Wicked500R

If I remember the name was ZED Audio... I didn't think PPI's were all that... they did perform though...The old school Art series command $$ when they come up. The stuff they make today just isn't the same as what it was 10-15 years ago...All the amps i purchase are old school from ebay.

ratsun

I have been pretty active in car audio since the early 80s and have owned a ton of it (check out some of the photos in my gallery) so I have a pretty good feel for it. The market has requested manufacturers to make a lot of low end garbage so people can listen to their low quality MP3 music ( sounds good on earbuds) in their cars so who cares about high quality H/U for that.
You need to look at the new stuff now as a lot has changed.
While Fujitsu ten came on strong in the 90s they really made their competitors step up to the plate.
Tough to argue with the Alpine F1 series
While Eclipse does make a good product IMO its not any better than units from other manufacturers in the same price point. I ran three of Eclipses high end units and I recently switched to Alpine for features that Eclipse didn't have, and I challenge anyone that says there is a difference in sound ( in a dead head system). Alpine has the optical out to the processor so no more analogue cables all over the place and no chance of induced noise into the system.
The other point guys are missing is these old school amps that have a great (still well deserved ) following were expensive $1-$5 watt when new with many much more. I paid $1200 for a PPI Promos 50 (rated @ 2x50w) in 92 IIRC. If you compare amps of today in the same price point I think you move into a amp that is pretty comparable quality wise (time will tell) however has the benefit of fantastic xovers.
As for speakers........ 20years ago I paid $800 for my Quarts and I know with today's money I could buy a set of DLS or Focal etc that would keep up to them.
I would recommend people buy quality used gear over new budget stuff any day but be cautious as even the best stuff isn't immune to abuse.

Ahhh crap, here I am babbling again

Mike D

I still like Eclipse, so there... lol Alpine is catching up and looking better than they did 5 years ago. The HU couldn't touch the pre out voltage of the Eclipse head units back then, not that it's that important to the average user. Nor could you find a HU with the speaker time alignment or PEQ that could compete, but that was 5 years ago. I'll check out the Alpines again went I'm looking for my next HU.

Wicked500R

Agreed! My Eclipse CD8053 which had no internal amp put out 8/16 Volt, had THE best PEQ and time alignment...Nothing could compare... I had to get the Audio Control level matcher to drop it down to the amps input of 2 volt to keep the amp from burnin up... The CD 7000 I'm running now is 5V out has almost the same PEQ and TA ... the amps gain and the Audio Control are at minimum with top shelf 5 1/4 MB Quart compnents.... I could make any speaker go POOF! at will

albacore

I miss PPI
DLS makes a great speaker.
Kenwood, Alpine, and Eclipse are fantastic head units, with the latter being the best. They even have one with an 8 volt output! 8 volts! Talk about clean signal.