Patrick Ryan

I have been talking to a guy in Houston at Custom Car Stereo. They don't carry Focal, but they recommend Dynaudio or Hertz, which they say are comparable.

What say you?

lizardking1

Dynaudio are very smooth and natural and will not color the music like Focal tends to do. I would take Dynaudio over Focal and Hertz all day long. If you've ever heard Morel that is as close to Dynaudio sound as it gets IMHO. Allot of people describe Dan's as laid back sounding.

Oil Town FX4

Which line of hertz are you looking at? I love there High energy series and thats what will be going in mine

ibd2328

iTrader: (2)

I wouldn't go that far. They all have their own unique characteristics which creates user specified preferences.

If you are looking for good SQ at a decent price; check out Hyrbird Audio (legatia series) and Rainbow.

Focal stuff is great, but I agree, the lower end is pricey and the tweeters are a little harsh. However, the high end utopia's are ungodly and offer un-paralled SQ. I've demoed Morel, Herts, Focal and Rainbow. Focal was the winner in SQ by a fairly wide margin to my ears, with Rainbow and Morel coming in next.

The SQ is mainly in how you tune your system. Honestly, I wouldnt bother with any of those if you arent GREAT at tuning, or don't have a DSP. You would be throwing away the true capabilities of the components without a DSP.

lizardking1

I ran Rainbow Platinum "non-active", switched out the Dynaudio Esotecs which required far less tuning. Obviously, install characteristics played a role. I like the Hybrid stuff as well, Scott use to have a huge following years ago. However, I've been out of car audio a few years. I remember the best sub I've heard SQ wise was the Morel Ultimo. Unbelievable sound.

ibd2328

iTrader: (2)

I haven't heard any Dynaudio subs, but I've heard most of the others. Moreover, I agree the Ultimo has AMAZING response and wonderful clarity. I only got to hear the 12" and I was very impressed for that size woofer putting out such response. With it being a 12" sub, it was hard for me to compare them to the others. I only demoed the 8" utopia and 8" Vanadium. It was hard to compare all of them because most were powered by different amps, and to different tunes.

With that said, I wouldn't be surprised for the 8" morel to be on the same level or higher than the other two. Therefore, I can't really put an emphasis on which one has the best "SQ" because they were all different shows and set up with different specs. But I can say the Focal show was by far the best and will literally blow you away if you ever go to one. Their component set up is just unbelievable, and they don't even use their own amps for the shows(for woofers). You will probably never guess what woofer amp they used.

lizardking1

Would love to hear the new Utopias. I had a set of the older Utopias and loved the mids, but tweeter was a little bright. I see they are releasing a cheaper Utopia set. I remember getting all involved in the Zapco and Arc Audio arguments. I've ran both the Zaps Competition, Reference, Digital Reference and the Arcs XXK series which was my favorite amps at the time. I even had my very own AudioControl RTA....spent many hours tuning with that baby.

ibd2328

iTrader: (2)

The Zaps are great amps if you don't mind tweaking the xovers for hours. I think their internal components and heat sink's make them very easy to work on and customize. I've seen lots and lots of custom Zaps fitted into super tight places. They are just a solid performing and highly reliable amp.

Focal actually uses Rockford Power Series (for their woofers) in alot of demos. I was dumbfounded when I saw this, so of course I had to try one out for myself. Now I will never go back or look another amp when pushing my woofers.