musings from the sleep deprived

This was something I was intending to post in my long term wish list, but my wife beat me to it, bless her heart.

So I’m going to poke around online a bit and put up some pictures and such of what it is my new car stereo is going to look like once its installed later this week.
First… as far as the head unit is concerned, I wanted it to be MP3/WMA cd compatible, removable faceplate, iPod ready and, preferably, able to connect to my current (factory) 6 disc changer. As it turns out, the compatibility thing just isn’t possible. Maybe someone out there can correct me if I’m wrong, but the staff at the car audio place indicated that most manufacturers build it all in to the custom harness/kits they use, and after market parts don’t have a chance. Got everything else though.
Alpine CDA9853 (left)

So, speaking of the ipod readiness…
Alpine KCA-420i (right)

Amps… I’m no expert here. Just wanted enough to drive the new speakers and sub. My initial thought was to mount these in the second cavity on the side of the trunk space, and that might have even worked for one amp, but with two it just wasn’t possible. So…. they’re making a custom rack for ’em that will fit over the wheel well, and minimize the amount of trunk space it takes up. I’ll post pics of this once its all done.
Eclipse EA4000 (below left) for the 4 new speakers,

and the EA2000 (below right) to power the sub.

which brings us to speakers. For those, we just listened to a bunch, looked at prices, and got recommendations. I just did some looking around, and actually had a fair amount of trouble finding an official product page for the ones I ended up with. Anyway, without further ado:
4 Focal 570 CV1 5×7’s
I found this page that shows the speaker line (but not the specific product), and then this page from a store in the UK showing some specs. Aha, here’s an official product page on the french Focal page. Once you’re there, click on ‘Products’ and then ‘570CV1’ to see the specs. (more below, left)

Finally, the sub. People’s use of a sub and opinions about their usefulness in car audio vary widely. You have everything from people who want to have their bass sound be audible from 8 blocks away, and massage your back while you’re in the driver’s seat. On the other extreme, you have people who don’t like them at all. What I’m looking for is something that complements the overall sound of the music, and still reminds you that subsonics are present and accounted for. I don’t want the car to shake, but I do want to know that I’ve got that supporting element in the music. There are particular songs that simply don’t work unless that is present. So…

1 MTX 10″ 5510-44 sub. You can find the general Thunder 5500 product page here and the pdf on the specific product here (below, and right)

So there you have it! PIMPED. I’ll post some pictures of the installed stuff once its in later this week.