Dave

I just ordered a Blaupunkt Hamburg and a pair of Blau PCxt462 for the doors, should be here tomorrow. I'm undecided for the rears, I'd love to find a way to fit 6 1/2" in the back.

jeeper31

I am thinking Alpine 9815, 9813 or 9811. Looking into differences. What is Digital Time Correction?

Luis de Prat

Sony Minidisc unit in the 951 (MDX C670).
Blaupunkt Series 5 units (Reno and Aspen) with CD changer controls in the other 2 cars.

Mighty Shilling

I have MB Quarts all the way around. they sound great, and were pretty pricey...I think $120.00 for 2 of em. I think they'd sound better if I had a different CD player. Like they say, the car stereo is only as good as the cheapest component. my CD player is ancient, and it was the JVC base model.

theedge

You enter in the distances of the speakers from your ears, and it will delay the output to each speaker by a fraction of a second, so that your ears/brain percieve that the speakers are all the exact same distance away.

From what ive heard its hard to explain what it will sound like, but when you hear it for yourself, its a night and day difference.

Im getting the 9815 basically for that reason, it has 6 channels for all 6 speakers, and preset spots so you can program for when youre alone or have people in the car.

The only downside is when you have it programmed for just you, itll sound kinda wacked for others. Thus the handyness of the 9815s presets.

ribs

Last weekend I bought a JVC head unit...I forgot the model #, but its 50W/channel peak power and plays MP3's...I got kenwood 4x6's for the fronts, and stock blown speakers in the back. I'm not big on hifi for the car right now (if I was going to do it, I would end up spending too much money) but for about $200 overall, I got an MP3 CD player and a nice set of speakers. Next will have to be a sub and some tweaters for the front, and rear speakers as well.

Lonely Raven

My 924S came with a JVC, probably that same one. It plays MP3s on CD
and has a decent tuner with decent power in it all around. Probably the
same one.

I've been (non-professionally) installing stereos in cars for years. I've
done everything from ripping the stereo out of my 914 and (literally)
throwing it out the window to putting a 3000 watt system into a little
cab of a Nissan "sport truck". (please don't call them low riders, I'm too
white for that).

Personally I feel that 6 1/2" drivers all around are the best sounding.
Especially if you have a sub-woofer to make up for the low end that
6X9 would generally produce. There is a theory that says 6 1/2" speakers
are the best for reproducing music, because the distance between the
average persons ears (through the head) is 6.5"!! I'm honestly not
sure how that works, but I have really good ears for quality and I have
yet to find anything that sounds as good as 6.5" drivers.

As for the 4X6 pieces of crap that they fit in the doors of our cars. EEEEK!
Not many designs can be much further from optimum. I have yet to hear
a 4X6 that produces any really decent music. I'm sure a few here will say
that theirs sounds fine, but honestly, fine isn't good enough IMHO.

As for what brand is good, well it seems that every year each company
comes out with a new lineup of drivers, and each year I hear something
completely different. Plus with all the ricers and whatnot, there is lots of
opportunity for new companies to make a name for themselves, so there
is lots of good, new, hardware out there every year. In my past experience
I've found Boston Acoustics to be consistently good, but I've heard better
pop up from year to year from just about every brand.

You're best option is to hit your local audio shop with a couple of your
favorite driving CDs, and take over the little demo room for about an hour.
Let your ears guide you. Granted, the sound in the demo room is always
going to be better then in your car (unless you put some tall $$ into your
car specifically for audio), but they should give you a good feel for what
sounds good. Trust your ears, and don't forget to let your wallet guide you!

A couple things I've noticed about the soundstage and setup of the stereo
in our cars.

As pointed out earlier, our doors are rather full with the gears and motor
for the window. A spacer is often needed to add that extra depth for
quality speakers. I say quality speakers because the typical 4X6 drivers
are often thin framed, small magnet, crap. Quality speakers will have
a beefier frame (to keep from rattling) and beefy magnet. If you want
bigger then 4X6 for better sound, expect to use a spacer or otherwise
beef up your door some.

Speaking of which, our doors can rattle with decent speakers in them.
Springing an extra $40 for some dynamat (or equivalent) to deaden the
doors might help some.

Another thing I noticed is that the rear speakers are covered with a
cheesy perforated interior panel. Honestly, this isn't good and muffles
most of the sound. If your going to invest in better speakers, you might
want to consider having that cut out and put a real grill on there. The
rear section is beefed up frame metal and probably doesn't need any
dynamat though, but it can never hurt (except car weight wise).

One big worry I have about a stereo in the car, is that if you put the
amp or a small woofer in the rear deck area, man it's just too tempting
to some thief to smash that rear deck glass and pry out whatever you
have there. Make sure you hide it as best as you can!

I think that's about all I can suggest right now. I've not done the speakers
in my car yet as I can't afford it right now, but I've been researching how
others have done it, and honestly most of the installs I've seen have been
pretty average. Using stock wiring and stock grills and 4X6 speakers.
I almost wonder why bother at all. I'm not saying don't change out the
head unit, but it seems like I see most people exchanging junk speakers
for slightly better junk. I'm not sure it's worth it. Try out a new head unit
first, and see if you can live with stock speakers. If not, then go all out
and do it right! Don't just stuff some name brand in there and hope for
the best!!

red9four4

http://www.sounddomain.com/id/porsche_9_4_4

thats what i got

Mello

Anyone feel like or able to make an adaptor and/or a manual for those of us who have '87 and later cars and want to replace the rear 4X6 with the larger 6 1/2" speaker? I bought 6 1/2s but when i took apart my car, I realized it was more involved than unscrewing the 4X6 adaptor plate and popping the 6 1/2" in. You need an adaptor to cover the rest of the hole, right? I'd pay for a kit if there was one.

Friendan

I still have my stock blaupunkt...oh yeah baby...
oh GOD im aching to put a new sound system in...i have to use the sony tape player adaptor for my discman that skips, and the tape spits out at random intervals and you have to turn up the volume loud enough so you dont hear the grinding of the tape playing...
if I were to spend maybe $1000-$1500 on a player, sub, amp, speakers etc...what's the best possible route?? I want to include an in dash screen perhaps...I watched a dvd in 944S2NUT's car, so cool...good for navingating thru mp3's...

adie

4 bass shakers from Aura powered by an old punch 40 fosgate amp, another punch 40 controlling the Kef Uni-Q 6 1/2's up front on angled enclosures, not sure what I'm going to do with the rears yet as I only want rear fill, . i'm thinking about JBL ref. 4 1/4 capped at around 400mhz, looked into infinity and they were to bright for me, MB Quart have always appealed but I can't seem to let go of the Kef's. If I were to change amplification it would be either McIntosh or a 240qx Genesis. The bass shakers are a fair compromise as I don't want to loose any space and they provide loads of depth without the usual amplification, oh and the head unit is Fosgate aswell, the 4v line outs were the main reason for that decission.

Mr. Avionics

Original ones, complete with torn cones! But they are still working like crap.

ToxicSlick

Yeah, my 944 stereo is pretty beast now.. Alpine cda 7894(I think, its one model line back, the mp3 one with an internal amp) w/ mb quart 4x6s in the front, they dont fit perfectly but you can shoehorn them in there. Focal 6.5" polykevlar mid woofer in the rear spaced behind the adapter (the throw is to long to put them in front of the spacer, they hit the rear paneling). Then all the way in the spare tire well is a 8" nakamichi subwoofer in a vented encloser that kindof fits... I built it earlier then wedged it in there. The nakamichi is run on an old yamaha 50x2 bridged amplifier and the focals are run on a cheap-o blaupunct amp. The MBs are run off deck power. All in all it sounds pretty good, the titanium tweeters are a little to bright for my tastes, but you can roll them off with the head unit. I still cant get over how much bass that little nakamichi can put out.. enough to rattle my rear hatch loose, and vibrate the liscence plate.. Anyone else had any problems with the hatch rattling?

mdex

While the 4x6 in the door is less then optimal, if you are like me and want to keep a stock look they are the way to go... Surprising as it may sound the top of the line Kenwood 4x6 isn't a bad speaker... I am running JL 6.5 components in the rear and a 10" sub in a sealed enclosure in the spare wheel well.

Paul C 944

I took 4x6 plate speake and fabricated a thin plate of steel to mount them in,to fit in the stock location/stock grills.A pair of 4x6 mb quart in the rear an 8 inch sub,all powered by an alpine 5 ch amp with crossover built in.The sound is great,more than loud enough unless you want to go into competitions!!