I was a full-time home theater integrator for a few years, and I have developed a tuned ear through listening to a multitude of speaker/amp combinations, in a 'home theater' environment, mind you. A vehicle could be considered a world apart when comparing to a full home theater environment, but it does have this similarity: you are pumping audio waves into a confined space, and want the best sound possible from your audio setup.
Having said all that, when I first heard the MyGig in my vehicle, I was unimpressed and disappointed. I was expecting a whole lot more fidelity, considering the curb-appeal of the unit, and the Infinity brand on the subwoofer. Here's a few thoughts:
1) As with 'home theater', the quality of the amplifier and the quality of the speakers makes a big difference. If you bought a home theater rig where the amplifier and speakers came as a package, the end-user experience will not be the same as if you had purchased separates. A $1200 home-theater-in-a-box setup will certainly sound inferior to a $2500 amp with a $5000+ speaker package.
2) The factory package in the Nitro is similar to the home-theater-in-a-box.
3) The MyGig unit is being sold for the $1800 mark by certain vendors, but you have to consider what the MyGig is. It's not only an audio amp, but it's also a
[email protected] GPS, a Sirius satellite receiver, a built-in iPod style device, a wireless-phone microphone-speaker system, and it has a 20GB hard drive, among other things!
4) Infinity is a speaker brand name, just like Bose or Boston or Paradigm. Any and all of these manufacturers have different levels of quality/performance within their product offering, and I am suspecting that the Infinity speakers in the Nitro are not the same quality that might go into a $60,000 SUV. A speaker upgrade would help, but like ponchonutty indicated, the source equipment (MyGig) has it's limitations. If you take a $50 amp and feed it into a $20,000 speaker system, ...
5) The source itself is also a consideration. In your home theater setup, what sounds better: cable TV, or a THX-rated DVD? Similarly, in the Nitro, the MyGig will sound better listening to an MP3 ripped on your home computer at a high sample rate than a CD ripped on the MyGig. (I found that the MyGig does a poor job of ripping CDs to MP3s - just don't do it!)
6) Having an amp/crossover go-between from the MyGig to the Infinitys or to a speaker upgrade may still not provide the audio quality you are looking for. A comparison would be using a $40 DVD player into your $2500 Denon amp in your home theater setup, vs a $250 DVD into the same smokin' amp. The source equipment still needs to be considered, right?
7) Sometimes, it's just best to look at things as a compromise. the MyGig has all the bling mentioned in note 3 above ... what's the most paramount for you? Do you like the cool-ability of the MyGig, with the '3 out of 5 stars' in audio quality, or do you need to rip the whole thing out and go with a head-unit and speakers that will give you the '5 out of 5' in audio quality, but would force you to lose all of the bling of the MyGig?
8) Some audiophiles would say that good ole' vinyl records are the very best audio source, with a vacuum-tube based amp to drive horn speakers. When and if somebody ever puts something like that in their Nitro, I will crap my pants when I see the picture. I saw a turntable installation one time on "Pimp my Ride", but that was KrAZy! Pump it up, y'all.
Different strokes for different folks.
