Hello,

I'm new here from Houston and just took deleivery of my 05 Suzuka Blue S2000 (traded in a 2002 Toyota MR2 which i loved) and am very happy. I would like to add a stero system and am looking for recommendations for both Components and a local Houston vendor install if possible who is S2000 aware. If no good vendors I will do it myself. And suggestions would be appreciated. My minimum specs are below.


For 2005 Honda S2000

In Dash CD/MP3 - Preferablly with 1/8 stereo front mount Aux jack to plug in External MP3 Player, ability to continue to utilize Dash mounted controlls
Sony. Pioneer, Kenwood, JVC, Alpine, etc.

2 front tweeters replacements - infinty, alpine, or equiv
2 Front Speakers replacements infinity, alpine. or equiv
2 rear speakers infinity, alpine, or Equiv

Trunk mounted Single subwoofer 10-12" (enclosure ??)

Amp for Subwoofer

Around $1,000 +



Thanks for any replys.

 

Can't help you with an installer 'cause I'm in California.

HU --- I just installed a Pioneer P8MP.

Front Speakers --- Focal 165KPs

Rear Speakers --- Focal 130CAs in S-Pods

Amp --- JL Audio 300/4

The JL is wired to give 150W RMS to the fronts and the rears are driven by the 60W (27 RMS) HU.

I had planned on trying this setup and then deciding on a sub. As is seems to be turning out, the 150W to the Focals have resulted in performance close to if not equal to what you might expect from any number of smaller subs mounted in the trunk.

Cost depends on where you buy and whether a warranty is important to you. The Pioneer HU comes with a 2 year warranty from an authorized dealer. Buy it anywhere else and you have to go back to who sold it to you. Same on the JL Audio. I have forgotten how long the Focal warranty is, but it is invalid if the product was not sold by an authorized dealer.

In addition, anything that goes south because of problems with the install can be returned to the dealer since he installed it.

Some folks don't give much significance to this factory authorized thing, and in some cases, I don't either. However, this is a lot of money and, with electronics, there are many opportunities to make mistakes or just get a faulty product


Price I paid at an authorized dealer:

Focal 165KP $499
Focal 130CA $180
Pioneer P8MP $360
JL Audio 300/4 $450

Typical Internet prices (some places will higher, some will be lower)

165KP $479
130CA $125
P8MP $325
300/4 $390


This setup is very high in sound quality. If you are looking for large sound as opposed to accurate reproduction of the recorded material, you can pay quite a bit less.

Hope this helps.

 

i dont mean to be an ass, but i feel those are some misleading statements.

those focal drivers you speak of cannot play down to the same freq level as a subwoofer. therefore cannot be nearly the same as an 8" woofer. if they did, your midrange would be muffled as hell.

that setup without a real eq cannot be high in sound quality and will lack accurate reproduction.




synthetica, i dont really get your question... are you saying that you have 1000 to spend on the amplfiers alone?

 

. A subwoofer mainly pushes sub-bass frequencies, and a mid driver cannot handle those, or cannot reproduce those, frequencies with any real volume. Most people like subs because you can "feel" the bass more than hear it. Gives a third dimension to the sound.

Now to recommendations:

If you are going with a subwoofer setup:

HU (I'm an Alpine ) : CDA-9851 or 9855 ($250-350)

Components: Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1 ($250-300)

Amp: Infinity Reference 7520a (cheap with great power and definition) ($80)

Subwoofer: JL Audio 10w6v2-D2 with a JL Audio 500/1 amplifier. Should be more than enough bump.

If you go for a rear channel, you can either use Lucid panels or S-pods. I like S-pods, personally, because they can fill and drive for high speed top down cruising.

John

 

"those focal drivers you speak of cannot play down to the same freq level as a subwoofer. therefore cannot be nearly the same as an 8" woofer. if they did, your midrange would be muffled as hell."

I agree that there is no way he is getting a true bass sound. The Focal drivers deliever a good mid bass sound but not near a subwoofer sound.

"that setup without a real eq cannot be high in sound quality and will lack accurate reproduction."

IMO, outside of the competition realm, his front soundstage is pretty good without an EQ. "Golden ears" without a doubt will be able to discern problems with accuracy, but your average listener has never heard such sweet music. It is a very similiar set up to my own, and it sounds pretty good.

The P8MP offers a great in HU EQ IMO. For your average listener, that is. If I could do it all again, i would get this HU instead of the 9833. but the 9833 ain' that bad.

I thinks Synthetica is trying to do the whole system for $1k. He should get a four channel amp for his sub and fronts, forget about the rears, and go mid range the whole way around. Even still it's gonna be hard to stay under $1k. An extra $300 will go a long way.

 

[QUOTE=MR_ASDF,Oct 7 2005, 08:32 PM]i dont mean to be an ass, but i feel those are some misleading statements.

 

bborzel,
If you live anywhere near someone with a sub in an s2k, especialy an EJ, i'd suggest a good listen.

Signifigant gains are had by including a small sub in a system such as yours. I tune my sub up (as far as frequency is concerned) because i enjoy a tighter bass sound. It matches the focals nicely because they can bottom out and are, quite frankly, designed to play high to mid range sounds. I recently replaced my sub with a beefier Diamond Audio D6, and yes it lacks bling, but it sounds great. A subwoofer will change the music you listen to, you will hear and feel things that were missing before. it adds a totally different dimension to your listening experience.

sharpen your pencil, you are about to get a lesson on EQs. ASDF is very experienced and knowledgable.

 

Willie Gee...

I have no doubt that adding a sub to the S would change the listening experience and, on balance, I might even prefer a bit more tight bass, but I like what I hear so far and can get along nicely without a sub which was the basis for my original point.

My other point is that adding a sub won't necessarily reproduce what I would have heard if I had been in the studio when the recording was made. Nor will it necessarily reproduce what I hear in my home listening room. I have a friend with a sub in his S and I'm not that impressed. Granted, he might have set it up poorly and/or it might be that the driver tonal quality is simply not to my liking, but the fact remains that I am pretty much satisfied with how my setup sounds notwithstanding ASDF's implying that his ears are better than mine.

If the discussion is about accurate reproduction in a car, then it's every man for himself. I can't imagine a worse environment in which to try for accurate signal reproduction than a roadster with metallic engine, transmission and differential noise along with wind and body resonance; actually, I can, how about a sport bike?

I acknowledge that people can tweak (twist EQ dials) in order to get a pleasing sound in the S, but the important EQ tweaks were those that occured in the recording control room. Everything that happens downstream is something other than original because the downstream tweaker does not have the original reference to tune to. EQ might make the sound more pleasing, but just because the sound is pleasing, doesn't mean it is accurate.

 

Thanks for the tips guys, I went Alpine all the way and it is being installed as I type this. I spent a little more (additional $200) installed and got the following:

HU Alpine CDA-9853

Component Fronts: Alpine SPS-171A

Sub Amp 2 Ch: Alpine MRP-T220

Subwoofer 10" : Alpine SWS-1042D

Sub Box for 10" Sub
(and in a sub box that fits perfectly in the Well section and can be removed)

Alpine to RCA to 1/8" jack mounted for external MP3 Player

Control unit for Dash controls

Door speaker matting (non Dynamat)


I'll let you know later on what I think. I figure I can always add another MRP220 and rear speakers later if I need to.

 

Nope I meant for the whole thing, I'm not looking to win any Audio contests or thump the cars in the next lane off the road (I hate that), I just wanted a better system then the S2k stock and the ability to play mp3's off an external 20GB MP3 player which houses my entire CD collection.