Here is my 2002 Corolla.

Follow me through the timeline of my Corolla's sound system. From the beginning, I didn't know much at all. But I knew I wanted great sound quality.

July 10, 2002
It comes with only 2 crappy door speakers and so I felt that I needed rear fill badly. So I got these Inifinity Reference 5 1/4". Rated at 45W RMS.
Infinity Reference 552i
Then it became noticeable that these rear speakers were much much better sounding in quality and loudness than the cheap paper front speakers. In order to get good sound with this configuration I had to set the fade to the rear speakers. So the sound stage was behind us. It's like facing the back of a concert!
That was when the car audio bug bit me and I haven't been able to stop ever since.

September 17, 2002
Obviously, the next step was to replace the front speakers. I was happy with Infinity so I got the Infinity Reference 605cs 6 1/2" component speakers rated at 90 W RMS for the front.
Infinity Reference 605CS
From then I thought that would be all I would need to have great sound.... boy, I've learned so much since then!

December 26, 2002
For example, the factory CD deck powering the speakers was only rated at 30 W peak.... who knows what it was at continuous. Then while I was in school without my car, I had plenty of time to decide that to get great sound at an achievable price was to get a deck. You can't imagine how long 4 months of school is when everyday you're thinking about getting your car back.


I looked at the Future Shop web site a lot (because I was still a novice believing they had it all). I had always been disappointed in decks by Sony, Kenwood, JVC, Rockford Fosgate, etc. Pioneer was okay, but still not satisfactory. Every deck I looked at failed in the looks department. So came Boxing Day and I decided I wanted a deck that day. There was some driving around between 2 Future shops because one didn't have an installer in that day. Then I gave up and considered 2 JVC decks: one was the cheapest MP3 deck Future Shop had at $250 KD-SX980 and the KD-SH909 for about $500. After a lot of hesitation I decided that I would get the $500 one. But before we went into the Future Shop, I said to Lisa, let's go to Audiosource (a small place in Cambridge) and look around. Then we went in there and my jaw dropped at all the decks that Future Shop didn't have such as Alpine, Blaupunkt, Audiobahn, and Panasonic. Lisa immediately noticed the beautiful Panasonic decks... they are silver with bright blue lights.... simply beautiful. I studied them and they were indeed the best looking decks I had ever seen. I still can't believe how much better looking they are than every other deck. Then I saw the Alpine decks and wasn't so sure about the Panasonic line. I knew Alpine was a leader in decks... I said this to Lisa, and she was decided on the Panasonic decks because they looked amazing.
I agreed and bought the CQ-DFX572U for $390 plus tax and install. It was what I was looking for and so much better looking than the JVC one I was going to settle for.
Panasonic MP3 deck
It has 50x4 W peak, 25x4 W RMS MOSFET. Three 2.5 V pre-outs including subwoofer volume control. And of course a great looking slim remote. All MP3 decks come with remotes as far as I know. I always hold the remote when I drive -- it's such a great luxury.
After the deck was installed, I was shocked at how my CDs sounded so much clearer! I knew I was going to get more power into my speakers so I thought they would just be louder. It also cleans up radio signals... not that I care because I never listen to the radio.

February 2, 2003
Then I went to Natural Sound in Kitchener just to take a look around because I had been there before and they had a good selection. I wasn't planning on buying anything because I was happy with what I had. But I am only complacent for so long and soon I was researching subwoofers... wondering how much better my car would sound with a couple subs. At this time I was using my door and rear speakers which are designed for midrange as my bass. The great selection was what drew me to Natural Sound for a third time, this time with intent to one JL sub with one JL amp. That day I walked out with a JL 10w3v2 sub and 250/1 W amp. I'm not going to talk about cost anymore because that's just embarassing because I know Natural Sound is overpriced but I bought from them anyways. AS soon as I got into the car, I had pretty loud bass. I was happy.... for a day. Although the bass was loud enough I noticed that it was sloppy... I'll borrow a term I heard and call it overhang, where the bass beat would hit and there was still some trailing bass after each beat. I emailed Natural Sound about it right away and they said I had to "break in" the sub first. So I did that and it still didn't sound right. Meanwhile this whole time I was thinking that I wanted to have a sub and amp that I could keep forever and not have to replace. I yearned to have the 500/1 W amp which would never have to be replaced because it pumps out 500 watts RMS of clean bass. I had the perception that 250 watts RMS was weak, although it isn't. Most other companies advertise 1000 watts peak and 200 RMS for their amps. That's what I love about JL, they don't falsely advertise peak because they know they're good. So I gave in and that next Saturday I planned to get the 500/1 to power my sub. Before we went in, Lisa said I should take a picture of the 250/1 before I traded it in. What a great idea. So I took a picture of both the sub and amp.
JL 250/1 amp

JL 10w3v2 sub

February 9, 2003
I was told that I could power this 300 watt RMS sub but it would be dangerous for the sub and then I was convinced to move up to the 10w6v2. So I paid extra to have both from Natural Sound, who I knew for a fact that they were ripping me off but couldn't do anything about it because of the no refunds policy. So here we are now with the 400 watt RMS 10w6v2 and the beautiful 500/1 amp.
JL 500/1 amp

JL 10w6v2 sub
I mentioned earlier about how the w3 was sloppy and they were telling me I had to break it in. Well as soon as I got into the car with this new, more expensive setup, it sounded a helluva lot better... louder and much much more precise. I couldn't believe how much better it was than the old setup.

The Future
Now that I have this powerful sub powered by a powerful amp, my lights dim on loud bass beats. So it's time to get a capacitor and I am definitely getting one this Saturday, Feb. 16, 2003 from somewhere other than Natural Sound!



I actually hope to stop in the middle of performance mods. Maybe I'll just get an intake and a quiet exhaust and hopefully that'll be the end of this costly obsession!