Ok, I'm excited! I've been missing out over the years with the speakers I've owned.
I went to Lexington today and checked out 4 car audio stores. Takes me about an hour and a half doing 75MPH or so from where I live to get there.
One was not very good, only had Pioneer Rev series and some lower grade Pioneers, also had Fusion, and Legacy. I left after only about 2 minutes. There was a guy outside installing door speakers in a customer's SUV. Had the door panels pulled half off of both doors and they were just hanging onto the doors by the wires only, but he was sitting in the back seat smoking a cigarette and not doing a thing on the install. I'd kill if someone smoked in my car while I was gone.
One store was OK, but had older models of speakers on the sound board(I'm talking 4 years or older cause I have a pair that were on the board and that's how long I've had them). Nothing I was looking for so I didn't stay there long either.
One was a little better but not much, had a lot of Kenwood, Pioneer, and one pair of MB Quart 6 1/2's. Nothing I was looking for.
And one, Autosound, suggested by UKinstaller, was great.
Now I'm not planning to buy from them cause I can get the stuff I liked on the net cheaper anyway(plus I know you're boycotting them UK, and I have respect for you on that). But they did have 3 brands and models of speakers that were on my list and I got to hear them with my CD that I was used to.
I took Saliva's CD "Back Into Your System" and previewed with it. I looked at Eclipse Integrated series, Boston Acoustics FX series, and Clarion Phaze 1 series.
First thing I did was find a stereo HU that was as similar to mine as I could find. Most all Pioneers have the same EQ settings and all so it was not hard. I was sure I had basically the same sound I would get from my HU. Then I got started.
The Clarions sucked severely, I crossed them off the list immediately. Enough said there.
The Boston Acoustics sounded good, but I couldn't really tell a huge difference in mids and treble compared to some(not all) Pioneers and Sony's I've heard. The mids seemed a little bright to me, but I may need that in my truck cause of the door speaker locations. That's why I have Sony's now cause of brighter mids and the mid losses I was getting.
But......they handle bass very well with no distortion at all at the same levels and settings as my speakers I have now, even the 3 1/2 size did not distort at all. This was very different than I am used to. My 4" Pioneers distort badly on a bass setting of +3 or +4 at volume level 13. The Boston Acoustic 3 1/2's took it and then some.
Even with the midrange being overdone, I was very impressed with Boston Acoustics. But honestly I have to say the 6x9's didn't sound any better to me midwise than some Pioneers or Sony's I'd heard. The impressive part to me was how the smaller speaker sizes like 3 1/2's and 4x6's sound compared to smaller sized Pioneers I've heard. Much better that Pioneer. If this is Boston Acoustics' lowest line and it still outperforms Pioneer's good stuff, I'm done with Pioneer speakers altogether.
The Eclipse Integrated series was phenominal though. I was sold completely on every size I need in the Eclipse brand. What a speaker this is! Best I ever heard to date. No adjustments were necessary to the EQ to get great sound. That was a new one to me. I can't say enough about this speaker. It just rocked hard and begged for more. No bass distortion, no overdone mids, and even the treble settings on the HU could be kept to a normal level. I'm satisfied that this speaker series will do everything I want in all 3 systems I'm creating. I just could not have imagined that a coaxial speaker could sound THAT much better than what I am used to.
They also had a grade up in Boston Acoustics, I think it was SL series, and also had Blaupunkt(the clear cone ones), but I didn't listen to any of them. Boston Acoustics grade up was too high out of my price range, and Blaupunkt I just did not like the way they looked, I'd never be happy with them so I didn't try them.
So thank you to UKinstaller for the suggestion. You were right on everything you said, the shop is first rate, but the service is poor. Only saw one guy running the show and he had his nose up some girl that was in there and completely ignored me altogether. That's what I wanted anyway though so I could push all the buttons and not be bothered.
So now my speaker list is a little smaller than before. I also cut Rockford Fosgate's Punch series(models with FRC in them) from the list. My friend just bought a pair and he said they weren't even a shadow of what he thought Rockfords should have been.
Even though I'm very satisfied with the Eclipses, I owe it to myself to check out as many of the others I selected for the list as I can. I'd still like to hear some Infinity Kappas. I haven't located a shop that has them on display or even sells them yet. Only Circuit City with the Infinity Reference series.
I know this post is long, but I had alot to say. This was my first experience with a truely better grade of speakers and now I am ruined to ever buy anymore Wal-mart stuff and think it's great ever again.
UK, if you know of any, I'd like a suggestion on where to go locally(Lexington area) to hear:
Infinity Kappa
Kove Audio
JBL
Phoenix Gold
JL Audio
Planet Audio
Replies (2)
UKinstaller on 02/19/2005 02:33:23
glad you enjoyed your trip. and i do agree with your opinions on eclipse. i think overall, they are the best brand on the market. i recommend eclipse to anyone and everyone who can spend a dime or two on their tunes. i have eclipse coaxials on an alpine 4 channel amp in my rodeo, and i just sold my alpine IVA-D300 and will be buying an eclipse in-dash DVD / monitor within the next week. if i could afford them i'd love to get some of those titanium subs, but they are soooo expensive and have a crazy RMS rating, like 1500 watts. i could never afford an amp for that thing!!
as far as your brands listed, the only two you will be able to find in lexington will be infinity (circuit city) and JL Audio (ovation car stereos). i recommend ovation, and i feel stupid for forgetting to tell you about them because they rival autosound for the best place in lexington.
i have never been to a store that dealt kove audio, i can't think of anybody with JBL or PG off the top of my head, and planet audio...... i had to drive FOUR HOURS to Lima, Ohio to get a planet audio amp for my friend. that's a brand that is often overlooked in car audio, and they make some quality stuff.
well, holler if you have any more questions. sorry lexington is so damn crowded. i have friends from pittsburgh, atlanta, and detroit, and they ALL said that lexington traffic during rush hour is worse. hope you didn't come then.
-UK
audeogod on 02/20/2005 20:24:40
Yeah, the traffic was crazy! I tried to turn across oncoming traffic into a parking lot of a tobacco/cigarette shop, so I could come back out and go the opposite direction back up to Autosound. There was a redlight at the intersection, and traffic finally had to stop. So I thought this would be a good time to go. The traffic just kept coming, and no one would just stay back a little so I could get acrossed, even though they had to stop anyway. So, I just pulled out into oncoming traffic and just stopped crossways across both lanes, and made them stop. But one car was blocking the parking lot entrance, and would not creep up just a little, so I just sat there for like 3 - 4 minutes. The light turned green finally, and that car moved, and then I finally made it into the parking lot.
But then I couldn't get back out onto that road again. I had to go out the other end of the parking lot and down a side street, do a turnabout, and then come back up to the stop light to get back onto Nicholasville road(I think that's the road).
Everybody was doing like 60 MPH in town! Even Columbus Ohio, with 4 lanes one way didn't have traffic like that!
I've been to Lexington before, but mostly didn't have to go very far off of New Circle Rd. So I didn't see traffic like that very often.
Anyway, I struck JBL from the list of possibles today. I finally located a picture of the speakers with the grills on them. Both the Power series, and the GTO's are ugly looking triangle shapes.
So the list is down to:
Eclipse Integrated series
Infinity Kappa series
Infinity Reference series
Phoenix Gold Octane series
Planet Audio M2 series
Kove Audio XTC series
JL Audio Evolution TR series
Boston Acoustics FX series
I think based on other people's analogy of Infinity Kappa being too bright with tweeters, I may cut them as well. I can't locate a local dealer to hear them from.
Infinity Reference may not make it, cause of being white(no racist jokes intended, haha). They would end up looking dirty in my truck after a while.
Also cannot seem to even find where Planet Audio is sold even on the net. Still have not located a picture of their grills either.
Boston Acoustics were nice, but compared to Eclipse, they were somewhat of a distant second in sound quality. Handled bass very well, but the mids were not satisfying.
A dealer here in my area used to carry Kove, but I never checked them out. I kinda thought it was a lesser name. May still be yet, I don't even know. That dealer is gone now, and I can't find them to preview anymore either.
I went to Lexington today and checked out 4 car audio stores. Takes me about an hour and a half doing 75MPH or so from where I live to get there.
One was not very good, only had Pioneer Rev series and some lower grade Pioneers, also had Fusion, and Legacy. I left after only about 2 minutes. There was a guy outside installing door speakers in a customer's SUV. Had the door panels pulled half off of both doors and they were just hanging onto the doors by the wires only, but he was sitting in the back seat smoking a cigarette and not doing a thing on the install. I'd kill if someone smoked in my car while I was gone.
One store was OK, but had older models of speakers on the sound board(I'm talking 4 years or older cause I have a pair that were on the board and that's how long I've had them). Nothing I was looking for so I didn't stay there long either.
One was a little better but not much, had a lot of Kenwood, Pioneer, and one pair of MB Quart 6 1/2's. Nothing I was looking for.
And one, Autosound, suggested by UKinstaller, was great.
Now I'm not planning to buy from them cause I can get the stuff I liked on the net cheaper anyway(plus I know you're boycotting them UK, and I have respect for you on that). But they did have 3 brands and models of speakers that were on my list and I got to hear them with my CD that I was used to.
I took Saliva's CD "Back Into Your System" and previewed with it. I looked at Eclipse Integrated series, Boston Acoustics FX series, and Clarion Phaze 1 series.
First thing I did was find a stereo HU that was as similar to mine as I could find. Most all Pioneers have the same EQ settings and all so it was not hard. I was sure I had basically the same sound I would get from my HU. Then I got started.
The Clarions sucked severely, I crossed them off the list immediately. Enough said there.
The Boston Acoustics sounded good, but I couldn't really tell a huge difference in mids and treble compared to some(not all) Pioneers and Sony's I've heard. The mids seemed a little bright to me, but I may need that in my truck cause of the door speaker locations. That's why I have Sony's now cause of brighter mids and the mid losses I was getting.
But......they handle bass very well with no distortion at all at the same levels and settings as my speakers I have now, even the 3 1/2 size did not distort at all. This was very different than I am used to. My 4" Pioneers distort badly on a bass setting of +3 or +4 at volume level 13. The Boston Acoustic 3 1/2's took it and then some.
Even with the midrange being overdone, I was very impressed with Boston Acoustics. But honestly I have to say the 6x9's didn't sound any better to me midwise than some Pioneers or Sony's I'd heard. The impressive part to me was how the smaller speaker sizes like 3 1/2's and 4x6's sound compared to smaller sized Pioneers I've heard. Much better that Pioneer. If this is Boston Acoustics' lowest line and it still outperforms Pioneer's good stuff, I'm done with Pioneer speakers altogether.
The Eclipse Integrated series was phenominal though. I was sold completely on every size I need in the Eclipse brand. What a speaker this is! Best I ever heard to date. No adjustments were necessary to the EQ to get great sound. That was a new one to me. I can't say enough about this speaker. It just rocked hard and begged for more. No bass distortion, no overdone mids, and even the treble settings on the HU could be kept to a normal level. I'm satisfied that this speaker series will do everything I want in all 3 systems I'm creating. I just could not have imagined that a coaxial speaker could sound THAT much better than what I am used to.
They also had a grade up in Boston Acoustics, I think it was SL series, and also had Blaupunkt(the clear cone ones), but I didn't listen to any of them. Boston Acoustics grade up was too high out of my price range, and Blaupunkt I just did not like the way they looked, I'd never be happy with them so I didn't try them.
So thank you to UKinstaller for the suggestion. You were right on everything you said, the shop is first rate, but the service is poor. Only saw one guy running the show and he had his nose up some girl that was in there and completely ignored me altogether. That's what I wanted anyway though so I could push all the buttons and not be bothered.
So now my speaker list is a little smaller than before. I also cut Rockford Fosgate's Punch series(models with FRC in them) from the list. My friend just bought a pair and he said they weren't even a shadow of what he thought Rockfords should have been.
Even though I'm very satisfied with the Eclipses, I owe it to myself to check out as many of the others I selected for the list as I can. I'd still like to hear some Infinity Kappas. I haven't located a shop that has them on display or even sells them yet. Only Circuit City with the Infinity Reference series.
I know this post is long, but I had alot to say. This was my first experience with a truely better grade of speakers and now I am ruined to ever buy anymore Wal-mart stuff and think it's great ever again.
UK, if you know of any, I'd like a suggestion on where to go locally(Lexington area) to hear:
Infinity Kappa
Kove Audio
JBL
Phoenix Gold
JL Audio
Planet Audio
Replies (2)
UKinstaller on 02/19/2005 02:33:23
glad you enjoyed your trip. and i do agree with your opinions on eclipse. i think overall, they are the best brand on the market. i recommend eclipse to anyone and everyone who can spend a dime or two on their tunes. i have eclipse coaxials on an alpine 4 channel amp in my rodeo, and i just sold my alpine IVA-D300 and will be buying an eclipse in-dash DVD / monitor within the next week. if i could afford them i'd love to get some of those titanium subs, but they are soooo expensive and have a crazy RMS rating, like 1500 watts. i could never afford an amp for that thing!!
as far as your brands listed, the only two you will be able to find in lexington will be infinity (circuit city) and JL Audio (ovation car stereos). i recommend ovation, and i feel stupid for forgetting to tell you about them because they rival autosound for the best place in lexington.
i have never been to a store that dealt kove audio, i can't think of anybody with JBL or PG off the top of my head, and planet audio...... i had to drive FOUR HOURS to Lima, Ohio to get a planet audio amp for my friend. that's a brand that is often overlooked in car audio, and they make some quality stuff.
well, holler if you have any more questions. sorry lexington is so damn crowded. i have friends from pittsburgh, atlanta, and detroit, and they ALL said that lexington traffic during rush hour is worse. hope you didn't come then.
-UK
audeogod on 02/20/2005 20:24:40
Yeah, the traffic was crazy! I tried to turn across oncoming traffic into a parking lot of a tobacco/cigarette shop, so I could come back out and go the opposite direction back up to Autosound. There was a redlight at the intersection, and traffic finally had to stop. So I thought this would be a good time to go. The traffic just kept coming, and no one would just stay back a little so I could get acrossed, even though they had to stop anyway. So, I just pulled out into oncoming traffic and just stopped crossways across both lanes, and made them stop. But one car was blocking the parking lot entrance, and would not creep up just a little, so I just sat there for like 3 - 4 minutes. The light turned green finally, and that car moved, and then I finally made it into the parking lot.
But then I couldn't get back out onto that road again. I had to go out the other end of the parking lot and down a side street, do a turnabout, and then come back up to the stop light to get back onto Nicholasville road(I think that's the road).
Everybody was doing like 60 MPH in town! Even Columbus Ohio, with 4 lanes one way didn't have traffic like that!
I've been to Lexington before, but mostly didn't have to go very far off of New Circle Rd. So I didn't see traffic like that very often.
Anyway, I struck JBL from the list of possibles today. I finally located a picture of the speakers with the grills on them. Both the Power series, and the GTO's are ugly looking triangle shapes.
So the list is down to:
Eclipse Integrated series
Infinity Kappa series
Infinity Reference series
Phoenix Gold Octane series
Planet Audio M2 series
Kove Audio XTC series
JL Audio Evolution TR series
Boston Acoustics FX series
I think based on other people's analogy of Infinity Kappa being too bright with tweeters, I may cut them as well. I can't locate a local dealer to hear them from.
Infinity Reference may not make it, cause of being white(no racist jokes intended, haha). They would end up looking dirty in my truck after a while.
Also cannot seem to even find where Planet Audio is sold even on the net. Still have not located a picture of their grills either.
Boston Acoustics were nice, but compared to Eclipse, they were somewhat of a distant second in sound quality. Handled bass very well, but the mids were not satisfying.
A dealer here in my area used to carry Kove, but I never checked them out. I kinda thought it was a lesser name. May still be yet, I don't even know. That dealer is gone now, and I can't find them to preview anymore either.
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