[MadeinBologna]

It's been a long time since I did a nice high end install in my car.

Crutchfield is decent for getting a handle on the mid-range to high-mid-range. But what about the top of the line stuff like Brax? If I google "best audiophile 4-channel amplifiers", I get back a bunch of crap lists with Rockford Fosgate and other consumer-level stuff.

I know the home high-end audio scene well as I've been a Stereophile/Absolute Sound subscriber for years. And there's the wonderful Stereophile Recommended Components that gets published twice a year. Anything equivalent for car?

I've figured out that Brax is the top of the heap (and way out of my price range!) Zapco, Helix, etc.

What does "Old School" mean exactly? non-digital? The only digital I want in my system is the Sony RSX-GS9 and it will be all analogue after that.

What about the older amps? Which ones could be considered audiophile grade and a good bargain? I see the Helix HXA 400 quite a bit on eBay claiming audiophile quality. Would that be better than, say, a JL Audio HD600/4?

 

[MadeinBologna]

Literally the only thing that has changed in 30 years is the prevalence of dsps. Power has gotten really cheap. I mean really cheap man. A real 5000 watt amp can be had for like 300 bucks.

Thanks for that! Yes, but good power is still sometimes hard to find. My home speakers are active-crossover with ATI AT524NC class-d amps and they are fantastic. You'd have to get Pass Alephs or something like that to do better. So, I think with the Hypex class-d modules, class-d has gotten as good as or better than class a/b. That being said, there are some real high-end bargains out there in 20-year-old class A and A/B amps. But if class-d is just as good and cheaper and less power required, then hey... why not!

I had a MiniDSP on my home speaker for 6 months. I got rid of it in favor of the ASP because I couldn't stand the treble grain that the DSP added. Just looking at the audio section after the D/A and you could see why it sounded so shrill. I've heard good things about the Helix dsp.3s, so maybe I'll go DSP if it's in the league of Ayre, Chord, PS Audio.

 

[MadeinBologna]

Hello and welcome,

Thanks! I'm in the Atlanta area. I heard I just missed a great show up north of Atlanta. Oh well.
For speakers, I'm most likely going with Audible Physics. I've got ATI amps, which OEM for many of the high-end audio amps, so I like getting as close to the original manufacturer as I can get. I built my home speakers with 4 Seas L26ROY bass drivers and I think I'm going to use one for a stealth box install in the back.

 

[MadeinBologna]

It looks like you drive a Porsche base on your Avatar.

2004 Cayenne Turbo. Sold my 996.2 Cab (third 911 over 20 years) because my son's knees were starting to hit the back of the front seats and I needed something bigger. I love this thing! It's amazing what it can do! But almost all of the bose speakers are blown and the head unit works about 70% of the time.

 

[MadeinBologna]

You might take a look at the mobridge 8.1.1 amp, it replaces the factory Bose amp and has a built in dsp. I’m getting ready to put one in my 13gts. https://mobridge.us/product/mobridge-most25-amp/
Going to run morel elate carbon 93a 3way set up up front and a JL 10tw3 in a sealed enclosure under the spare.

Interesting, I hadn't run across that kind of solution! The only downside is that the MOST25 bus is limited to 44.1khz. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOST_Bus

 

[MadeinBologna]

Tell him he can buy a 500 dollar receiver and replace his ati hypex amplifiers as all amps sound the same as well

Ack... the wave of hair standing on end and a bit of nausea just crept over me.

 

[MadeinBologna]

First question before people start throwing amps, speakers and dsps about as like anything you will get 500 different opinions about what is good…

what are you using as a source for this stereo system?

Sony RSX-GS9

 

[MadeinBologna]

Thanks for the feedback! Like I said, just trying to get a lay of the land and I think I've got that now. No, I'm not spending Brax money. Just trying to get a handle of what people might mean if they say something like "Well, it doesn't sound like a Brax, but it's 10 times better than a Alpine."

I'll probably buy most of my gear used except for the speakers. I have rebuilt plenty of old tube amps, so I'm not afraid of a soldering iron. In fact, my Hakko does pretty good. I mean, face it, I bought a 17 year old car because it is such a fun, capable car! It used to be $120K new, it's 1/12th of that now, but still drives pretty close to when it was new after I fixed a few things. What's that saying? Champagne taste on a beer budget? Why spend money if you don't need to?

I'd put my home speakers against any speaker in the low-$20K range. But I built them from a fraction of that and I'm proud to have the skills and discernment to get to that point. Hopefully I can do something similar on my car/truck/whatever this turbo thing is.

I do plan on keeping it mostly stock/stealth looking. I don't want a rear cargo area full of amps and subwoofers. I'm going to build a Stealthbox clone using a Seas L26ROY like I did with my home speakers that fits into the left side storage area. I've got a tunnel under the rear seats that is roughly 2" x 7" x width of the car, so I'd like to keep all of the electronics in that area.

 

[MadeinBologna]

They think a couple people in a garage have more r and d and knowledge than a large company with experts in design, manufacturing, materials, etc. It's asinine to me, but people like the uniqueness.

Hmmmm, yes and no. I've worked for and with large companies. They have profit margins to think about and if they mass produce boxes, they need to use mass-produced parts. Mass-produced parts may mean +/- 5% or even 10% tolerance depending on where they put the parts. Quality = good enough, but not the best. There is also supply and demand. If you make top-of-the-line, there are only so many people willing to pay that price. Much smaller than the masses who think Bose sounds great. Small firms that don't have the large firm overhead and different business models can produce even the same topology as the big firms, but hand-select parts, use 1% tolerance parts, use extra materials for shielding, etc.

Of course, there are the people who pretend to do all of the above and maybe that's who you are referring to.