Great system at a great price?

How about world class gear and less than $1500? Cadence Z4000, $295.95 + shipping ( http://www.usacaraudio.com/CADENCE.htm ) This will provide 75X2 to the front stage, and 300X1 to the sub Adire Audio Koda 6.1 $535 free shipping ( http://www.sound-foundations.us//catalog/product_info.php?products_id=84)That is XBL2 enabled subbass (yes, supersub territory) and world class referance components. Pioneer Premier DEH-P940MP for $499+ shipping (http://www.etronics.com/product.asp?stk_code=piodehp940mp&store=&catid=319). Yes, Again, world class proven performance referance quality gear. Figuring rough shipping $1375 or so all told.

USA Car Audio again, the Cadence ZX coaxials of your size preferance. Great stuff for under a bill. Power rear fill off the HU. Image and staging is a nightmare with a rear fill.

Some how I doubt you have ever used sony stuff. Not to compare sony to alpine/eclipse or the like, but for the money (if you get good deals online and all) then it ain't bad. My deck works fine (doesn't skip, sounds great (this coming from someone that craves sq, but also someone on a budget :( ). It has only skipped in 2 situations. 1) Driving on a horrible caliche road in south texas (in the middle of no where, trust me. And 2) when I hit a near invisible speed bump going 40 mph one night in a friends neighborhood. And also, as I said, the DSO feature of they decks I think makes its quality superior to any pioneer or clarion deck in that price range (can't speck for blau, never heard one before, but I will give the benefit of the doubt that it surpasses the sony). But thats my listening taste, not yours. The amp has not had any distortion, even when I hooked my friends JL w0's up to it. Unfortunately I bought it before I knew anything about car audio and I did not realize I could get better stuff for just a bit more. Oh well. Sony subs...after using them, if you want cheap 30-50 dollar subs, they work fine, hit hard, but are in no way clear. And these are the pentagons, one of my friends has the circle ones, and the pentagons put them to shame as much as the w0 puts these to shame. But for a budget system, don't count out sony.

For what you're paying for Sony on Crutchfield you can find far better far cheaper else where on the net. But everyone knows Sony aren't worth the money really. IMHO

Below 180 on online shops, you find: JVC/lancer decks that I would rank below sony, at least from what they offer and what I have seen in the stores. Clarion/blaupunkt decks that are plain ugly and have few good features. Kenwood/pioneer decks that are probably equal to sony, but I seriously doubt higher. The bottom line is below 200 dollars, hu choice comes down to personal preference for looks and control organization. Personally, I can't stand t he two nob organization of pioneer. I don't know why, call it one of my few idiosyncrasies. Heck, below 180, I only found a handfull of decks that even had subwoofer preamp outs. That price range is where you are just getting out of the bottom end crap in the 100 dollar range and up into where the good features (4v preamps, animation, etc.) get into play. But I still don't know how you can say that when you have never owned a sony (I assume, since you have not said otherwise) deck, or doubtfully have known someone who has, that you can say they are not worth the money. If you want something that is high high end that is as close to perfect as the pocket book can buy, then no sony is not worth it, but for the 200 bucks you are dropping into a new cd player, virtually anything in that 150-200 range is just fine. Oh, and about crutchfield, I don't know why you would go anywhere else. Lower prices than retail. They include the installation materials (for hu's anyway) for free, and they have free shipping. Oh, and all my prices were from onlinecarstereo.com, for the hu's. Anyway, I have a question for you jones. Your system says you have a mb quart speaker in your dash. I am thinking about adding some infinity or JL components inside the cab of my explorer (in addition to the door speakers) and I am wondering how it sounds like that (pics would help). What is the imaging like, does it sound strange, or does it all work. Thanks.

What my plan with components is to mount them beneath the dash in an enclosure on the floor. I have an explorer and so I have a good bit of room on top of the transmission hump going through the cab between the dash and the console. Each set would be angled up and a bit back, so it would sort of be pointing at the driver/passenger each. This is a way in the future sort of thing, possibly even after upgrading my stereo, but I still like the idea. What do you think of that kf?