Hey Kevin,
What was Tom doing to your car on Saturday? Can't wait to see your new Reus setup.

I'm thinking about getting Rick to change my Eclipse head unit to the Becker head or something that looks a little more stock. My Eclipse just looks out of place. I prefer the stealth look.

Swordsman,
I'd like to compare your 3x10" subs to my 4x8" subs. Did they have to remove your seat to get the sub in? Did you get the rear view mirror tweeters? I live in Seal Beach too

Mel

 

Mel,
he was just polishing my inner lip of CF mirror... had them send the inner and repaint the inner...b/c it was a custom made one... so the inner wasn't that well built...

he was also checking out some wirings for gauges and etc...
will send my car back again before the weekend to fix some other minor parts ^_^

 

Nice system.

Reus has tons of experience doing 996 so the install has a custom yet OEM look. Combine that w good equipment, you have a winning sound system. To get great sound, the right combination of components is needed. Knowing which mix of components comes from experiment and experience.

I prefer the CF over the plastic. Actually, suede would be cool if you have other suede interior pieces too.

While I like great sound, I wouldn't want 200lb of equipment to slow me down. Keep that in mind too.

 

Yea, I saw those but i didn't really need the nav as I have a mobile nav unit and I hate push button volume. I perfer a **** for volume. So to spend all that extra $ for things I don't need or like didn't make sense.

 

Saw your car at Reus Kevin - looks sick!

 

I saw Robert at the Blue Oyster Boy in Police Academy...

 

We should definitely meet up since you're also in SB. Actually we were also going to do the 4x8" subs but later Rick decided to do the 3x10" instead. No rear view mirror tweeters and yes they'd to remove the seats to get the subs in.

Peter

 

You guys are so lucky to be out there. How would you like to be stuck here outside Philthadelphia.

 

You used caps??? haha.

I am not knocking Reus. I would like to hear a Reus. I would also like to hear a Reus compared to one of my systems, even my system in my boat. I do my own installs and have $ 10k in my 90, $ 14K in my TT, and $ 17k in my boat equipment. I have used just about everything out there and every combination of everything out there. The below table is just speakers I have that did not make the cut including MB Quart QSD, Focal Utopias, McItnosh, Dynaudio, CDT and more.

Candidly, I am a bit skeptical though because of the Eclipse head units on the front end. I have Eclipse head units sitting around that did not make the cut. I actually thought the Eclipse signal was about 4th or 5th when compared to other high end stuff. The McIntosh, Nakamcihi, the $ 1,400 copper chassis Sony CDE???, the high end Clarion pro line all sounded better then both of the high end Eclipse head units I had.

The head unit is the key. Without a brilliant clean, color free signal, McIntosh amps does not sound any different than low end garbage.

Regarding speakers, you just cannot compare tweeters like that and too easy to manipulate such a comparision that it is pretty meaningless. The crossover points are different on different tweeters and when paired with a speaker that is not built to function optimally as the same crossover point as the tweeter, it ain't gonna sound good.

In their demonstrations, did they use MB Q series tweeters or those big old MBQ100 tweetters which I can atest are sweet, but vastly expensive (sitting on my table in picture). There is also a huge differnece in tweeter quality just between th TN 28 and the TN51 used in the Focal Utopia series. Their lower end tweeters are very harsh as are lower end MB Quart tweeters which are screechy.

Someone makes their stuff. Curious why no one knows who does or if amps a, a/b/, d, t or whatever. I am guessing, but may be wrong, that they did not use your McIntosh amp for mids and highs is because of an impedience or sysem matching issue. This is a bad example, but hypothetically kind of like Bose using a 1 ohm or low impedience set up to optimize effieciency, use small amps, small speakers, get huge sound and all of that. McIntosh amps need a clean lower voltage singal preferably around 3 volts whereas Eclipse and some others use higher voltage singal to mask sound issues imo and they don't work well with McIntosh.

 

Rob,
talking about sickness... ur car is the #1 in such category...
i love ur car when i saw it @ reus...

care for a trade? hahahahaha

 

Doug,
After reading and seeing this pic it is obvious you know your ****. Through time, energy, trial, error, experimentation etc.
I did the best research I could locally and with the web and I kept comming back to Reus. I love my system in my cab and it is hard to imagine a much better sounding system given the constraints of the car. That being said, it is certainly possible and maybe probable that your system would exceed the sound of a Reus system in a similar car. I wish I lived near you and we could get together, I would love to hear your feedback on my sound(good/bad) and I would love to hear yours. I live in NJ.

As far as head units go, I heard that the Naks are not dependable but sound great, and the Mc also. I had no access to those. Believe me Rick would put any head unit in there I wanted, he suggested eclipse and others did so I went with them. The cheapest part of the system. I do not like the ergonomics of the unit but I thought the sound is great. I felt that if in the future a better sounding and more user friendly unit becomes available I could switch.

 

I agree with Nick. It's obvious that you know what you are talking about as sometimes trial and error is the only means of finding out what is good and bad. In fact, I am beginning to think that you are either in the car audio business with all of that equipment or have money growing on trees that allows you to try expensive car audio equipment and throw it on the shelf if it does not meet your standards. Regardless, I will preface this by saying that I am by no means an expert but I have heard some award winning sound systems. By award winning, I mean seriously recognized IASCA sound off competing vehicles. Not one show wonders. Yes, I do know that just because it is an IASCA winner, it does not mean that it is the ultimate. IASCA is now like the SEMA show, all about the bling and not about the sound anymore. I am referring to IASCA winners that were recognized for their sound quality not their presentation. There are few factors that you have to consider here. If you are talking about assembling the best of the best components and doing some super trick one off installations then the sky is the limit.

The only car that I can think of that will blow away any vehicle out there is Earl Zausmer's BMW 540. The guy spent $50k and had 2000 man hours of labor in it. Yes it won 90% of the shows that it entered and was featured in something like 275 magazines but it also took 2000 hours of installation and has over 1000 lbs of equipment and materials in it. He put in two 30 watt Milbert tube amps ($5,000) and tore apart $13,000 worth of B&K Matrix 801 and Silver Signature speakers for parts. He also spent $7,000 on interconnects and speaker wires and $2,000 in dynamat. The Dynamat alone weighed in at 400 lbs. He also cut out the floorboards to make room for subwoofers and had to modify the car's fenders but the end result was that he had the ultimate car audio system. The kicker is that the system was designed as a sound off vehicle not for daily use. The speakers are all located in the front of the car and the listener would position his head with a laser alignment guide because the system used precise time alignment for ultra precise imaging.

Now let's compare that to the Reus system.

1. Expensive but nowhere close to what you have spent on your TT.
2. Installed in one day by one technician that will fly out to you and do the installation in your office parking lot or garage.
3. Totally stealth installation. No holes drilled and no modifications to the vehicle. If you look in the car you would never know there was an aftermarket sound system.
4. Completely reversible installation. In fact, for a flat predetermined fee, Reus will remove the system and install it in your next vehicle and if your next vehicle is not a Porsche they will do what is necessary to make adapt it to your next vehicle. 5. Lifetime warranty - They sent a technician to my office 2 and 1/2 hours from their facility to diagnose and take care of a rattle.
6. The speakers can not be localized no matter how hard you try.
7. The sound quality is outstanding. We are not talking about good or great. We are talking about precise 3-d spatial imaging that is at least equal to my $4,000 Energy Veritas 2.8 speakers with Adcom amplification and $500 MIT bi-wire speaker cables or my $6,000 KEF Reference III speakers with McIntosh amplification and $500 MIT Terminator bi-wire speaker cables.

Granted, these two systems are by no means the ultimate by true audiophile standards but honestly it is about my limit as far as ability to tell a difference. Truly esoteric stuff like Krell, Mark Levinson or Audio Research maybe better but to me it's about the same as what I have. Some people in England claim to be able to tell the difference between a stereo system plugged into a house wired with silver wire as opposed to copper wire. That's nonsense and a bit extreme to me.

Besides we are talking about sound quality in a car. So references to home audio equipment are moot. In fact we are talking about imaging in a convertible Porsche with completely stock speaker locations. 2 pointed at the front window, 2 pointed at your calves and 2 pointed towards each other in the back seat. Achieving any kind of imaging using those restrictions is quite a feat in itself. Even my 2003 745Li has a 13 or 15 speaker logic 7 system that has the worst imaging that I have ever heard. Not only can you localize the speakers, the vocals seem to come from the footwells or directly behind your ears depending on how far back your seat is. My point is that you could assemble equipment that is individually the best of the best but if it doesn’t work in the 996 environment then it’s a moot point. The Reus system is designed for the acoustics of the car and works harmoniously so it doesn’t matter to me what class amp they use all I know is that it sounds better than any system that I have heard from any local installer or even installers out of my area. The closest competitor that I can imagine is Paris Audio. They have a very nice system for the 996 but they require several days for the install and it is not completely stock looking. They will do a footwell sub that cuts into passenger compartment legroom or put subs behind the seats. Although sound quality is fantastic, imaging is not like the Reus system.

I agree with you about the head unit issue. The head unit is key to a good system and I think the Nakamichi CD-700 is a great head unit but it is also $1200 and not very reliable. It’s design is almost perfect for the interior of a Porsche but the Eclipse is a good compromise. I personally feel that Sony head units sound terribly bright and have never heard a Clarion Pro head unit. I do not have an Eclipse in my car. I have an Alpine head unit and I chose it for it’s MP3 playback ability and built in XM radio. I wanted to switch to the Eclipse but the day that I was down at Reus, they were unable to get one for me and I haven’t had a chance to go down there since. Yes, the choice to use an Alpine may be a compromise but again, my system sounds terrific and it fits my needs. I don’t think I would be able to tell that much of a difference anyways @ 120mph, with the top down and my Fabspeed exhaust screaming in the background. The Reus system sounds loud, clear and sweet. That’s all I require of my sound system.

Again, I don’t doubt that your system sounds great. In fact, I would love to hear it as I would like to know what a $14k TT system sounds like but the Reus system is pretty damn good. I can’t imagine any system outperforming it. Seriously… give Rick a call and ask him to hook you up with a customer car in your area. I am sure that there is someone in your area with a Reus system as he does installs all across the country.

 

I agree... The carbon fiber looks much better then the plastic!!

 

Robert,
I asked Rick about the head units, when I discovered the problems with my eclipse. I asked him to rate the head units on a 1 to 10 scale with eclipse being 10. He said pioneer is a 7. Then I asked about alpine and he said a "6". He said I should stay with the becker unit before switching to an alpine. Right before my system was done a client with a cab and Rick's system(but the older becker head unit) came in to visit. I got to hear it and this was the first exposure I had to hearing one of Rick's system. It sounded great, but in my opinion something was lacking. Rick said that my system would sound 25% better due to the head unit difference. He was right.
Over the last month of ownership I have come to love my system even more. If you have the $300 or so I would highly recommend the change.....if you can live with the (IMO) poor ergonomics.

 

The upper end Nakamichi changer (I cannot recall model number, but it was the $ 1,000 one) was very unreliable. It had the separate control box. I had two and both of the loading mechanisms screwed up on them. A good solid jolt to the unit was good enough to screw it up and get the error. The single loader units were fine. Supposedly, after a certain date their loading mechinisms on the upper end changers were retrofitted with a part that prevent the screw up. I say supposedly, because I think they finally discontinued that model.

My systems were all trial an error. I use electronic crossovers. I try to stay away from processing because that is just something in the signal line to add noise, but the new digital porcessers are great because you have so many tuning points to incrase and decrease frequencies to compensate for poor frequencies responses or off axis issues. But you need a good ear or some fairly expensive equipment to do this correctly.

That is where trial in error come in. Car interiors are not naturally condusive to sound and imaging. I have found certain tweeters and certain speakers work really well with off axis placements and are still able to image. I have the rainbow reference spekers that are lower door mounted in my 90 and the voices or soundtanage sounds like it is soming from above the center of the dash and below the rear view mirror. It is amazing how well the Rainbows image, but they also cost something like $ 6k back when I bought mine. Those speakers are the shyte and you will likely never find un blown pair used because no-one is unhappy with those.