speaker questions

05wh250 · Oct 7, 2012

im looking at upgrading the speakers in my truck, i got these a couple years ago from a friend and was wondering if they would fit? http://www.crutchfield.com/p_130TSA6981/Pioneer-TS-A6981R.html?tp=91

and if they would what would ya'll recommend to upgrade the rears with?

displacedtexan · Oct 11, 2012

I'm not an expert on audio, but I'd put those in the rear and components up front.

05wh250 · Oct 12, 2012

Im thinkin about just gettin all the speakers, sub and amp all at the same time. My problem is i know nothing about speakers. So can someone tell me what the difference is in those and a component speaker or just a regular speaker?

SEABEE08FX4 · Oct 12, 2012

Out of all the ones I have heard and tested Focal sounded the best hands down, they are expensive tough but you do get what you pay for. Their access line is the entry level and they still sound better than most all of the other brands competition level stuff to me. You can get two sets of components for around 800.00, for amps I still think JL Audio is the way to go as well as for subs.

displacedtexan · Oct 12, 2012

05wh250 said:
Im thinkin about just gettin all the speakers, sub and amp all at the same time. My problem is i know nothing about speakers. So can someone tell me what the difference is in those and a component speaker or just a regular speaker?

How much do you wanna spend?

doubledee715 · Oct 12, 2012

$800 dollars for door speakers!?!? That's your recommendation? lol

I would recommend some speakers by Memphis. I ran some kicker compenents up front and they blew within 4 months (I play my music LOUD) and then got these Memphis speakers and they sound almost twice as loud as the kickers and came with 2yr warranty opposed to 1yr with Kicker. I paid $140 installed w/2yr warranty. I would also highly recommend some good tweeters. I have four, two up front and two in the rear, they are kicker but holding in there for now. Nothing like good highs with clean bass.

05wh250 · Oct 12, 2012

Not real sure on price range yet just trying to learn a little bit before i go making any big decisions

PatriotHauling · Oct 13, 2012

I have the Pioneer 3-way speakers, and they do a good job, but in the end I want component speakers.

Component speakers separate the frequencies between different speakers. Mid range go to normal speakers, low range go to subs, and high freq go to tweeters. It lets each speaker do its job better by focusing on one frequency range rather than them all.

05wh250 · Oct 13, 2012

Ok that makes sense. Im one of those people that likes to do it righ the first time and leave it alone.

SEABEE08FX4 · Oct 14, 2012

doubledee715 said:
$800 dollars for door speakers!?!? That's your recommendation? lol

I would recommend some speakers by Memphis. I ran some kicker compenents up front and they blew within 4 months (I play my music LOUD) and then got these Memphis speakers and they sound almost twice as loud as the kickers and came with 2yr warranty opposed to 1yr with Kicker. I paid $140 installed w/2yr warranty. I would also highly recommend some good tweeters. I have four, two up front and two in the rear, they are kicker but holding in there for now. Nothing like good highs with clean bass.

Just like anything else you can buy one quality set or several crap sets, your money your choice. If you ever listened to a set though you would know what I mean.

Evan ogre44 · Oct 14, 2012

you just have to make sure their the same size. all the wiring is the same and to upgrade the rear i recommend using either kicker speaks (i have the comp 12's) or pioneer. they seem to be some of the best now and their not too pricy.

seeyalater5.9 · Oct 14, 2012

Focal by far.

jdc753 · Oct 14, 2012

doubledee715 said:
$800 dollars for door speakers!?!? That's your recommendation? lol

I would recommend some speakers by Memphis. I ran some kicker compenents up front and they blew within 4 months (I play my music LOUD) and then got these Memphis speakers and they sound almost twice as loud as the kickers and came with 2yr warranty opposed to 1yr with Kicker. I paid $140 installed w/2yr warranty. I would also highly recommend some good tweeters. I have four, two up front and two in the rear, they are kicker but holding in there for now. Nothing like good highs with clean bass.

$800 is actually pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things, have you checked out the price on Focal's top of the line... http://www.crutchfield.com/p_091NO7/Focal-Utopia-Be-No-7.html

$800 is indeed too rich for my blood, but I paid $300 for 1 owner low hour $800 components.

Sadly for 90% of car audio you truely get what you pay for. I am not saying your $140 set of components aren't good, but there is indeed big difference when you start dishing out double and tripple that for a set of speakers.

Now after saying all that, INSTALLATION is a FAR more important than the $$ spent on gear when it comes to building a truely good sounding vehicle.

05wh250 said:
Not real sure on price range yet just trying to learn a little bit before i go making any big decisions

Budget really is key when it comes to making gear recommendations, but if you are willing to learn then that is certainly the best place to start.

I would not recommend using those 6x9's you have, or any oval speaker in a vehicle, except maybe dropping them into the rear pillars since you already have them, then again I don't actually recommend running rear speakers either, but when done right in these trucks it won't hurt too much.

So, oval vs round:

An oval speaker is a compromise between sound quality and overall output. Output is loosely defined as Power X Cone area, so an oval speaker has a larger surface area than a round speaker. However the physical properties of the oval speaker when the cone is traveling back and forth is not as fluid or symmetrical as a round speaker, this is where the slight distortion or coloration will be introduced. I dare you to find any car audio competition vehicle either SQ or SPL that uses oval speakers, I am not saying there isn't one somewhere but I have yet to ever see one, especially in the SQ lanes.

Now for moving on, amplifiers, for roughly 80% of the amplifier market wattage is wattage, you get the bottom of the barrel 10% like Pyle or Pyramid and newer Jensen and such, and then the top 10% like Tru, Arc Audio SE series, Zapco competition, Linear Power, and other multi-thousand dollar amps. What you can find in some amps to set them apart from others will be enough filtering to do active tuning (Sundown Audio amps) or switching power supplies that provide constant wattage across a range of resistance (JL Audio Slash series, and some Crown built JBL amps)

If you are wanting to do some reading/learning on your own then I would highly suggest checking out the forums at www.caraudio.com and www.diymobileaudio.com

Now some general ideas I run with when trying to build a system for someone...

Budget?

Are you willing to buy an amplifier for the door speakers?
~If not I would look into coaxials or limit door speaker price under $200
~If you are, then I would look into component sets above $200, depending on budget.

Installation requirements:
~Are you willing to sacrafice behind the seat for amps/subs?
~If not, are you willing to sacrafice under the rear seat?
~Or not, what about the center console?

Will you be installing it by yourself, or having a shop? Do you have basic wood working skills, or know someone who does? (See budget)

When considering budget, don't forget for wire, power/ground, speaker wire, RCA cables, etc.

Thats about all I can think of for now, and I know it is barely much on the subject but it is really open ended with a clean slate, as questions get answered things get easier and stuff just starts falling into place.

05wh250 · Oct 15, 2012

i was thinking only 1 amp, mounted behind the seats, as for the sub i was planning on mounting it under the center seat in the front. thinking a shallow 8 or 10 and building my own box for it, i have some experience and i've got some friends that have alot of woodworking experience.

im thinking coaxials just to keep it a more simple install for now.

also i'm wanting to keep the stock head unit, what all will i need to hook everything up correctly?

displacedtexan · Oct 15, 2012

I installed components in a mall parking lot, simple install.

jdc753 · Oct 16, 2012

For using the factory HU you will just need to get a Line Out Converter (LoC) or an amplifier that has High Level aka Speaker Level inputs so that you can get your signal into the amplifier.

For some reason I can't get into PSN, but 907Dave built an awesome center seat sub box, he was able to squeeze a 12" Image Dynamics subwoofer into the seat and still had some foam for the cushion. Came out awesome!

With your goals and idea's I wouldn't be spending much more than $200, just get a $100-150 sub and probably a $80-120 on the amp, nothing killer, a 150w sub and maybe a 50wx2 amp bridged to a single channel or whatever amp will work.

skew12 · Oct 16, 2012

jdc753 said:
$800 is actually pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things, have you checked out the price on Focal's top of the line... http://www.crutchfield.com/p_091NO7/Focal-Utopia-Be-No-7.html

$800 is indeed too rich for my blood, but I paid $300 for 1 owner low hour $800 components.

Sadly for 90% of car audio you truely get what you pay for. I am not saying your $140 set of components aren't good, but there is indeed big difference when you start dishing out double and tripple that for a set of speakers.

Now after saying all that, INSTALLATION is a FAR more important than the $$ spent on gear when it comes to building a truely good sounding vehicle.

Budget really is key when it comes to making gear recommendations, but if you are willing to learn then that is certainly the best place to start.

I would not recommend using those 6x9's you have, or any oval speaker in a vehicle, except maybe dropping them into the rear pillars since you already have them, then again I don't actually recommend running rear speakers either, but when done right in these trucks it won't hurt too much.

So, oval vs round:

An oval speaker is a compromise between sound quality and overall output. Output is loosely defined as Power X Cone area, so an oval speaker has a larger surface area than a round speaker. However the physical properties of the oval speaker when the cone is traveling back and forth is not as fluid or symmetrical as a round speaker, this is where the slight distortion or coloration will be introduced. I dare you to find any car audio competition vehicle either SQ or SPL that uses oval speakers, I am not saying there isn't one somewhere but I have yet to ever see one, especially in the SQ lanes.

Now for moving on, amplifiers, for roughly 80% of the amplifier market wattage is wattage, you get the bottom of the barrel 10% like Pyle or Pyramid and newer Jensen and such, and then the top 10% like Tru, Arc Audio SE series, Zapco competition, Linear Power, and other multi-thousand dollar amps. What you can find in some amps to set them apart from others will be enough filtering to do active tuning (Sundown Audio amps) or switching power supplies that provide constant wattage across a range of resistance (JL Audio Slash series, and some Crown built JBL amps)

If you are wanting to do some reading/learning on your own then I would highly suggest checking out the forums at www.caraudio.com and www.diymobileaudio.com

Now some general ideas I run with when trying to build a system for someone...

Budget?

Are you willing to buy an amplifier for the door speakers?
~If not I would look into coaxials or limit door speaker price under $200
~If you are, then I would look into component sets above $200, depending on budget.

Installation requirements:
~Are you willing to sacrafice behind the seat for amps/subs?
~If not, are you willing to sacrafice under the rear seat?
~Or not, what about the center console?

Will you be installing it by yourself, or having a shop? Do you have basic wood working skills, or know someone who does? (See budget)

When considering budget, don't forget for wire, power/ground, speaker wire, RCA cables, etc.

Thats about all I can think of for now, and I know it is barely much on the subject but it is really open ended with a clean slate, as questions get answered things get easier and stuff just starts falling into place.

Sweet jeebus this is some good info!

05wh250 · Oct 16, 2012

Yeah im not looking for a whole lot, just better sound than stock and a little more bass

powerlifter405 · Oct 23, 2012

05wh250 said:
Yeah im not looking for a whole lot, just better sound than stock and a little more bass

The Alpine PDX5 is a 4 channel plus a 1 for a sub. Mine test sheet shows it runs 84 watts rms x4 and 324 watts rms for the sub. It runs cool, doesn't drain my battery like some of the lower grade amps I had in the past. I used monster cable all the way around for every piece of wire, no alternator whine and it sounds pretty good IMHO.

The PDX5 is digital and you can pick up used ones pretty cheap. If it every acts up out of warranty, Alpine will rebuild it for 75$ delivered back to your door.

Mine was a showroom model and IIRC I only paid 150 for it. New they are in the 350ish range.

Good luck.