thinking of redoing my system and i'm thinking of going all mb this time.

thinking of going with 2 sets of 6.5 rsi components and 2 sets of 3.5 dke speakers. also, 2 rsh304 12's. not sure if i want to use mb amps since i already have some relatively new rockford amps.

my question is simple. is mb any good anymore? back in the day i swore by them but i've heard mixed reviews.

 

That sir is a very good question. I had MB Quart stuff a number of years back and it was awesome. Hopefully someone will provide some input as to how their latest gear is.......

 

same here---can't answer your question about now...mb quart was held in high esteem even in the 1990s --- it was that or boston acoustics (last time I had an all out stereo install was back in '90).

 

i did an install in my girls car with some old stuff i had lying around and it sounded sooooo good.

she has an 09 yaris with old school 5 1/4 mb components up front and some coax speakers in the rear, an audio arts 10" sub, all powered off 2 old ___ rockford cheater amps. her mids and highs sound way nicer than the cdt's i have in my car now. should have kept them for myself.

 

Boston Acoustics was nice stuff then also, I have had both MB and Boston. My current systems (One in a 1965 Corvair and the other in my 2006 xB) are all JL Audio.

I have had excellent satisfaction from JL for a long time now. LOL I recently wore out the JL 10W/3's that I got over 13 years ago (used under the rear seat in a 1972 Suburban for 11 years and then transfered to a custom enclosure in the back of my xB). The soft rubber edge of the cones finally got brittle after all that time in the hot Georgia sun. I use JL's amps and speakers. I have been using Kenwoods higher lines of head units for a long time with no regrets.

 

so no one has any input? a little help here please?

 

Apparantly no one that reads these forums uses Quarts:/

 

I use MBQs but I got the series which was made by rockford. The newer ones are under Hifonics. So I dont know...

 

I had a 05 avalon that had the mb quartz. I didn't like it as much as the focal utopia. The tweeters are tooooo bright and at high volumes, it will make your ears bleed...Luckily, I totaled the car and the insurance company paid up!

 

i know they say not to judge a book by its cover, but the crossover unit on the mb sucks real bad..and worst of all, it's made in China...if you pay close to 4-5 hundred dollars, it should be made in Japan, Germany or THE U.S.A.!! not some P.O.S. third world country

 

i have MB quarts ive been running them for about 2 years now and have not had any problems with them there are great crisp and clear i don't think i could go with any others

 

i can also provide pics of the box when i get home

 

I had an older set a while back and they were excellent. I got new ones for the xB and have definately noticed a decline in build quality. They're still decent sound quality but the material build has gotten worse. The first set that were sent to me came in with the rubber surround seperated from the cone on the mid driver. After install, I pulled them out of the front door after a few months and found out that the terminal had corroded from water coming through the window seal and rusted them out. Also, the rear magnet cover fell off, it's just glued on and not held by any crimp or screw.

The parent company is Maxxsonics now. Apparently they changed where these things were manufactured and are now just cashing in on the brand. The old Made in Germany ones were awesome, I'd stay away from the new ones. JL, Image Dynamics or Focal seem to be the way to go if you can afford it.

Alpine, JBL, and Boston Acoustics aren't bad for midgrade if you get the right set. Definately get a set with an external crossover that has a seperate low-pass for the mid and adjustible high-pass for the tweeters. You will need to amplify them.

 

thank god my were still made in Germany

 

i remember they used to be good. haven't heard about in a while. check on caraudio.com/forum as you can find anything on there

 

I have MBQuarts from 1998 and also MBQuarts from recent--they are nice. Just don't use their subs, they are WEAK (small magnets). The crossovers are a bit large if you get component units. I opted to go for Infinity in my xB since I was a Best Buy employee at the time and it was DIRT cheap on accomodation. But you can't go wrong with MBQ-- I STRONGLY recommend that you pick up amps though, the PowerIC in the HU's don't drive them properly.

 

i ended up going with something else. i heard them in person and was not impressed at all. it sounded pretty good, but no where near what i was looking for. i ended up going with rockford mids and highs and i have no regrets at all. much louder and cleaner for sure. it's a shame. mb used to be the shiz.

 

MBQ is still nice, they are clearer, and tuned to mid/highs. If you're looking for low-mid to bass, they are pretty lacking. That's usually true with most third-party speakers though. The paper speakers that come in our cars may not be so great, but they are well-rounded.

 

sound is affected not by just the speakers themselves!..the amps that they are driven by also make a difference in the sound. your stereo is only as good as the weakest link in the system!

 

i totally agree. you can't opt for cheap with stereo components. even something as choosing cheaper wiring can completely ruin audio quality.

i'm not saying all cheap components = bad. but most cheap components = bad.