I am relatively inexperienced at car audio, and I don't really need a competition-style system, but I would like something that sounds nice in my Subaru Forester. I plan on replacing the factory HU and front 6.5" speakers. I plan on disconnecting the factory tweeters up front and leaving the rear 4" stock speakers in place.
I went to a local stereo shop and listened to a variety of HUs and speakers. For the HUs, I did not like the JVC, Alpine, or Pioneer units at all. The Sony F5700 just sounded the best to me (through the same speakers in the store). But it occurs to me that the Sony brand name is somewhat looked down upon by a lot of audiophiles and I guess I just don't know why. Sony always sounded good to my ears, whether it's classical, jazz, rock, or electronica. Can someone tell me exactly why the Sony name seems to be synonymous with "cheap" and "lousy"?
Also, the speakers that I had decided on were some JBL GTO636 coaxials that just rocked. But for some reason, I can't seem to find any glowing reviews of them on the net. To be honest, I played some classical, jazz, rock (Saliva), and some NIN to test out the speakers and thought the JBLs sounded the best overall. This was compared with a bunch of other speakers in the same price range (or maybe a little lower): Sony, Infinity, Alpine, Polk, and Pioneer.
Anyways, can someone either offer me some confirmation that the Sony F5700 head unit and the JBL speakers are a decent package for the money, or possibly offer some better alternatives for the same money? I can get the HU and speakers for around $225 total online, but I suppose I wouldn't mind going up to $175 for the HU and maybe $100 or so for the speaker pair.
Thanks.