just from personal experience that sounds too expensive, you should be able to get all that done with in $2500 FOR SURE may be even $2000. For $3000 you should be able to get more stuff like 2 subs, bigger amp. dont go with tweeter, they over price the crap out of everything.

 

If someone is to give you a competitive quote you have to be more specific than that. I can't believe they didn't give you any specific model #s. Not sure if you're quote is high or low, because JL makes more than one line of amps and they're prices range. Polk also makes more than one level of speaker and prices range. Is the box custom built or is it something that comes built from the factory? What exactly is good wiring? This can all be relative. Please be more specific so we can give you some better input. But from my experience Tweeter is on the high side. You'd better of going to a local shop and bargain with them.

 

I was looking for a budget for around $1500, installed. I like JL stuff. What do you guys think I can get for $1500 bucks? TIA

 

If I were You I would look around at other shops. I have not dealt with Tweeter and they may be fine. I live in DFW so we have lots of choices, but there is a good audio shop that does lots of competition cars. They really know their stuff. Two things stand out from the Tweeter quote, 6X9's or 5X7's both are a bad idea. Neighter speaker is round and 6X9's don't produce as true a sound as a round 6.5. As I said before you don't need the 6X9's on the rear deck. Several shops in DFW have told me to lose the 6X9's in the coupe, the just mess things up. Front components and a sub would be fine. You could add rear doors speakers for fill but it pulls the sound stage back. Some people prefer some rear fill. A lot of people are just running components up front and a sub. Where are the speakers at a concert? up front! I am experimenting with some rear fill. I just ordered a sub and JL 300/4 to power the tweeters up and rear fill. The rear fill however will be delayed to create a larger sound.

Zguy

BTW - Focal are not bright they a made to be flat and then tuned to the listeners preference. I had heard Dyn Audio have a rep of being bright.

 

Personally I think they are very bright. To me they are very souless too. They are not inviting. I used to sell Focal and also have auditioned many JM Labs speakers. You are correct they are made to be very flat and neutral, but to me they are too bright. I listen to a lot of jazz and blues. When Miles Davis hits the high notes man it hurts to listen to JM Labs speakers. But like I said earlier it really comes down to personal preference. I never said there was anything wrong with Focal or JM Labs, just that its not my cup of tea.

 

It's not that Focals are "bright". Bright would imply that they play certain frequencies (like 2.5-8k) on an elevated level. That's not the case. They just play frequencies that other speakers either can't or play them at the right level. The sound you hear is what it is supposed to be. I agree that they can "hurt" some times, but that is not the fault of the speaker. Fact of the matter is that recording studios don't expect speakers to be able to play those frequencies with such tonal accuracy. I just tune those feq down with a good eq. Just don't misinterpret accurate sound reproduction for poor sound quality. The fact that other speaker don't play those frequencies as well just reenforces in my mind that they are sub-par speakers. I want a speaker that is capable of hitting a full range with a flat and accurate response. That leaves me with the option to tune to my ear instead of simply being unable to play those feq that are generally viewed as bright.


***Don't get me wrong. I don't disagree that it really depends on what you like. If you don't want to bother with an eq, focal speakers may not be right for you. Your cup of tea isn't the wrong one, just not mine. =)

 

Very well put, I never said or meant to imply that Focals produce poor sound quality. In my past posts I have said that Focals are great speakers. Besides my perception of their brightness I just never felt any connection with JM Labs (Focal) speakers. I know they are good speakers, but you seem to imply that Focals are the perfect speaker. I don't think I would go that far. But it comes down to what makes you happy at the end of the day. I just prefer speakers that are warmer and less mechanical in their reproduction. One last thing I don't cringe when I listen to a live trumpet. There is a reason for a millions speaker companies so people can find exactly what they like.

 

Thats the key to any speaker purchase, go listen! Everybody is different and has differnent tastes. I Initially was dissappointed with my setup - Eclipse 8443 Head unit, Focals K2P, Jl 300/2. I like clean hard hitting base, not thumping. Some of the music I had listen to previously just didn't hit like I thought it should, seemed muddled. I was still good but not stellar. Then I started listening to other discs and realized it was actually how the CD was mixed and mastered. Some CD's sound fantastic, just unbelievalbe imaging and perfect hard clean bass, from a 6.5's no less. Others not so good. Its GIGO, garbage in garbage out. I remember the dealer telling me who ever mixes Kid Rocks songs sucks. Your getting such clarity from the system your getting whats on the CD. Cheaper sound systems build in the typical EQ "smiley" curve (high bass) (low mids) (high high's) that's what we have been conditioned to hear. Fortuantly the Eclipse has 6 custom EQ settings you can save to memory, so I can just recall the memory EQ settings and get good sound from almost any disc.
BTW any good component system up front will sound much better than stock, Focal, Polk, Dyn Audio just listen first to what you like. This would be a config I would recommend with all the research that I have done (pick your components speakers up front Focal, JL, Dyn Audio, PoLk etc) either JL 300/2 and no rear fill or 450/4 run 150X2 to the front and 75X2 to the rear doors, run a low pass filter on the rears a 1KHZ with the filter on the JL amp(cuts off the top freqency to keep the sound stage forward). For rear door speakers you could put 6.5 mid bass (no tweeters) or get a coaxial for rears. Your not going to use the tweeters in coaxials if you cut off @ 1KHZ but they would be easier to resell. I was told by one dealer you could run stock 6.5" in the back it doesn't matter you can't hear them their just fill. Dump the 6X9's as I stated previously and put the 4080 box in the back with a JL 10"W6V2 with either a JL 250/1 or a 500/1 amp. 250/1 should be plenty but I went with a 500/1 it was only $100ish more and you can always turn down the gain to balance the Bass with the front components.



hope this helps.

Zguy

 

I don't know when you listened to the Focals, but their tweeters where not so good. You mentioned you would cringe at the sound of a trumpet. Many competition guys would buy the focals and dump the tweeters on ebay, TN41's, TN42's I believe. Focal has since upgraded the tweet's, now TN52's and they seem much better, but your right, if you heard the TN42's you might not have liked the Focals. I don't think Focals are perfect, but I have been very happy. I picked the K2P's over the more expensive Utopia's because of better bass. They can play very low. The dealer I talked to put them in a Honda S2000 and didn't even bother with a sub.
I just ordered the rest on my stuff - JL 500/1, JL 10" W6V2, JL 300/4. I plan on bi amping the front components, adding rear fill along with the sub. I'm anxious to see how it sounds.

Zguy

 

Again well put man! You really do have to go out and listen. And you are very correct about how well the discs are made. This may not be your type of music but go check out recordings coming from Telarc and Sheffield Labs. Very good recordings.

About rear fill, not a fan, but there are some instances where it is necessary. While I was in the car audio industry we built a SQ system for a client. In an BMW E36 3 series we did Sony ES CDX-C90 headunit- matching eq/dsp/crossover. Running Old ES Amps (the real big red ones with the silver plate). Components were Boston Pro 6.5 in kick panels and 3 10W0s. When the system was first put together sounded good, but then as we kept listening to it realized the sound stage was too low. So what we did was install one MB Quart 4" coax on the rear deak fiberglassed it in to look stock. We ran it mono out of phase off the front channels and added an attenuator to it. When you started to turn the volume up on the MB Quart you would start to literally see the sound stage coming up to eye level. It was awesome. These are the times when rear fill is truly needed.

Everyone has added some great points in this thread.

 

Did not know Focal changed tweets. I'll have to check them out again. I've actually had more experience listening to JM Labs speakers, which is the producer of Focal. JM Labs produces home speakers, they use basically the same exact drivers for the Focal line. Really now different from the MB Quart home and car audio line. JM Labs is also pretty well known in the home audio world.

 

There is no perfect speaker... only perfect to the listener. Focal speakers are by no means perfect, but have some of the most accurate sound reproduction that you can affordably install in your car. That may not be what everyone wants though. If I didn't want to drop the cash for a good EQ, then I'd probably go with something a bit "warmer" too. An individual speaker could have the most accurate sound in the world, but it wouldn't really matter if it didn't sound good to the listener. I may never actually tune those brighter feq in and would be just fine with a speaker that comes stock unable to fully reach them, but I personally want the potential.

 

So what EQ are you using? And do you any type of 2 ch home setup?

 

I use the Audio Control DQS with the DDC. It's a 31 Band 6 Channel (that's right 31x6) digital eq. It also has 2 parametric EQs per channel set (for a total of 6) @ 1/12 - 3 oct +/- 12db. I'm not home long enough to invest in any decent home audio equipment.

 

Audio Control makes some nice things. Not too familiar with all their new stuff though. Right now I have a Sony ES CDX-C90 and the matching eq the Xdp 4000 eq. Unfortunately not running the eq right now, but will be in my new car. For fronts I have Canton tweeters and MB Quart Reference series 5.25 midrange and a JL 10W0 sub. Running 2 old, old alpine amps. The limiting factor in my system right now is everything except the HU and EQ.