Let me start off by saying the last time I bought a car audio system was over 10-years ago. Things probably has changed a lot. Anyway I want some better sound from the S. I am thinking of working with a $1000 budget ex install. I will need headunit, component front, amp and sub. My requirement is a system that produce clean sound. I read through some of the threads here to have an idea of what many of you are using in your cars. Please make some recommendation in the categories below.

Headunit -$200-$300
Seems like it is a split between Pioneer and Alpine on this board.

Component Speakers $300-$400
Read that the Focal K2s are good, but how about their polyglass?

Subwoofer - 100-150

Amplifier - no idea as to what price I need to pay to get a good one.


Also if anyone is from NJ, please recommend a shop in Middlesex/Monmouth county. Thanks.

 

one thing you have to realize is, good to me might be different than your definition of good. what kind of setups have you heard and enjoyed.

speakers are probably the most important things when it comes to sound and there are so many to choose from, each company offers different sound.

radio, depends which alpine and which pioneer. alpine has some good and crappy one, pioneer works the same way. for 300 bucks, between alpine or pioneer, i would go with alpine 9835.

amps should be chosen after you find out which speakers and subwoofer you are going for.

subwoofer is hard one also, name a few and im sure other people would comment on them. what subs have you enoyed in the past.

 

Thanks for recommending the Alpine unit. I think I am going toget that, the feature set seems to be very goo.

My experience with car speakersis limited. What I had before were Polk speakers, I forgot the series but it was their component set with the silk dome tweeters. I also had their sub. Overall I like the setup very much. The amp was a Soundstream Reference series 5 channel unit. My room-mate at that time bought some MB Quartz and I find them to be tighter in the sound that is produced but the tweeters were too high. I definitely plan to listen to some speakers first, but just want an idea of where to begin.

 

Also consider Eclipse, Polyglass sound great. IMO better than any of the Eclipse comps. Any K series is going to be much higher in price, but again worth every penny.

If your around the South Jersey/Philadelphia area, I work for a shop that deals with all of the above mentioned.