Recently I realized i'm not the only one that hasn't been listening to music while driving... at first I thought it was solely due to the beautiful sounds the VQ puts out, but I'm pretty confident now that it's mostly because the oem system really blows.

I need some advice on putting together a very modest system that has expandability in the future. I'm just looking for #1 clairity and #2 loud enough to hear with the windows open on the freeway.

For now, I'm looking at getting the following:

Alpine-9815 (27-50w)

(under)Powering the front:
Infinity Kappa 60.5cs

and Rear:
Infinity 652i Coaxials

And stage II will be to add a JL amp and a single JL 10W6 in the hatch area + XM radio.

Stage III will be to add a 4 channel amp to power the speakers better, but for now, I need a sub $1000 solution for anything better than the oem crap.

I'm guessing the above setup to cost roughly $500-600.

Will it really sound ok? 100w components powered by a high-powered headunit (keep in mind this Alpine requires a seperate 10gauge power cable for its built in amp). I guess I already know the answer, but would like to know if anyone else has a similar setup and get a review.

Comments would be appreciated.

Also, if anyone has this HU, can you please post a pic?

Thanks!

 

This HU will power your speakers fine for the time being. I have the same HU with external amps, but i've heard my friends car with the same deck but using its internal amp powering some MB Quartz, and they sound fine.

An option some people have opted is to ditch the rears and get an amp to power the fronts only...something like the 300/2 from JL which cost about 300.

As for the deck, i got mine for 360..it gives out about 25watts RMS, more than most out there in this price range.

10ga is quite overkill for the power feed on the deck, the power line from the deck is at most 16ga, it'll get quite tricky trying to crimp the 10ga and the deck wire from the harness together.

 

Thanks, any pics of the headunit installed? As I read more about this unit its really beginning to impress me.

Apparently you can fine tune your EQ presets using the Alpine website then download them onto a CDR and load them on the unit...! Have you done this? Seems a little inpractical but just sounds cool. Maybe they'll do firmware upgrades this way too..

How's the file navigation? I guess I really need to find a shop somewhere that's got it on display and play around with it. The only con right now for me is that it doesn't have support for amber lighting, just blue.

 

Now i'm wondering if I should pay $50 more and get the infinity perfects instead of the plain kappa's in the front

 

Spend enough money and you will get better sound. Watch your budget..

 

sounds good to me

 

If you are looking for clarity also look at the eclipse 8443 deck. I love mine and hey you cant go wrong with 8v preouts.