First Post

[mspiegle]

Hi all,
Interestingly, I ended up here after reading Ryan's (from Ohio) posts over at CAF regarding the "copyright" issue. Just for the record, I feel Ryan's original request should be been honored and I was impressed with how maturely he handled himself. Anyways, I've been primarily a lurker on that forum for quite some time now, however I've always disliked the fairly "large" and impersonal nature of it. There's also that problem of the server always being full... but I understand it's hard to run a site that big.

Anyways, I'm 22 years old and my day job is a Sr. Linux Administrator/Engineer. I've been working with computers FOREVER (started learning how to program at the ripe age of 5). It was previously a hobby, but since I've turned it into my job - I had to find a new hobby for myself. I got into cars when I was 18 and have come quite a ways since. I've always liked having "bumpin' tunes", so car stereos became an interest to me. My previous setup was:

Some kenwood headunit (meh)
MB Quart QSD216s (i think that's what they were...)
Soundstream Reference 604 amp (the good oldschool stuff)
Kicker 600.1
Alpine 12" - Type R

For reasons I won't get into here, that vehicle went bye-bye and some of the equipment found its way into a friend's car. I made an '87 BMW 325IS my daily driver, and I've very slowly been upgrading the system on it. It currently consists of:

Some Alpine headunit (decent unit I got for free)
Lousy cerwin vega coaxs (came with the car)
Stock rear speakers
Kicker 600.1
Kicker Comp Free air sub @ 8ohm (oooh yeah, feel the power!)

I'm currently trying to figure out what I ultimately want to have. I'm thinking along the lines of:
Alpine DVA-9860
Zapco 360.4
Components - Undecided
eD - Nine.1
IDMAX 12"

And.... a pic for good measure... That's me in the foreground w/ an ex-girlfriend:
http://shark.nauticaltech.com/~mspiegle/disney_081.jpeg

[solacedagony]

Your "thinking along the lines of" sounds fine, except I wouldn't use the eD amp. If you're thinking Zapco, just get a matching Zapco amp for the IDMAX. If you post a budget and an idea of what kind of sound you want out of your components, some of the guys on here can help you choose those.

[cargodz]

Sounds like a good start... welcome to the board, we have a great bunch of people always willing to help out. So don't hesitate to ask any questions... we may rax ya a little, but give you some good advice in the end;)

[lancer1978]

^^ agreed with first reply, get a Zapco, Older zapcos(couple years back) are cheap on ebay! I know there are alot of do's and don'ts of the ebay theory, but I buy alot of stuff from there and various other forums!!I actually prefer used equipment! and Never buy from a sound board, cause it is WAY easier to make a room sound good then any car!! As for Components Right now Im rocking a set of DD's and to be perfectly honest I am disappointed, so now I am goiung to be buying some Focals soon and Ialready know how they sound!!

[Bwcad1]

dd is only for subs.

[lancer1978]

Agreed, Im really disappointed with there comps, I mean the woofer part of the system is Amazing if running in Active, but with the xovers that came with it and the tweeter setup! EWWWW the tweeters that are stock in my lancer are way cleaner and have a way better response curve!

[mspiegle]

Your "thinking along the lines of" sounds fine, except I wouldn't use the eD amp. If you're thinking Zapco, just get a matching Zapco amp for the IDMAX. If you post a budget and an idea of what kind of sound you want out of your components, some of the guys on here can help you choose those.

Good to know i'm on the right track. My reasoning for not getting a Zapco to drive the sub is because the amp I would need is slightly cost prohibitive and I heard Zapco's warranty doesn't apply unless you have the stuff professionally installed. The amp required to drive the front speakers isn't quite as expensive and I figured I'd take a chance.

Do you not like the nine.1? Those CAF guys are all over it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't know what they were talking about.

[mspiegle]

Sounds like a good start... welcome to the board, we have a great bunch of people always willing to help out. So don't hesitate to ask any questions... we may rax ya a little, but give you some good advice in the end;)

Thanks :)


^^ agreed with first reply, get a Zapco, Older zapcos(couple years back) are cheap on ebay! I know there are alot of do's and don'ts of the ebay theory, but I buy alot of stuff from there and various other forums!!I actually prefer used equipment! and Never buy from a sound board, cause it is WAY easier to make a room sound good then any car!! As for Components Right now Im rocking a set of DD's and to be perfectly honest I am disappointed, so now I am goiung to be buying some Focals soon and Ialready know how they sound!!

I'd consider that, I'm just worried about Zapco's whole warranty situation. I have absolutely no idea what I want to do for components. All I know for sure is that I don't like harsh highs. I was going to look into some CDT components with silk tweeters, but still unsure. My budget for components is $500 or under (just a front set). I'll keep using the stock speakers on the rear-fill for now.

[lancer1978]

Wow $500 for front fill, CDT's, Focals, DLS...Any of those will fit that budget and Rock nicely....

[OnYrMrk]

Finally another Linux guy/guru. I teach Linux/Unix for the Federal Government and a few times a year at the local Vo-techs. The OS' that I teach are RedHat, SuSe, Mandrake, SCO, AIX, Whitebox, Yellowdog, Solaris along with a few systems that feature UNIX. Good to hear that Linux is alive and well in LAX area.

As for Zapco...awesome...as for CDT, I saw one take a huge amount of voltage and besides the smell of rotten electronics, still played beautifully. I have a new found respect for CDT.

If you have a budget of $500 for components, look at the K2P set from Focal, Look at Zapco's components, Look at Morel's Elate series, and check out the JL Z series. All excellent, all in about that range. I also believe the Soundline series from Rainbow are in there as well.

Good luck and welcome to the board!

Joe

[solacedagony]

Good to know i'm on the right track. My reasoning for not getting a Zapco to drive the sub is because the amp I would need is slightly cost prohibitive and I heard Zapco's warranty doesn't apply unless you have the stuff professionally installed. The amp required to drive the front speakers isn't quite as expensive and I figured I'd take a chance.
Do you not like the nine.1? Those CAF guys are all over it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't know what they were talking about.

Haha. Yea, the Zapco stuff is quite expensive. I'm personally running an Orion 2500d to my sub, so I'm sure whatever their new 1200w equivalent would do fine and would probably cost less than your Zapco 360.4 if you're buying from eBay or the like. I got my 2500d on eBay refurbed for just $600.
Like the other guys said, feel free to post questions and, please, stick around.

edit: In regards to the nine.1, just in general, I wouldn't buy from their company. I'm not basing this off any personal experience, just my own gut instinct (which is really quite worthless, if you ask me :)) and things I've read about them.

[Ryan from Ohio]

Nice to see you here.

CAF is its own animal.

What you may see from me there isnt necessarily me here...lol

[mspiegle]

Finally another Linux guy/guru. I teach Linux/Unix for the Federal Government and a few times a year at the local Vo-techs. The OS' that I teach are RedHat, SuSe, Mandrake, SCO, AIX, Whitebox, Yellowdog, Solaris along with a few systems that feature UNIX. Good to hear that Linux is alive and well in LAX area.
As for Zapco...awesome...as for CDT, I saw one take a huge amount of voltage and besides the smell of rotten electronics, still played beautifully. I have a new found respect for CDT.
If you have a budget of $500 for components, look at the K2P set from Focal, Look at Zapco's components, Look at Morel's Elate series, and check out the JL Z series. All excellent, all in about that range. I also believe the Soundline series from Rainbow are in there as well.
Good luck and welcome to the board!
Joe

Linux is certainly huge in the LAX area. The only problem is that there aren't enough talented linux admins to go around. I'm trying to find someone to fill my position where I currently work (i'm moving to another company), and i'm finding far less than ideal candidates. Most of my experience is with redhat, but i've been doing lots of work with gentoo lately. In fact, the new place i'm going to actually uses gentoo in production.

Do you know if Zapco has the same warranty issues with their components? It'd be nice to run a full Zapco setup (minus sub).

[mspiegle]

Nice to see you here.
CAF is its own animal.
What you may see from me there isnt necessarily me here...lol

Yes, a fairly large animal at that. I'll probably be contacting you one of these days for a custom box to put the IDMAX in :)

[solacedagony]

Yes, a fairly large animal at that. I'll probably be contacting you one of these days for a custom box to put the IDMAX in :)

Good guy to talk to for a box :)

I have Ubuntu currently dual-booting on my machine. Don't do much with it though. I used to do a lot of C coding for MUDs and things of that nature, but it's been quite awhile. I miss it, just not enough time to dedicate to it. :-(

[GlassWolf]

thank you for respecting the copyright on intellectual materials on-line.

the freeair (F series) kicker sub works fine in ported enclosures, too.

[mspiegle]

thank you for respecting the copyright on intellectual materials on-line.
the freeair (F series) kicker sub works fine in ported enclosures, too.

I got the whole box for free from a friend. I could never figure out why it seemed to sound somewhat decent in the off-the-self box it came in. After opening the thing up and realizing it was a freeair sub, it all made sense. It probably isn't nearly as sensitive to the enclosure as a regular sub would be.

[Team AI]

Nice to see you here. I don't know squat about CAF but I like it here so I don't fool with them :P

[neonblack]

Sr. Administrator at 22! How'd you manage that? I guess you went from Jr. to Sr. pretty fast!

Lots of bickering at CarAudioForum and a few other sites. You tell some people you have 6x9s or a certain brand like Pioneer and you get a bunch of people who call you an "idiot" and "retarded". That's real constructive. They think they know the definitive brands and become narrow-minded. Or you pose a physics question and you get people who say they don't care or you get smartass answers. Oh, well.

[audiobass10]

http://ampguts.realmofexcursion.com/Elemental_Designs_NINe.1/inside1.jpg

Wouldn't reccomend the nine.1..heard many bad stories about it..look for yourself lol.

[mspiegle]

Sr. Administrator at 22! How'd you manage that? I guess you went from Jr. to Sr. pretty fast!

Lots of bickering at CarAudioForum and a few other sites. You tell some people you have 6x9s or a certain brand like Pioneer and you get a bunch of people who call you an "idiot" and "retarded". That's real constructive. They think they know the definitive brands and become narrow-minded. Or you pose a physics question and you get people who say they don't care or you get smartass answers. Oh, well.

Well, it kind of worked out. I came in as a regular unix admin when I was 19. I must be doing something right since I keep moving up :)

I'm really liking what I see on this forum in terms of maturity... kudos to a great group of people!