My friends bought me an Alpine 9853 last year for my birthday and I never got around to designing the system around it.

So with the day off today I took some time to visit one of the authorized Dynaudio dealers in my area. I've been set on Dynaudio ever since I heard the a home setup at an audio show in Manhattan a few years back. My criteria were pretty general, good clean sound from a variety of different types of music.

This is what a local dealer recommended to me:

Eclipse CD8053 (they stockpiled these for the balanced outputs)
Dynaudio 3-way with soft dome midrange
Zapco 360.4 (to drive the dynaudios)
JL stealthbox
Zapco 500.1

I had hoped to keep the Alpine and use that, but the dealer was really emphasizing the advantage of the balanced outputs on the older Eclipse and describing how he would create a custom cable to connect the system into the balanced inputs of the Zapcos.

The price quoted me...$4500 for the above installed. This includes custom pods in the footwell for the Dynaudio mids and tweeters.

Is this price completely out of the ballpark for the above? I will most likely downgrade to the 2-ways in stock locations since I'd have to give up the dead pedal for the driver's pod. The car is a sports car first and a music maker second. I'll probably use the Alpine as well since I'm not sure the extra money is worth the balanced signal chain.

Sorry for the long post. Thoughts, comments, and suggestions are appreciated.

 

OMG!!!
That sounds like crazy amounts of money to put into a convertible that has gobs of roadnoise.

 

it does sound like a lot, right?

I've never had a high-end system done so I wasn't sure what the install costs should be relative to the price of the components when it comes to a system like this.

I will most likely downgrade the system to this:

alpine headunit
2-way dynaudio, stock locations
JL 500/5
JL stealthbox

Can anyone tell me if a JL amp will be sufficient to drive a set of dynaudios?

 

I spent

$400 - Alpine Head Unit
$50 - KCA-420i-ipod input
$200 - Infinity Components
$100 - 12" Alpine Type R
$250 - Custom Enclosure(looks like the stealth box)
$200 - Kenwood 600 watt amp
$100 - cables and wiring and grill

Did the entire install using information found on s2ki

So I spent ~$1300 plus tax etc... No labor charge, other than the box

I've got a system that sounds crystal clear, has a good bottom end, and didn't cost me an arm and a leg. $4500???? Go get yourself a hardtop with that kind of money. Besides the road noise and noise when your top is down, will drain a lot of the clarity that it seems you're looking for.

But if you are going to shell out the big bucks. I do prefer focal utopias...

 

thanks for the advice; I'll keep it in mind.

 

I've heard both head units... and I think I have a decent ear for hearing systems... I can tell you that the balanced line will make a difference if you hear noise from the CD player. The noise I'm talking about occurs when you turn the system up VERY high and take a song that has a slience "dead" protion where NO sound should be coming from the speakers. During this "dead" period, most CD players give a light HISS sound just from reading the CD... My friend also could hear this and bought the Eclipse and that thing is VERY clean signal... no hiss for the balanced line model... remember that you have to turn it up pretty loud to hear the HISS sound and also that the Eclipse has a tendancy to have more glare than other CD players in sunlight... (I've had two eclipses and they both have had that issue... more than others)... I have an eclipse also and if you're really concerned about the sound quality at LOUD listening levels... I'd go with the balanced lines, but other than that... go with Alpine and save your money =)

 

I got a good deal on my Alpine head unit. This is what I've purchased so far.

Alpine 9855 - $291.00
80 sq ft. eDead sound dampening V1se2 & Elemental design Nine 2 amp - $306.00
Polk Audio SR 6500 - $550.00

I've already installed the head unit, which will have to come off once the amp arrives and I take the car apart to install the sound deadener and wire the entire system. I figure I'll also spend about 150.00 to 200.00 or so in wiring, etc. The amp is just to run the Polk speakers for now, but am going to run extra RCA's in order to be able to add a sub and/or if I want to add some extra speakers in the back, since the roll bar speakers aren't that good.