Hi,
Its hard to advise without knowing your budget, but this is what I would recommend (might be too expensive for you at the moment, but remember the old saying... "you get what you pay for"). You also said you want "superb sound quality", and this does not come cheap. It doesnt matter what *anyone* tells you - its a fact. Good quality gear means good quality sound, and they dont give it away for free.
"I dont want a riduculously loud system"
Thats fair enough, but sound quality is not the opposite of sound volume, which is what some peopel seem to think. I know you can set up for SQ or SPL competitions etc, but thats beside the point. You need the capacity to generate a decent volume. For example, to get the best out of your spekaers, if you buy decent ones, youll need to provide them with a reasonable amount of power to get that coil and cone moving. You also need to overcome wind and road noise if you want to hear all the details in the track.
"something that can be removed fairly easily"
Well thats easy... unless you mean something you can take in and out at will. I assume you mean "something that can be removed easily if I sell the car". Just about any setup that uses 6" splits, a sub and an amp will be fine. you only need to worry if youre doing custom pods etc.
"not huge amounts of base to make the car fall to pieces!"
No, but you should get a decent sub of at least 10" in my opinion, so you have the bass there if you need it.
Like others have said, get a decent set of splits. If you have to use rear speakers, then they should only be fill. Ideally, for the best sound, you should have two sets of identical speakers for front and rear, otherwise they will cause interference with each other making some tones sound louder and some tones quieter. But its sometimes too expensive. I dont have any rear speakers in mine - theyre not really needed. The sound should be coming from the front if you want it to sound realistic. How often to you stand and listen to a gig with your back facing the musicians?!
Get 6" splits. Theyll fit, maybe with a spacer or a little plastic removal behind the factory speakers. Get splits that have a seperate crossover, and preferably an adjustable one, even if its just adjustable in steps. Some decent splits are diamond, rainbow, focal, boston, dynaudio, ads, hertz, Infinity (for a budget) etc.
Get a sub, and get a decent one. I think 10" is fine. Not too big, and not to small. Get a good box for it. A crappy box is just as bad as a crappy sub. Good brands are Focal, Boston Acoustics, Hertz, JL Audio, higher end alpine, Image Dynamics, Digital Designs, Diamond, Infinity (for budget), etc.
Get a head unit that is of good quality. Get one that has a high signal-to-noise ratio, high voltage outputs (4V+), equaliser of some description, three sets of pre-outs (RCAs). Good brands include Alpine, Blaupunkt, Eclipse, higher end Pioneer etc.
Get an amp if you can afford it. Good speakers will have power requirements that an amp will help to provide. Also, youll get a cleaner sound by using the low-level outputs from teh head unit and taking them to an amp. Good amps include Boston Acoustics, Audison, Zapco, tru tech, etc.
Get good quality wiring. Use decent RCA cables to go from the head unit to the amp and use decent, heavy gauge wire for taking the signal back to the speakers. Dont use that sh*t thin wire or solid-core wire that is supplied with cheaper speakers.
Do a proper install, or have it installed by someone else. The install can make or break a sound system. If youre not sure what youre doing, or youre not willing to learn and invest a decent amount of time into doing it, or if youre not very technically inclined, then pay the little extra and get a *decent* installer to do it. Go to someone who does it for a living, not one of those big chain stores that whips em in in 5 minutes and pushes you out to get the next sucker in.
Having said all that, the most important thing of all is that you get out and listen to the gear. You cant take peoples advice, because youre the one whos going to be listening to it - not them. Go to some decent audio places, that specialise in car audio, and bring your own CDs. If theyre a decent shop, theyll play your CD thru the speakers so you can hear (an approximation) of what they sound like. Theyll be different in the car of course, but its hard to hear them installed. Some companies have demo cars that drive around the different retailers. Often also the company reps that visit the retailers will have the gear in their own cars. You can always ask.
Cheers,
Scott.
