Quote Originally Posted by WarrenM View Post
Right now I'm trying to convince them to replace the speakers with the current model, which is apparently uneconomical to fake. They have not got back to me yet.
The firm reassured me that I would get a full refund but that I needed to return the speakers, so that they could be sent to Elettromedia. I sent them back and informed Elettromedia of all the details. The speakers should have got to the dealer today.

I've decided one way or another to go with real HSK 165s - there are current model units going for $175 per pair from Singapore or Malaysia - the real speakers.
I bought two pairs of the current model Hertz HSK 165 from a company in Malaysia, after further reassurance from Elettromedia that they are not going to be fake. The speakers arrived today and certainly look the goods. None of the tell-tale issues of the previous pairs are evident: These ones have clearly displayed individual serial numbers, no errors in the English documentation, etc.

On Juerg's recommendation, I'm only using splits in the front, so I have a spare pair of current model Hertz HSK 165s for sale.

On the weekend I bought a brand new 10-year-old sub on eBay. It is a Phase Linear HD-12 12" sub. These were designed in the US and built in the McIntosh speaker factory in Italy between 1998 and 2002. Phase Linear at the time was the audiophile quality premium-priced car-audio brand of its then parent company which also had the Jensen and Audiovox brands (not to mention McIntosh and AR in the prestige home audio market).

On the weekend I bought discontinued Infinity 652i coax speakers for the rear doors and rear shelf and 452" coax speaker for the front shelf centre.

And I picked up a 3.5 Farad stiffening capacitor for very cheap (actually cheaper than I expected to pay for a 1 Farad cap).

So here is my barrage of hardware in preparation for installation:
  • 6.5" Hertz HSK 651 current model 2-way splits for front doors
  • 6.5" Infinity 652i discontinued 2-way coax for the rear doors
  • 6.5" Infinity 652i discontinued 2-way coax for the rear shelf
  • 4" Infinity 452i discontinued 2-way coax for the centre (bought as a pair of course)
  • 12" Phase Linear long-discontinued HD-12 subwoofer
  • Alpine MRV-F405 discontinued 4-channel amp - 40W RMS/Channel
  • Schneider 6000x discontinued monoblock amp - 350W RMS/Channel
  • JBL MS-8 electronic 8-channel DSP with inbuilt 8-channel amp
  • SSL CAP350 3.5 Farad Stiffening Cap