Redrocket, I agree I think I can satisfied easily but however I want a set of door speakers that I won' have to replace 2 months after I put them in. What am I looking for? A decent sound with no distortion, Longevity, and reasonable price.

 

From what I have heard they make them sound worse. Door speakers are designed to be infinite baffle speakers, essentially the same as free air. Meaning they are designed to NOT be in an enclosure. However they NEED a baffle to separate the front of the speaker from the rear for best sound. Extra example, a sub held up in open air makes no bass.

I considered those little things you mentioned (forgot the name) even knowing the above but read reviews and people don't like them, and in my research of high end installs they don't use them. So that was enough for me to not test them and go with what I knew.

The cars I've had panels off that surprised me the most just had those rings, no sealing cup/enclosure, no sealed off door frame (holes all over just like normal), no sound deadener, they look like the pics I posted. When I saw that I had that aha moment and started searching those rings, that's when I noticed pro installers use them and great sounding OE setups. Some lexus' and toyotas get pretty serious so I looked more into them, the speakers are garbage, but the install is not. Any speaker can sound like complete *** if not installed properly. I also got off into different box sizes with subs over the last couple years and that is a little mind blowing once you see the difference air space makes, so again, install is everything. Nearly 20 years ago I bought a $50 sealed box at a bazzar for 2 15" and it didn't produce much bass, I sealed it up from the inside with a bunch of silicone and it got WAY louder.

The next thing I want to play with is on putting speakers on axis, i'm dreaming up ideas on how to do it. On axis is when the speaker faces your ear/face area, or bounces sound off the windshield into your face/ear area. Take your computer speakers and point them 90 degrees from your face, that's almost how all cars are, or at least 45 degrees off axis, now point them straight at your face making a triangle of the two and your head the third corner. Then imagine doing that in the car, but it's far harder in the car, that requires a lot of custom panel work/fiberglass work, or kick panels.

You start doing this stuff and you start realizing how the speaker is such a small part of the overall picture, just swapping speakers won't make a huge difference. I had two 12" subs that shook gas station windows and ceilings, broke the roof of my truck, not once did someone guess it was 2 12", and they were especially blown away to see they were in a sealed box under the rear seat, no gimmicks, no lifted seat, just a down fire box with two cheap 12's. The surprise got worse, they were only $99 per woofer and I had them on 2500 watts. The key was it was a large custom sealed box, not a cookie cutter pro box that's only half the air space it's supposed to be, and a legit 2500+ watts with high end wiring alt and battery to support the amp, but it was also one of the top brand name amps on the planet. NO bs, I had 2 8" subs before that, that were actually a hair louder. But they weren't cheap.

That's why I don't want people getting locked into just one type of speaker as if it's a magic speaker. This isn't anything like cam profiles. Speakers are much more similar in complexity to a pushrod.

You will be happy with anything over the stocks, even the JVC for $20 and you won't have to replace any in 2 years unless you have water getting on them or people kicking them. Unless you put an amp on them and blow them of course.

Well, you can get water on the polks

 

Good info in here. Anything you could recommend for sail panels? It seems our only options are Bazookas or CDTs

 

We were on topic for 550 ish replies...

90% of the time my wife's first reply to what I just said is already off topic.

We do pretty good round here!

 

Sounds like it! lol!

 

You referring to the furthest back speakers back in the back, the small ones under the back hatch glass? Those are 4". Did a quick search and alpine, polk and kicker have 4" with silk tweeters for $69-79. Found those on crutchfield.

The polks have the highest efficiency rating so they will play the loudest on the same power vs the others. They all have similar frequency ranges and power handling. However they are all very similar so any you choose would work okay. And my low budget 4" recommendation would be the rockford fosgate. It says it has a silk tweeter but the speaker set is only $35 so I have a hard time picturing quality being that cheap. They also have the lowest efficiency rating. But, you don't need award winning speakers back there. Just something equal or better than stock, and anything is likely better than stock.

When you say bazooka I picture sub, when you say sail I'm thinking the little ones. If you mean sub, have a little 10" custom box built to the SPEAKERS SPECS that you choose to use and enjoy. Or get a cubby box made for a 12" and put an adapter ring on it and put a 10" in there, they are a little small for a 12". I had db drive K5 series subs last, they work great for being a low cost sub if you need a sub recommendation.


https://www.crutchfield.com/Product/...s=01|206KSC404

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_575R14...X2.html?tp=105

 

My question is do you always get what you pay for?

 

Start with the JVC is you're super on the fence. They make a 4x6 in the 20 ish dollar range. The 6.5" are also $20. I am very impressed with them for $20 speakers. Honestly I would have been plenty happy if I had paid $50 for the JVC. They are every bit as good as, or better than the pionner and kenwood 6.5" that we just took out of my son's car. Those looked to be of the $50 or so a pair flavor that those companies offer.

Again, I have the JVC's in the wife's car, I like them, we're all pleased with them. My son is a bass head/audiophile as well. He knows the difference between clarity and loud and isn't about all bass like a lot of folks. I've showed the wife the difference too. Our cars get a lot of compliments because we shoot for clarity and balance first, then loudness. Even the terd *** kia with those JVC is impressive.

Just don't expect door speakers to bass very much, it's not what they're for, it's not gonna happen. Some people get let down when their door speakers don't make a lot of bass.

 

I don't think so, it only really loads up when your pressing the brake pedal. Otherwise the flow is just looping through the steering pump like normal.

On jeeps with it, you notice just the slightest increase in steering effort while braking, that load would be helping stop the vehicle a small amount through the belts to the crank. On my 2.5 liter jeep, the AC makes a pretty fair "Jake" break. LOL

IN the interest of saving HP,, I have a Honda with electric power steering which I kinda like, there are several how-to's on the net about using a Electric power racks in stand alone mode.. (They can be had pretty cheap off some Hondas and Mitsubishi cars in the pick and pull lots.. )

 

Pooter, you said "we shoot for clarity and balance first, then loudness".

THIS IS WHAT I'M AFTER. I do not want no crackle at all and I don't want all bass. Thanks for understanding.

 

Well all of my advise sends you the direction you want to go mane. After you get your speakers installed if you aren't happy with it let me know and I'll walk you through some eq and crossover settings to get it where you want it.

You'd be in heaven in one of my vehicles. We don't do **** setups in my house. My son is the go to kid for system installation and tuning at his high school. We don't do loud bass with no voices and all that distortion. He's also been offered an internship at a high end audio shop we hang out at because we "get it". I've taught him all I know and he helps me with systems, so he's picked up a lot at a young age.


By the way I been reading a little more and the pioneer D series speakers sound real nice. Read up on them on pioneers website.

 

I dig the idea of the electric rack, anything to reduce parasitic loss is an excellent idea in my book.

 

It was in reference to the speakers beside the rear seats. Though i'm looking into replacing the speakers in the hatch as well so it is still helpful!

 

My 5.3 gets about 11.5mpg.

 

Worse I've ever heard a 5.3 getting. I could only imagine what it gets pulling a trailer.

 

If it's the truck in his signature then it's self induced. "2000 Silverado 4wd 5.3 - Daily Driver - Small lift, 35's, 4:88's, Tru-Trac, rusty Flowmaster, CircleD 3,200 Stall"

 

Now I gotcha.... mobile version of the forum you can't see sigs.

 

4.88's...... no wonder...

 

**** my stock wheel size stock ride height tuned 5.3 that picked up 2 mpg with electric fans and 93 octane stayed at around 12.5 for a long time. Then I was a little nicer to it and got 14.x

If I was real nice to it it got around 17-18

all of those numbers are mixed city and highway, more stop and go than highway though

And the 12 mpg is cause I like to have fun in cars

 

To do door speakers in this car is pretty complicated. That's why with mine I just added subs and left the rest of the system stock and I was really happy with it.

I was going to comment on it but I'm short on time today and the next few days so here is a little write up I found on the setup in the car


Firebird

Front Speakers


6.5" inch "S" oversized, 2 ohm, located in the lower portion of the doors (6.75")

.6" 4 ohm tweeters just above the 6.5"

Rear Speakers


4" 4 ohmmidrange speakers located in the rear hatch panels
.6" 4 ohm tweeter located next to the rear 4" midrange

Sail Panel Woofers


6.5" dual 4 ohm voice coil subwoofers located next to the rear seats (Dual 4 ohm coils gives you a 2 ohm load)

10 Channel Amplifer -500W (some variations in what I've heard on the power level)


Four of the channels are located in the headunit. They power the tweeters located in the doors and in the rear hatch area. The other six channels are in the amplifier located on the passenger side rear wheel well. The amplifier powers the rest of the speakers in the system.



---If you want to change speakers and have more options like bluetooth and ipod control, or android stuff, I would remove the monsoon radio and amp and install 4 6.75" 4 ohm speakers and run wiring from the head unit to the speakers in the car and run a sub and a nice headunit. If you want to amplify the door speakers and not run an amp for the door speakers Sony has a high power head unit that puts out 50 watts rms per channel if I remember right and around 100 max (I could be off a couple watts here). Leaving the far rear speakers out of the picture. I'd run the door speakers off the head unit and a single 10" or so if you wanted just a nice clean sounding system. If you want it real loud then there are other options and be prepared to open your wallet up quite a bit.