We did it! We drove up to Car Audio Innovations in Roseville where Rod and his team did a significant upgrade to our sound system. They replaced the factory amplifier with a Hertz Compact 4 x 150 Watt Class D Full Range Amplifier (which fits nicely where the old amp was located, so no lost trunk space). They replaced the factory dashboard speakers with Focal Polykevlar 4″ 2-way speakers. And lastly, they replaced the door speakers (also original factory speakers) with Focal UtopiaBe 5″ Subwoofers. The car was at CAI for the entire day and we were given a loaner so we could go explore Roseville. We had a late breakfast at Four Sisters Café and we took the opportunity to see a movie (something we seldom seem to have the time to do).
I can’t begin to describe the difference in sound. It is absolutely astounding. We used The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” as our benchmark, listening to it on the way up to Roseville and on the way home. The clarity of the instruments and the voices on the return trip was amazing. And being able to actually have a nice bass bottom was icing on the cake.
We had already installed the Kenwood Excelon KDC-X997, but we hadn’t really found a good place for the microphone. Rod relocated the mic to the steering wheel column, which is perfect. He also moved the Kenwood’s rear USB wire to the top center column compartment (located just under the radio). This will be a great place to charge the cell phone!
We now have a great sound system and haven’t had to give up an inch of space. The speakers fit nicely in the original locations, with no new cuts in the dash or door panels, keeping the original look of the car, while significantly improving the sound.
We have been busy rating our music collection (using Media Monkey), doing about an hour each day. This will most likely take us a couple of months.
Now that the car is ready for the trip, I’ll move on to getting us ready (gulp). The next big item on our agenda is deciding what we will pack for this trip (and what we have to leave behind). . .
Old Amplifier
New Amplifier
New Dash Speakers
New Subwoofers
