Just Recently got a Mazda 3 Hathcback. Looking to upgrade audio system. I had a friend talking to me about the A\D\S brand. I was just wondering if anyone out there has used or is currently using any of their products, specificly amps and subwoofers. If you are how do they perform? do you recomend and other brand of car audio

 

big fan of ADS

you may or may not know, they were bought out by DEI (they buy up electronics brands and take the quality out of them... you may have heard of viper, orion, a/d/s, etc.. these are all owned by DEI now).

while they continue to market the name, anything new by ADS is about on par with the lower models of most high-end names today.

that said, try picking up an "old-school" pre-DEI set of a/d/s speakers on ebay (look for 346is or 346im model speakers). for about $175 you will have about the best sounding speakers that $600 would buy you from any current speaker mfr.

likewise for their amps. pick up a used pq10 4 channel (4x40W) amp. audiophile quality, underrated power that brought home many competition awards back in the day. one of those for $100 and a set of 346is's and you'll have a sweet setup that would cost over $1000 to better with anything new.

if you want to stick with new, try focal, or CDT speakers. for amps, there are a lot of great ones out there. alpine makes a decent consumer grade amp, as does JL.

--spb