Carlos from Spain

That joke is getting a little stale now, must of heard that "coolish" remark a milion times now. How about listening to the gorgeous monotone engine sound of the car at constant RPM's in a highway trip? how is that enjoyable?. When you are driving your car hard (mountain roads, highway or track) there is a little button that car stereos have called "volume" control so you can turn the stereo off like I do to enjoy the beautiful flat-6 sound and hear the tires, etc, but when you are stuck in a traffic jam, commuting in heavy city traffic or simply on the highway at constant speeds, how enjoyable is the sound of the engine?... please

Get the PSE AND a decent stereo, one does not exclude the other it just depends on the situation when you want to enjoy each. Its your choice, you can have only one stereo or enjoy two stereos in your car.

NickS

EXACTLY....there are times I don't have the stereo on because I WANT to listen to my car but in every day traffic and during my commute, I NEED something to listen to other than the car.

Myk

Well said Carlos!

DoubleNutz

First I want to say- I love that box in Carlos' car...man that thing is sweet!

I had a high end system installed in my 996 and despite the fact that they are all high-end components I don't beleive I will ever do this again-

The headunit is the Clarion DRX9255 (which is really a Macintosh and probably the best headunit on the market that is not priced $1500 or higher). top of the line Pheonix Gold amps, cables, and wires, MB Quart seprates, JL audio subs- just south of a $10,000 of equipment, set-up/custom install.

With all that, I spend more time repairing and fixing things on this system than any other part or section of my car. Forget about taking it back to the installer (Car Toys in my case) about repair. Their life time guarantee is really a another opportuntiy to "CHA-CHING" your wallet! They never have the time to fix or repair your system and usually give an overall impression that you and the system they sold are a menace and only wish you and the problem system would go away. They almost always want you to drop the car off during the week when you are tyring to earn a living and leave it for a few days, and they hate giving away the high-end installers time that installed the system (he is making money for them jacking up other systems) so they put a stooge on it that will take two days trying to figure the high-end guys mystery cabling- because unlike the system Porsche originally put in to the car, there is NO DOCUMENTATION of what these azzholes did!

I ended up taking my system back to the amp manufacturer- Pheonix Gold, fortunately they are headquartered here in Portland, Oregon and they came out to look at my car the last time I had a problem with the system in their facility parking lot and fixed the problem right there on the spot... and repaired it for me too...within 30 minutes!

Depite the manufacturers willingness to take good care of me, I don't think I will ever put another aftermarket system into my future Porsche's unless they are busted down and absolutely need to have a new system put in.

DoubleNutz

DRX9255 it is really a Macintosh with a Clarion faceplate. Good luck finding one!

It includes some features in the head units that only few manufacturers have incorporated as yet and usually only on their very highest end components for a premium dollar- A CD-transport which does not come into contact with the surface of the CD, proprietary noise rejection, the Zero bit detector mute circuit and add-on internal processors are their primary benefits. If you are seriously into high end or competition the DRX9255 Clarion has a trick up their sleeve for the price- it features dual Burr-Brown 20-bit D/A converters, a true 4 volt pre-amp, and analog controls. It is simple, and easy to use.

jason latif

....Guys - you're not getting my point. Of course, it's good to have a stereo in the car to listen to when stuck in traffic/cruising etc.

However, what I don't see the point of is spending large amounts of money on high-end equipment which can NEVER sound that great due to the inherent background noise that you have in a sports car - wind noise, tyre rumble etc.

What people spend their money on is their business, of course - as long as it achieves the objective! Why have the same quality of sound system in your car as in your home if the in-car system is ALWAYS going to be compromised?

Last point - for true sports car enthusiasts, filling the car up with unnecessary weight goes against the grain - manufacturers spend a fortune to shave a few kilos off unsprung weight - then you weigh the cars down again with big amps and sub-woofers. Seems crazy to me.

Like I said, if TRUE high-fidelity sound is so important, a sports car is the last place you should be trying to achieve it.

Sloth

Sorry to hear of all your problems. I am not familiar with the shop, but there should be no reason to have any problems of the magnitude that you describe. It sounds like you used good high end components, perhaps the installer needed some further help... especialy if the problem was in the wireing. Looking at the amount you paid it should have been perfect, and after all that I would certainly be leary of it happening again. Also considering the amount you spent, they should have made more of an effort to accomodate you. It is imperitive to find a reputable and experienced shop before spending a dime as it can make all the difference between a top notch install/system and a nightmare experience.

Just for reference... I have been back to the shop twice since installed over a year ago. The first time was to replace a blown back speaker which was my fault. I left the car with them and picked it up later that day, cost me nothing as it was fixed under warranty. The second time was this past weekend when I replaced my headunit, the first one I had was POS Sony I bought off Ebay. They got me in on Saturday morning and I was done in less than an hour.

NiveK

the price you paid if truly near 10k, or for that matter anything over 3k for what you just told me would be getting raped, i used to and still do occasional install custom stereo for a living "now its side money" and that just sounds outrageus

NickS

I'm not looking to spend more than $2k and I'm just looking for a nice upgrade. I won't be adding a huge sub, big amps or any of that crap.

My first step will be to add a small powered sub to the stock system. If that gets what I want, great! If not, I will go to an aftermarket head unit and possibly speakers but that's it.

I've done major installs on car in the past. I won't do anymore like them again. Too much money and too much of a PITA!

DoubleNutz

Nope not necessarily. I had the system looked at by other High-end manufactures in this town and the amplifier manufacturer and all were quite frankly suprised that I got so much customization and equipment for anything south of 10K. I am confident that with all the wiring upgrades Bosch alternator and complete customization that it was a great price too.

Look, when the car was having everything installed there was not an interior body panel or or seat in it and it took several long weeks to install this was not your typical overnight highend installation. In total there are 18 seperate speakers throught the car and the only noticeble two are the grills of the JL Audio 8W7's in the rear. Speaking of which the subs all are approaching almost a grand unless you think I got ripped off there to. a little more than 2000 for amps the head unit was $800, the MB Quarts (the remaining 16 with crossovers) $1200, cables and wires $600.00.

Without the Bosch alternator upgrade (by the way done by Sunset Porsche), speaker enclosures, and install that is alomst $5.500. So I got raped huh? OK

Maybe, if I had that box like Carlos' that might have justified a price just south of $10K.

NiveK

well no offense here doublenutz but i used to own my own shop and i still have side projects going, and ive installed almost double and triple in some cases of what he said he had in his car for around 3k, and i always use high end stuff, and phoenix gold and clarion are not high end stuff compared to alpine and dei and ppi and a/d/s that i use so IMHO he got screwed all around, i just installed two 6" lcd monitors a vcr and a gamecube in a truck along with the custom sound system for 4k

Carlos from Spain

Thank, thats very nice of you

I'm sorry to hear about that experience with your system. Those installers are completely negligent, and you shouldn't be put off by them, I've had this stereo in my 996 for a few years now and never had a single problem. The most important and hardest thing thing in upgrading the stereo is finding a good profesional knowledgeable installer near you. And for a decent price too, 10k is outrageous, they should be able to install a great sounding system for much much less, the most expensive components don't necesarily mean best sounding, it all depends on the car and what it needs to sound good.

The "basic" system on a 996 is not expensive and is already a mayor difference from stock or Bose: decent speakers for doors and dash (not top of the line necesarily and forget the rear speakers), a sealed sub box behind the seats (most comonly two 8" subs), and one amp in the trunk to run it all. You can keep the headunit initially if you don't want to spend anymore since thats the one with the least influence on quality compared to the other components. That should be a few thousand $ only.

Carlos from Spain

I understand what you are sayin Jason, but firstly about the sound quality, you are never going to achive the same quality as a sound studio obviously but that doesn't mean is has to sound like crap. Its not that if you can't archieve near perfect studio sound then it might as well be the pathetic stock stereo sound.

There is a lot that you can do to improve the stereo in the car to achieve much better sound and not necesarily having to spend large amounts of money if you get good advice from a profesional honest installer. So with its limitations of being inside a car, you can make the best of it, and you would be surprised of how good it can sound in a moving car.

Secondly, about the added weight and "true sportcar enthusists", the added weight from a stock stereo is very small (the weight of a MDF/fiberglass box filled with air with two subs and a less that 10lbs amp in the trunk, the rest is there in the stock system as well, headunit, speakes, etc). Do you think you would be able to notice a performance loss from that? give me a break well, maybe Walter Rohl could complain of loosing a couple of milliseconds in an entire 8 mile lap around nurburgring . Or are drivers over 140lbs boby weight, or with A/C's, or spare tires in their cars are not "true sportcar enthusiasts" according to you either?

Do you have A/C on you 996? and not only is that "filling the car up with unnecessary weight" it even robs power from the engine, so why would a true sportcar enthusiast like you have A/C?... because its difference in performance is marginal and brings a much greater benefit relativately speaking in other aspects of the car that are not at conflict with sportcar enthusiasm.

Now if you tell me about not using the RoWM030 suspensions and keeping the stock ones for example (I take it you have upgraded the stock suspensions or else you wouldn't be lecturing about sportcar enthusiasm) then I would agree with you, hindering performance so noticeably of a sportcar like the 996 for only benefit of a little more confortable ride, that IS going against the grain. But not a decent stereo who without compromising performance will much improve the stock system for a few thousand $ and you enjoyment of the car in situations were you can't enjoy the engine's stereo.

Sloth

I think you meant NiveK...

Total cost of my system was ~$3000 out the door with parts & materials, labor, and tax. And I cheaped out with the w0 subs and the JL (instead of Focal) comps.

DoubleNutz, I would love to see some photos if you have any. Regardless of the problems and the cost, that must have been one hell of a system. From what it sounds like you were building a competition level system. I imagine with that much custom work and that many components problems are a lot more common.

Carlos from Spain

Upps, its corrected now

I second that too, would love to see pics of such a system DoubleNutz.