Anyone obsessed with auto sound?

southpawboston

New Member
hi all,

newb here but not to forums. i've noticed this board is pretty much 99.5% vintage HOME audio, but anyone here a CAR audio fanatic?

i can't say i'm too much into home audio, although i am a self-described "audiophile" (my home system consists of an onlyo A-sv620 home theatre amp, onky T-4010 tuner, ancient onkyo CD player-don't even know the model, dual 500-2 turntable, and two pair of A/D/S speakers: L570 as fronts and L470 as my rears.

but the reason for my car audio obsession? at home, i never have the opportunity to hear music as it was intended-- loud and clear, without interruption. with family and neighbors to contend with, how can one experience the blissful solitude of hi-fi? in comes the car-- also known as the personal audition room. in the car, i have the freedom to listen to music as loud and as long as i want, in my own private idaho. no one to bother me, no kids with with fingers poking into dust caps.

that said, i'd like to hear who here is a car audio nut (vintage or new-skool). i have a lot of car audio gear i've collected over the years, and like with vintage home audio gear, it's an obsession. i collect separates and amps with no intention of even using them!

as a former auto electronics installer, i can tell you that the golden years of car audio were around the late 80s-early 90s, back when A/D/S, soundstream, and nakamichi ruled the land of car audio. i still collect old soundstream and a/d/s gear, and like many on the boards here, agree that "old-school" is far superior than a lot of what's being touted as "high end" nowadays.

here's my car audio setup:

nakamichi cd400 head unit: new-skool, but high-end SQ; 24-bit DAC, 4V pre-outs. one of about three or four true SQ-designed decks currently.

A/D/S PQ10 4-channel amp: old-skoo, circa 1989; 4x40WRMS into 4 ohms, used in bridged mode to put about 90WRMS into the front mains.

soundstream MC245 5-channel amp: old-skool, circa 1991; 4x35 + 1x100 wRMS into 4 ohms; built-in assymetric active x-overs. i have it in 3-channel mode, driving 2x90wRMS to the rears for "rear fill", and 100x1 to my sub.

A/D/S 346is front components: not "old-skool" a/d/s, but from before their buyout by DEI. 6.5" stiffliteIII woofer, 1" soft dome tweet, 2nd order crossovers with 2.5k crossover point. air-core inductors and polypropylene caps throughout. midrange contour setting, and tweeter attenuation settings. great set.

A/D/S 236is rear components: like the 346is, but "cheaper" woofer-- copolymer construction, smaller voice coil than the 346is, and "cheaper" x-over (still 2nd order, but not midrange contour switching). same tweeter.

JL audio 8w0 8" sub in acoustic suspension enclosure of about 0.35ft^3, in custom made 3/4" MDF enclosure designed to fit stealthily in the corner of my trunk.

my system is *not* one of those "thumpers" you hear kids driving down the street. those newer systems are nothing more than noise generators. in fact, with my windows up, you can barely hear anything outside the car, so you could say i'm socially responsible in that regard. it also helps that my whole car is dynamatted (visco-elastic sound deadening panels self-adhesed inside all body sheet metal), about 50ft^2 sheeting used in total. my car is QUIET.

any other interesting car audio systems represented here?
 
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Car stereos are OK I suppose, but I for one have never spent a cent on one. Either the car had one or didn't when I bought it. Stereos are a relaxing home pursuit. Driving is a different type of fun to me, one that does not evolve music.
 
used to be into car stereo until i was broke into repeatedly,said screw it ill stick to the stock stuff,which aint half bad anymore.
 
I was big into car audio when I spent hours a day driving between clients....ended up with mcintosh amps, tubed xover, scan speak drivers, alpine with fiberoptically conneccted outboard DAC with time correction (great feature), and etc etc..Lambda Acoustic sub...

But when i started being at home more, I sold it all.....I dont know why people snub at auto sound...you can still drive and have fun driving, and if you have great sound to boot, better yet.
 
At one time yes. I had an 86 Firebird with a Pioneer head unit with CD and remote. I had 2 Pioneer 12" subs driving them with a pioneer GMH-50 amp that was stable to 2 ohms. The other GMH-50 drove my 6x9s in the sail panels, 4x6s in the dash and 2 1" tweeters in the t-bar roof. Had an eletronic crossover with 2 storage caps and it was all built up in the back with matching music transparent carpet. The amps were were built into a box with fans that were wired up for temp. They had smoked plexiglass over them that had lights surrounding them that came on to show them off when you hit a switch.

But the time came with the kids and the car and the stereo had to go. Is was at that time that I began to again enjoy my home system.

I still miss that damn car....................
 
I had a pretty nice car stereo from the late 80's thru the mid 90's. Kenwood, A/D/S, and BOSE, tri-amped, electronic xover, 12" sub in custom box, 2 x 6" midwoofers, 2 x 5" midranges, 4 x 2.5 midranges, 2 x 1" tweaters. I didn't like the sound nearly as much as my home system, which was roughly comparable. In order to hear the music in the car clearly over wind, engine, and road noise I played it louder than was good for my hearing, which took a hammering. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the heck out of it for a number of years. :D

As for listening to loud music at home, there are always headphones.
 
I used to be, since I was like 14 years old. Went through a bunch of differente setups in my parents car / own car since, but slowly fading out of the scene because I can never really appreciate the music like I can at home in a nice quiet room. Always road noise to battle with, and bad imaging by obscure speaker locations, and even when they are positioned right it just doesn't have the same feel like it does in a house.
 
wow, to think that the car audio got me interested in home audio...I always looked for setups that sounded as good as my car sounded.

I had even hoem audio boutique guys give a double take when listening to my car system...3D soundstage and everythiing./
 
WhiteSE said:
wow, to think that the car audio got me interested in home audio...I always looked for setups that sounded as good as my car sounded.

I had even hoem audio boutique guys give a double take when listening to my car system...3D soundstage and everythiing./


yeah, i can understand that. when properly done, a car system can sound as good as the best home setups. lots of tricks can be played to get great staging and imaging.

the noise floor is the biggest problem, since when you are driving at high speeds you do have a lot of noise to overcome. but even then, having an asymmetric crossover between sub/mid-basses can help reduce the illusion of road noise intrusion, if not in fact reduce the actual intrusion of road noise. but for me, i spend a whole lot of time sitting in traffic with little to no noise (cambridge/boston traffic, arg! :thumbsdn: ), so why not at least enjoy the time spent just sitting there??? :thmbsp:
 
Hey, thats what I do every day. I have been a mobile installer for many years.

Current system is nothing too special. Eclipse headunit with time alignment, soundstream 6 channel, and Boston SL components. I was not happy with the midbasses that came with it so I swapped them for a pair of bose 9" woofers out of the doors of an rx8 my buddy had me work on. Its just enough bass where I don't really need a sub. Car is very loud interior wise, but I still don't run rear fill. Ginormous amounts of dynamat, shutting the doors on my 95' nissan 240sx sounds like a freaking Bimmer now. Really made a huge difference!!

Old system? Focal components, and butler tube driver amps/crossover/line driver. I was using a clarion 9255 deck (if you know the model you know the deck). That system was from when I competed SQ. I still can't believe I spent that much cash on a car audio system. Funny thing is that I did not lose a dime selling it (it was all purchased used).

I am an absolute nut for SQ in cars because I love to drive, and love good sounding music. I would rather listen to nothing than a crappy sounding stereo.

Evan
 
car audio

i like big fat sounds in tiny cars...takes your mind off the noisy engine road noise and also raises a few grins from uninitiated passengers..
1974 mini
alpine head unit ( 4x35w)
2 x tweeters
2 x 4" midranges
2 x 6" midranges
2 x 8" bass units
2 x mission tweeters
1 x miller & kreisler 12 inch sub ( awaiting installation )
1 x pioneer 200W p/ch amp
1 x 240w p/ch amp
...no doubt more to come :D
how does it sound ?
FAT ! :thmbsp:
 
LOVE the wood dash & steering wheel in the Mini...I once had a Blaupunkt Berlin set up in a diesel Suburban...it was GLORIOUS..when it was working right...-Sandy G.
 
I’ve been turned off of Car audio in the past just due to the tons of junk equipment that is out. I could say the same about a lot of modern home audio, but then again that is why I like vintage stuff. The kind of stuff I don’t get is how they can claim an amp is a thousand watts when it weighs like 5 lbs and is about as big as 4 cloth mousepads stacked on top of each other?

Gotta love when my friend is going all off about his subwoofer requiring 1500watts in order to sound good in his car. I bring it into my room for testing, hook it up to my 125wpc Fisher RS-1060 and before I’ve barely turned the volume knob, the sub is bouncing all over the place like it’s about to explode :rolleyes:
 
Chris Brown...what do you care about the manufacturer's marketing...? There are also vintage amps/speakers/HU for car audio from the golden days....I built my systems from old used items, and it was sensational...its all about me and the tunes, screw the thumpers, manufacturers, etc
 
WhiteSE said:
Chris Brown...what do you care about the manufacturer's marketing...? There are also vintage amps/speakers/HU for car audio from the golden days....I built my systems from old used items, and it was sensational...its all about me and the tunes, screw the thumpers, manufacturers, etc

amen!

chris brown, if you had read my original post, i mentioned that there was a heyday for car audio just like there was for home audio; there was probably about a decade between them, the car audio heyday being more recent. but the caliber of gear you could get for cars was quite high; you still can today but you have to pay *way* too much for what you get... same for home audio today.

yes, there are the cheap generic junk boxes that advertise 1500W for $150, and it's pure junk. isn't this just as true for home audio today?

but the vintage car audio fare from circa 1990 was the real deal, and like vintage home audio, you can find it for a steal... i got a bunch of a/d/s and soundstream amps on ebay for less than $100 each. couple those with some vintage a/d/s 320i's from 1987-1992 and you've got one sweet system. the only thing that's different now about car audio is that you really do need a recent head unit... if only to get 24-bit DACs.

anyway, the point of my original post was to ask who else here was into car audio... not to ask people to justify why they're not...and frankly i'm surprised at the number of responses from people who have to try to justify their distaste for car audio...as though i was hitting upon a collective insecurity. not the responses i was looking for.
 
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southpawboston said:
amen!

chris brown, if you had read my original post, i mentioned that there was a heyday for car audio just like there was for home audio; there was probably about a decade between them, the car audio heyday being more recent. but the caliber of gear you could get for cars was quite high; you still can today but you have to pay *way* too much for what you get... same for home audio today.

yes, there are the cheap generic junk boxes that advertise 1500W for $150, and it's pure junk. isn't this just as true for home audio today?

but the vintage car audio fare from circa 1990 was the real deal, and like vintage home audio, you can find it for a steal... i got a bunch of a/d/s and soundstream amps on ebay for less than $100 each. couple those with some vintage a/d/s 320i's from 1987-1992 and you've got one sweet system. the only thing that's different now about car audio is that you really do need a recent head unit... if only to get 24-bit DACs.

anyway, the point of my original post was to ask who else here was into car audio... not to ask people to justify why they're not...and frankly i'm surprised at the number of responses from people who have to try to justify their distaste for car audio...as though i was hitting upon a collective insecurity. not the responses i was looking for.

I agree with the point about older gear being cheap and built like a tank, but alot of gear today is built just as good if not better, but you have to pay for it. Its just the cat that alot of other off brands have started popping up since electronic components have become so cheap, so mass producing gear with the lowest quality components and rating them with absurd values is the norm, and people buy into it, but if you weed through it you can still find some good brands: Zapco, Xtant, JL Audio etc etc
 
but the reason for my car audio obsession? at home, i never have the opportunity to hear music as it was intended-- loud and clear, without interruption. with family and neighbors to contend with, how can one experience the blissful solitude of hi-fi? in comes the car-- also known as the personal audition room. in the car, i have the freedom to listen to music as loud and as long as i want, in my own private idaho.


my feeling exactly!

My 1990 Astro van has a Pioneer CD head unit,
6" Pioneers in the Dash
6" Polks in the rear doors
Two Kenwood 3 way 10" Truck boxes in the middle
And a carpet covered square box, 10" down firing sub woofer between the front seats. Makes a great place to set your stuff.
Powered by two Rockford-Fosgate amps.
One is a two channel 50 Watt RMS for the front speakers
The other is a 4 channel 100 Watts RMS For the Sub and Kenwoods and the Polks.
All controlled by an old Kenwood equalizer with front and rear fader w/ sub woofer frequency and volume control...
All my friends agree that it sounds as good as any concert hall or club!
 
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I have two nice cars systems comprised of Braxs, Dyns, Zapco, Alp 7909, Nak CD-700 etc., and find that ultimately the installation issues such as speaker positioning and sound dampening are the most important variables as to how the system will ultimately sound. (Unlike home where the quality of the gear makes more of a difference)
 
car audio is what got me into home audio..i grew up with pa systems as home and car systems lol my dads idea of loud was different than most normal folks. I work in car audio..tuning..installing..generally having fun. I don't have a system of my own but i have a hord of equipment that could build like five complete systems..and my roomate mom and dad all have pretty respectable systems.

I also love oldskool equipment..my dads system is comprized of a clarian drz9675z, ppi a1200.2 on two fifteen jl w3 woofers sealed in his convertable top area..and a ppi a404 amp powering four alumapro alc 6.5 component sets in his car..he drives a drop top chrysler seebring and it needs to be loud so he can hear it at 90 on the freeway hee.

My roomates system consists of oldskool rockford gear..two punch 150s and two punch 75s.

I will forever have a soft spot for car audio but since i love music and i am at home a lot..i will concentrate on ym home system before i build a show car.
 
Chris Brown said:
I’ve been turned off of Car audio in the past just due to the tons of junk equipment that is out.

No different in any other industry. People buy different price points & quality levels. You can find mobile audio built at Rowland level as well as Yorx levels. Not to mention everything in-between.

Chris Brown said:
The kind of stuff I don’t get is how they can claim an amp is a thousand watts when it weighs like 5 lbs and is about as big as 4 cloth mousepads stacked on top of each other?

A hybrid (Class-D) amplifier w/ power supply efficiencies in the upper 90% range & reasonable rails driving a low-Z load can do that.
 
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