Quote Originally Posted by Quest4dgoodlife View Post
Wow! appreciate your response sir! Very detailed and educational for everybody else! I totally agree with your post.

I initially planned on getting the Alpine ICS-X8 (or the Pioneer x8550 - the new one is 8650 that can play flac!) but thought to wait it out and just get the new one when it comes out. Will not get the processor though and hopefully the audiophile 2-din will be enough for the EQ / tuning.

Currently, the tonality and fidelity of sound is very good. no distortion at med-high volumes. subwoofer provides the low frequency missing.

Will contemplate on the other points you raised. Thank you very much and will provide you guys an update in the near future!
x8550 has very limited tuning capabilities sadly bought one here. no bandpass so it cant do proper filtering ng mid bass. Go for alpines. or if you like the features of pioneer get a processor.