When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Quick take and review: I have only had a little time to play with it and listen to it but it's obviously much better and cleaner sounding than my Kenwood amp. Everything sounds better and much more like what I was expecting from my sound upgrade from the beginning. Much of the harshness I was complaining about is gone or diminished greatly. Even using the Pioneer preset EQ choices, which was unbearable with the Kenwood, now gives you a listenable sound. I ran the Pioneer's auto time alignment and auto EQ option and it did a good job setting up a base EQ that only needed a little tweaking. The auto time alignment seems to have come out good also. So far everything just seems to be going much smoother and much easier to tune. I wish I would of went with a better amp from the get go, probably would of saved me a lot of grief. I can't say much about it in comparison to other brands, but compared to the Kenwood it is much improved system with some additional features and options as well.
Quick take and review: I have only had a little time to play with it and listen to it but it's obviously much better and cleaner sounding than my Kenwood amp. Everything sounds better and much more like what I was expecting from my sound upgrade from the beginning. Much of the harshness I was complaining about is gone or diminished greatly. Even using the Pioneer preset EQ choices, which was unbearable with the Kenwood, now gives you a listenable sound. I ran the Pioneer's auto time alignment and auto EQ option and it did a good job setting up a base EQ that only needed a little tweaking. The auto time alignment seems to have come out good also. So far everything just seems to be going much smoother and much easier to tune. I wish I would of went with a better amp from the get go, probably would of saved me a lot of grief. I can't say much about it in comparison to other brands, but compared to the Kenwood it is much improved system with some additional features and options as well.
That's awesome! So along with much better sound quality how about power and headroom? Have you pushed it much yet?
That's awesome! So along with much better sound quality how about power and headroom? Have you pushed it much yet?
I haven't pushed it much but the door speakers are definitely hitting harder. I haven't gone back to finish the sound deadening, so right now the only difference is the amp, but yeah the mid bass coming out of the door took me by surprise. I'm not sure how to judge headroom so I don't want to mislead you with inaccurate info. I was hoping to take the car out for an extended drive to get a good feel for the new sound but it's been raining here today so I have been stuck messing with it in the garage. I really need you or racebum to demo this amp to really know if or how it stacks up to some of the JL and other comparable amps.
i may at some point. the morel amps appear to be the best value on the market now. if any of the local stores i'm in with get one i could probably talk them into demoing it overnight
I will probably be looking to upgrade the rear speakers soon. Right now I have been keeping the rears off because the sound is not up to par with the fronts. I wanted to ask, is it ok to mix brands and go with another brand other than Focal in the rear? Or is it a bad idea to mix speaker brands? Any thoughts from anyone?
I will probably be looking to upgrade the rear speakers soon. Right now I have been keeping the rears off because the sound is not up to par with the fronts. I wanted to ask, is it ok to mix brands and go with another brand other than Focal in the rear? Or is it a bad idea to mix speaker brands? Any thoughts from anyone?
you can mix. the rears come in as fill. i wouldn't go too cheap though. something around the $200 mark maybe? morel tempo ultra co-ax. focal flax {these are probably still more} typically a person can spend 2x as much on the front stage as the rear.
you can mix. the rears come in as fill. i wouldn't go too cheap though. something around the $200 mark maybe? morel tempo ultra co-ax. focal flax {these are probably still more} typically a person can spend 2x as much on the front stage as the rear.
Agree 100%. I would always sink the most money in the fronts but I wouldn't skimp on the rears. I think definitely the $200 neighborhood or more if you can swing it.
Also, your subwoofer selection and enclosure design are super critical.
Ok, good to hear. I definitely don't want to go with a cheap speaker. I don't want to add any scratchy or shrilly kind of sound to my system by going with a budget speaker. I will probably lean towards one of the Morel speakers for the rear since I already have the Morel amp and don't want to mix and match my system too much. I have lower end Focals in the rear now, but want to go in a different direction.
So how do you like the sound of the new Focals? Any harshness or fairly smooth and pleasing to the ear?
They sound good. I'm not saying they are the best, but no harshness. They sound like a good quality speaker. I do keep the tweeter setting turned down a little at -3 on the crossover, which is the middle setting. But they are not pointed at me and I don't really have any complaints. I wish I could compare them to the Morel Hybrid in my car with my system but it would be way too much work to get that to happen. Actually i would love to here every speaker in my car, lol, and then decide. But I do believe that Racebum knows his **** though, and I do believe him when he says that the Hybrids would probably sound better. He has heard a lot more speakers than I can ever hope to. The KRX2's are definitely the best speakers I have owned but that is not saying much so I don't want to over sell them. They do look good and sound good, but I'm still sure there is better sound out there. I just don't have the time and resources to chase it down.
Last edited by TorchRedFred; 10-17-2017 at 05:27 PM.
They sound good. I'm not saying they are the best, but no harshness. They sound like a good quality speaker. I do keep the tweeter setting turned down a little at -3 on the crossover, which is the middle setting. But they are not pointed at me and I don't really have any complaints. I wish I could compare them to the Morel Hybrid in my car with my system but it would be way too much work to get that to happen. Actually i would love to here every speaker in my car, lol, and then decide. But I do believe that Racebum knows his **** though, and I do believe him when he says that the Hybrids would probably sound better. He has heard a lot more speakers than I can ever hope to. The KRX2's are definitely the best speakers I have owned but that is not saying much so I don't want to over sell them. They do look good and sound good, but I'm still sure there is better sound out there. I just don't have the time and resources to chase it down.
Yeah, I am anxious to hear Morels. When I do some more work on my system next spring that is the direction I am probably headed, possibly my amps, as well. Back in the day, when I managed a high end audio store, true audiophiles who knew speakers and speaker design talked about the quality specifically of Morel and Dynaudio. There were others but those two I remember always hearing about as manufacturers of high quality individual drivers and the way Racebum describes the sound, that is the same type of sound I crave. If you truly have heard enough audiophile quality sound/music it becomes quite easy to identify.
Really, with Crutchfield's return policy, you could send the Focals back and order Morels and try them out, too!! But there is also something to be said if YOU like how they sound. Many folks love the sound of Klipsch, Cerwin Vega, etc..., speakers that are efficient that play loud and relatively clean, great for hard driving rock and roll. I totally get that and actually don't mind jamming out that way from time to time, but if you would ever get to hear some true audiophile sound it will spoil you big time. What are you doing subwoofer wise?
I thought about ordering the Morels from Crutchfield to test them out, but the problem is they are $750 from Crutchfield. Then it's also all the effort involved to test them and send back a set. I'm trying to stop myself from getting too involved because next I'll want to test out an Alpine head unit and so on and so forth.
As far as subs go, I bought a shallow JL sub and box from Double D Mods. I know it's not the best set up but plan on getting everything else right before I decide if I want to swap out the sub and box for something bigger and better. I was expecting more from the whole system I got from Dennis but in this case it wasn't really his fault since many are or were happy with it. In hindsight I wish I would of done everything differently from the get go. I tried to take the easy route and in this case I ended up getting burned and not happy with the results. My lack of knowledge led me to believe that because others raved about how well everything sounded I thought I would be happy with it too but definitely not the case.
I thought about ordering the Morels from Crutchfield to test them out, but the problem is they are $750 from Crutchfield. Then it's also all the effort involved to test them and send back a set. I'm trying to stop myself from getting too involved because next I'll want to test out an Alpine head unit and so on and so forth.
As far as subs go, I bought a shallow JL sub and box from Double D Mods. I know it's not the best set up but plan on getting everything else right before I decide if I want to swap out the sub and box for something bigger and better. I was expecting more from the whole system I got from Dennis but in this case it wasn't really his fault since many are or were happy with it. In hindsight I wish I would of done everything differently from the get go. I tried to take the easy route and in this case I ended up getting burned and not happy with the results. My lack of knowledge led me to believe that because others raved about how well everything sounded I thought I would be happy with it too but definitely not the case.
Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you have to learn by trial and error and paying a few extra clams to get it the way you want it. I think you are on the right track though, esp with the Morel amp as you have to bet it is VERY clean power. You probably know my opinion on head units but I have heard the Pioneer sounds pretty good if you get a good add on DSP. I had so much better results with Alpine, but I don't have a DSP yet either and my opinion is based on head to head comparison using the processor of the head units. Alpines Dig to Analong converters sound superior to me. My lossy MP3's even sounded good.
Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you have to learn by trial and error and paying a few extra clams to get it the way you want it. I think you are on the right track though, esp with the Morel amp as you have to bet it is VERY clean power. You probably know my opinion on head units but I have heard the Pioneer sounds pretty good if you get a good add on DSP. I had so much better results with Alpine, but I don't have a DSP yet either and my opinion is based on head to head comparison using the processor of the head units. Alpines Dig to Analong converters sound superior to me. My lossy MP3's even sounded good.
I do know what you mean with the Pioneer sound. When I had it hooked up to my stock Bose system I didn't have any issues and wasn't expecting great sound either just better than stock and it was a nice improvement. But after upgrading the rest of the system I am starting to agree with you guys about the Pioneer since I struggle to get the sound right.
I'm glad you mentioned getting a DSP though because that is something that is on my to do list down the road. Right now I plan on deciding on a pair of nice rear speakers, but after that my plan is I was thinking of getting an Audison bit 10 to see if I could tune everything just right to put the sound over the top for me. At this point I am more inclined to go the DSP route and keep the Pioneer because I do like it for it's ease of use and features.
Since all the music is only recorded in two channels (and the corvette doesn't have a back seat), I took what I would have spent on the rear speakers and added it to the front stage budget. I ended up buying raw Morel Ti drivers from PartsExpress.com and soldered up my own passive crossover (and zobel) networks. I run each side on a pair of bridged channels on my 300/4 with the gains turned down. Tons of headroom in the amp, awesome sound quality. This may not be fore you if you are only comfortable buying complete component speaker sets as opposed to "rolling your own" on the crossover and component selection, but it may help others reading this.
I also ended up improving the subwoofer to keep up with my front stage, see the bottom octave thread there...
Since all the music is only recorded in two channels (and the corvette doesn't have a back seat), I took what I would have spent on the rear speakers and added it to the front stage budget. I ended up buying raw Morel Ti drivers from PartsExpress.com and soldered up my own passive crossover (and zobel) networks. I run each side on a pair of bridged channels on my 300/4 with the gains turned down. Tons of headroom in the amp, awesome sound quality. This may not be fore you if you are only comfortable buying complete component speaker sets as opposed to "rolling your own" on the crossover and component selection, but it may help others reading this.
I also ended up improving the subwoofer to keep up with my front stage, see the bottom octave thread there...
Is there a link missing based on your last comment?
10-08-2017, 12:09 PM
