Please Help: High-End car audio

A few years ago (1996), I had a great car stereo that came close to achieving an audiophile's ideals. It had an alpine head unit and digital time alignment processor feeding. I had 10 Dynaudio speakers in the car and had custom pods built for ideal positioning of the tweeter and dome midrange. The digital time alignment processor was used to independently delay the signal coming from the left pods and midbass to give good imaging, even in a car. I had all Xtant amps and an Xtant parametric eq (necessary in a car environment). The parts for the system cost about $10k and the installation was another $7k.

A while ago, I went to the Lexus dealer and listened to the ML system. It wasn't as cool to look at, but to my ears and memory sounded pretty darn close to that custom system. I'm sure ML is also using digiral soundfield processing in the Lexus.

First, a question; Who installed the gear ? Even great gear will sound lousy if not properly installed. Second , I think you need some professional help .i.e Peter Lufrano @ www.theautophile.com - he has helped many who seek real high end sound in a car and he carries the best gear. Very responsive to email.

FROM POSTER: Firstly, thank you all for the responses. To the last response: the audioshop I bought them at installed it. I figured I wouldn't mess with doing both the indash changer and the main unit, it took them about two hours plus it extended my warranty.

The Xtant stuff looks good. Orginally this whole thing was supposed to be cheap, I mean; the Focal drivers were on clearance for $129 a set (6.5" mids 6c211s1 polyflex with TN46 tweets), not a bad price by any stretch, and the 10" Focal sub was $60 11V5501, all new from Zalytron. Just a hair over $300 for all the drivers, I was havin fun for cheap. The little 5 channel soundstream amp was on closeout for $149 and it fit a cavity underneath my trunk floor above the spare tire perfectly so I gave up no cargo space and the installation was competely hidden. I figure 35 watts of reall power, not chip amp power, and 70 for the sub would give me musical level. At that point I figured I needed an aftermarket unit since I wanted something better than what was in the Honda (a factory cd player). However, the eclipse doesn't sound better, just different, and a different I don't prefer. And to address resulta4sures post-I couldn't agree more, its in the DAC. With my Van Alstine Omega IV I didn't even think about the $1,000 as soon as I put it in, nor with my Fanfare tuner. But the Eclipse isn't cuttin it. If someone wants them-I'm probabl willing to sell: 55430 head unit with 5962 in-dash changer, two days old. I'm guessing that I can't do anyworse so I might as well take my losses now and try a Nakamichi from a place that will let me return it. If the Nak does the job it stays. If it sucks, well then I'm toying with the idea of mounting my old Audio by Van Alstine Fet/Valve dac under the seat, finding a head unit with a coax digital out (sherwood makes one), and building a small audiophile grade kit preamp for the other DIN opening, I know the last option will definately work since that tube DAC sounds nice. It may just be my personal subjective tastes, but an EQ isn't the answer. Bits are bits to be converted over into an analog wave form. Anything other than the original signal is distortion. However, there is always the issue of what type and were that distortion is, and this is probably where some subjectivity comes into play and maybe why I don't like these units. Who knows, maybe it is the amp, but In my experience whenever there is an upgrade things as a whole sound better even though the limitations of another component may be revealed. I'll look into the Autophile.

From Poster again: The 55430 head unit was MSRP at $480 and since it was the last one of last years model they gave it to me for $400. As far as the changer, it was actually, from what I gather, was bought new and installed in a Tacoma pick-up and after two weeks the lady got a cavalier and it wouldn't fit, so she brought it back for an exchange and they couldn't sell it for new (so its two weeks and two days old). Its MSRP was $650, I believe, and I paid $350. I know I wasn't getting the best deal on the prices, but they were decent and I figured that surely the units would give me the sound I was wanting, while maybe not the best for the money. Plus, they were the only ones the really matched the dash in my car which was part of the attraction too, all the others looked so crazy (dolphins, changing colors, bright red trim). Installation was $70 plus parts and sales tax was a hair under $50. So if anyone is interested or knows someone who is feel free to make me an offer--unless something changes my mind. My dealer will give me an exchange or store credit, which is an option.

I am very happy with my Sony ES head unit/CD changer and a 50 watt x 6 channel Precision Power Amp (PPI) combo in my BMW 535i. It is dead quiet, even when turned all the way up (with no signal of course), which is very important to me. I hate hiss. I used Wireworld Orbit cabling throughout the car, which I purchased in bulk from Wireworld for $4 per foot. I believe this cabling is a big part of the excellent sound I am achieving. I am using Infinity Beta series drivers all around - 1 1/4" silk dome tweets in the door pillar (stock location), 8" mid-bass in the kick panel, 5 1/4" midrange drivers in the rear deck, and a 12" Beta sub in a sealed enclosure firing into the car through a ski bag hole behind the rear seat center armrest. The Beta series is now discontinued, but was their top of the line driver series (above Kappa), and only available from Infinity's "best" dealers (read: highest volume). Associated equipment includes Infinity's passive "competition crossovers" for the front stage speakers, (the 5 1/4" mids are run full range with their natural rolloff), a 1 farad stiffening cap for the amp, and Tiff fuse/power hardware. My suggestion to you is to explore new head units (Sony ES and Macintosh sounds like a good idea too) and upgrade your amp to a nice PPI or Extant unit. I'd stick with the Focals for now, and I'd also try some high quality cable like the Wireworld Orbit or your favorite brand shielded interconnect. Incidently, I am 30 years old, like accurate, deep & tight bass (not BOOMY), and my car system has won awards at sound quality competitions. I do NOT compete in the SPL contests - I am only interested in sound quality, not quantity! Good Luck on building your dream system!!