If you were going to upgrade your audio with an aftermarket system, which brand/manufacturer would you select?
Please specify your first and second choice.

THANKS SO MUCH for your participation!
Scion HQ

**IkhonLord**

Darren gave the OK

**IkhonLord**

 

Not sony. Learn from my mistakes !

 

I liked JVC but not kenwood....

 

ScioBionic:

First....You posted in the wrong Forum...Moved to ICE

Second....This question has been asked plenty of times in different shapes or forms...If you look trough the ICE Section you will see plenty of opinions and different ideas.

:D

 

There was a time when brand name audio in a car seemed like a cool idea. But when I heard those systems and was totally unimpressed -- especially considering the extra they charged for them. This is the best all that audio engineering expertise could do? Eh.

Then I learned that most unbranded factory systems are made by name brand audio companies anyway, just to lower/cheaper specs and with the car company's logo on them.

So rather than hype brand name audio systems in their vehicles, I would rather they supply the cars simply prewired with nice beefy cable so we can plug in our own components.

 

Scion people: Don't charge a ton for a brand name sound system, just give us RCA in and out on the stock head unit. If I had that I could run my ipod in the car and wouldn't have to spend a ton of cash on 2 of those damned converter things.

 

Home and car audio have a HUGE range of price products.

Without a budget, and wanting the best, you could easily spend $10k on a car audio system. Speaker wise, Rainbow, Focal Utopia, dynaudio, CDT euro are all very good speakers. Expect $600-2500 for a set of speakers. Amps, brax, symphoni, US amps, Tru tech and other high end amps can run $2000-2500 an amp. Head unit, Eclipse, Denon, Nakamichi are going to be the best for sound quality. Subwoofers, Adire, RE, and any of the speaker makers above all make excellent subs. Expact $300-500 a sub.

Remember, install is the number one key to a good system. Make sure you know what your doing, or pay someone who does.

 

I agree -- I like the idea of maintaining the factory head unit for appearance's sake (especially since it is not a DIN-size) but if I had the simple RCA outputs (front and rear) then I think that would solve 90% of the problems! If there were a 3rd subwoofer RCA output then I bet most ppl would be completely happy with the unit! Add an input for an MP3 player and only the most extreme would bother changing decks!

 

If you want preouts, then buy some line level converters. Hell I got two sitting on top of my desk that I used before I got a deck. You get an aftermarket deck for features. My new deck has a 13 band eq, high volt preouts, time correction, better display, and many other features.

If you want RCA outs, spend $10 for the adapters.

 

Eclipse AVX2454.

second choice: Pioneer AVIC-N1

 

I agree. THe stock unit sounds really good, it ust lacks an easy way to hook stuff up to it.

 

Alpine... so I can have complete integration of my iPod into my audio system.

 

I'd like to see a Polk Audio component system in the from with Polk 3 way's in the back. Pioneer head units are fine.

and for God's sake, stop welding the speakers in. =)

 

actually, they're riveted.

As for the HU, I would also be perfectly fine with preamp outputs on the stock HU, but if you were to go aftermarket, I gotta say Alpine.

 

more KICKER!

 

alpine #1

kenwood #2

(I have Sirius, XM blows)

 

JL Audio
Eclipse
MB Quart
Alphasonik

In no particular order.

-Z

 

Agreed... Alpine first and Kenwood second. A radio that is SAT ready so you can add either Sirius or XM. WITH: Volume ****, RCA inputs, optional remote, scrolling text for SAT radio and CD text.

 

Alpine is the leader and the others are all followers

 

I'd upgrade it with an Alpine..