Ok. It has been a while since I've "updated" my car audio. I've been running for a few years with a really nice head unit, some Infinity coaxials, some Infinity 6x9's in the rear (I thought they were blown but it seems the wiring was messed up), an MTX 4 channel 400w amp running only the front speakers, and a 2 channel 250w Lightning Audio Strike amp running the rear speakers. Not too bad, but not too great.

I have been researching a bit lately and purchased a few items to test out... to see what I like, what I don't, what fits, what doesn't, and so on.

I have tried some new coaxials in the front which were nice, but not for me. I have purchased 2 pairs of different mid drivers for the rear that are a bit too large (6.5" - 7"). I made two tiny boxes to mount the mids in the rear panels... didn't work too well. Well ladies and gents, I seem to have finally found a really good match for my tastes.

I have been looking at Car Audio Forum for the past couple months, trying to understand more and see what people like and what they don't. There are a few companies that make high-end audio for homes, and car audio people have been eating up this stuff like mad. Why? Because the speakers are CHEAP (relatively speaking), and sound GREAT! One popular company is Danish Sound Technology , popular because they manufacture speakers under a few different brand names... Vifa, Peerless, Logic, and Scan-Speak. The Vifa and Peerless speakers have been the most popular because they are the easiest to get and a bit cheaper than the Scan-Speak.

I bought two different pairs of Vifa speakers, one which I mounted in the tiny little boxes I mentioned earlier that sounded like *****. Another pair I bought and ended up being the ones I just put in the front of the VX. These things sound AWESOME! The one I ended up installing is the Vifa TC18SG49



It sounds awesome, and the pair was only $30, but it is a mid driver and needed a tweeter. So, again, after reading a bit more, I bought the Lanzar DCT 1" silk dome tweeter.



I hooked everything up tonight and the combo sounds (again) AWESOME! Seriously folks, I thought my Infinity's sounded good, but this setup blows it away. Plus, it was cheap... $15. $15 for a silk tweeter that can handle 150w, and was getting good reviews.

Now, I had to decide what to do about rear fill/bass. I hadn't installed the new stuff yet, and was thinking what I needed to do to bring in a bit more bass... without relying on the mids to do it. So, I thought I would use the 4 channel MTX amp to run the fronts and rears (if I wanted to install some rear speakers), and the Lightning Audio amp to run a single 10" sub. I looked around at subs for a couple weeks, looking at anything I could find, but not wanting to spend more than $100. I ended up finding a cheapy but a goody... the XTANT Z104



It was only $37 from SoundDomain.com, and I had to find something that only needed around 200 or so watts to pound. I bought a small QLogic box from Best Buy, threw it in, bridged the LA amp to 250w x 1 4ohm, and the beast lives!!!! I haven't had this much bass since I was listening to DJ Magic Mike and Slick Rick back in the day!

I also decided to play it cheap on the dampening, but I wanted to dampen the doors to get better feel from the front speakers. Not wanting to buy the Dynamat from BB, I went looking at the 'ol Home Depot right next door. I found some foil/foam (very thin) with adhesive on the back. I also bought some foil tape, to tape up edges and seams.

I have only gotten one door done so far (always run into problems when you think it will go quickly), so by 12:30am, I decided to NOT do the drivers side door. I got the dampening on the passenger door, got the Vifa mounted, mounted the tweeter over the stock tweeter location, and put the door cladding back on... sounds great, but I couldn't stop without finally hooking up the sub. The combo is awesome, and I'm still running the Crystal CSX615 coaxials in the drivers door. These will come out tomorrow and the rest will be installed.

I didn't take any pics tonight, but I will show progress on one side tomorrow. I need to update my signature pics, so I HAVE to take pics tomorrow.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. I'm really happy with what I have right now, and VERY happy that all of this hasn't costed me a few hundred dollars to get the sound of a few hundred dollars!