best equipment for sound quality

I need some suggestions. I want to get the best imaging out of four speakers with a head unit and an amp. What equipment will really give me the best sound quality. I once had an $700 pioneer head unit that could do this on even poor quality speakers without even an amp. Does anything exist like this on the market today?

Speaking as someone who KNOWS imaging, (and spent thousands - literally - to get there) not likely... I know that Eclipse put some usable TD settings in their heads lately, I've never used them, but I understand they are OK.

My suggestion to you would be use two MUCH higher quality speaker systems, rather than 4, and good high resolution 2 channel amp. That's not going to get your bottom octave, you'll have to have a sub for that, but a decent quality 4 channel amp, (that can be run as a 3 channel) won't cost much more than a 2 channel.

So, there's my suggestions: 2 channels, not 4, and a 3 channel amp with sub.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

haemphyst wrote:

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Speaking as someone who KNOWS imaging, (and spent thousands - literally - to get there) not likely... I know that Eclipse put some usable TD settings in their heads lately, I've never used them, but I understand they are OK.

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I played with the 7100 a few weeks back.  I think the processing included is way too lacking to build a really good SQ system.  Especially with their parametric EQ.  I was fortunate to be installing it with really good equipment (Diamond Audio's amazing D9 components, JL slash amps and a W7), so the results were great.  But a good outboard digital processor would put the 7100 to shame.

The quasi-parametric EQ is a joke to me, but I wasn't aware it was really that limiting. Good to know...

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

haemphyst wrote:

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The quasi-parametric EQ is a joke to me, but I wasn't aware it was really that limiting. Good to know...

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Yeah, there were only 3 "Q" settings, and every band only had a few center frequencies to choose from.  The deck did come with a 512 meg thumb drive that said Eclipse on it which I thought was really cool.  I also very much dislike the new control knob they use on their new decks.  It's constantly selecting a different setting than I wanted.  To go from the awesome dual knob setup of the past to this is just sad.

My friends Alpine head unit has a setting option where you can delay each speaker to get good imaging...it takes hours and hours of testing to get it all right though

aznboi3644 wrote:

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My friends Alpine head unit has a setting option where you can delay each speaker to get good imaging...it takes hours and hours of testing to get it all right though

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Shoot. It only took me about 10min to get mine right (CDA-9830). I was using a BMW audio test CD -for diagnosing their Logic7 car audio systems. awesome disc, from sub-bass(literally!) to 'make your ears hurt' high frequencies. everything in between- (if you don't have one, get one from a friend at a Beamer dealership!). Anyway, I used a track that had nothing but a 'click' that repeats over and over. It's easier to get the timing right that way.

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2013 Kia Rio -90a alternator
DDX470HD GTO14001 GTO1014D (x3)
Big3 in 1/0G
1/0G to GTO14001

Of course, aznboi3644, this is probably childs' play (simple time-correction) when it comes to these guys!

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2013 Kia Rio -90a alternator
DDX470HD GTO14001 GTO1014D (x3)
Big3 in 1/0G
1/0G to GTO14001