A few months back, after reading about Swallowtails audio upgrade by using the Arc Audio KS125.4 75 watts/channel amp and a set of Alpine 2 way speakers, I decided to investigate them.
I went to FHRX Studio's in Caringbah in Sydney as they were agents for install.
I did the upgrade in stages and installed the ARC Audio amp first with a set of Dynaudio X362 crossovers for the front factory speakers. This made a very worthwhile upgrade giving plenty of punch to the music and surprisingly extended bass response. The mid range and high end were still a little harsh and peaky at times, but liveable and certainly still better than standard. I also had Dynamat sound absorbtion installed in the front doors and this also makes a huge difference to the bass response and aslo deadening any reasonances.
The next upgrade was to install the Audison Bit One processor to clean up the sound and add some processor tricks to give a better sound stage and depth. This made quite a difference and made the factory speakers perform very well indeed!
The last thing done was to upgrade the speakers to Dynaudio 3 ways. What beautifully made speakers these are in flesh compared to the factory almost magnetless drivers. The drivers are the MW162 woofer, the MD142 dome midrange and the MD102 dome tweeter. Wow. These things punch you in the guts and give very extended bass response and the clarity of the midrange and high end is super clear and smooth as it gets. These speakers married to the Arc Audio and Bit One soundprocessor sound magic to say the least.
I have to mention the great work that the guys from FHRX Studio did on the car. Marty, the owner, and Paul and Daniel are fantastic installers and really know their stuff. They did a brilliant job of installing all my gear and getting it to work perfectly and look great. The Dynaudio midrange and tweaters looked like they weren't going to fit in, but they applied some logic and got them to fit without hacking into any of the metal work or plastic moulding, so to re-install factory will be a breeze.
During my many visits there, the guys have been working on some very exotic cars and exotic sound systems. They were working on a Lamborghini Guillardo, a Lotus Exige and various other high end autos. Marty was showing me an install he has to do on an upcoming BMW that looks like it is going to run into $100,000 or more!! Marty also writes for some of the in-car audio mags, so he has got form.
Anyway, I can't speak highly enough of their work. His pricing was very good also.
My last possible upgrade may be to use a Arc Audio KS125.2 (70watts/ channel two channel amp) just to run the rear speakers (for fill sound) and bridge the Arc Audio KS125.4 (75 watts/ channel 4 channel amp) to give the amp 250watts/channel and give the Dynaudio speakers some real control!!
Although, Marty has put down $100 betting that I will end up putting in a subwoofer.
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Originally Posted by Benem
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