Hi,

I want to check my car in to get a sound system installed. Where is everyone going these days to get it done? Looking for enthusiast gear than jb or strathfield stuff.

I do it myself. But I don't quite understand why you are asking about "enthusiast gear" and having someone else install it. You can try Northfield Moorooka, Complete Car Sound, Car Tunez on the gold coast or you can go here and find out a whole heap of info http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/forums/

You can still buy some decent stuff from JB, I'm pretty happy with the service from the Kedron store. I've put in some alpine gear and I'm pretty content with it, otherwise you could look towards Morel, Hertz or Focal for higher end stuff, even some of the JL Audio stuff sounds good.

What kind of Car / Budget are you looking at?

last edited by scuzzy at 02:00:00 30/Oct/08

northfield, I've heard of them doing lambo's n stuff too.

http://www.northfieldcarsound.com.au/
http://www.northfieldmoorooka.com.au/

Northside car sound i think they are called. They are at pickering st. I'll find out more info later in the day. But I think they charge $80 per hour then plus parts I think. I've been there to get the RCA track re wired in my head deck.

northfield moorooka

Slinky: the one on Pickering St next to the Railway station is Complete Car Sound

Northfield Moorooka

For hints and tips, either post in here, or try http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/

KungFucius from MEA posting here, not slinky:

I've seen some good installs come out of autObarn at Slacks Creek, also they can get any gear you want into the store. What kind of "enthusiast gear" are you after? Gear that is known to be loud or gear that is known for its sound quality.

Complete Car Sound at Pickering Street recommend...

I got my whole car sound system done there
Audioson amps
Dynaudio splits
Hertz sub
Recommend!!!

Good thing about them is they do sell everything not just alpine crap

Well they don't sell Alpine for starters :)

KungFucius post:

But when looking for 'enthusiast gear' why would you think of Alpine? Their high end gear desn't exist anymore.

But when looking for 'enthusiast gear' why would you think of Alpine? Their high end gear desn't exist anymore.

The MEA definition of "Enthusiast Gear" and the QGL definition of "Enthusiast Gear" are two completely different things I fear.

Tell us what you want Ross.

But when looking for 'enthusiast gear' why would you think of Alpine?

Who said that? I bought Alpine because of what I liked in a friends install, and what I heard demoed to me, oh and the price. Plus for my first install I'm pretty happy with my results.

T-Bass

KungFucius post:

scuzzy, what mongie said is exactly right lol

And I, personally don't think of Alpine when I hear the words 'enthusiast gear'.
I tend to think of Morel, Hertz, Audison, Focal, DD, to name a few. If I put Alpine and enthusiast gear together I think of their F#1 Status gear. Which isn't made anymore..... There is also the type X gear, but I'd go for JL gear gear before I woud buy the type X gear.

But each to their own, all that matters is how the owner wants it to sound.

northfield moorooka..they'll hook you up..
I got my gear there..which isn't too shabby..

alpine amp, dynaudio splits and image dynamics sub..and alpine h/u

if you want real gear, stay away from jb and all that.

Alpine type x gear, is still very good, but as said, they're is way better.

KungFucius post:

...Where exactly do you live? What's your budget and what's your definition of 'enthusiast gear'?

Thread hijack.

Tell me why I shouldn't pull the trigger on a pioneer DEH-P6050UB head unit.

I don't want to buy pioneer, I really don't... but Alpine HU's don't play WAV files over usb.

last edited by mongie at 12:35:03 30/Oct/08

its for a prius and I would like to use the touchscreen and my wheel to control all the components (don't know if its possible but have seen hacks for ipods and VLC Player before). At the moment all I can find in the car is 4x 6" splits and a centre speaker but the manual says 9 so who knows. They are all JBL but really not up to scratch. I would probably get rid of the back splits and get 6x9's and try some inventive way of squeezing in some subwoofer's without losing boot space. The head unit is also a funny shape, says JBL on it but no idea who makes it, want to dock the ipod in my centre console and also want support for dvda and sacd.

Not really up on car audio components, haven't even looked at any in a very long time. I guess if possible I would like to follow my other brands JL, artison, sonar and waughtmough but I doubt that many of them make car componets.

The reason I don't want to do it myself is because I want the mods to be completely undetectable in the car itself and not end up with dodgy lumps and seals not fitting right. I also don't want to look as s*** as scuzzy's car. My days of installing car stereo's are long gone.

I also don't want to look as s*** as scuzzy's car.

haha go eat a bag of cocks

Northfield Moorooka is pretty good as said already, though obviously be prepared to pay out of your nose for it.

Ross, you'll probably have two head unit options. A processor / amp with high level inputs (ie. the speaker wires from your stock head unit go into the input) - I think a good example of this is the Rockford 3Sixty.

The other option will be to cut out the old head unit and put in another one into a regular DIN bracket.

If the head unit is part of the dash, you can't really do much.

lol 'enthuiast gear'

im more interested in the control of it, I know all the pc bits in the prius are under my seat, I guess what I was really after is a place that has some software I can use as well.

and no im not an enthusiast in the faggy take my car to sound show's way. By enthusiast I just meant its not going to be a standard install. All I listen to is metal and I like warm sounding tones.

budget between 10 - 20k

You are willing to spend 10-20k on a car stereo? Jesus, are you insane?

i think you accidently put a 0 next to those numbers

mission..that price isn't as crazy as you think..have a mate who spent 20k+ on his previous ride and almost as much in his 4wd that is going to have 5.1

yeah it is crazy, f***ing retarded infact

You can spend a lot of money on a car stereo... I think you're going to need someone pretty specialised though Ross...

KungFucius post:

Mission, Paveway:10-20k is easy to hit with what he is describing. eg. Focal Utopia splits are $3500 for a set. JUST the speakers and crossover networks.

Ross, warm tones go with Morel or Focal, Northfield Moorooka do Focal gear, tell them what you want they'll help you out.

20k?!

lol.

at least the prius is silent so should make a decent base for an install i suppose.

KungFucius post:

Also JL ZR splits are good for a warm sound, and cost a lot less than the Focal Utopias, BUT Northfield, last time I went there, don't stock JL gear.

The only 'enthusiast gear' paveway is interested in comes in a little plastic baggy.

buttons?

Thanks for the help guys, gonna drive around to northfield next week. They said they have done prius's before but never the head units but they will always look at doing something new. Let you know how it goes!

And enthusiast was absolutely the right word, if I had said high end gear it would not have covered the specialised prius install :) If you have a better word though paveway, let me know and I will use it next time.

i have a better word

'douche' ?

Let you know how it goes!

Cool, glad you were able to get onto northfield, some of their installs are very impressive and they have a great wealth of experience, I can't wait to see what they do to you car so I can call it a bucket of s*** like you did to mine without ever seeing the amount of work that went into it.

last edited by scuzzy at 14:57:59 30/Oct/08

dude i have no idea what your car is like :)

ps. sorry you took offense and I love you xx oo

last edited by Ross at 15:05:33 30/Oct/08

who's a drug dealer?

that's why i got a prius so I could silently move around, good for drive by's too

20k to listen to metal with warm tones

haha

also abc news radio

alpine crap

Who makes a better HU than alpine? :S

so wait on
you're loaded
and you drive a prius.
right.

I enjoy reading posts from people who quite clearly have nfi about the subject.
Like posted above, I'd be shocked if someone knows of a headunit which rivals the high end Alpine gear. The only problem I have with Alpine gear is they still glue there cones. If you are looking at high end Subwoofers, The Type X gear is brialliant, until the seal breaks away. Alpine need to start stitching there woofers. As for SQ, brilliant.

last edited by CeMaX at 17:23:12 30/Oct/08

it's not enthusiast unless you spend $10k - $20k alright

CeMax, Alpine Speakers / Amps are good, but they don't match up to brands like Audison, Focal etc. I'm a big Alpine fan, but that is the truth.

Alpine head units are up there with the best. Remember though that its easy to spend a lot of money in Car Audio (or any audio equipment for that matter). Niche brands like Nakamichi can cost thousands of dollars for something pretty basic.

Fair statement, although Focal or Audison usually costs more for there similar spec'd items.

Noticing he is willing to spend between 10-20k , I would skip the Alpine section except for maybe the Headunit. Although other brands (JVC for instance) now support playback of Divx/mp3 and various codecs from memory card/USB Stick and/or external HDD. I'm almost definately sure no other major brands currently support divx video playback from an external storage device (JayCar also recently released a Unit which supports this feature).

last edited by CeMaX at 18:09:23 30/Oct/08


last edited by CeMaX at 18:11:21 30/Oct/08

Tell me why I shouldn't pull the trigger on a pioneer DEH-P6050UB head unit.

I've been getting progressively disappointed by Pioneer head units. The first one I got was rather good, the next one I got was pretty damn awesome in the way of controls/menu and display but the latest ones I've looked at had all the features I want even in the low end models but the controls/menu/display are just s***house. Even in some of the higher end ones I don't like the display in them.

The one I just got, the volume knob is also the direction buttons (up, down, left, right) and a clicky "enter" button which I guess frees up the face for other buttons but sometimes while driving and trying to change radio presets or cd tracks it's easy to move it the wrong way and send it into tune mode or skip to the next folder instead of the next track (USB).

Also there's no rubber grip on it like there is on the oldass alpine in the Seca or even the dodgy JVC I have in the corolla has a rubber grip but this pioneer has a smooth, chrome knob which might look impressive but try spinning that without having to use 2 or more fingers (I like to just run my finger over it to go up/down fast). I ended up just sitting the remote on the seat and using that to operate the radio because I got so annoyed with that s***ty direction/volume/enter knob.

Also the first 2 Pioneers I had were awesomely loud without an amp but the last 2 I've had you pretty much need an amp just to be able to hear it, 2 different brands of speakers 2 different models of radio and all wired up correctly. I don't have the radio up THAT loud so for me an amp is overkill.

I don't know if this is true for the high end models and I don't know what model yours is but just saying watch out for those problems.

I'll not touch another pioneer with a stick.


last edited by whoop at 21:06:53 30/Oct/08

i've been to northfield also, seem pretty good, everything i got was alpine cept for the image dynamics sub

haha go eat a bag of cocks

... YOU CAN BUY A BAG OF COCKS??!??!!! FINALLY!

Please go to Complete Car Sound at Pickering Street.

Buy lots of Hertz stuff, and pay them to install it.

You will never regret it, I guarantee. Excellent brand (and well priced, comparitively), and those guys are seriously passionate about car audio, and the installation of car audio.

KungFucius post:

alpine crap


Who makes a better HU than alpine? :S

Nakamichi, Eclipse, Boston Audio :D To name a few off the top of my head.

If you want a headunit.. get the alpine CDA-9887, currently have this with my system..great stuff

get the alpine CDA-9887

KungFucius Post:

Great unit for its price, <$700 and it's IMPRINTable :D.

One thing I love about Alpine HU's, IMPRINT.

IMPRINT is certainly handy...

IF ONLY ALPINE WEREN'T SO f***ING GAY. ASIF YOU WOULDN'T SUPPORT WAV OVER USB!

i have one of these

http://i.testfreaks.com/images/products/600x400/58/alpine-ida-x200.321338.jpg

alpine ida-x200 and it's f***in rad if you can't be f***ed with cd's, it's a ipod/usb only media player

Also on the CDA-9887 Bandwagon, great interface and good set of features for tuning/adjustments, combined with the Imprint KTX-100EQ Tuning kit you can get some very nice sounds out of it. Does lack internal bluetooth/usb that other brands feature in lower priced units, thats about the only thing I don't like about the Alpine decks, otherwise they work very well.

Why do all the head unit's look so gay? Does it go faster if its colourful?

Ross, get one of these...
http://www.hsodo.com/pds/images/CD700II.jpg

KungFucius post:

One thing that I've heard about Nakamichi HU's is that they don't play burnt CDs.

But they are very much a purist/audiophile HU. You don't get the sound from a burnt CD that you do from one that isn't.

lemme know when you get it done man i'd love to come have a listen to it!

edit:- i swear i wont come back and ransack your car for all its worth later that night...

last edited by GaZ at 11:50:43 31/Oct/08

You don't get the sound from a burnt CD that you do from one that isn't.

Are you serious?

You don't get the sound from a burnt CD that you do from one that isn't.

f***in lol

this thread is hilarious

paveway you hu doesn't even play cd's what the f*** do you care about quality

sif you need CD playback in a head unit these days. If you're a stickler for quality I'm sure you can find one that can playback flac, but asif you wouldn't just go with v0 mp3s, even if you are planning to spend 10k. Digital distributable media is just so much more convenient than lugging around a wallet full of discs.

I only really listen to about 10 cd's at anyone time though. I do have an ipod I use in the car but at least 70% is cd's if you don't count radio time.

I couldn't find a HU that played flac's either. Its all moot anyway I can't get what I want done anyway :) probably just stick with everything I have and get a tiny sub put in.

Guess you could get away with a stacker. Still it's always going to be easier to hit a next button than wait for a disc change. A bunch of head units even interface directly with ipods now, so you have the LCD displaying album art etc and control the ipod from the faceplate.

What if is plays FLAC, I like FLAC.

yeh, i have seen some prius hacks that you let you do that with the ipod and vlc player. I think there is also a toyota ipod kit i can stick in too

I am looking forward to stu coming back here to defend his claims.

paveway you hu doesn't even play cd's what the f*** do you care about quality

i don't play cd's, but i can pick bulls*** when i see it

Are you serious?

I'm sure he is...

Paveway: I thought about getting one of the headunits like yours, and I like them, but knowing that I could never play lossless audio would s*** me to tears... I can definately tell the difference between a pressed CD and mp3's, so being forced to listen to MP3's permanently would s*** me to tears.

As I've mentioned a number of times, Alpine don't support WAV (or FLAC) over USB, so if you buy one of those head units, you can play back MP3's or WMA's from USB, or tracks from your iPod.

Obviously there isn't a GREAT deal of difference between the quality of a music cd and MP3's but with a good stereo you can notice quite easily where the compression takes out little bits. At the moment, I mainly just listen to them anyway (MP3 on CD) but at least I can listen to a regular audio cd if I really want to...

I can definately tell the difference between a pressed CD and mp3's

haha

Spook, are you saying that you can't?

yes, im also saying you cant

i reckon if we put mongie and spook on a blind test for pressed cd vs mp3, both would fail. as would nearly everone.

Fair enough, you're the one who can't tell the difference between a plasma and an LCD either...

Just goes to show that your senses do dull when you get older.

cd vs. 320 mp3s yeah pretty difficult to pick the difference

192 or less it's pretty easy with decent headphones/system depending on the type of music

i can tell the difference between lcd and plasma

i much prefer the lcd

ffs.. sure there is a physical difference between pressed 'albums' and burnt cds.. eg the albums are actually pressed into being.. but on an audio level i don't see how with road noise, various engine noises, aircon or other motorists around aswell as wind, rain or whatever you're going to get a measurable difference interms of quality between a burnt cd and a legitimate cd.. There is various grades of wank factor and this seems to be one of the more out there levels

i can tell the difference between lcd and plasma

i much prefer the lcd

Thats great for you.

Fact is, it is possible to tell the difference between MP3 and CD (quite easily) and the fact that you disagree only goes to show you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

haha mongie

I agree spook is f***ing clueless! Ugly too. He prefer's LCD's for f***s sake

That being said, as with everything it is something thats acquired. If you have never had good quality gear you aren't going to be able to tell the difference.

Same goes for food, drinks & women

And for spook I guess ignorance is bliss

last edited by Ross at 15:40:25 31/Oct/08

fyi, my your mum thinks im very nice looking:

plasmas lolz

my mummas a whore, your'e mummas a pub slut with aids

KungFucius post:

Stu agrees with me on this one lol

I could always tell the difference between my burnt CDs and the pressed CDs of Infected Mushroom that I listened to when I had my car.

KungFucius post:

May I also direct you to Stu's signature at this point in time :P

what is this KungFucius post: s*** ?

i got an alpine 9886. i love it. it loves me to. today i turned it on and it said happy halloween (L)

today i turned it on and it said happy halloween

I have been resetting the power to my unit frequently and been getting HAPPY NEW YEAR alot, it will also give you a birthday message if you set a date.

I could always tell the difference between my burnt CDs and the pressed CDs of Infected Mushroom that I listened to when I had my car.

Did you scratch your CD's to death and leave them out in the sun or something?

last edited by scuzzy at 16:06:39 31/Oct/08

f***ing AI.

KungFucius post:

If I didn't you might think that it's Stu....


Also I use that name on MEA and a myriad of other sites and games.

Scuzzy... I've often thought that sometimes a burned CD can sound different - ie. Might be less bass heavy etc. I think it has more to do with processing than actual disc performance. Perhaps the quality of the disc does make a difference?

I wouuldn't say that there is a definate difference in quality between the two.

Did you scratch your CD's to death and leave them out in the sun or something?

KungFucius post:

I take extra special care of my IM CDs because they are very expensive CDs and I just take care of CDs in general... I could just tell a difference between them.

yeah, no you couldn't

KungFucius post:

Suit yourself. I know I could tell a difference between my pressed Infected Mushroom CDs and burnt ones.

i think i know what the mushrooms were infecting

Cds or SA cds?

Get a V10 put in and take the stereo out completely.

I burnt a copy of Quake to a CD-R and I could tell the difference in game!

Unless you're burning at speeds out of spec for the media you are using, I can't begin to imagine quality loss from comming from a digital storage format.

KungFucius post:

Cds or SA cds?

SA CDs??????

Super Audio CD

Super Audio Cd.. Jeez dude.. you're an audiophile and you didn't know that? next you'll be telling me Sgt peppers lonely hearts club was mastered correctly...

both, and its not really a question of distortion between 328's, cd's, sacd's and DVDA its what you miss out on that makes the difference. Although distortion and general s***ness absolutely come into it with mp3's. I hate listening to mp3's and thinking this song rocks but i can't turn it up because its an mp3 and would make me ill.

I really can't see it making too much difference in a car though, with all the other noise and the general crapness of a car for acoustics..

nar I think i will take hardwares advice and convert my prius to lpg :)

I really can't see it making too much difference in a car though, with all the other noise and the general crapness of a car for acoustics..

Sense pervails... I can understand spending the money to integrate stuff you want in a cool way, i can't understand going for audio perfection in a car.. Its completely the wrong setting

KungFucius post:

o.0 Never heard of Super Audio CDs...Also, I never said I was an Audiophile, I just like my music to have clarity at volume.