Ahhh... car audio. That's how I got stuck in to this whole sound business in the first place! I'll be honest, I didn't do a ton of research but I was very happy with my little VW Quantum. Driving has just never been the same since it was totaled (NOT my fault!).

Anyway, I had an Alpine head unit which was just outstanding. I didn't spend a ton on it and I could count the number of times my cd's skipped on one hand.

But you were asking about speakers. This was the place I got hooked on Boston Acoustics. The best recommendation would be to go and listen to a setup in the store, and definitely go to someplace that specializes in car audio, at least to demo. A lot of those places will do free install if you buy it all there. If you do that, I'd also recommend separates for the front. That's where you'll have your round speaker you were asking about, coupled with a detached tweeter which the installer will mount closer to head level. They come with their own matched crossover. That's what I had up front in my VW and I had oval 6x9's in the back for a nice midrange fill. I also had two Rockford Fosgate Punches (ten inch) for the low stuff in the trunk. I had the installers set it up for good sound internally, and minimal noise radiation outside. I wanted, and got, good clean sound inside.

To make my speaker selection, I took in my demo material and set up "my system (head unit and amp I was buying)" in their demo room. Then I made the salesman leave me alone while I spent almost an hour comparing the different speakers. I first chose my seperates and then my 6x9's. Settling on the stuff up front first and then finding something that complemented nicely for the fill worked very well for me. In the end, I was deciding between Alpine and BA. In the end, I felt the Alpines were a bit too harsh for my tastes and chose the Bostons. Once I had those, I found a sub setup I liked, forked over more money than I paid for the car, waited few hours, and was off and running.

I don't know about the head unit he chose, but I'm sure I'm not alone touting Alpine. There is a reason they've been in car audio as long as they have and still have such a good reputation.