I'm soooo close to getting my first set of expensive comps. Previously the most expensive comps I've ever owned are my $175 ID CTX65cs. Now I'm about to get a set of Dynaudio 342 comps that retail close to $1,500. Obviously I'm not going to pay full retail but I'm already feeling guilty about spending that kind of money on them. I will have 3x the money tied up into the front stage than the subs.

I've come really close to buying a set of the new DLS Gothia 3-ways for $700 but I keep coming back to the Dyns. I keep thinking if the Gothias are 90% as good for half the price it might be worth it.

So how do you guys justify (to yourself) spending this kind of money on a couple 6.5" speakers, some mids and tweets? Help me out here, I'm having buyer's remorse before I've even bought the things.

 

hey your subs still available, have not checked my email recently

 

I don't justify it

I just buy it and try not to think about it

 

Sorry, I had to sell them when I didn't hear back from you.

I have a friend that's getting ready to sell a 10W7 for around the same price if you're interested.

 

You can never put a face value on happiness. lol, are you going to build some custom a pillars for them or what?

 

, that might actually be a slightly better sized sub for the intended location though...

 

I'm trying to keep the stock look as much as possible. Mids are going in custom kicks made by member niebur3 on here. They take up no additional room and don't stick out like most.

I plan to put the tweeters in the dash for now and if I don't like it they will go in the pillars. In fact, I'll probably just stick them in several different places with tape just to get an idea of where they sound the best.

 

how much power you plan to give them?

 

You can't......I should know .

 

Right now they're going to be run off of my a6450 with the front channels bridged. It claims 220 per channel at 14v bridged. Eventually I want to get a couple smaller 4 channel amps to mount under the seats since I will go active once I get the MS8. Going to try and get a 6.5 in the center location for the MS8.

 

220 should be enough

That's 110 per speaker. I'd give the midbass a tad more, but that's more than enough for the midrange and tweet.

The jl hd's can work well in your setup.

The subs are single 4's right? I know the hd 600/4 does 300 x 2 bridged @ 3-8 so that can cover the subs. midbass, too if you doubled up on them.

 

Honestly, spend what you can hear. If you can't hear the difference between say a $800 set and a $1500 set go cheaper. If you can hear the difference you just have to assign a value to that difference.

Personally, I could never afford the stuff I really wanted so that is why I got a job in the industry 12 years ago. I figured, "They are bound to get a discount."

 

You have to spend money and indulge on something or you will go crazy. $1500 for comps is cheap for a hobby. You know all of this or you wouldn't have a GN for a toy. I imagine that you can afford it or else you wouldn't be asking. Plus, you can have them for a long time. Nobody has enough money to go cheap.

For me, it is easy - I spend a lot of time in my car for work (between 30-50K per year) and my boss (me) approves the purchases. My wife, or Uncle Sam, would want the money if I didn't spend it.

I spent more than that on a set and they are just sitting. I am terrified to ruin them, or my car, putting them in. Tempted to go against my deep rooted dogma and have somebody work on my car for me.

 

After spending that much you probably will have really high expectations so in turn that might dissapoint you but maybe not . From what i hear most of them say the isntall and tune is the most important after all. And also you dont wanna get obsessed with it you might never be happy.

 

I couldn't justify that kind of money on speakers, especially if I didn't plan to take it to competitions and such.

 

To put it in perspective I think it seems like a lot of money just because they are speakers and not a go-fast part. I've never been into spending big bucks on stereo stuff so I think it makes it seem worse. However, I would rather spend the money to make it sound good to me than competing. But if you figure I upgrade every 1.5 years or so, in about 3 years I've nearly broken even assuming I don't want to upgrade again.

A little off topic but a local dealer is giving me an awesome hookup on some PDX amps so I may go that route.

 

That might be what it is. I would love to upgrade the speakers in my car but I don't think I could justify that price tag.

 

Well there are some people who are so obsessive with audio quality that they spend crazy amounts of money on such. I will say most of them and even myself, we are almost never satisfied.

I think your money would be better spent on tuning the system rather then adding new speakers. When you add new speakers you have to start from scratch on tuning.

Now if your blowing them a lot i have to ask you what brand your using and how much power your sending them. Not to mention what kind of amps your using as well.

 

Run 2 sets of RE Audio XXX 6.5"s comp sets 2 in door and 2 in rear ...not sure that I ever justified the cost; but justified the need based off of the sound with stock and a sub. Stock was not cutting it with 2 15"s in the trunk pushing 1800W RMS each. Bass just overpowered everything..now there is a nice equilibrium. Also, it takes a lot of time tuning to get the right sound from front stage > mid stage & rear.

 

coulda did that with a pro audio mid and horn instead of 2 pairs of 80db components

 

Guess, I could have..there is no low freq running too them so mostly highs.

I was running all diamond audio comps before (S600 Hex series) paired with two diamond audio amps, to be honest the diamond stuff didn't impress me. This was paired with 2 1000w RE Audio SX and a US Merlin amp.

SX's have since been rebuilt to handle 2000w (as above) with 4 double sewn leads ..upgraded amp to run 200w per component ..its an all trial and error game until you get the sound you want..

Wife runs Focal K2s in her suv..she has a much different taste in music where clarity is everything.

Some people like super high clarity (SQish), some people like thunderous bass (SPLish).. my windshield flexes in my TL..thats what I was after

 

Me 2

Just saying it would've been possible to get what u needed with less drivers.

I built the setup i had in my TL with this in mind. Every speaker chosen had to be at least 91db sensitive in it's operating band, and handle lots of power to boot. I aimed for 120db capability on each given the filters.

 

Damn, you wife has the same taste in mids as I do.

 

lol to be honest I am not sure she could tell the difference from stock. These were in a previous build of mine and love to repurpose when I can...unless I blow something up

 

Hey, I forgot to mention the most expensive part of a SQ setup - getting high quality music. Cheap stereo MP3 and older CDs will drive you crazy now. Be prepared to updated your music collection.

 

That's the truth. I could tell a difference in cheap recordings even with my first Infinity upgrade. Any certain place you buy music from?

 

DVD-A's, if you can find some you like.

 

If you can find DVD-A, then they are good. FLAC burned to DVD-A or even converted to iPod at ACC or other higher level sound good too.

I have stacks of 15 year old CDs that sound like crap. No lows, hollow mids and tinny highs - the only decent sound is the vocals. I have been slowly rebuying them as they get remastered and re-released.

iTunes downloads are usually top quality.

 

99% of folks can't tell the difference between a flac file and a v0 mp3

I rip all my cd's to 244 v0

Everything else i download from a private torrent tracker called what.cd

 

I don't know if I could justify 1500 comps. I wanted to do an audio upgrade and was considering a focal system. In the end I went with Memphis, before there manufacturing processes went to shit 2 years ago. There top of the line components are like $400. I got them for less than that but still my entire system in the car is over 3k just in equipment.

No one person though can justify it for another. What it came down to for me was I wanted something that was not only loud but also crystal clear so that in the summer I could ride around with the windows down and still hear everything and without any distortion at all. The only thing I have left to do with my system is the highs are a little harsh and I think I am going to switch out the titanium tweeters for Silk ones.

About your switching between the brands. Thats another thing that I had considered and I was 90% happy with Memphis setup as compared to the Focal and thus to me it just wasn't worth spending 3-4x as much for the Focals.