Doug H

This thing is the best system I have ever heard.

Running
McInotsh MX 406 control unit

Front
McInotsh MCC 446 in 4 channel mode bi-amping McIntosh MS 650 speakers crossed at 80 and 2400. Just the fronts by themselves are good enough to bring a tingle down your spine. Those McInotsh speakers play great lows, are ultra transparent, crystal clear and have a perfectly flat response. I have McInotsh a MEQ 452 with MEC 459, but don't need it as it is perfect with out any equialization.

Then I brought the fader up to bring in the rears and the subs and it was audio perfection.

Rears
McIntosh MC 420 in 2 channel mode running MB Quart QSD 5.25s (rear fill)

Sub
McInotsh MCC301M at 2 ohm or 600 watts powering a Phoenix Gold Carbon Fibre XMax.



Those McIntosh MS 650 speakers though are a work of art. I have Dynaudio gear, Morrel, Scan Speak, Focal Poly Kevlar and the QSDs, but the McInotsh 650s are in a different league quality wise and sound wise. Unbelievable is all that comes to mind at the momment.

I will snap some picture of the install tomorrow in the light.

C4TT

Doug,
That sounds amazing...
I know jack **** about car stereos, but I know enough to know that my factory setup is crap.

Do you recommend a kit or a Crutchfield like vendor to order from? I have never heard of McIntosh speakers...

Thanks,

Greg

Doug H

I wouldn't order from them, but it all depends on how much you are willing to spend. I have heard they are reasonable. If you want to give me a budget figure, I could easily throw a system together for you within that budget and I have very reliable sources on the internet that carries most brands. Don't get me wrong, you can piece together a system for a very reasonably amount of money that will sound good. That is not using the like of Sony, Pioneer, Kenwood and etc. though.

Here is a picture of my MX 406 head unit. I think it fits the look of the 911 retro dash nicely.

rutz964C4

Hi Doug

I have a 964 C4 coupe and I am also changing the stereo of the car, I started with a Nakamichi Single CD unit , Focal Speakers in the front with an ALPINE V12 amplifier (I already had that at home) don´t know the exact model, it fits right under the passengers seat.

The rears has some JBL speakers which fit right into the standard but the sound in the rear is the stereo is missing some bass, my next step is to work out something for the rear (not big $$$) but good sound quality, without compromissing the space, do you have any suggestions?

Thanks

ALEX

Here is a picture of the head unit

rutz964C4

Here is another picture of the interior (not a very good picture)



ALEX

johnfm

Now that I have the cat bypass and the g-pipe, a stereo is useless!!! NO system will cope with the rumble & noise!!

Christer

John

Is it really that much louder inside the car? Although my setup is a LOT louder outside, it is only a little louder in the car....

I find my standard Grundig stereo fitted in my car adequately loud even when both windows are down and I am driving at 100...errr...kph!

C4TT

Doug,
The money question is an intimidating one... What should one spend to have a decent setup? Again I am not looking for recording studio quality, just clear high/lows etc...
What is the spending range?

Thanks,

Greg

Doug H

rutz:

I like your dials and the Nakamichi looks good in there. I think stereos with volume ***** as opposed to buttons with black glass faces look nice in the 911 dash.

I really like having a removable sub box that mounts on the back of the rear seats when they are folded down. My sub box fires straight down also so it is not too tall and you don't see a big speaker cone blasting directly into the back of the front seats.

Are you running the backs of your V12? What are your crossovers set at? If running off amp, try and take crossover down to 80 or less if the speakers can take it. I would first change out the speakers especially if you are happy with the way the V12 sounds on the front Focals. Not sure of the size, but mid price range decent stuff is Focal, JL XLR? components, Image Dynamics, CDT Classics. The Focal 165 K2s will hit like mini subs and will give nice low end. On a tight budget, Crystals are decent. If you have 6X9s back there, I would try and figure out a way to get 6.5 or 7 inch round components back there. If you want to go all out, get Dynaudio Esotecs 7 inch or even 8 if it will fit. Those drivers will hit hard on low notes and those Morrel tweeters they come with are excellent.

Doug H

John, I can hear my system loud and clear even with the top down and it completely drowns out any engine or wind noise. Before I upgraded my system from the Pheonix Gold Titanium amps and put in the new head unit, I had a big hole in my muffler and my car was give you a headache ear ringing loud. I could still hear my old system over that even with the top down and I am louder and cleaner now. So it is possible especially in a Coupe.

Doug H

C4TT:

If you are serious and want great sound that will compete with any reasonably priced home audio system, 10k would be the magic number and maybe a little less if you did the install yourself. I got out for about $ 8k, but did alot of the work myself and bought some of my McIntosh off ebay at a discount. The retail prices for my system would be well over $ 12k. The problem with Porsches is tight spaces and the wires are difficult to run through to the doors and etc. The former owner of my car spent 6k on his system and I completely ripped everything out.

Systems on budget
Clarion pro line 835 series head unit with dual 24 bit processors ($ 300.00)
JL 300/4 amp ($ 400.00) (Cadence if you want to go cheaper)
JL XR650 speakers for front ( $ 250) (Crystals if you want to go cheaper)
Not sure of the speaker configuration in the hard top, but stay with JL XRs and use the ovals if you have to XR 570 ($ 250)

Subs
JBL 300.1 ($ 150.00)
Elemental Designs K series ($ 125.00) or Adire Shiva ($ 125).
Pay someone about $ 150.00 to build a box like mine that sits on the backs of the rear seats folder down (could give you lots of pics to take to designer)


That would be a great sounding stereo in the $ 1,700.00 range or $ 1,200 range with no sub. Oh yeah, whatever you do, do not use less than 4 guage power wire from battery to amp and use 12 guage speaker wire. Use decent RCA cables too to keep noise out of system. Add another $ 150 or so for wiring and cables.

If you wanna go less than $ 1000.00, use a Cadence amp, or buy a used Pheonix Gold Titanium series 500 or 475 off of ebay and use Crsystal speakers or even Focal Polyglass components. Low end MB Quart stuff has a real harsh tweeter in my opinion.

I wouldn't skimp on the head unit. Those dual 24 bit processors make a difference in SQ and the Clarion 835 is cheapest head unit I am aware of that has the dual 24 bit processors. Nakamichi and McIntosh has similar in their units costing in the $ 700.00 to over $ 1,000 range.

My system actually sounds great without the subs. My 6.5 and 5.25 drivers can handle down below 80 hz and my 6.5s hit hard like a sub so you can get decent sound without a sub if you have good speakers and a good quality amp. Most low end amps are way too bright, but JL like McINotsh has a nice warm low end and the response is very flat.

C4TT

Doug,
Wow. You went out beyond the call of duty here. Thank you so much for your input and time. I like the notion of budget. If I were to spend 10K on my car, it would be for a wide body conversion..

Thanks again,

Greg

rutz964C4

Hi Doug

From what they told me the V12 is only for the Focals at the front, the sound is quite decent, I still have at home a smaller Nakamichi amplifier that I could use for the rears, the problem as I said is the space and that I would like to have something that stays in the car without needing to disconect it. Whats the price for Dynaudio Esotecs? I´ll also have to check if I can easily find them here in Spain.

Do you have any picture of your subwoofer?