Advice on speakers

[J3adSeed]

alright i need advice from someone who really knows speakers, or has owned one of the ones i'm looking at.

i always planned on getting the boston pro 6.5s for the fronts, but i've read dozens of reviews all saying they're a little bright, and the midbase is a little lacking. i kept seeing them compared to the polk momo components, and everyone saying how great the polk momos are.

no one here in town seems to carry them so i can't listen to them. can anyone tell me if polk momos are as good as they say? i really want a real good clean sound and as much base as possible up front.

also i want the best rears as well. will 6x9s fit back there? i've heard from someone that they would. whats a really really good 6x9 that would provide excellent midbase and not have too much tweeters and highs to be in the rear?


more info:
will be using the pioneer 940 headunit with the 13 band eq, and jl audio 300/4 amp to power them and rear speakers.

[SouthSyde]

Why dont you skip the rear-fill and invest in a really nice set of fronts. I have a set of dynaudio 220MKII in kicks and they sound awesome. Some other brands to think about are avi, cd-tech, ads, focal and seas lotus. All of those speakers are great, but it all comes down to personal preference. Hope that helps.

[J3adSeed]

well help me out, i don't want to spend more than, say, 600 for fronts and rears. this is ebay prices not retail. i want the best speakers i can get for this amount. good bass and really clear clean speakers. i would LOVE to do three ways with kick panels but that probably won't happen since kicks cost a fortune.

[SouthSyde]

Did u eva get the pics of the kicks for the 4 in midrange and 1 in tweeter i sent ya?

[SouthSyde]

Have you checked out the Rainbow pro speakers yet? They have great midbass and the 1 in silk tweeter is O SOOO smoooooth. They sound great, i am sure u would be very pleased with the sound. Go to elitearaudio.com and do a search. They love em over there. But no matter what, if you want good midbass and imaging kicks is the way to go, or else spend alot of money damping the doors. But even then, the midbass could not be as good as when they are in kicks. Hope that helps.

later

[J3adSeed]

well i got the picture you sent me, but it doesn't really help to tell me what they'd look like or how they'd fit in the car. if you could sent me some pics in the car i'd really appreciate it. also, i'd like to do them vinyl. how are the on the dead pedal? i still want a dead pedal... anyway if i saw em the car i might just get those.

[SouthSyde]

i cant put them in my car for you bro. Those fit around the plastic piece in the kicks, and i cut my plastic peice for my kicks already. But anyway, you should check out them rainbow pros bro, they are awesome.

[J3adSeed]

i'm thinking about doing the focal utopias powered by a 300/2 and just some old polk coaxials that i already have for rears powered by the head unit.

[S|Lv3rBu||et]

Check out MB Quart Components...... in all the cars I have heard them in they sounded very, very nice.
And yeah, either skip the rears or just get a replacement 6.5" that can handle more power. In a nicely tuned system, you should get most of your sound from the front... useing the rears only as a 'fill' (just like in a home theater setup).

[J3adSeed]

i don't really like mb quarts. way too bright and harsh, not enough bass. and more fragile. i'm thinking focal utopias. although i've never even heard the damn things. where's a place that would have stuff like this in orlando or jacksonville?

[Deftech]

JL Audio has some really good comp speakers. Top of the line is about 400 for the pair. I think one model down is right around 300 and a little less for a pair of 6.5 two-ways. Good clean sound unlike the bostons and high quality build.

[J3adSeed]

i've heard the jl audio xr series. i'd actually do boston pro's before them, however i wanted better than boston pros. i've heard nothing but praise about the polk momos, and that they have much better midbass than the boston pros, but i haven't heard them so i don't know. focal utopias are supposed to be one of the best you can buy. they retail for over 1000 so they ought to be. i just want to hear them.

the best would be three way components in kick panels. that'd be so nice. oh well.

[SilverBullet GTS]

I've had boston pros before, the high's are pretty good and yes the mid was a bit lacking. Actually i blew one tweeter out and i never play music at a distorted level so make your own judgment about that. Also why does everybody go so cheap on the rear speakers? They are very important, espacially in a car like the celica, they are practically right next to you. I would get 6 and a half components all around if i were you. Especially since its in your price range.

[PUcKyMoN]

id say go for mb quarts but im biassed. i love how bright and clean they are. i have an eclipse head unit with an eq so i can tune the sound pretty good...it just takes some time cuz im not too good at it. i'll be at the orlando meet on the 22nd so you can see/here my setup. also check out shawn's (y2kflamecelica) setup.... he has boston pros. when i was shopping around i got alotta recommendations for focals too. but ive never heard anything else besides mb quarts that i really like so i had to stick with it. good luck!

-pucky

[kabal57]

focal polykev's..
theyre the shiznit son :D

[J3adSeed]

yeah i'm thinking about polykevlars too since the price is much cheaper, and i've heard a lot of people say they can't even tell the difference. especially in the stock door mounts they wouldn't have the best imaging in the world anyway.

[SilverRide]

A problem with verry good speakers is that they will sound like crap with certain program material that is less than perfect.
They will faithfully reproduce whatever is feed to them: "garbage in-garbage out".
You have to accept the bad with the good.

Other speakers will make most everything sound pleasently bland by masking out offending properties in certain recordings while also masking good properties in great recordings.. Nothing sounds really bad...or good either.

This largly accounts for the varied opinions for the same speakers. You have to decide what type of speakers you want.

Personally, I prefer the former with a carefully EQd sys. This allows the best of both worlds.

[bxmart9]

Why don't you get a sub for bass? Mids are called mids for a reason. I had the pro 6.5's in my camaro and it was the best system I have ever heard. These speakers are high end and deliver excellent MID and treble since that is what they were intended to do, not give you good bass. They can be bright, but not if the imaging in your car has been tuned correctly.

[J3adSeed]

i will be getting 2 jl audio 10s. but i want front speakers that can put out some nice bass too. i hate components that are all treble and weak sounding. i've been reading onlie about lots of them and i think i'd do focal polykevs, focal utopias, image dynamics chameleons, dynaudio 240mkIIs. but, having never heard ANY of these, it kinda sucks. its nice when a 6.5" can put out bass because it's real clean, and tight.

as far as imaging and all that, well, they're going in stock positions, with a bunch of dynamat, but i don't know how well our stock positions are for image. the tweeters look like they're a little close so i think a softer tweeter would be nice.

[J3adSeed]

focal tweets are HUGE and would be hard to install. some have said they're a little harsh, which is what i'm afraid of. they also take 100 rms and i don't know how safe it'd be to run at 150 rms from the jl amp.

dynaudio some have said don't sound really good unless you have them installed in just the right imaging. stock locations may suck for these.

the jls, i could run 75 watts to, get a 4 chan amp, and get them for rears as well. they're cheapers too. but, i'm afraid to buy jl speakers too as i doubt they're as good in the midbass, or as good of a speaker all around. i hear their tweeters are less harsh because of the rubber surround. i've heard them and they're decent.

polk momo's i've heard reviews say they're good but an installer friend of mine said he's done a few and didn't think they were that great. donno what to think about these.

the ID components take 150 rms which is what the jl 300/2 pushes out, and their range goes down to 45 hz. i've heard people say they cross them over at 50 hz and they sound like you have subwoofers up front, so maybe these will be good.

anyone have any comments on any of these speakers?

[Deftech]

polk Audio Dealers in Orlando FL.

Custom Sounds
1731 Lee Road
Orlando, FL 32810
Phone: 407-298-5757
Fax: 407-298-5760


Audio Illusions
4077 West Oakridge Road
Orlando, FL 32809
Phone: 407-354-2375
Fax: 407-354-2374


Circuit City
7915 South Orange Blossom Trail
Orlando, FL 32809
Phone: 407 850 3918
Fax: 407-850-3929
info@circuitcity.com


Circuit City
2728 East Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL 32803
Phone: 407 895 1000
Fax: 407-895-1015
info@circuitcity.com


Circuit City
751 Good Homes Road
Orlando, FL 32818
Phone: 407-291-3358
Fax: 407-291-6482
info@circuitcity.com

[J3adSeed]

circuit city doesn't actually display polk momos. never heard of the other ones, i'll check them out and maybe they'll have other stuff i'm looking for. thanks.

[chameleon]

J3adSeed, you honestly need to listen to all these speakers to make a choice, never go by what other people tell you when it comes to speakers. I put a bunch of the speakers that you listed up against the MB Quarts that I have in my car, and the MB Quarts sounded a million times better than any of them to me, yet you describe them as "fragile" and "harsh". That just goes to show you that every ear is going to be different.

It sucks when there arn't any dealers in your area that carry these high end speakers. Luckaly, I didn't have that problem where I live. I would reccomend looking some car audio places up in the phone book and calling them to see if they carry what you are interested in. You might have to travel to listen to different speakers, but in the end, the extra research will be well worth the effort IMHO.

[SQ GT-S]

Chameleon is right, you need to listen to all the speakers you want to run. Everyone has their own personal preference. I personally love the MB Quart QSD 6.5" speakers. They are tight and accurate with lots of mid-bass. Also nice are the JL XR650's. They sound similar to the Quarts, but with a bit less mid-bass.

If you are curious more about recommended speakers, check out the forum on carsound.com.

Curt

[RATIFIED]

Here's my $.02!!! I have a set of Boston pros in my truck now since '92!! They still play just as strong now as then. The new Bostons I really dont care for. The change from the titanium tweet to the aluminum tweet, changed the entire sound to me. In my Celica, I use Focal 165K2 polykevlars. I love these, but the tweet can be a bit harsh at times, as can all hard dome type tweets. I have listened to MB Quarts, Diamonds, etc; when I mean listen, I don't mean a 5 minute demo, more like a hour +;the MBs are good but not quite the sound I like, good for pop, the Diamonds were about the same; talking about the hex series. Just let your ears be your guide. Also, don't be cheap on the power side!!!! This will kill more speakers than anything!!! I have run my Bostons off of a old school Rockford Power 250X2 since '92 and they still play strong!!! The Focals each have thier own US Amps USA-50 per side.

[SQ GT-S]

RATIFIED is right on about the power. If the RMS is say 100 Watts, give them a little more. A friend of mine runs over 240 Watts to EACH of his QSD tweeters and no problems.

As for the hard dome tweeters being harsh? Excuse me? Don't take this the wrong way, but have you actually done the listening to soft and hard dome tweets? If you have, and you understand how sound is reproduced, hard domes aren't more "harsh" than soft dome. But hey, that's my personal experience. Everyone has their own "ideas" and such. Just don't listen to us. :-) Go listen to some.

To really make your speakers shine, mount the tweeters in the A-pillars and the mids in the kick panel area. This will give you an amazing sound.

If any of you go to IASCA or SLAP shows in the Illinois/Michigan area, you can listen to mine. Or for you Canadians, I will be at the AudioThunder show in Toronto March 7-9. Stop by. My car will be open for listening.

[RATIFIED]

Originally posted by SQ GT-S


As for the hard dome tweeters being harsh? Excuse me? Don't take this the wrong way, but have you actually done the listening to soft and hard dome tweets? If you have, and you understand how sound is reproduced, hard domes aren't more "harsh" than soft dome. But hey, that's my personal experience. Everyone has their own "ideas" and such. Just don't listen to us. :-) Go listen to some.

.


Maybe I should clear this up just a bit. Hard domes tend to have more of a high pitched ring to it compared to soft domes.Trying to find the right words without going beyond the scope of the average listener. For example: when cymbals crash, hard domes tend to have that ringing quality where as soft domes tend to have a smoother sound. Hard domes tend to be better for rap and hard rock/metal while soft domes tend to be better for pop and jazz.

Most people 'tend' to leave the treble alone with hard domes and push it up with soft ones; that is of course with a flat RTA curve; which sounds like crap by the way. Just go out and compare. Also, see if the shop has any installed into vehicles you can listen too, instead of just the sound board mounted ones. One more thing, carry in your own cds of music you know how it sounds. HAPPY SHOPPING!!!!!