need good speakers

[fitzx4]

got a sound violation ticket last night. so i want to put my subs on a switch so they arent on all the time then have nice door speakers so i can install my music im thinking about going with any one of these three brands:

power acoustik there best speaker for 6 3/4 is cheap two sets brand new for 50

kenwood there speakers would give me roughly one thousand watts mid range in price out of the three.

then infinity they are more costly then the other two but i have been told to expect good things from them.

i would love some input. especially if you have experiance with any of these brands speakers. outside speakers welcome too but i dont want to spend more than 200-250 for 2 sets

[Turbogst]

Focaldimond audiomq quartsjl audiopolk.

get a decent component set for up front, get a mid bass driver for the rear for fill in and your set.

[Pwnin O'Brien]

Ok, so here's my advice when searching for a decent sound system for the R50....

The tiny 6.5" (or 6.75") speakers won't give you anything great, no matter what speakers you buy, whether they're $50 per pair or $500 per pair. They can only give a specific frequency range for that size, that frequency range doesn't go very low so anything you put in will be serious lacking in bass.

The door speakers in an R50 are pretty much only good for midrange sound reproduction. So my recommendation would be to purchase a mid-grade 2-way component system for all four doors. Components will be a little more difficult to install but it can reproduce a wide range of audio. However, even with the component system you will need to have some low-end bass. I would recommend perhaps just turning the subwoofer down and using it with your components.

I have some 2-way Infinity reference speakers in all four doors with some Memphis Audio tweeters and crossovers for the rear doors. They all sound great, but I wish I had originally purchased the entire Infinity component system to begin with.

[fitzx4]

okay i will start looking for some decent componet pacakges. and i probly will end up with the subs still on just way more on the complimental side. second ticket shouldnt be bad but third they arrest me and tow the car. so i dont plan on a second and deff not a third

[W O T]

Hell Ive never gotten a sound violation tickets

I must not be stupid and bump it loud in resedential areas or at stop lights....

[fitzx4]

i had my volume turned down to about a third and was driving 35mph. so i wasnt bumpin and i wasnt at a stop light. i guess thats just what over 2500w gets me right

[fitzx4]

i also am going to build and wire up an enclosure in the top part of the center closure that will house multiple kill switches i have multiple lights audio and video devices. i just need to find a stealthy spot to bring in the wires and also keep that wonderful factory look i have maintained

i intend to make the enclosure fill the entire span of the center console and have found a website where i can finish this off with matching wood grain. when im done if anyone is intrested i can give links and tips. but it should be relativly simple

[W O T]

i had my volume turned down to about a third and was driving 35mph. so i wasnt bumpin and i wasnt at a stop light. i guess thats just what over 2500w gets me right

Ohhhh, your talking about 2500 "max power" watts. lol

The speakers and brands you mentioned wont sound nice. Are you planning on runing these off there own external amplifier or off of the decks 10watts? Go with some Pheonix gold rsd's, mb quarts, focal, cdt (w/ silk tweets) if your looking for a quality undistorted sound

And learn the difference between RMS wattage and max wattage, forget you ever heard the term max wattage

Adding kill switches and doing extra work to add those is also a stupid idea, it will just cause problems, it takes just as much timeand is the same affect as hitting mute on your cd player or turn the volume down, that or dont bump your "2500" watts with your windows down where its gonna piss a cop off

[fitzx4]

first off i fully understand the differance between rms wattage and peak wattage.

second off running speakers off of my head unit alone would be just plain dumb gonna run a 1250w amp.

and lastly i said kill switches for my video screens. my lights throughout the car. and for my amp. i would like to turn the amp of so i can still turn up and enjoy my music.

by the way i saw on another forum that you were confused about wether or not you should add more speakers to get highs. or if you should get better ones. did you ever figure that out? seemed fairly simple to me that you would be better off with two good sets. but i guess thats not so obvious. and also i dont mind extra work. i enjoy working on my own vehicle

[SixGuns]

So I was stuffing my face with nasty pizza at Cici's this evening, and I had the unpleasant fortune of sitting across from some fat, acne-infested, uncomfortable-looking white kids having a very heated debate regarding level 16 characters in World of Warcraft, or some such nonsense...upon reading this, it dawned on me that you guys sound just as retarded as those tools did. WOT, we know you have like 4 15's and think it's the hot-sh*t-diggity. Ok, you got a f*ck-ton of bass, good on ya. But dude, why ya gotta put the dude down? Everyone likes their own style of stuff. People around this place need to knock that sh*t off. No wonder we get mods breathing down our necks about stupid stuff all the time. Because people can't just offer something constructive.

[Pwnin O'Brien]

I agree with SixGuns, we really need to cool the "who's got a better setup" arguments.

That aside, you shouldn't invest a ton of money in door speakers, you will never get your moneys worth in a Pathfinder or QX4. These car's are not built to be sonically perfect, the acoustics and the interior are not designed for great sound systems. At 6.5" you really don't have many options, like I said before tho, you will get the best sound out of a 2-way component system. You already have all the bass you need, now you need to fill the high and mid-range sound.

The only problem with components will be price, you may have to increase the budget a little, but it will be worth it. Go mid-range, you will be happy with Infinity or even Pioneer or Alpine. I would never, in a million years put JL or Focal speakers in the doors, you will never get your $2000 (or $3000) out of them.

[Empty V]

I agree with SixGuns, we really need to cool the "who's got a better setup" arguments.

That aside, you shouldn't invest a ton of money in door speakers, you will never get your moneys worth in a Pathfinder or QX4. These car's are not built to be sonically perfect, the acoustics and the interior are not designed for great sound systems. At 6.5" you really don't have many options, like I said before tho, you will get the best sound out of a 2-way component system. You already have all the bass you need, now you need to fill the high and mid-range sound.

The only problem with components will be price, you may have to increase the budget a little, but it will be worth it. Go mid-range, you will be happy with Infinity or even Pioneer or Alpine. I would never, in a million years put JL or Focal speakers in the doors, you will never get your $2000 (or $3000) out of them.

I got my set of new JL's for the fronts for $350 but that was a steal. The only reason why I could even justify putting $350 into door speakers was because I dynamatted the entire vehicle (doors, tailgate, hood, headliner) minus the floor. And WOT, dynamatting the hood does have a purpose.

I believe that my car is the best sounding system I've heard, each component was chosen with a purpose. The subs were selected for their musical quality not their boom and the box is cut precise down to the .0001cuft on a CNC router. But again, that's my opinion. I'm really happy with it and proud of the work I do and that's ALL that counts. It also feels great when I post and get constructive feedback on my work. You take the negative from the negative in stride, and take the positive from the positive with humility and grace.

There's a lot of mods that I'm not a fan of, but most of those are ambitious and and stem from good intentions. Everyone on here has some degree of love for our vehicles and a want to learn or teach otherwise we wouldn't be here. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves of that instead of jumping on someone for being ignorant(lack of knowledge look it up).

BACK ON TOPIC

fitzx4, I put a rotary knob for some LED's below to the right of the steering wheel in the lower plastic guard. There's plenty of room for ancillary switches there.

Billy

Modified by Empty V at 6:35 PM 8/10/2009

Modified by Empty V at 6:42 PM 8/10/2009
Modified by Empty V at 6:44 PM 8/10/2009

[W O T]

first off i fully understand the differance between rms wattage and peak wattage.

second off running speakers off of my head unit alone would be just plain dumb gonna run a 1250w amp.

and lastly i said kill switches for my video screens. my lights throughout the car. and for my amp. i would like to turn the amp of so i can still turn up and enjoy my music.

by the way i saw on another forum that you were confused about wether or not you should add more speakers to get highs. or if you should get better ones. did you ever figure that out? seemed fairly simple to me that you would be better off with two good sets. but i guess thats not so obvious. and also i dont mind extra work. i enjoy working on my own vehicle

Wasnt putting ya down dude, just didnt think you knew max vs rms based on your first post, thats not putting ya down, it was trying to help because its kind of an important fact to know if you wanna spend money in the audio aspect.

You didnt mention any amplifiers, and mentionned getting good sets of thousand watt speakers for $50....

You also said you wanted kill switches, not once did you say you were looking for a kill switch for a tv so how was anyone supposed to know they were for tv's and not your amplifiers like you were talking about?

What 1250w amp are you going to be running all these components off of?

I never asked how I could get more highs by adding another set, Ive always had 2 sets of components in my car, I asked if I should go with a full range tweet or a horn in addition to kill the 1.2khz-6khz freq range.. but thanks for following

WOT, we know you have like 4 15's and think it's the hot-sh*t-diggity. Ok, you got a f*ck-ton of bass, good on ya. But dude, why ya gotta put the dude down? Everyone likes their own style of stuff. People around this place need to knock that sh*t off.

Can you please point out where I put the dude down? Or did I not give him constructive criticism and point out some better brands to look into?

I also dont think my stereo is the hot diggity, its a normal spl based setup on a diy budget, theres a million louder setups out there. I just said I have managed to NOT get a sound ordinance ticket, I didnt mention Ive got more cone area or more power or more subwoofer (cause we dont even know what the guy has AT ALL did I? I simply said I have managed to not get into trouble yet, and rollin up your windows in areas where there might be cops and in general pissing people off would be a good idea


Modified by W O T at 7:39 PM 8/10/2009

[Empty V]

I must not be stupid and bump it loud in resedential areas or at stop lights....

Adding kill switches and doing extra work to add those is also a stupid idea...

This is what's being interpreted as negative, not your questioning of his understanding of wattage ratings. Probably just poorly worded.

Can we move on now?

Billy

Modified by Empty V at 9:08 PM 8/10/2009
Modified by Empty V at 9:14 PM 8/10/2009

[fitzx4]

yeah we can move on. in one sec...the kill swithces were mentioned in a post in this topic clearly you read what you want to read though. as i said the 50 dollar speakers are power acoustiks best one they offer. not the best....empty v how do the jls sound? how strong of a difference?

[W O T]

got a sound violation ticket last night. so i want to put my subs on a switch so they arent on all the time

Your right, you mentionned a kill switch, for your subs....

[W O T]

I suggest these though if your on a budget.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/PHEONIX-GOL...0.m14

Check the reviews on the forums, best bang for the buck speaker out there that rivals the big boys right now, for well under $100 a set. Or if your not into tweets, pick up the 6.5's alone and throw one in each door on 100 ish a piece crossed @ 60 and 6.5k and your ears will love you

If your keeping the doors stock, a component set in each door on 250ish a set would get loud n clear. The speakers emptyv has are some quality ones to that probly get loud, you can really never go wrong with JL, but there pricey.

You plan on and sound deadning at all

[Pwnin O'Brien]

I have a question that I don't has ever been addressed on the forum. Has anybody been able to successfully transplant aftermarket tweeters into the stock A-pillars (without glassing or replacing the pillar trim)? I think I read that they are 3/4" drivers, but when I pulled off the A-pillar trim, the setup is awkward, they have some bracket welded to the pillar, making it seem impossible to put any other kind of tweeters in there.

If anybody has done it please post how and what you replaced them with (pictures would be a huge plus). I was planning on doing this sometime and I am not even sure how to begin to tackle this.

[fitzx4]

yes i plan to dynamat all the door panels and i wante to take some clay and wrap that around the speakers housing. POB i was thinking about maybe running tweets in the ac vents right above the cd player because that tweeter set does look like i doesnt wanna come out

[Pwnin O'Brien]

yes i plan to dynamat all the door panels and i wante to take some clay and wrap that around the speakers housing. POB i was thinking about maybe running tweets in the ac vents right above the cd player because that tweeter set does look like i doesnt wanna come out

I dunno if I would recommend placing the tweeters there. You need to place them where both the driver and passenger can get a clear definition of left and right channels. If you place them near the AC vent in the center cluster you will lose that definition and they will only sound like a right channel to the driver and a left channel to the passenger. This will get a bit confusing when you have music that utilizes one or the other and not both at the same time.

My recommendation, if not using the stock A-pillar tweeter locations, would be to place them on the doors. This way both the driver and passenger can hear them and can decipher between each channel. You want to place them somewhere on the door where you have a clear line-of-sight, this way they are not blocked and can be heard best. It is also best to place them as close to ear level as possible, since the A-pillar tweeters are in there for good, you would want to mount them as high as possible on the door.

I suggest mounting them somewhere in the area in the red rectangle...



You will also want to disconnect the stock tweeters when you install the new ones as they will reduce your RMS across your new tweeters and the door speakers.

[Empty V]

I have a question that I don't has ever been addressed on the forum. Has anybody been able to successfully transplant aftermarket tweeters into the stock A-pillars (without glassing or replacing the pillar trim)? I think I read that they are 3/4" drivers, but when I pulled off the A-pillar trim, the setup is awkward, they have some bracket welded to the pillar, making it seem impossible to put any other kind of tweeters in there.

If anybody has done it please post how and what you replaced them with (pictures would be a huge plus). I was planning on doing this sometime and I am not even sure how to begin to tackle this.

I mounted my tweeters into the a-pillar's bracket with silicone and it worked great. The only issue was the sound quality was sub par due to the sound traveling through grille on the tweeter and the grille on the a-pillar. Luckily the JL tweeters had a flange intended for surface mounting. I used a hot knife to cut the hole out of the plastic a-pillar grille and used some black 2-ply epoxy to surface mount the tweeter from the inside. I think it looks somewhat out of place but audio quality is the 1st priority and stealth is a close 2nd.

Billy

[fueler]

I mounted my tweeters into the a-pillar's bracket with silicone and it worked great. The only issue was the sound quality was sub par due to the sound traveling through grille on the tweeter and the grille on the a-pillar. Luckily the JL tweeters had a flange intended for surface mounting. I used a hot knife to cut the hole out of the plastic a-pillar grille and used some black 2-ply epoxy to surface mount the tweeter from the inside. I think it looks somewhat out of place but audio quality is the 1st priority and stealth is a close 2nd.

Billy

i also noticed that the stock "grilles" on the a-pillar dampen the sound quality. so i just ripped them damn grilles out. Audio quality is my 1st priority and stealth is..... whats stealth?

[fueler]

billy can u post a pic of your tweeters? I wanna see exactly how you did it. heres how i run my JBL tweeters. Its not pretty but i have yet to meet anybody with a better sounding system to tell me im wrong...

[Empty V]

i also noticed that the stock "grilles" on the a-pillar dampen the sound quality. so i just ripped them damn grilles out. Audio quality is my 1st priority and stealth is..... whats stealth?

Stealth = having a sic system that's well hidden, I like to think of my ride as a sleeper.

I'll have some pics of the tweeters up tomorrow, it's not the cleanest install but it's functional. You should have a flange on your tweeters for surface mounting.

Billy

[fitzx4]

i dont think that i would want to remove the pillar grille i want mine to stay pretty stock looking for the most part. i like mine to appear stock until i turn everything on.

[Empty V]

billy can u post a pic of your tweeters? I wanna see exactly how you did it. heres how i run my JBL tweeters. Its not pretty but i have yet to meet anybody with a better sounding system to tell me im wrong...

Check it out yo:



Billy

[mda185]

Look into PPI 356cs component speakers made by Precision Power division of Directed Electronics. Some members over on DIYMA forum are saying good things about them and prices have been as low as $115 a pair. These look like decent construction quality and a very good crossover for this price point. Some say they are a former ADS speaker design. Directed Electronics acquired several high and low end brands over the past 10 years. Among the higher end brands were PPI and ADS. (I think they also own Power Acoustic.) At this price point, there are not many speakers out there likely to compete with these. What is unknown is how reliably they will hold up in a mobile environment.

Fitzx4, you need to learn to see through the marketing BS car audio amplifier manufacturers put out there. As pointed out in other posts, Max power figures mean nothing and are frequently false. Ask the dealer or online seller how many amps the fuse is for the amplifier. Multiply the amp rating of the fuse X 12 Volts and you will have approximately the maximum possible wattage the amp could deliver if it were 100% efficient. For example, 40 ampere fuse with a 12 volt amp would have a maximum possible power of about 480 watts. No amp is 100% efficient and I will bet that 1250 watt amp is not really a 1250 watt amp. The real power figure that has meaning is how many watts RMS can be delivered continuously into a 4 ohm load at 0.1% distortion. Many amp manufacturers rate their power at 1000 Hz and 1% or 10% distortion. Power ratings like that are pure marketing BS and usually indicate a poor quality amp.

1000 watt speakers are also a myth. 100 watts of power from a poor quality amplifier that is putting out lots of distortion will fry any speaker no matter what its power rating.

As far as a speaker recommendation, other posts here had good suggestions. Installing good quality component speakers is justified if you also take the time to install sound deadening in the doors and make good mounting rings instead of using the factory plastic mounts over again.

If money is tight, you don't want to get into custom fabrication for speaker mounts, and sound volume is more important than sound quality, then the Power Acoustic speakers are fine. If you are aiming a little higher, I suggest you look at Injun' Active Pathfinder Build over on DIYMA forum for some good ideas. I know he gave me lots of inspiration for my build.
Modified by mda185 at 12:26 PM 8/13/2009

[fitzx4]

again i am well aware of the differences between the terms max power and rms power. its not a complex thing i understand it i do not need anyone else to explain it. i asked for speaker suggestions not deffenitions. i am glad everyone has been helpful but trying to show how many keywords you know isnt helping me. i do plenty of research on every product i buy. i know what to expect and i know what range it falls into. i also have stated i have plans to use sound deadener so suggesting that too was unnessicary as i understand what it does and its benefits. 1000w speakers in this case is MAX power of the 4 combined.... again max not what will actually be running through them...got it. thanks if you are actually trying to help but if you are trying to impress with your vast knoweldge save it. i dont just buy stuff so i wanted suggestions if i was going to be impressed by your knoweldge i would just buy what you said to buy i want to go through all brands and decide myself after all the only thing that matters is that i approve of my choice and its performance. thanks again

[petediddy]

Billy- those tweeters look AWESOME! I need to do the same thing on mine- can you tell me how to cut the mesh stock tweeter cover?

[Empty V]

Billy- those tweeters look AWESOME! I need to do the same thing on mine- can you tell me how to cut the mesh stock tweeter cover?

Thanks Pete! I have a butane soldering iron that has a hot knife attachment. I used that for a rough cut and cleaned it up with the torch attachment and lots of sanding. You have to be careful because if the knife is too hot it will burn right through the honeycomb design.

Billy