[cdgatti]

I am looking for help deciding between 2 paths to upgrade my system. My current system is:

Stock hifi head unit.

speakers: morel HO components in doors, kicker ssmb8 underseats, morel-xtant coaxial center, BSW mids/tweets in rear.

Amps: JL xd400/4 on fronts and center. Soundstream stealth (150w/channel) on the underseats. Rears powered by head unit for weak fill.

My main complaint about this system is that it is just OK. I want it to be great. I have heard better music in stock systems, which is unacceptable given the great speakers and the power I have to them.

I am thinking 2 different paths: 1) add an alpine pxa-h800, put the soundstream on the morel components (switch from D class to AB class for better sound plus higher power), bridge the xd400 to the underseats for a power improvement (200 w/c). Put another soundstream 4 channel on the center and the rears. OR 2) buy a better amp for the front components and unerseats, something like Arc KS300.4, use the xd400 for the center and rears and buy a less expensive processor (like tha audiocontrol dqdx or pxa-h701)

My budget is $700 what do you think about these options or would you suggest something else? Thanks!

[bmw325i]

Originally Posted by cdgatti

I am looking for help deciding between 2 paths to upgrade my system. My current system is:

Stock hifi head unit.

speakers: morel HO components in doors, kicker ssmb8 underseats, morel-xtant coaxial center, BSW mids/tweets in rear.

Amps: JL xd400/4 on fronts and center. Soundstream stealth (150w/channel) on the underseats. Rears powered by head unit for weak fill.

My main complaint about this system is that it is just OK. I want it to be great. I have heard better music in stock systems, which is unacceptable given the great speakers and the power I have to them.

I am thinking 2 different paths: 1) add an alpine pxa-h800, put the soundstream on the morel components (switch from D class to AB class for better sound plus higher power), bridge the xd400 to the underseats for a power improvement (200 w/c). Put another soundstream 4 channel on the center and the rears. OR 2) buy a better amp for the front components and unerseats, something like Arc KS300.4, use the xd400 for the center and rears and buy a less expensive processor (like tha audiocontrol dqdx or pxa-h701)

My budget is $700 what do you think about these options or would you suggest something else? Thanks!

More power is definetly a good idea. An Alpine pdx f6 will give you plenty of power for the underseats and front speakers. You'd have 150watts per channel at 2 or 4 ohms. My opinion is to get rid of the center channel.

[cdgatti]

Originally Posted by bmw325i

More power is definetly a good idea. An Alpine pdx f6 will give you plenty of power for the underseats and front speakers. You'd have 150watts per channel at 2 or 4 ohms. My opinion is to get rid of the center channel.

So 325 are you pushing for the better amp and cheap processor option? Of the 2 processors which would you go with?

[bmw325i]

Originally Posted by cdgatti

So 325 are you pushing for the better amp and cheap processor option? Of the 2 processors which would you go with?

I would go with the H800. If you can't get both I would upgrade the amp first.

[cdgatti]

Well I decided to go with my first option, just bought the pxa-h800 and rux controller. I am banking on my current amps sounding great when I rearrange my system to basically overpower the speakers.

front morel components - 150 w/channel from the stl2.560
underseats- 200 w/channel from the xd400/4 bridged
center channel will have 160 w/channel from a bridged pair from the stl4.320
rears will have 75 watts/channel from the other channels of the stl4.320

These amps should be just coasting at normal listening levels with tons of headroom. Throw in proper time alignment, speaker level balancing, eq, and all the other features of the pxa and i figure this will be about as good as it gets with these stock speaker locations and saddled with 4" mids and no sub in the trunk.

[ctuna]

How much was the processor?
And where did you get it?

[bmw325i]

Originally Posted by cdgatti

Well I decided to go with my first option, just bought the pxa-h800 and rux controller. I am banking on my current amps sounding great when I rearrange my system to basically overpower the speakers.

front morel components - 150 w/channel from the stl2.560
underseats- 200 w/channel from the xd400/4 bridged
center channel will have 160 w/channel from a bridged pair from the stl4.320
rears will have 75 watts/channel from the other channels of the stl4.320

These amps should be just coasting at normal listening levels with tons of headroom. Throw in proper time alignment, speaker level balancing, eq, and all the other features of the pxa and i figure this will be about as good as it gets with these stock speaker locations and saddled with 4" mids and no sub in the trunk.

That should be perfect. I'm looking forward to your review on that setup.

[cdgatti]

got the processor and controller from techronics, in CA.

Well I only got the rux controller. Although techronics said they had the pxah800, they actually didn't have one and had no idea when they would get one. I will never deal with those shiesters again,I felt like I was dealing with the electronics underground! Looks like I will have to go with a legit retail oil talent and pay more!