[rhythmdevils]

I have been going from speaker to speaker in my car for years now. I cant ever seem to find something i like. all car speakers seem to sound incredibly similar and all i can ever hear is the damn tweeter. there's nice crisp highs, but if you want to hear anything else you have to turn it up so loud that the highs make your ears bleed.

So the best yet for me is my current setup which is the Infinity "reference" 6000cs. Calling this spearker a reference is a big joke. the tweeter is so loud, ive got treble at -4 and its still a little harsh.

the best speakers i have found are by Focal- their speakers seem to be pretty well rounded, im saving for a pair now

but int he meantime, I was wondering what yall would think about using copper wire for the infinity tweeter. is that a good idea to soften things up?

Also, have any car speaker recomends?

 

[sr20dem0n]

I have loads of recommendations....

If they all sound bright then you're listening to the wrong speakers (Infinity, Focal, MBQ). Infinity's reference line is on the extreme low end of the spectrum as far as car audio goes. You're not alone in your dissatisfication with them, lord knows I hate Infinity car audio with everything that I am. Terribly bright tweets, no midbass, crappy crossovers....actually their reference line is the best out of the 3, the kappas and kappa perfects are just an abomination.

If you don't like the Infinity sound then you probably won't much care for the Focal sound either unless you spring for their top lines, which are incredibly overpriced. There is a lot out there, and the best stuff you aren't going to find in any local shops.

How much are you looking to spend? What kind of music do you listen to? Do you have an amp for them or just the headunit? Have you deadened the doors, or are you willing to? Do you have a sub?

 

[rhythmdevils]

I have a nice alpine deck and Im trying not to have to buy an amp (though the combined price of all the speakers ive gone through would get me a killer amp). In the back I have an infinity BassLink powered subwoofer, which isnt great, but for the price (200 used) it adds the little low end fill that i need. and ive got a pair of old AIWA bookshelf speakers that i got at salvation army for 10 bucks. but they actually sound great!

So im looking for component 6.5 in that i can run off the "60W x 4" alpine deck. I am really looking for neutrality on this one. i HATE being trapped in the car with a bright tweeter. it hurts and there is no where to move. And I really dont want to pay that much, ive just already sacrificed so much for this situation. I guess 300 tops, i was hoping for an ebay deal or something used.

Thanks for your help! I have actually never talked to a car audio enthusiast who seemed to have any ability to perceive sound. They are always just like "yeah, lots of bass, cracklin cymbals, man, its good"

 

[Wodgy]

Another suggestion: make sure whatever speakers you choose have soft-dome tweeters rather than metal-dome tweeters. There's been a huge push in car audio towards metal-dome tweeters (aluminum, titanium, etc.) because they have more crisp highs at the same price point, but the tradeoff is a huge resonant peak, generally between 18kHz (for cheap speakers) and 22kHz (for more expensive ones). These resonant peaks do add seriously to the total level of harshness for many people, especially people younger than age 30.

 

[Nak Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhythmdevils Also, have any car speaker recomends?

Dynaudio - or a/d/s for a more limited budget.

As with phones, make sure you use good amp with them.

[size=xx-small]Have tried and found too bright: focal, diamond hex, eton (not hex), quart, boston pro (non pro tweeter is good though). Not bright but not OK: morel (looks like dyn but don't get fooled here). Plus some others that I forgot. =) [/size]

 

[ooheadsoo]

The location of the tweeter in your car could be a major problem if it's not placed properly. Have you thought about using a coaxial or a simple full range driver?

Morel is highly respected in the diy community.

 

[sr20dem0n]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhythmdevils I have a nice alpine deck and Im trying not to have to buy an amp (though the combined price of all the speakers ive gone through would get me a killer amp). In the back I have an infinity BassLink powered subwoofer, which isnt great, but for the price (200 used) it adds the little low end fill that i need. and ive got a pair of old AIWA bookshelf speakers that i got at salvation army for 10 bucks. but they actually sound great! So im looking for component 6.5 in that i can run off the "60W x 4" alpine deck. I am really looking for neutrality on this one. i HATE being trapped in the car with a bright tweeter. it hurts and there is no where to move. And I really dont want to pay that much, ive just already sacrificed so much for this situation. I guess 300 tops, i was hoping for an ebay deal or something used. Thanks for your help! I have actually never talked to a car audio enthusiast who seemed to have any ability to perceive sound. They are always just like "yeah, lots of bass, cracklin cymbals, man, its good"

I find most mainstream brands to be pretty bad. Some have terribly bright tweets, some have no low end, some have a muddy midrange, and some suffer from all of those problems. This is probably what you've been noticing so far, trust me there is better out there. The problem is that the good stuff, especially the stuff in the $300 range, will require an amp. Think of it like trying to power some Senn 650's off of Sony Discman....it just won't work. They're just too inefficient to work well off of the ~20rms that the headunit provides (it's not 60, rms is all that matters, peak is meaningless). Another problem is that nothing will perform well at all without deadening the doors, which cuts into the budget. I know it's sounding like it never ends, but there are just some things you really have to get out of the way in car audio, after you take care of those severe problems (power and a proper baffle) then you can dive into just about everything out there.

Installing anything over $100 without deadening is just a waste of money, a $100 set of speakers with heavily deadened doors will easily kick the crap out of a $300 set of speakers in stock doors, and deadening for the front doors is only $50 at the most. It's incredibly underrated and no one does it for some reason, but it's one of the first things you should do. Stuff to look at would be secondskin, brownbread, b-quiet, rammat, e-dead, and others. They all do the same thing as dynamat but at a fraction of the cost. For even cheaper there's peel-n-seal from the hardware store, but I've heard rumors of that falling off in hot climates.

If you're willing to get an amp later then that will really open up your choices. There's a good bit that you can find for $250 ($50 for deadening), especially if you can go used. It starts to come down to what you can fit in your doors. DLS, CDT, Adire, and many others make good speakers in reasonable price ranges. Dynaudio and Rainbow are two very good companies, but they cost quite a bit more than you're looking to spend. Morel is also very good, but they're more for the DIY crowd, along with Vifa, Peerless, Scanspeak, Seas, etc.

There are a couple of forums that you could research to learn more. I'm on www.caraudioforum.com, www.soundillusions.net, www.icixsound.com, and www.elitecaraudio.com. They all have their respective favorite brands but they're all pretty good, except maybe for ICIX, they get a little too hung up on eD sometimes. There's also www.caraudio.com, that's probably the one decent one that I'm not on

 

[ismelllikepoop]

i had a set of kappa's and the tweeters were uncontrollably harsh. the strongpoint of the infinities was the midrange, which was actually pretty nice but the midbass and tweeters were terrible. i got a set of dls ms6's and love them. focals midrange and high end is supposed to be good but not much low end.

You really would need to use an amp to get it to sound decent, and it doesnt need to be expensive. as far as deadening goes, i have a mercedes, and it didnt really need any, i just put a sheet of foam to stop rattles, everything else is pretty well bolted down and solid. BUT if you dont have a luxury car, then you probably would need to deaden.

a budget would be helpful, since it can get out of hand pretty easily (i went way overbudget).
like what sr20demon says go to the forums, thats where i get all my info from, and they can help you out pretty well.

 

[ilikemonkeys]

Please be carful.

I have some pretty serious ear damage from car audio.

I wish I wouldn't have listened to it so loud....but I had a great time.

just be careful.

B

 

[videocrew]

infinity's are just slightly sharper than ginsu knives. seriously. if that's the best speaker you've heard, no wonder you have had bad experiences! check out some DLS with silk domes, the MS6 is a great 200ish dollar choice. not harsh at all