schoo510

Hey guys,

I have a Mercedes C300 and I'm looking to swapt out the front components, rear coaxial speakers, add a 5 channel Audison Amp with a Kicker Solobaric keeping the stock head unit alone.

My question is should I go with Focal speakers or JL speakers? Anyone has experience with these brands? I'm more into the highs and clarity of the speakers, which would be a better fit? Please advise. Thanks in advance for the help.

AkaSigFreak

Focals are famous for the home speakers. Their car audio speakers (at least the lines that most buy) are OK. The Utopia series (Focal Kit N°7 - Focal Utopia Be 6.5" 3 Way Component System) is likely to be one one most amazing frickin speaker systems ever produced for car audio. They also cost around $5K.
JL Audio are nice. But it also depends on which line you go with. Remember- in brands like these you get what you pay for. They both offer reasonably priced sets but don't expect them to sound like the Utopias or MB Quart Q series.
If you go with JL- Go all JL (amps, components, subs).
If you want the Audison amp- the Focals are a nice match to it (I wouldn't do a Kicker sub unless you want booming bass. Try Image Dynamics (incredible) or the JL Audio W3 or W6. Take your time, shop around and don't settle for anything you are not 100% happy with. You will regret it in the long run.

schoo510

The audio shop recommended me on the Focal 165VR component over the JL Audio c5 650 component, I will install these soon and wanting some advise from the forum. I heard the MB Quarts Q series are made in China now and its not as good as before. For the amp, I'm pretty sure I will go with the Audison 5 channel amp and I'm thinking about a JL 10" W3 for the sub. I dont want too much bass, just something that gives it a good solid hit.

AkaSigFreak

I would probably agree. The Focal will have a well balanced sound. The only advantage I see with the JL is the silk dome tweeter. Silk domes are usually more natural sounding (metallic tweeters can sound harsh at times). Sorry. The new MB Quarts don't even offer the Q series any more. That's sad since that was their highest line of speakers. STUPID!
Good luck with your decisions.

tategoi

Focal. With beryllium tweeters. You will love the sweet highs.

schoo510

Thanks guys for the opinion, I think I will go with the Focal and the Audison 5 Channel amp.

What do you guys think about running these with the stock headunit? Will it be a huge improvement in sound quality or will it be a waste of money to change all these and keep the stock headunit?

emerged

on my b7 A4, I have focal utopias front and rear, w7 13.5 subs, Jl audio amps powering both speakers and subs. Its sick!

schoo510

wow...Utopias are hella expensive, how much did it cost for your whole system?

emerged

a lot....i am an audio *****, which is why I did it. My c350 has the upgraded sound system, so not planning on doing that yet.

schoo510

It would be sweet, if I can find a used Utopia set...

emerged

you can find a used set on craigslist or recycler, I am not very active on this forum to see if a set would appear on this site or not. I was just lucky enough to get sponsored for my parts, so I didnt pay anything close to retail.

Not many people want to shell out this kind of money on speakers, focal offers other brands k2p, polyglass, etc. All of which are great speakers, my girlfriend is running k2p's all around and sound fantastic. You can pick up a set for around 450, if you would approach a car audio shop, I am sure they would work out a deal for you.

Other companies have equivalent speakers to focal, MB Quart, dyna-audio. High end speakers will cost you a pretty penny, regardless of name brand. Whats even harder, is to find shops that have these speakers on display for you to hear.

My friend has the MB Quart Q series in his Jetta, front and rear components. They sound great, just are very power demanding. He is running JL Audio 300.4 amp with these speakers, hard to tune them.

Another thing, if you will be running all of this on a stock unit, you should invest in something similar to JL's clean sweep. Factory output, is never as good as an aftermarket unit. When shopping around, lots of factors affect your overall decision, price, output, etc.

If you purchase high end speakers, you need an amp to power theme without a problem, which good amps are not cheap. So when buying $400 speakers, you need to spend at least that on a good 4 channel amp.

I am not sure where you are located, but I am sure you can find good shops around your area or search eBay. Good deals always come up.

sorry for long post.
-randy

webada

many good posts here. I'm a newbie on these sort of stuff. How would you compare these aftermarket system to HK system that came with the mm?

emerged

^apples and oranges. HK for factory is great, for what it is, factory. The one we have in our 350 is great, good mid bass, decent high, but it lacks clarity you would find in some aftermarket systems.

Most people can conform to a stock system, some cannot. My reason for not changing out components is you spent the extra 2k (I think), might as well enjoy it. You can have volume all the way up and still enjoy it.

the HK system, is great though, not saying anything terrible on it. I enjoy it when I am in the car. It is substantially better than a non HK system.

muhammed

Look I believe if you are seeking a high-quality speaker that is not so expensive like focal and hertz speakers you should consider the JL 6.5 speakers