My front speakers blew out after 3 years and use in 2 cars. My question is what should I replace them with. I would go JL but I have been hearing about good speakers like Focals and others. What should I check out? My other question would be what brand of HU should I look for? I would go Alpine since I heard they are better than HUs than Pioneer but the Alpines don't look good to me. Of course if the sound of the Alpine is noticeably better then I would go Alpine. I was thinking about getting the whole 5.1 surround w/ dvd player in my car but right now I don't think I'm going to be going down that road. I want it but don't want it that bad. Any input would be appreaciated.

 

I would say your question can only be answer in a good way when we know how much money you wanna spend. Generally Alpines are better sound quality than most others. But there a bunch of HUs that do descent job also. Again it depends on what you want. Like if you want lots of toys and screensavers and colors, then Alpine is not for you, but if you just want a practical quality Head Unit, then in my opinion Alpine is the way to go. Regarding the speakers, it very much depends on the money and the amp that you are gonna use. IF you use stock amp, then you are not gonna get top of the line speakers, and the choice of good speakers is huge. I personally like the Diamond Audio. Also, MB quart, Boston, focal, JL audio, and there are more. If you give more details, people will be able to help you out better.

 

my cap is probably at $500 on the HU
my cap on speakers is like this if its that good then i'll probably get it
my sig has what i'm running

 

I really like the Focal Utopia 165W 2 way components for the front stage. But as I'm sure many will tell ya, there are several options in terms of speakers. Thats what I decided to go with b/c the price was right at the time.

 

I like the eclipse HU and the boston acoustics components

 

im with bigman on the eclipse headunit... here are my choices for both in order...

1. eclipse
2. alpine
3. pioneer

door speakers..

1. focal
2 diamond audio (which i have a pair of m661 components for sale email me @ shad__b@hotmail.com if interested.. )
3. boston acoustics

 

I am all for Alpine and MB Quart, they are great together. If I were you I would get the Alpine head unit, and MB Quarts. Eclipses are real nice too and sound great, but don't have the recognition that alpine does.
My buddy has got a IS300 with an eclipse head unit and he even agrees that my set up sounds better and we spent almost an equal amount of money.

 

I too am a HUGE fan of Eclipse. Of all the radios I have listened too, the Eclipse just seem to sound better to me through quality speakers.

If you go with Eclipse, try to get one with 8volt out and your ears will thank you. I am a convert from Alpine, which I had several over the last 7 years or so, and my system in my last car just sounded much louder and cleaner to me--IMHO (still have the stock system in the CLS, but I have only had it a month )

 

thanks for the comments i'm gonna look into it when I get back from vacation

 

The eclipse AV8132 is my choice for HU the 8volt preout makes all the difference. no matter which HU just be sure to get a high quality stereo amp.

 

I've experienced both alpine and pioneer, alpine does have much better SQ. Now I have a Clarion Tv, and the Sq was not so good, so I'm runnig a Alpine EQ now. Love it.