As a member of DIYMA am I doomed to continual tweaking?

[snaimpally]

I happened upon this forum innocently enough a few months ago. Some bonehead hit my 06 Civic Si when I was going through a green light. I bought a new Mazda Speed 3 but the Blose stereo sucked so I came to this forum looking for ideas for audio upgrades. Next thing you know I have bought sh*tloads of gear!

I have an RF P4004 driving PG RSD65cs via an RF 3sixty.2. I also have a Cadence A7Hc amp driving an Arc 10D4 sub in a .7 cu ft sealed box. After playing around with the 3sixty.2, the car sounds pretty good, far better than I ever though a car stereo could ever sound. So why did I recently order a Pioneer DEH-P880? I think I am developing gearaholism and tweakitis.

In my 99 Civic Si, which was stolen in 05 and which I owned before the 06 Si, I had replaced the stock speakers with Boston Acoustics, had a 5 channel Clarion amp installed, and ran a JBL GTO 10" sub which bought at Frys for $50 on sale. It sounded great and I was very happy with the sound. The sound I have now is far better than what I have before, so why am I frigging with it? I guess I am thinking a better quality source than the stock HU should yield even better results. But I am afraid that, now that I have everything sounding pretty good, I'll have to endlessly frig to get the new HU to sound as good. I am also planning to swap the RF P4004 out for a US Acoustics 4080 amp which I recently bought as well as a result of my gearaholism.

Hopefully, I can stop the tweakitis after the Pioneer is installed. Well, of course, except for the Dayton 10" HO I'm thinking of getting to run in a custom ported box! Help!

[skydeaner]

sell the 360 after you get your 880prs to cover the cost of the sub upgrade... sorry, i'm adding to your addiction.


yeah you're doomed.

[mvw2]

I hope so.

[SublimeZ]

Originally Posted by skydeaner

sell the 360 after you get your 880prs to cover the cost of the sub upgrade...

DIBS!

I heard Shiv's system Sunday morning. It was very impressive.

[rockondon]

"Blose system" lol

You might not be totally doomed yet. Sometimes the addiction is proportional to how much nagging the wife does.
Or is it just me.

[tankmanbob]

Yes, doomed....

The Pioneer headunit is a great value, and extremely tweakable

[Hillbilly SQ]

once you can be happy with what you have and realize that grass isn't always greener on the other side you'll achieve your own personal sonic nirvana. it takes several thousands of dollars worth of purchases for most to finally learn that though. if you saw my list of gear over the past 6 years that i posted on here you'd be shocked. the new purchases you're making are wise but i'd still hang on to that arc sub. it's basically an idq and you might still prefer it over the dayton you're looking at. other than that, some better mids and tweets should be the end of your buying after the zed built amp and 880 get installed. have you deadened your doors yet?

[Thumper26]

yeah i think everyone has their own level of satisfaction. mine is getting close, but like hillbilly said, it's taken a LOT of gear to figure out what i wanted.

personally, i say spend as much as possible on quality speakers. you don't have to pay msrp, but watch the classifieds and try and get the best possible quality speakers you can afford. that helps so much.

honestly, i enjoy listening to just about anything b/c it just sounds so good. So, get to reading A LOT, and set yourself a baseline to achieve with your next stereo.

[Hillbilly SQ]

honestly, the best my system has ever sounded is with only $290 in tweets, mids, and sub. the tweets and sub were used though. i feel the bulk of the money should be spent on a quality source and amps. then focus on install and tuning from there. if you don't want a sound that reveals all imperfections in the recording, stay away from aluminum. if you want a somewhat warm sound, go for paper. a lot of people have said that poly gives the most natural sound but i refuse to run it. for a mixture of all worlds, fiberglass and carbon fiber is worth a shot.

diaclaimer: my statements are just blanket statements but have held true with all the drivers i've used in the past...mostly paper. i love my carbon fiber mids i'm running now though.

for tweets, silk and fabric are hard to go wrong with. aluminum...meh i'll stay away.

[michaelsil1]

If you're happy with the way it sounds enjoy if not keep on trying to improve.

I have reached a point where if I was to try and improve the cost versus the return would not be worth it.

[machinehead]

You'll either find perfection or go broke.

Then something new will come out and you will no longer be perfect.

[DS-21]

Do it right the first time, and don't get on the idiot wagon (i.e., constantly churning through different sonically-identical source units and amps) and you'll find that you upgrade very rarely. I last touched my car system in 2006...

[Hillbilly SQ]

Originally Posted by DS-21

Do it right the first time, and don't get on the idiot wagon (i.e., constantly churning through different sonically-identical source units and amps) and you'll find that you upgrade very rarely. I last touched my car system in 2006...

i finally learned that. now it's all about reliability.

[unpredictableacts]

Originally Posted by Hillbilly SQ

i finally learned that. now it's all about reliability.

I can tell you are biting and the heels to swap things out arent you.

[Hillbilly SQ]

Originally Posted by unpredictableacts

I can tell you are biting and the heels to swap things out arent you.

only if i can talk jon out of his 600.1 in trade for my 400.1 plus a few bones. afterall you don't need much powah with ib other than that the 400.1 is doing fine and my ears get upset before the amp suddenly runs out of clean power.

[Electrodynamic]

In response to the topic question: Pretty much.

You little bastards have got me thinking about replacing my Eclipse 8454 with something else because I've read from more than one person the trouble with the vocals in the 8454 (which is what I'm having trouble with).

At least I've found solid components and subwoofers that I'm happy with.

[bikinpunk]

Originally Posted by DS-21

Do it right the first time, and don't get on the idiot wagon (i.e., constantly churning through different sonically-identical source units and amps) and you'll find that you upgrade very rarely. I last touched my car system in 2006...

Do you feel the same about speakers? I hope not...


I switch out the items you mentioned but never b/c I think they'll provide better sound. I just get tired of the same ol' and if I see something I like I'll get it.

[drake78]

NO, unless you want to be a slave to society. Sometimes good enough is enough.

[DS-21]

Originally Posted by bikinpunk

Do you feel the same about speakers? I hope not...

To a certain point, sure. Do it right the first time, with a good handle on your own sonic preferences and the means to reach them, and you don't have to keep swapping stuff out. Of course, that education does probably take some experimentation.

That said, I am admittedly being a bit of a hypocrite. I recently bought some 2" Peerless widebanders and a Tymphany LAT-250 to experiment with. I'm going to compare the Peerless to my Aura Whispers, and try out the LAT-250 in a bandpass "subwoofer" (extra bass down to 50Hz or so, will be turned off with the hardtop on, because I already get adequate SPL to 16Hz out of the SLS8's with the hardtop on) that will hopefully fit inside the "tunnels" between the cabin and trunk of my Miata.

[Ge0]

Simple answer yes.

The question is, regardless of your progression, do you mind?

I don't...

Ge0