Full Alpine setup - good idea? (I'm looking at you, Roots!)

Thinking about getting, in this order (can't afford to do it all at the same time):
1. Alpine IDA-X305S head unit (no CD player, iPod/iPhone/USB MP3 only) to see if it sounds better than the Sony (should do - it's got top bollock DACs in it and costs nearly twice as much) - Got June 2012
2. Alpine SWR-10 10" sub to go into fitted AutoAcoustics enclosure in the hope it'll give me a good compromise between space and bass
3. Alpine SPR-50C components at the front to see if they give me decent treble but something else as well
3a. Possibly put Alpine SPR-69's in the rear bins for midrange frequencies and hike the cutoff up on the fronts if I'm still not getting the sound in my head.
4. Alpine PXA-H100 Imprint processor - to get the best out of the above
5. Alpine PDX-5 amp for the sake of completeness (and it's smaller so will fit under the seats, unlike the Genesis which is a beast and is currently mounted on the rear seat in the boot)

I loved my audio install (installed by El Dude) until I heard how utterly amazing Roots893's full Alpine setup is at Fiesta in the Park. The Alpine 'sound' is totally the sound I have in my head, if that makes sense.

Currently got at my disposal:
Sony BT3700U head unit (pretty well reviewed head unit)
Genesis Series III 4 channel amp (very highly acclaimed amplifiers)
Genesis Profile 2 Amp (not currently used)

Highs taken care of by:
JL-Audio C2-525 components up front (for the wrong side of £200, I'm a bit disappointed with these speakers; beautiful crisp treble - vocals and acoustic guitar are gorgeous, no nasty sibilant issues - but they offer nothing else)

Plus one of the following thrown into the mix for the lower end of the spectrum:
Boston Acoustics S95 2-way 6x9's in modded rear bins (for the right side of £100, these speakers are lovely - would definitely recommend, but they don't go as low as I'd like)
10" sub of unknown origin in a good AutoAcoustics fitted enclosure (sounds pleasant, tucks away nicely, doesn't give me the buttery biscuit bass I'm after - I suspect a speaker upgrade would give me the best of both worlds)
12" Genesis Sub in wonky shaped enclosure (sounds better than the 10" one but takes up half the boot)

I'm not looking for bass that will register on the richter scale, nor am I looking for window shaking volume - I just want a decent sound across the frequency range. At the moment I have perfect treble with wishy washy mids, and either pleasant but lean bass with the 6x9s (but the mids come to life), deeper but less defined bass with the 10" sub but I lose the mids so it's "boom tizz" or slightly better bass still but can get a bit flabby/uncontrolled (and takes up too much room) with the 12" sub.

Roots893's Alpine setup had a gorgeous deep, but 'tight' low end that I'd love to try and replicate.

Anyone got any experience with Alpine kit? Comments? Suggestions?

Iv'e still got a bit of work to do on the JL's Rob..

Rob looks like a tidy little list there dude k: The 305 head unit is AMAZING i most deffinately would recommend to any1 , then all i have is SPC 13cs in the front and 17s in the rear being run off an MRP400 i think!( will double check and confirmwith you ASAP)
However since FITP i have added 2 x SWR 12" 800watt and nicked the MRP(or whatever it is to run them) :shock: and now have the front and rears running indepently from 2 x T222 amps

Just a personal preference but i have never been a lover of mixing makes of ice equipment, makes sense really that Alpine or whoever will test and develop their units etc on their "own" equipment, however i fully respect and understand that people do do it and achieve much better levels of sound quaility that us mere mortals may only dream about! lol

Keep us updated on your progress k:

also just been thinking and double check the full spec of the 305 as im sure its got the imprint processor built in!

Head unit that doesn't play CD's.. :? :?

Couldn't be doing with that.. I'm a hater of compressed 'digital media' personally..even tho i do use it for convinience just like everyone does to a certain extent..

Have you checked that the volume of the enclosure you have the sub in is actually correct for the sub, and if its sealed or ported? Getting the enclosure right makes a massive difference to the sound.

Secondly, how have you got that lot wired up to the amp?

The enclosure was made by a company called AutoAcoustics, custom for the Puma boot:



It has a random 10" sub in it (XS?), the enclosure is not ported. Other than that I have no idea about its technical specifications.

It's wired to the "rear" outputs of the Genesis Series III 4-channel amp as per the wiring diagrams available on Gordon's Amp Doctor site. Good quality interconnects and speaker cable, have checked the polarities to make sure nothing's out of phase. Gain / filters etc set up as per the manual.

I reckon the head unit is the weak point in my setup. Since I posted this I've tried connecting my iPod directly to the inputs on the amp via a 3.5mm to stereo phono cable and it sounds much better.

Just in case anyone else is interested in the Alpine X305S head unit, Halfords are knocking them out for £249.99 with an additional £20 discount until Wednesday 13th (so £229.99 - which is about as cheap as it gets for one of these).

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_771447_langId_-1_categoryId_165474

Well being the impatient git that I am, I went out and bought an X305S at lunchtime and whacked it in.

First impressions: Sounds lovely - definitely an improvement across all the frequencies - the highs are livelier without having become harsh or too forward, some mids that weren't there before have popped up out of nowhere, and the bass is more pronounced and punchy.

Looks great - fantastic display, big scrolly wheel thing very easy to use. I like it.



Doesn't have bluetooth built-in, or any other tricks up its sleeve really - it just does Radio and iPod and does it well (I knew this before I bought it) - don't think I'll miss bluetooth, or the other bells and whistles the Sony offered (the Sony did all the tricks).

Feels a bit plasticy, buttons not all that satisfying - the Sony felt more substantial and well made; slightly disappointed with the tactile aspect of this headunit.

One thing I will miss is dedicated radio preset buttons - but it does have an "auto tune" function where you hold down a button for two seconds and it finds the six strongest signals, which you can subsequently flip quite easily through with the scrolly wheel thingy.

All in all, for sound quality alone I reckon it's a good buy. Not sure it's £229 better than the Sony, but it is definitely closer to the sound I'm trying to achieve.

el dude said:

Iv'e still got a bit of work to do on the JL's Rob..

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This is not a slur on your workmanship, Chris! I don't think any amount of Dynamat is going to get these JL's sounding meatier - they're just a very 'bright' sounding speaker, when matched with a 'bright' sounding head unit (the Sony) resulted in the 'wrong' sound (for my ears, anyway).

They're much happier fed a signal from this Alpine head unit.

OK, so I've had a couple of days to evaluate this head unit - so far, so good. Still like the way it looks, sounds and works.

However, I didn't really think this through. I've realised a fatal flaw in my setup - my iPhone usually goes in a TomTom GPS cradle on long journeys as it has fancy traffic updates / automatic rerouting and stuff - which means I can't listen to the music on it as the dock port is occupied by the GPS cradle.

So I either need to whack all my music on a memory stick (not sure whether this will work as well, as on the iPhone everything is split out into artist/album/playlists etc - I imagine I'd just get one long list of MP3s on a memory stick), get a separate iPod device, or fork out for the bluetooth module if I want to listen to MP3s while using the GPS. Doh!

Go back to CD's Rob, and get a nice big wallet to put them in... :lol: :lol:

So is it your components or the 6x9's which are running off hte other set of amp outputs?

To get the sub sounding good, you need a sub which "works" in the enclosure volume you have. Normally you would choose hte sub and make hte enclosure to suit, but your going to have to do it the other way round....

Also, your never going to get really good sound quality playing MP3's, especially over a bluetooth connection.

MarkB said:

So is it your components or the 6x9's which are running off hte other set of amp outputs?

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The components are always connected to one set of outputs. Then I can either have the 6x9s running off the other set of outputs, OR one of the subs. The 6x9s sound lovely, but don't go as low as I'd like. The subs each sound different, neither gives me the taut but low bass I'm after.

MarkB said:

To get the sub sounding good, you need a sub which "works" in the enclosure volume you have. Normally you would choose hte sub and make hte enclosure to suit, but your going to have to do it the other way round....

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Any pointers on how to go about selecting the right sub for my wacky enclosure?

MarkB said:

Also, your never going to get really good sound quality playing MP3's, especially over a bluetooth connection.

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I run the same MP3's (well, variable bitrate lossless AAC's actually) through a Bowers and Wilkins dock at home or via a good pair of headphones and I get the sound I want. At 192kpbs+ VBR I can't tell the difference between MP3 and CD, and neither can most people in a double-blind test. Bluetooth is noticeably worse, but the convenience/sound quality comprimise is one I'm happy with.

My issue is not so much "quality" but "timbre" - I'm not shooting for audiophile lifelike sound reproduction here; my current setup, even fed a medium bitrate badly encoded MP3 over bluetooth doesn't sound "bad", it's just not the sound in my head.