looking to upgrade the front component speakers. looking for some good quality speakers. looking to spend > 300.

i will be using a kenwood head unit to power them, no amp but I WILL upgrade shortly.

Anyone have some good suggestions please? Asked crutchfield and they said there is a problem with many speakers fitting in the front doors.....?

Any suggestions/feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

I 'd give a big 'thumbs-up' to MB Quart. Here's my review of their DSC-216 separates:

http://www.epinions.com/content_111890697860

You will need a spacer ring for installation of the woofers on most speakers...

 

nice review man. gonna keep em into consideration. thanks.

 

Boston Acoustic RC 620's. I sampled a bunch. These speakers were the best, IMO. They sound great for all types of music. They use the same tweeter as the Boston Pro's.

 

Ummm, no they don't. The Rally's use a Kortec dome tweeter which boston calls their 3r. Pros use an aluminum dome tweeter.

The Rally series speakers are great though in the under $300 price range. If you can spend the $450 it's worth it to grab the pros.

Also in the $300 range look at MB Quartz, Focal, & Dynaudio components. Out of these three I'd go with Dynaudios.

If you're going over $300, Diamond Hex and Boston Pros are the only two I'd touch under $500. Over $500, Dynaudio, Rainbow, & Boston Reference Z6s is where my money would go.

 

I will second the Diamond HEX reecommendation above. Impressive sound.

 

I had the mid line JLs installed; they sound great. Cost was $279.
Top of line JLs were $329...........also good sounding.

 

thanks all. this weekend im gonna go to a close by shop and check these suckers out.

 

i say infinity perfects 6.1, but i guess im a bit biased. i think they sound great and my set cost me just $215, so you can spend some extra money get a nice amp to juice the speakers.

Rajiv

 

Agreed. I've been using Dynaudio car audio speakers for years, and I've been constantly impressed. Expensive, but not unreasonable, and they sound fantastic.

As far as other high-end brands, be careful what you spend your hard earned money on. A lot of the big names all use drivers made by the same manufacturers. I don't remember the names off the top of my head, but a friend of mine who works in the car audio industry was telling me about it.

There really are only a few high-end car audio driver manufacturers out there. Many of the high-end names you are used to all actually use the same drivers. The only real difference (aside from packaging and aesthetics) is the crossover used. Different brands will use different crossover points that they feel are best. This will make each manufacturer's speaker sets have a different feel to them, even though they are all using the same drivers.

I really wish I could remember some examples. I know Dynaudio makes their own drivers, and in the home market they actually provide drivers for many of the audiophile brands. I don't believe they sell their car audio drivers to anyone else, though.

I found one of my lists, but I can't find my list of which name brands use which drivers. The main manufacturers of drivers are:

Seas
Scanspeak
Vifa
Peerless
Dynaudio
Morel

You don't often hear of most of these brands in car audio (other than Dyn) since they don't really advertise their speakers under their own names. They mainly just provide the drivers that other "known" companies use. But you can definitely purchase them. If I recall, the Alpine F#1 Status speakers are Scanspeak. (I think?) You can actually look at the physical drivers themselves and figure out who makes them if you are familiar with how they all look. Drivers from a given manufacturer will look the same (especially the basket) no matter who's brand they have written on them.

Basically, if you want to assemble a very high end system, you can save a lot of money if you are willing to purchase the speakers under the actual names of the manufacturers. You'd just have to provide your own crossovers. (Not a problem on a multi-amped, high-end system.)

Turns out all this is apparently true of many high-end amplifiers, too.

Anyway, sorry to ramble. This was sort of a shock to me, so I figured I'd share it with y'all. Take it for what it's worth. I personally find it easier to just buy a ready-made set and go for it.

 

Joe - great post. Add Boston to your list as well. Boston Rally, Pro & Reference series speakers are all made and designed by Boston and aren't sold to other companies. I'm not sure of the lower end Boston speakers like the FX series.

Dnyaudio and Boston are by far my two favorite speakers/compenent manufactures out there. Rainbow is awesome as well but just too damn expensive. Diamond is my favorite low teir brand and their Hex series components are awesome too. JL, Focal and MB Quartz are notable but even their highest end stuff is only decent sounding at best.

 

It's funny you mention Rainbow. I had never heard of them until last night. In another thread here regarding TRU Technology ampliers (very impressive amps), someone mentioned the site:

www.elitecaraudio.com

They have a discussion forum there, so I started browsing and searching. Man, there is an entire audiophile car audio world I never knew about. I'm pretty familiar with the crazy-high-end home audio names, but I never knew about a lot of the car names being thrown around on those forums. Rainbow came up a lot as a terrific brand, but it was usually followed by "but they are just too darn expensive".

Do you know if Rainbow makes their own drivers, or if they buy them from someone else?

 

I know on their Reference line (the $6800 components!) and some of their other more expensive models they make their own drivers. On their lower line stuff though who knows. Arc Audio is the US distributor for Rainbow and great guys to talk to. I almost went with a Rainbow 10" sub in my Z. I believe Arc is also starting their own online sales webpage.

 

Hey did anyone hear the new JL Audio ZR line of components yet? They were at the CES.

 

good tips.

 

What amplification is recommended for Boston acoustics Z6, and do the speakers fit in the doors without too much modification?

 

I am leaning twds Focals, but want to know which models will fit. I dont have the budget for the Utopias but am looking at the 165K series. Anyone know how these are and if they will fit.

 

focal 165k will fit only if you use a 3/4" to 1" spacer

 

Any experience with these and know if they sound good. Do the Utopia's need the spacers as well? Thanks

 

I'm running focal 165 k2 and have tried the 165 w utopias.

The kevlar series k or k2 sounds very nice. bass is very tight and the speaker has great control and punch. These speakers really move alot of air. If you are into a more laid back sound, i.e. for jazz or vocals I would go with dynaudio. Otherwise the focals have a great snap and sound great. However they do need at least their nominal power to really sing. The more power the more control the more they sound better.

I tried the utopias also and the cone is designed with 1 soft layer sandwiched between 2 stiff layers of something ( if memory serves me) I don't know if it was because of this but it sounded a bit stiff. Little bass extension. I ended up liking the kevlar series much better, but I didn't have a chance to break in the utopias though. I did think that the utopias would sound great in a sealed enclosure.