One thing you do NOT need to do is "go off the deep end" on equipment. If you are looking for sound quality (not how many decibels you can boom and how far away you can annoy the neighbors) stay away from boxes full of subwoofers and kilowatts of amps.

A good quality 100--200 watt amplifier is plenty. You'll pay $250-$300 for that. Remember you get what you pay for, but talk to several different shops because each shop will be convinced that the brands they carry are the best. Talk to the installers about the percentage of amps of different brands that come back with problems.

At the IASCA state championships (for Alaska) held this past weekend, it is interesting to note that the three best sound quality cars were all under 300 watts; two of them were running single 10" subwoofers, and the third was running a pair of 10" subwoofers. No mega-wattages, no 12" or 15" woofers. There were plenty of those kinds of cars in the competition (there was a Honda Accord with nine 15" subwoofers and well over 10,000 watts of power) but all they were was loud. You wouldn't actually listen to those stereos. To be fair, thats all those folks wanted - to see who had the loudest stereo. They didn't care at all about the sound quality portion of the contest. Different strokes, and all that...

The important aspects of setting up your system are: Vehicle acoustics (you have a good place to start with that Explorer!); Speaker types and quantities (you need at least a pair of tweeters or co-axials for treble, a pair of 6" for mid-bass, and one or two 10" for bass/sub-bass); and most important of all, speaker location (which is a subject far too complex to delve into here). There are other combinations that will work - I just happen to know from personal experience that this setup sounds pretty good. Tattoo this on the inside of your eyelids (so you can close your eyes and look up at any bright light and read it): When it comes to car audio, BIGGER IS NOT NECESSARILY BETTER. In fact, its usually worse.

Good luck with your empeg and let us know how you like it.

tanstaafl.



"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"