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I'm getting a Kenwood DDX8019 H/U with the KNA-G510 nav unit along with a Boyo VTL300 reverse camera installed this Thursday. I should get it back on Friday so I'll let you know how it is. I've always found Excelon's to be pretty good though.

**Update** I went to talk to my local shop the other day and completely changed what I was going to do. I'm going with the following system that gets installed this Thursday. Head Unit: Kenwood Excelon DDX8019 Navi: Kenwood KNA-G510 4 Ch Amp: Zapco DC360.4 Sub Amp: Zapco DC500.1 Components: Zapco RB-13.2 Sub: JL Audio 10W6v2 Rev. Camera: Boyo VTL300 I had a chance to listen to all of the above and for SQ it was amazing. It won't get super loud but in a 350Z it should be plenty enough. I was really impressed by the Zapco products. The DC360.4 makes it so easy to run the components as active. All you have to do is plug in a laptop with the Zapco software and you can do just about anything. I think they said they're going to run the mid bandpass and the tweeter as well. There is also an 11 band EQ built into the amp as well. I can't wait until this Friday when it's all complete. The only problem now is that I have two TC Sounds OEM 10's sitting in my closet that won't be used. I guess I have to sell them. BTW the single JL 10W6v2 is going in a custom ported box made to specs. I won't be setting off any alarms but it'll sound great quality wise playing just about anything. Thank you to everyone for your help and advice.

What on earth kind of setup costs upwards of $60k??? And what in the world kind of system takes 6-8 months to do. There are shops that can build a car from scratch in less than that time frame. If someone told me I'd have to spend that kind of money to get the system I wanted I'd order myself a set of Sennheiser headphones instead. Seriously though, that must be one krazy sound system he has in that car. Don't forget to buy yourself some earplugs to go along with that system.

Regardless of what amps I get I was going to "beef up" the electrical on my car anyway. I'm one of those that firmly believe in building a solid platform to work on in whatever you do. A weak electrical system makes for a weak sound system in my book. The first thing I'd do to any car is to sound deaden the entire car and to change out the alternator and batteries. I look at it as if I run a solid electrical system and the whole car has been treated for sound, I can put in a mediocre sound system and it would still sound pretty good whereas if I had a crap electrical with no sound deadening and a totally killer sound system setup in the car, it would sound pretty awful. This is probably the reason why my budget keeps going up and up and up because I really don't want to skimp on any piece of equipment going in my car.

Because the only Class D's in the AX line now are the AX-600DE and AX-3200DE both of which are not suitable for my application. I need between 1600-2000W of power.

About the crossover, so you have to run an electronic crossover or use the one built in on the amp right? How do you go about setting the frequency range for the midrange? The tweeter is simple as you probably want it to run from say 3.5KHz and up. The midrange is different as you want a LP setting of say 60hz and a HP setting of 3.5KHz. Do you need two crossovers just for the midrange to accomplish that?

I did not mean to take away from the quality of Sundown. I meant it literally when I said cheap. The two Sundown amps would probably cost me under $1k while the US Amps pair would cost me $2.5k. Pretty big difference in price which is why I'm asking for opinions of which to go with. There is one big difference between the US Amps AX-2000 and the Sundown SAZ-1500D which is that the AX-2000 is a class A/B amp while the SAZ-1500D is class D. Image Dynamics HLCD's are completely out for me. They are just way to hard to mount and fit. I've heard of both DLS and Dynaudio but the latter uses such odd sizes. I've heard Rainbow Audio as well as SEAS drivers are excellent. Does anyone have any experience with either of these. I know for home audio the SEAS Excel line of drivers are simply amazing. I've seen them used in $100k home speakers so they must be phenomenal. I wonder if thes could be used in a car application and if they would sound good.

I guess active it is. Now that just opens up the door for a bunch more questions. First of all amps, what would you go with? Option A (cheapest option): Sundown SAZ-1500D for the subs and possibly a SAX-100.4 for the active setup. Option B (slightly more expensive): Sundown SAZ-1500D for the subs and a pair of Zed Audio Gladius for the active setup. Option C (most expensive): US Amps AX-2000 (Class A/B) for the subs and an AX-TU4360C for the active setup. Second question. What components do you suggest I go with? I need to know brand, model, and where you can get them. Third question. Do you have any shops you can recommend in the San Francisco Bay Area that can install all of this for me and tune it? I'll be moving to Fremont on August 2nd. Why do you recommend I go with Alpine? I thought Eclipse made some very good head units. Thank you all very much by the way. It seems I need to learn Car Audio all over again.

Where can you find Hertz here in the US? Are there any internet dealers? If I'm going with the Hertz line, I might as well go all out and get the MLK 2. What do you think about the US Amps AX-2000 and AX-TU600C? These seem like some very good amps with a damping factor of 1000 for the AX-2000 and 600 for the AX-TU600C. It seems the more and more I play with ideas the more and more I plan on spending. I started with a $6k budget total for a sound system then it moved up to $8k and now I'm considering up to $10k. So far I'm going with the following, Eclipse AVN-6610 head unit (I need the navigation), a pair of TC Sounds OEM 10's, a pair of good components up front in the doors, two good amps to power my subs and separates, a high output alternator (any recommendations, how many amps do I need and who should I get it from), a Kinetik HC1400 under the hood and either a HC2000 or HC2400 mounted somewhere hidden in my car, sound deadening for the entire cabin, if I missed anything or you have some suggestions I'm all ears.

Do you have any specifics on the crossovers? I assume the AX-2000 is LP 24db per octave @ 50-500Hz but what is the AX-TU600C (specifically the HP). Is it HP 12db per octave @ 50-500Hz? If it is, why don't they step it up to 24db per octave for HP as well? After all this is their flagship line and people are paying top dollar for these amps.

So what would be your recommendation? Since the Zed Audio Draconia is out of stock and will be for a while, go with a pair of Gladius's? I may even go with US Amps Merlin line, specifically the MD-42 and MD-2D although it would be more expensive. What drivers would you suggest? I'm just trying to get input for now as I won't be installing any of this until the beginning of August. As for passives, the CDT Audio ES-200US crossover has many adjustments that can be made.

Active systems sound very complicated and seem like they take a long time and a good ear to get it tweaked just right.

Who do you think makes the best component speakers for under $800 (maybe up to $1k if I have to) and where can you get them. I've been looking at making a set using CDT drivers which would be the ES-06 with the braxial tweet along with the upstage kit that has the DRT-26 tweet. I'm sure there must be many different brands to choose from but I haven't really been keeping up with car audio. Some brands I've also heard of and are considering are Focal, Hertz (no idea who sells these), Morel, and Boston Acoustics. I need a 6.5" set to go in the doors of my 350Z. I was planning on using Zed Audio's The Deuce (is this a good amp?) with BB upgrade to power the components. Also, does anyone know what a shop might charge to make partial custom door panel to accomodate these speakers? The factory grill is just horrible and I've been thinking about having a shop redo the bottom half of my door panel (I'm not going to do it myself). Of course I will also have the door's inner and outer skin sound deadened. Is Dynamat still the king of sound deadening? Things in the car audio world sure have changed in 10 years. That's probably how long it's been since I picked up a car audio magazine. By the way, these will be the only mids/highs in my car which is why I need such a good set. I already have the low end. I have a pair of TC Sounds OEM 10's and I'm planning on powering those with a Sundown SAZ-1500D. Thanks in advance.

for the reply.

Thanks for the reply's. Quick question for audio-neon, when you wired your subs to your amp, did you wire each sub into 2 ohms and plug them into each set of terminals or did you wire both into 1 ohm and plug them into one set of terminals on the amp? I got the DVC versions of the subs so that I can have a 1 ohm load going into the amp but I'm just thrown off by the fact that the mono Sundown has two sets of speaker outputs. The good thing is that I found a place that can build me a 200 amp alternator for my car so that I won't have electrical probs. Hopefully a single Kinetik bettery (as big as will fit under the hood) and the upgraded alternator will hold up against those two amps. I really don't want to add an additional battery as I would not know where to hide it.

That's pretty funny that you say for show because that is exactly the opposite of what I'm looking for. I want them completely out of sight. I'm looking for a very stealthy installation. I suppose I could have the shop install some fans in there. That location is where the factory subwoofer goes and it is hidden behind the driver's seat. The only thing that I won't be able to hide will be the subs but other than that it'll look nice and clean.

Do you think it would be okay to install a SAZ-1500D and SAX-100.2 like the following pictures? The SAZ-1500D will be powering two TC Sounds OEM 10's and the SAX-100.2 will be powering a pair of CDT Braxial ES-630's. The pics are of a 350Z.