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Hi, Hans
Hope you find this post. I was on a road trip and just got back to my computer this morning.
I've bought stereo parts from Crutchfield before; great prices, quality stuff. But this time I wanted to test and compare units myself, so I bought all the components locally.
I started with the 4" speakers up front, thinking that's where my problem was. I had a gift certificate for Best Buy stores, and went there. The one I went to in Jacksonville, FL has a car audio corner with the different types and brands of speakers mounted so you can push buttons and listen to different sound tracks from different speaker pairs. There were 4 different sets of 4" speakers ranging in price from around $40 to $120 per pair. I listened to all of them, and though there was a clear difference between some of the mid-priced speakers, I couldn't tell much difference between a one pair of $50 speakers and the $120 (overkill) pair, other than the rated power handling specs. Since I wasn't going to run megawattage through them, that wasn't important to me. The pair I ended up buying, which sounded best to me for the most reasonable cost, were a set of Pioneer TS-G1047 round speakers. They were $50, but I had a leftover $25 Christmas gift certificate and with tax I only paid a little over $28 for those.
When I learned my radio head unit also needed to be replaced, I did more shopping. I looked at super-expensive ones including ones that morph and camoflage themselves, and ones with video displays that show racing cars and reindeer at Christmas, or psychedelic moving images that change with the music playing. It's unbelievable what kinds of bells and whistles you can find on car stereos nowadays. I can't understand why someone would want those distractions on the dashboard, but to each his own, I suppose.
Oh, yeah, and there's that satellite radio deal -- but read the fine print and you'll find you have to pay a monthly subscription for that service. No thanks.
I was looking for decent power out, clear and logical controls, and a good price. I wasn't planning on using a pre-amp unit or remote multi-disc CD changer. I found a JVC unit on sale at my local Naval Air Station... same unit was $140 at Best Buy, but was $100 at this military exchange store. The unit is the JVC KD-S580. It sounds great, but I have one complaint about it: there's no connection or provision on it for dimming the display at night. My wife rigged a little plastic translucent sheet (made from a double thickness of window-tinting film) and at night, I hang it onto the face of the radio as sort of a manual dimming feature! It's a little silly, but it works. CD performance with the unit is excellent, in my opinion -- I drove some very rough roads over the past week and the music doesn't skip when pounding over pavement bumps and potholes.
One other head unit annoyance -- the output to raise the power antenna is the same as the one to turn on an external amp, which means that if you only want to listen to a CD, your antenna goes up. I wish there were separate provisions for the antenna so that I could leave it down when I'm not listening to the radio. Every head unit I have seen does it this way, though. If the manufacturers were smart, they'd put a simple "Automatic Antenna Override" switch on their units so you could keep your antenna down when listening to CDs on highway trips.
Despite those two minor complaints (antenna up when on and no panel dim feature) I think this unit is terrific, especially for the price paid.
Once I got it, as you know, I replaced the rear speakers. I listened to several pairs of 6x9's priced from around $40 to well over $100 per pair. I narrowed it down to ones I liked, again auditioning them in a car stereo store. (I think I annoyed the other customers because I tuned in some classic 60's rock with a heavy bass beat and turned off all the rap music in the store!) It took me about 10 minutes of listening and fiddling with the setups before I was satisfied. Differences were minimal, but I gave the edge to a set of JVCs. They are JVC CS-V6930 which cost $50 per pair on sale, plus I paid $26 and change ($25 plus tax) for the 4x10" adapters from Circuit City. The total of $76 for the 6x9" rear speakers and adapters was a lot cheaper than replacement 4x10" speakers would have been; the only ones I found were Pioneer 4x10" 3-ways which cost $100 per pair, and they didn't sound as good as the 6x9" at high volume levels.
Car audio systems today are amazing, particularly compared to what was available to us in the 1980s in that price range. I'd say your best bet is to go to a few stores that sell car audio systems and do some comparison listening. Chain stores like Circuit City, Best Buy, etc., usually have listening areas where you can make direct comparisons. Take notes when you visit them. You might find something you like there and be able to order it online for slightly less money.
Good luck, Hans! Let us know what you get.
- = M = -
'87 900T 174K
posted by 208.63.213...
, Wed, 17 Apr 2002 12:15:22
, Tue, 16 Apr 2002 23:08:07
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