In reply to:
The biggest improvement came with the amplifier - the system seemed to "wake up" once it was added. IMO amplification is an absolute neccessity.
I agree, and have decided to piggyback a 4-channel power amp to the factory receiver. What level of the rated RMS and/or Peak wattage did you choose? What brand?
Right now I am at loss between the well-respected amp brands that you guys suggested earlier (some of them as expensive as my Elite receiver!!! LOL), and those "lesser" brands, such as
Pyramid, that are several-fold cheaper for a given spec. Are expensive ones really THAT good??? I assume that most of these amps, regardless of brands, are made OEM somewhere in the Far East anyway. Also, my auditions of car speakers have clearly indicated that the sound quality does NOT always correlate with the price, once you get to >$200/pair range.
As for the speakers, I decided to first replace the front two channels with the
Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.5" (Infinity's high-end model), and see how they behave. Could get them at ~$220/pair online, and will have a local shop to professionally install them. To my ears (again, with classical music), the Infinity Kappas sounded better than or as good as most other brands, including those with much higher price tags.
You know, perhaps Axiom should make car-audio speakers!
It must be a highly lucrative business. To me, it seems that all you need are drivers that tolerate the "power abuse" in the noisy mobile environment (with a nice-looking logo on the cone and grill! LOL)... I, for one, really wish that there were Axiom speakers in the car-audio market.
