[joe washington]

Finished my subwoofer upgrade. Very pleased. This is a budget approach to enhancing the stock Infinity. Thought I would post some for anyone contemplating a good sonic upgrade without putting out some premium bucks. My take is that the stock Infinity has enough fidelity and power to adequately power the high/mid ranges through the four tweeters and four mid/bass (for me, anyway); but the high/mid range has room for enhancement. And a subwoofer is, obviously, a must. Also, I wanted to preserve the rear cargo area for cargo. [Do not have 'third seat' cargo area either.] So this mod does not involve a head unit upgrade; just sub amp, subwoofer, and replacement front speakers.

An Alpine MRP T220 50w sub amp bridged to 140w, fed from the Infinity pre-outs. Installed under the rear seat.

A JLAudio CS110RG-W0 10 inch PowerWedge subwoofer external enclosure. That allows repositioning/removal for large cargo hauling.

Replaced the two front mid/bass speakers with Alpine SPS170A coaxial 2/w. These speakers give good high/mid improvment. However they are more narrowly focused than the stock mid/bass speakers; they are not designed to project the entire frequency range like the stocks; and actually the stocks have better bass response. But that is ok because I exactly wanted more upper resolution. The two rear stock speakers still supply adequate mid bass, and of couse the subwoofer kicks up the bottom BIG time.

 

[75 Power Wagon]

Those coaxial speakers actually are really nice.. i have a set of 3-way 6x9s in my doors.. sound real good.. everybody thinks i have subs in it. cant wait til i put the 12s in haha

 

[joe washington]

3 way 6X9 coaxes! Yeah, know they must sound sweet.

 

[joe washington]

Your Alpine 4 channel amp... you using that all for the two speakers?

 

[rockadaous]

look'n good

 

[B1G BLEU]

Joe, the factory radio has rca jacks hanging free? If not where did you make the connection?

 

[joe washington]

Bleu,
Damn I wish there were RCA preouts hanging out!! Wish there were preouts period! I conveniently omitted that I spliced in a preout adapter/converter. The Infinity does not have preouts; so you have to rip out the head unit and splice an adapter into the speaker leads. (FUN FUN FUN... not.)
That gives you RCA line output to the amp.
You can always have speaker level connect; ie splicing the HU speaker out direct to the amp speaker in. But I prefer line connect.

Hey Rock, BTW been meaning to say I like the Super Pursuit.

 

[B1G BLEU]

I would think the hu outputs would've been low level already.

 

[Esh]

Replaced the two front mid/bass speakers with Alpine SPS170A coaxial 2/w. These speakers give good high/mid improvment. However they are more narrowly focused than the stock mid/bass speakers; they are not designed to project the entire frequency range like the stocks; and actually the stocks have better bass response. But that is ok because I exactly wanted more upper resolution. The two rear stock speakers still supply adequate mid bass, and of couse the subwoofer kicks up the bottom BIG time.

I have the SPS-170A coaxials as my rear fill speakers. I like them, they provide a noticeable improvement over the stock speakers that really fill in the rear of the cab. I will eventually upgrade, but for now, they are all I need. I'm thinking of in the future putting my SPX-177A Type-X components in the rear doors and upgrading the front even more to the Flagship Alpine F#1 Status SPX-Z15M 2-way components or SPX-Z18T 3-way components. They are really spendy, but if you've ever heard them, they are the sweetest sounding speakers I have ever heard. In fact, most shops authorized to sell Alpine products aren't even certified to sell the F#1 status things, so they cannot order them without going to classes by Alpine and getting authorized. The Z15M's are about $1500 and the Z18T's are about $3500.

On another note, how come you didn't replace your deck? Replacing your stock head unit is one of the most vital parts of a good system. It allows you to mold and shape your music around you and get it just perfect. An aftermarket deck will make a very noticeable difference in the way you listen to your music.

Congratulations on upgrading your system, hope it works out well and sounds even better.

 

[cbrenn71]

esh- what is so special about the f#1's? i mean, as far as a dealer having to be certified? certified to install, or just even sell?

joe- what ever happened with us and that intake?

 

[Esh]

esh- what is so special about the f#1's? i mean, as far as a dealer having to be certified? certified to install, or just even sell?

Alpine is very strict when it comes to who can be an authorized dealer of their products, especially their top of the line products. The shops and such that sell and install Alpine products are required to attend seminars every year to learn about the product line and update them on the new features/products for the year.

Alpine only allows a certain number of authorized dealers in a certain area, depending on size. Where I live, Roseburg, there can only be one authorized Alpine dealer, because the town population is only 20,000. With surrounding areas (those directly attached to Roseburg), the population is roughly 40,000, but still, not that big.

As far as the F#1 status line, it is among the absolute top of the line in the world products. In the entire state of Oregon, there is only one authorized dealer of Alpine F#1 status products. In order to sell these products, you have to attend special classes to learn about the products and keep up to date. When you sell products that compete on a level such as the F#1 do, you want only the best people selling them. Also, the market for F#1 status products is only to those with a true obsession with car audio and the funds to support them.

Only authorized Alpine F#1 status businesses can even order and sell the products.

I will list the Alpine F#1 status line and list the prices I know of beside them

MRV-F900 4/3/2 Channel Power Amplifier: $3500
DVI-9990 DVD Audio/CD Tuner (not even a full head unit)
TMI-M990 7" WVGA In-Dash Monitor (1.15 million pixels)
PXI-H990 Multimedia Manager: $4000
DAI-C990 High Resolution Digital-to-Analog Converter
SPX-Z15M 2-way single channel Components: $1500
SPX-Z18T 3-way Components: $3500

I can gaurantee you that these are the absolute top products in the world. Alpine has used vivid Micro-Dynamics to bring the world the best in the car audio world.

You can read more about this if you are truly into car audio here

 

[cbrenn71]

bling bling..... i'll need to sell a kidney to afford ANYTHING> lol.

 

[Esh]

Yeah, to afford one thing, not to mention the things you need to run them properly and to the best of their ability.

 

[joe washington]

Bleu,
Remember, the stock Infinity does not have line outs. Thats why I put in the adapter/converter, which converts (quasi) the high output speaker level to low output line level.

Esh,
Yeah absolutely the head unit is the most important component. But as I said, I took the cheap way out and am happy with moderate improvement for the car environment. I have never really been big into high end auto sound. (My home system is another matter - I am pretty serious about that. Running a 300w 6/w Carver amp into Magneplaner mains with Velodyne sub.)
You on the other hand I see are deadly serious about your auto sound. And that is very cool. Wow, that Alpine componetry you mention seems quite badd ass. You will definititely ROCK! :rck:

Cbrenn,
Hey been waiting to hear back from you... Also you were supposed to tell me about your friend with the sludged motor? :huh: Anyway, got one at DAKOTAPARTS.COM. $135, including seals and bolts. Amazing, where most junk yards are now selling just the IM for $150! I also hear BUYMOPAR.COM still can get them at reasonable cost.

 

[Esh]

Esh,
Yeah absolutely the head unit is the most important component. But as I said, I took the cheap way out and am happy with moderate improvement for the car environment. I have never really been big into high end auto sound. (My home system is another matter - I am pretty serious about that. Running a 300w 6/w Carver amp into Magneplaner mains with Velodyne sub.)
You on the other hand I see are deadly serious about your auto sound. And that is very cool. Wow, that Alpine componetry you mention seems quite badd ass. You will definititely ROCK! :rck:

I am serious about all my audio components. It just further enhances the experience. You know the difference between watching a movie on a 19" black and white tv and then watching tv on a 54" plasma tv, well that's kinda like the approach I take to audio. I can tell the differences between most systems, and most of the time it's night and day.

On the note of the plasma, a friend of mine is buying a house and we bought a LCD Projector for our TV to watch movies and what not. I was afraid we would lose a lot of picture quality and wouldn't be able to run it with natural light coming through, but these new ones are awesome, perfect picture quality, night and day (just gotta keep the direct sunlight off of it).

I'm probably not going to go with the F#1 stuff for a while. The first thing I want to do is DynaMat the interior, then maybe for one monitor (no more, don't have enough passengers most of the time, and when I do, all we do is joke around and laugh, not even with music on, or maybe in the background). If I choose to hold off on the monitor, or after I get the monitor, I will go for the F#1 2-way components. And I still want to do a few performance modifications. AHHHHHHHH........ so much stuff I want to do, so little cash that isn't tied up with school or other things.

 

[joe washington]

Ahhh yes... So many goodies... So little cash...

 

[B1G BLEU]

Weird that they'd feed an amp speaker level outputs. Good tips otherwise, I'm happy with the Infinity package, it's just that the EQ settings for radio and the CD player are totally dfiferent for hard rock. You'd think it would be balanced. The radio needs treble all the way up and bass 90% down. CD's sound great with the sliders flat, maybe a little treble. Either that or I'm deaf, and old.

Couldn't be I'm old, Southern Man sounded so good today.

 

[joe washington]

I think you will find that speaker level output is the norm for all low end and many mid-range head units; which classify most stock systems. Line level output is associated with better units. Pretty much the same with home equipment also.
Like Esh was implying. a premium head unit would significantly mitigate those variances you mention. Especially with radio. Stock units are notoriiously mediocre on radio quality, compared to the rip off cost you pay for the components in a new vehical purchase, to what the same money can get otherwise aftermarket. If I were to ever buy a new vehicle (motocycles and rvs excepted...), I would want to NOT buy the sound system, so I could put in my own; to get at least twice the quality for the same amount. (But that probably is not possible with the current practice of stupid 'option packages'. You are pretty much stuck with the stock unit; it would cost more to special order everything else you want minus the sound system.)

Of course not... Getting old... Just getting better. After all, old has its virtures. More wisdom, more money, more goodies... right!?
Now only if more BABES fit into that equation......