I live in Bismarck, ND where we only have a couple of car audio stores. One of them only deals with Diamond, Eclipse and Crossfire products but I rarely see these brands talked about in any of the car audio forums I have visited.
The folx here are telling me that these are high end products. Hehe. But I am not about to go on the word of a salesman.
Anyone have any info on the quality and value of the products offered by these companies?
They are all good brands, but I lean towards Diamond and Eclipse between the choices, just personal preference. Personally, I'd do Eclipse head unit, amps, signal processing, and subs, and Diamond HEX series components.
Thanks Jonathan. I've already got my HU(Pioneer) and subs (old kicker competitions). I was trying to decide what speaker comps and amps to go with. I like the Diamond speakers. I listened and them compared to the eclipse stuff and they were just way better. Even the motorsport series was better than the higher end eclipse (for what I like in sound that is). The highs in the Eclipse stuff just sounded harsh. In the end I'll make my purchases from INet stores as the prices are so much lower. I just wish I had a better selection of speakers and amps to listen to, locally, for making decisions. I hear a lot about infinity speakers but no one here has em for me to listen to.
Another question I guess I should ask .. Should I replace the rear door speakers with midbass drivers? Never had rear speakers before and I've read a few things about them pulling the image from the front.
They can pull the soundstage forward if not done properly, and midbass drivers are the best option for rear fill, and can sound very good and add ambience if done properly (need a bandpass crossover, around 150 hz to 2.5k, then set them to the proper level, IMO it's best to barely hear them, basically you wouldn't know they were there unless you cut off the fronts). The Infinity Perfects are a great speaker set, especially for the price, and would be cheaper than the HEX series. I think you'll love the Diamond HEX series if you get them, I like them better overall than the Perfects, warmer sound to them, tweeter isn't overly strong. As far as the amps, Eclipse amps are great and aren't terribly expensive for the quality you get out of them. Totally depends on your budget.
I bought Diamond components but because of cost restrictions I went with the Motorsport 3 (M351) series. I listened to them in the store and they sounded real nice. I also got the M661XL3 midbass drivers for the back.
For the amps I actually went with one multi-channel amp. The Kenwood Excelon KAC-X650D. There's a few kids (okay .. they're actually in their mid 20's) who are running them here in the neighborhood and they say that they are very happy with them. So now I wait for everything to get here. Guess I should build my sub box while I wait. The F150 doesn't have a lot of room under the seat in the back so I'm putting the old 8" kickers into a 0.8 sealed box.