Well I have decided to take the pluge and go all out ( not to mention the loss of my CDA 7893 faceplate prompts me to do so...long story) and do 5.1 in my crx.

Here is the planned layout:
CVA 1003 ( display unit)
PXA H700 ( lil bro to the F1 status piece) or PXA H510
DHA S680 ( dvd /audio changer)
Boston Z5 or Eclipse 89540 ( kicks and center )
TUAT020XM Xm tuner ( god i miss XM comedy )
Polk db5520 or Infinity 525i ( rear fill...curently in closet)
Boston Lf650 ( midbass)
JL 12w6v2 or 12w7 ( LFE...both also in closet)
JL5001 (LFE amp )
JL3001 (2) ( Left Right Center Rear Fill )
PG Basscube ( Holdover from previous system...in closet)

Whew...that was a lot....I guess membership has its previledges. Anyway,I have never had a customer who did 5.1 before and was wondering...is it worth it? Does anyone here have a system or have experienced one. I just want some insight.

Thanks
Chuck

 

Drop the Alpine pieces for a Kenwood eXcelon KVT911DVD, KSC900CTR centerchannel speaker and KDSP901 5.1DD processor instead. The center channel speaker can be modified to fit in a DIN location.

Alpine's headunits are badass (CDA7998!!!), but their indash monitor/receivers are lame and so outdated. It should however be interesting to see what Alpine has in sotre to replace them. The CVA1003 is like their entry level CD player, but with a monitor instead of a CD transport... if you must do Alpine at least stick with a 1006, since it has f/r and a nonfading subwoofer output and more AV inputs.

 

A very good idea....But the touch screen doesnt thrill me ( but its soooo cool ). Plus I want to use the few existing alpine units I have. The
1003 is just for the video source.

chuck

 

i have and friend running and eclipse 8441i with a JL 500/5 and a 500/1 in my car pushing 1 10w3, focal 6x9 rear fill, polykev 2 ways for the front and a 5" midbass/sub for my center channeling under the front console....granted this is a neon....still looks and sounds awesome...he has taken top bill in sq at some shows last year.....

my .02

 

Thanks for the info... I guess no one here has personally used a 5.1 processor in the car before... I just wanna do it 'cause it seems like fun ( and I like toys)
I'll keep everyone posted on how this turns out.

 

Although the kenwood center channel has good fitment I still perfect the center channel from alpine. You might also consider some time correction if possible, and to make the car sound perfect, a Sound DB meter from radioshack or even better, an RTA.

With the RTA or the sound db meter, you can stick an 10+ band EQ in the trunk and using the Sound DB meter and white noise (and some graphing) or an RTA (and no graphing plus instant results) you can make sure that all your speakers produce perfectly flat sound to the optimal point in the car (where you measure from)

Once the speakers are all producing flat sound (different speakers, different brands require different adjustment to make up for car losses and output) you can control your own personal listening adjustment from up front with either a parametric eq or the EQ on your deck.

My personal favorite peice is the Symmetry EXP with the 28 band add on, you can stick the panel anywhere (like in the visor!) and not only make everything perfectly flat, but you can store settings like flat (and boring), SPL, SQ, rap, jazz, rock etc. This is the optimal choice because you'd end up loosing less signal (every device added to the chain kills it a bit) since its just one peice.

Good luck and post pics! Also consider some sound dampening (the cheap stuff like rammat, phatmat and b-quiet )

-Rage