Not sure anyone else here has one of these in their car, so I decided to write up a little review in case you are looking to upgrade your audio system.

Well I have lived with it a week and here is my honest opinion....



WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

This thing THUMPS. For a single 8" driver, its amazing...fills the entire car with low end. I have my amp on about 7 for the sub, and its nice a solid. Not too much, doesnt rattle the car unless you want it to...lol....I thought the car sounded great with the Focal upgrade and just the Audison amp, but now, its truly like a really nice home stereo, or really nice bi-amped studio monitors. I am driving it (and all my speakers) with the Audison LRX 6.9 which is 950 watts total, and 230 to the sub @ 2 ohms. the seperates and the rears are getting 80 watts each at 4 ohms....The awesome thing about he sub is its not "Boomy" or annoying low end, its tight and solid...I listen to all kinds of music from Rap/Hip Hop to Brazillian Jazz to Classical...and it handles all types of music well....I almost went with another system but was told if I wanted to hear R&B and rap, it was the wrong system to get, and it would have cost me 3 times as much. This sub will work with whatever music you like.

My likes:
1. the sound....amazing.

2. looks, it looks very factory...I was asked by someone sitting in the fron seat, where are all the speakers? I pointed to just the sub....they were perplexed that so much sound seemed like ot was coming from everywhere.
3. ease of install, just plop it in, wire it up and you are done.

4. size - this thing is smaller and lighter than I thought it would be. Not much room at all lost in the footwell and the passenger can still stretch out completely.

My dislike:
1. hmmm....maybe price? Its $795, and thats not too bad for a custom box WITH the driver. so thats not really a dislike.
2. Time to get it....
A&I is a VERY busy shop and they custom make these when they are ordered, they dont have a bunch sitting on the shelf, so I did have to wait longer than I wanted, but Chris at A&I kept me in the loop and sent it out faster than I expected.

Here are some initial pics installed in my car....





Their website is:

http://www.aidesign.com

 

very cool. did you have the bose sub originally? if so, was it an easy swap?

can we see some pics of you amp install?

also, could you list the make and models of all the equipment you're using?

 

can you put a link up to A&I?

 

http://www.aidesign.com

Nope, didnt have Bose, the amp install is not cleaned up yet, I am doing that this weekend. I'l post pics of the new amp as soon as I clean up the wires. Here is what I am using:

Kenwood DDX-7015 Head unit
Kenwood G510 Nav unit (flash based and FAST)
kenwood iPod interface
Kenwood Sirius receiver
Focal 165 V3E 3 way seperates (6.5" woofer in the doors 4" mid in the dash 1" tweeter in the dash)
Audison LRX 6.9 6 channel amp with crossovers.

I did all the wiring and install of everything myself. All speakers are in the stock locations, front crossovers are where the original amp was, and the new amp is on the floor of the trunk. I had to modify the door pods to fit the 6.5" driver, it fits, but took a while to cut the stock door pod. I plan on getting 2 way Focal seperates to replace the rears and that will complete the whole thing. I am using the stock rears which sound OK, but there are no highs out of them, its just mids....Focals back there will sound very nice.

 

where did you get that amp? i looked at this one VRx 6.420

wow, that is some expensive stuff.

 

i got the amp at car audio innovations...the vrx is more expensive....the lrx 6.9 is probably better, newer technology, lower priced....will you hear a difference? i doubt it very much.

 

gotta see that sub box soon man!

 

Nice job, J!

 

Is the sub a 2 ohm driver? Or or you just saying that the amp sub output is rated at 230 wts at 2 ohms?

 

its a 2 ohm driver...dual voice 2 ohm to be exact.

 

okay, i gotta ask. are people actually paying retail for these amps? or is it significantly less? i can't get over what the MSRP is on this equipment. must be good stuff. heard quite a stir over it.

 

from their website, the lrx appears to be setup for car theater applications.

 

wrong lrx....its not in the products section, thats the old lrx, the 6.9 is a new amp and if you go to "the new lrx" on the bottom of the main page, it will give you some specs and info on the new lrx series coming out..this amp the 6.9 is the first of them...its a very versatile amp, can be used in 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 channel mode...the old lrx 6.sr is a surround theater amp. Here is a link to this amp with full specs, I paid less for it from Rod Birch at Car Audio Innovations.

http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?...roduct_id=4519

 

the vrx series i have not heard, but i do know the "new" lrx is based on the thesis amp which is about 9k...there are discounts from msrp, but not too much. I find the prices are not too much more than any other comparable amp. The Srx line is more affordable...a little less power, the lrx 6.9 has much more power and is cleaner.