly use my current car, commuting on the train as I do, and plus the car is now an MX-5 so it's not exactly quiet. I invested in a stainless steel exhaust instead for that 60s sportscar sound.

Hopefully you'll have been advised on the benefits of Dynamat and the like, because although your car is quiet (BMW, Merc, Honda?) there's still going to be lots of flat thin resonating panels panels. Then it gets confusing talking about 8v pre-outs, line drivers and balanced connections. Your kit proposals seem good though and will be a world away from the thump and bump brigade.

I'd say go for it, as driving these days is far from enjoyable unless it's 8am on Christmas Day, so music will help you while away the hours. Let us know how you get on.
 
Hi Paul,

the McIntosh lhead unit looks impressive, I like th idea of leaving out all the singing and dancing lights! Any idea how much they are?

Hi JamesG (sorry to butt in on this thread), I just wondered whether you found your RF amps overrated in terms of power? I use one (think its a 301S) to run my Boston Acoustics sub, and although it sounds great at low-medium volumes, I find it runs out of steam far to early!
 
Hi Rockhopper

When I had my RF amp I had come from one of the early Alpine V12 so it was a fair step up. Having said that when I had the Alpine and the speakers in the door I often thought it was running out of puff. When I then moved the speakers to dedicated footwell builds, it never seemed to happen. I think because the footwell builds were a much better location for the speakers and a lot less of the energy was being tansferred to the door panel, meaning that perhaps there was less destructive interference. A bit like making stiff speakers cabinets. That in turn gave the amp more of a chance with handling the sub, so much so that I had to tweak the crossovers to get the balance right again. Boston Acoustics stuff is good kit though but isn't it quite demanding, electrically?

Paul, I think this highlights a good point, which is that the quality of the installation of the car hi-fi is very important because there are some many variables, road noise, panels, speaker location etc. I would rather have a good install with mid-priced kit, than high end kit poorly installed. A good dealer should help here, but since I was last buying stuff they all seemed to have disappeared, probably due to internet price competition..?

Cheers

James
 
I use a three channel DLS A5 ultimate amp. Suits me as it has plenty of high quality power for my sub (12" jlw6v2) and for the focal componets in the front. It really is rather good. Genesis are supposed to be the business, with fine british build. I use an alpine headunit, which offers great flexibility. Many find alpine headunits a little bright.

On the other hand, im sure that the McIntosh are in a different league in terms of both performance and price.

Always fancied some dynaudio componets, i bet they wouldn't need all that much help from a sub apart from the very low registers.Although i suppose you would as is common practice, set a high/low pass filter betwen the sub and componets.
 
JamesG said:
Boston Acoustics stuff is good kit though but isn't it quite demanding, electrically?
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thanks, yeah you could be right. I expected my amp to be well powerful enough. With my amp I even got a test sheet stating the exact power it has. I think its something like 326W RMS. My Boston sub is rated at 300W, so you'd think this would be well enough :confused: Still sounds damn good though. Nice sub.
 
Haven't seen this thread for a litle while, so it's good to see some response. I thought everyone would sniff at car audio on here to be honest. It doesn't help that most peoples impressions of car audio are derived from baseball cap wearing muppets in yellow nova's - the SPL scene. However there is another side to it - SQ, or sound quality scene. Unfortunately it only accounts for a fraction of the market.

The car is a rather quiet v12 jaguar. I already have the dynamat extreme ready to go in to help out too. Everything will be installed by the pro's local to me.

McIntosh HU is 1k, four channel amp 1.4k.

I have some spare dynaudio's for sale very cheap if anyone wants them. Are 500 new, selling for 90, due to minor cosmetic damage and no midrange grilles.
 
pauldixonuk said:
McIntosh cd player / preamp, Dynaudio two way front components, McIntosh power amplifier, JL 10w6v2 subwoofer in a small sealed cabinet.

http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/mcprod/...nters+&+CD+Changers&prodid=1077&product=MX406

http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/mcprod/...=Power+Amplifiers&prodid=1062&product=MCC404M


Anyone else looked into this?
Click to expand...
yes would be a nice little system. Couple of pointers- i did look into McIntosh headunits but found their lack of removable fascia to be quite simply ridiculous. I wouldn't spend over £1k on a headunit and be forced to leave it open to thieves. Unfortunately the same is true of many decent headunits- Clarion HXD1/HXD2/Rockford/Denon 8245/8255.

I've just opted for a Becker unit- whilst not quite the same SQ level as a McIntosh it does offer a fully comprehensive sat nav, as well as Bluetooth and mp3 for the price of the Mc, plus face off ;)

Amps- the MCs will be fine. Other makes to check would be the upper model Audisons. Speakers....wouldn't recommend the Dyns personally. Try the upper Rainbow or Focal Beryllium Utopias. The latters go very nicely indeed with Audison amps.

The JL W6 sub is good but could you not stump to the W7? Alternatively i went for a OZ audio Matrix Elite- the same sq and power of a W7 but significantly less money :D Catch us on msn if you need any more details.


You say its a quiet car and others have pointed to the likes of Dynamat...very worthwhile. I've actually taken the seats etc out and done under the carpet of my Focus with Wickes flashing tape- very cheap but not too bad. I've also wired the speakers with Nordost Flatline Gold speaker wire , which sounds great and i'm using Chord Chrysalis home hifi rca's. As far as i'm concerned if its good enough for highish end home hifi then its fine for ICE ;)
 
I've always liked the sound from dyns, since I had them at home years ago.

The W7 is no problem, aside from it requires a box twice as large as a W6. According to someone who own's both, the only difference is in additional SPL, which I won't need. I prefer more boot space.
 
angi73 said:
The magic frequency that is supposed to ahem, excite women :)
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If you believe in that kinda thing (i rank this alongside the bermuda triangle and UFO's :crazy:, I admit I was being facetious when i mentioned it,...sorry :D )


angi73 said:
Also a crappy spl/ice mag
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Chav's make me laugh :ffrc:
 


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