Speaking of the otherwise normal car stereo . . . the factory am/fm/cassette has gotta go. Any thoughts as to what head units soundparticularly good? I'll need to replace the front door speakers immediately as well. One of the originals is missing.

eyeballin' that Butler amp, too, but I have to see what actual automotive work the new (old) baby requires before I go nuts.

It seems to me that most aftermarket sound systems are sort of mid-fi these days. I think a lot of that has to do with factory installs becoming much better. But 20 years ago, a Concorde deck was really something. Now days, I don't really see much like it.

Wayne

I've replaced the whole shootin' match with:

Alpine CDA-9820XM - fm, xm-sat, cd, 2 pre outs, sub out
Alpine KCA-420i - iPod interface
Boston Acoustics RX47 4.5" spkrs in front doors
Boston Acoustics NX57 5.25" spkrs in rear doors

Coolest coupla things so far (1st 24 hours of ownership, not nearly enough driving!):

(1) XM satellite radio - Out in the boonies, 200+ channels of non drifting/fading/garbled content choices - music without commercial interruption - is fan-freakin'-tastic.

(2)The Alpine Bass Engine, which I thought would be some horse's ass bass boost, instead turns out to allow you to choose a center freq, width of range affected and level of boost. So, in my case, with smallish speaks dropping away somwhere between 60-80, centering on 60hz with a moderate breadth and 3dB of boost improved the tonal balance dramatically.

(3) In theory, since no one in the family owns one yet, the iPod link allows the iPod to be treated like a server controlled from the head unit, with all menu information displayed and selected from among there, while the iPod rests, probably velcro'd in a well in the dash.

I guess this qualifies as a guilty pleasure for an all tube mostly analog two channel home audio guy . . . . ;-0

Did I mention the sub out from my head unit?

That's pretty cool. I've always had good luck with Alpine in the past. My favorite car sound system used Concorde AM/FM/cassette and Alpine amps driving JBL Pro speakers. A good metal or CrO2 tape in a Concorde deck is ruler flat out past 20kHz and smoooooth. They're sweet, but I haven't seen one around since the late 80's.

I always kept a supply of clutches for Concordes, which were built into the reels. I must have had three or four Concorde decks, not because I had trouble with them but just because I bought new cars and what not. Good memories.

I expect your Alpine CD must be pretty nice. I haven't checked them out lately, but their amps were always good. So I'll bet it sounds good.

I used to like to build speaker cabinets into the rear of the car and go all out on carsound gear. I'll have to admit that I haven't done it in a while. I'd still love JBL 2115's in the car, but it has become more important to me to keep the trim intact. So I can appreciate your using stock replacement speakers and choosing a good brand.

Wayne

If you install that TAD 1602, you'll have really low distortion, super-deep bass in the car. It will amaze you. You can take a speaker that begins to rolloff at 60Hz in free air and put it in a car and the bass sounds great. Cabin gain gives you so much lift the same speaker is good to 30Hz or 40Hz. So if you put a speaker that's flat to 30Hz in your car, it will get down under 20Hz. It will go lower than any music content you can find. Don't even let Jo-Ann run a DVD player through these things on long trips - The car crash scenes will scare the hell out of you and make you have a wreck. It will probably shake all the trim loose anyway, so whether you have a wreck or not is immaterial. The 1602's will kill you.

But you'll go with a smile on your face.

Wayne

Whatever I go with, it'll be powered by a Butler Tube Driver Blue 275 bridged into mono. (Just found out one of my dealers sells Butler car audio.

"I'm a strong believer in hearsay. Don't say anything until you've actually heard the product under discussion!"

I'm not gonna go all out. The sub needs to be removeable for when I've got to haul lots of stuff or really big stuff. So, as I've just noted above, the TAD is out. 10" or 12" reco's are welcome!

I'd like to hear that Butler amp. I'll have to check out one someday soon.

As for the speakers, I know what you mean. You don't really need all that, 'cause you can hit the low notes very nicely with a much smaller speaker. I mean, if you wanted to just make the loudest sound, that would be one thing. But that's not for listening. You can do everything you want to do with an 8" or 10" driver in a much smaller box.