Pioneer,

Kenwood,

Kicker,

Overall, who makes the best car speaker. Not the cheapest, the best.

I'm looking at 3.5 inch and 4x10 inch.

 

I installed Kenwoods of those sizes in my '86 Cutlass. They fit well and sounded great!! Very deep bass from the 4x10s.
However, the foam surrounds rotted and fell apart in 10 years. Car was mostly garaged.
I bought new sets to replace them and they rotted in 7 years, despite little use and garage storage.
I plan on going back to stock speakers with accordion surrounds that will not rot. The extended range version of the rears should be able to handle the small amp that is in there.

I have a cheap set of Sparkomatics that I installed in the Pinto back in 1990 that are both still intact and play well, even after outside parking. Maybe it is the orange dye that made the surrounds bulletproof!

 

MB Quart.

- Eric

 

Speaker choices depend greatly on musical preference as any Crutchfield expert will tell you.
I spent $100 on both Kenwood 6x9's and $100 on Pioneers 6x9's back in the late 90's.

In my 20's I was a very loud heavy metal enthusiast with bass thumpin systems. The Kenwoods I beat the crap out of with an amped system for ~8-10 years. The Pioneers on the same system died in <1 year. They blew a tweeter. Upon further investigation it was very notable the speaker magnets on the Kenwoods were about 2x the density and thickness. Compared to the Pioneer dinky magnets., they were huge. I will never buy Pioneer speakers again, because they are not built to handle power very well. Needless to say I'm Kenwood loyal to this day, but don't be a cheap ***, get the Excelon series and amp it CORRECTLY.

Kicker, I have only bought their amplifiers before they went mainstream and now Walmart has them......if that tells you anything.
Walmart also sells Pioneer and Sony crap speakers. I won't own either brand for speakers, but Pioneer makes DECENT head units.

 

Good info. Thanks. I should have explained, they are going into my '87 as replacements for the factory ones of which the left hand ones are shot. I detest the "bass a thumpin" sound, but the car gets a lot of time on the highway with the T-tops out so they need to be able to handle the stereo (stock) turned up fairly loud (which is what I assume brought about the demise of the current speakers).

 

Boston Acoustic

 

Hmm, they don't seem to make a 4x10, and every speaker I clicked on at their website says "Out of Stock".

 

Any old speaker will work fine in your 87.

 

JL is the best of the best in my opinion. And I think you would be really happy adding a nice head unit and maybe a single 10" sub or even a 8". subs are only loud and obnoxious when you turn them up, kept at the right levels they can add depth and quality to the sound, that will make you wonder how you went without before.

if you spend allot of time in your car I think a stereo set up is more than worth the money and time it would take to set it up.

http://www.jlaudio.com/

 

I was looking for speakers that will fit in the stock places. I can't find 3.5 or 4x10's on the MB Quart site. Maybe you have a link?

 

For speakers I like Infinity (I have 3.5 and 6x9's currently in my Delta 88) also MB Quart and JBL

I use a pioneer Head unit.

 

You didn't mention they had to fit the holes - you just asked what was the best.

Getting quality speakers for the original holes will be hard.
I'd recommend an alternative mounting strategy if the sound is very important to you. If not, then don't worry too much about it.

- Eric

 

He mentioned the sizes he was looking at, 3.5" and 4x10.

The Kenwoods were very nice sounding. I had the 3.5" fronts hooked right to the radio and the rear 4x10s hooked to a 30 x 2 amp. I have the stock premium Delco radio.

It was loud in the rear and you could get that booming bass that rattles the trunk lid, depending on the EQ setting.
However I would use bass blocking caps up front as those tiny things cannot produce anything over 100hz anyway. It would prevent damaging, power robbing distortion.

Back in 1992 the 4x10s cost 99.00 a pair, way too high. I worked at circus-city's repair center and got them for 49 with my discount.
The second set of 4x10s and the 3.5s I bought from evil bay for 37.00 for the 4x10s, ?? for the fronts.

So even if you have to replace them every 7 years, do the math and see if they would be worth it. If you drive the car a lot, then it might be. Mine gets one 300 mile road trip a year, so not worth it to me.

 

Heavy Metal kinda implied it's not the hip hop rap type of blaring bass you're thinking of probably.
I'm talking when a drummer hits his bass, you hear the deeper tones you're supposed to......it's more natural.
I believe every new car that rolls off the lot in 2013 has a subwoofer in it.

Like someone said, once you hear what a pair of 8" or 10" subs can add to your musical depth,
you will scoff at what your old systems sound like without a proper bass. Obviously if you're an
older gentlemen and never quite experienced a modern sound system (don't think rap music) then
you're missing out!!!!

Relying on a 4x10 speaker exclusively for your "BASS" delivery doesn't have the depth.

BTW +1 for Boston Acoustic's but they have a target musical genre for those.
I have a 12" Boston Acoustic sub I'm putting in my package tray of my 442.
I put a 10' Boston Acoustic sub in my package tray of my 2nd gen Camaro like DSE did for Earnhardt.

 

I like infinity, mb quarts.. there is a reason higher end companies do not make those sizes. Get a speaker plate to convert the 4x10 to 2 4" speakers and get a higher end speaker. I did it in my dash and love it..

 

If price didnt matter i would do jl audio, but i have some quality kenwood 5.25" in the front and pioneer 6x9 in the back of my nova and am very pleased with the sound.

 

They use to make a 6x9 to a 4x10 adapter. I bought from a local audio shop about four years ago. However, it was not a direct fit in the package tray. I had some creative fabricating to get it to work.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ECLIPSE-10-X...item2c6e88f9a0

 

why pick anything other than Pro Grade real speakers like JBL's and other high quality pro speakers. You can get them here http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/In...8/N/4294548731 Once you get happy with studio monitors, you will never go back.

 

http://www.qualitycaraudio.com/store...sp?sku=PLG41.3

 

On my non-GM cars that originally had 3.5" front speakers I was able to open up the holes slightly and install 4" speakers as there is a larger selection and the sound is better.

 

Most brands have their quality and cheapy speakers. Look at the specs on them. RMS watts is continuous watts. Advertised watts is what the speaker will handle for a fraction of a second. Like aceshigh mentioned the magnet size makes a difference. The bigger the better. I like a three way speaker because it separates the bass, mid and treble sounds and puts it to the appropriate speaker instead of trying to run all sounds through one speaker. bass through a small speaker gets distorted quick. Also highs through a large speaker gets muffled.

Side note. Aces I just seen this today. Wish we could get this in the states:

 

OK, I went with the Kenwoods. Now a new problem. The connectors of course do not match up, so I made my own small wire harness to go between. The speaker leads are marked "+" and "-" the car wire harness is marked "A" and "B". LH front harness has a Tan wire that is "B" and a Grey wire that is "A". RH front harness has a Dark Green wire that is "A" and a Light Green wire that is "B". Which wires go to the "+" side and which ones go to the "-" side of the speaker? BTW, the stock speakers are marked "A" and "B" also, so that is no help to me.

Thanks,

 

It doesn't matter so long as you do it the same way on all of them.

If you want to be obsessive, use a battery (AA or similar) across the terminals of the speaker for a second and watch the speaker - the cone will either move in or move out.

Do this with all of the old and new speakers and then mark the new ones so that they move out with the same polarity of the battery connections as the old ones.

All you want to do is make sure that the speakers all move the same way at the same time - if half of them push out and the other half pull in, then the sound that one set makes is negating the sound that the other makes (and you CAN hear the difference).

- Eric

 

Heres a wiring diag for ya.

I carefully removed the connectors from my old rear speakers and soldered wires to them which could go to the new speakers.
They connectors can be easily reinstalled on the stock ones whenever.

The front connectors will mate with regular 1/4" male spade connectors easily (if I remember correctly!)
You will like the Kenwoods. I just hope they went to a rubber or cloth surround for longevity....

 

That's what I am doing. I spent last night removing the rear speakers and then removing the clip on connector, removing the spades out of them and soldering on new wires to run to the connectors on the new speakers. I installed the front speakers with the spade mini harnesses I had made the previous night. I hooked negative up to Gray and Dark Green just by luck (both speakers move "out") and they sound good. Thanks to everyone for their help!

 

You're welcome!

 

Cool, let me know how you like the sound!
What are your plans for the stock speakers? Are the rears the extended range versions with the huge magnets?

 

Finally got everything soldered up and got the rears installed. All four speakers sound great. The Kenwood 4x10's are a little taller than the stock speakers so I really had to push to get the bale wire hooked.

Rob, not sure what you mean about the stock speakers. They definitely do not have huge magnets ("and she's got huge......tracts of land). I cut the connectors off of them and they don't look good. I'll probably try to sell them at the Homecoming swap meet for a buck or so.

Thanks again for all the help guys.

 

These are what i am looking for - the $168 Extended Range rear speaker option...


I forgot to mention that there are aftermarket wire supports that work good with the Kenwoods. I never thought the stock brackets would even work, specially from the standard speakers...

 

Rob I answered your bump on your other post, but forgot to ask are yours 4, 8, or 10 ohm impedance?

 

I prefer Bluesmobile speakers....

 

infinity.
i believe parts express still offers a 6x9 adapter for 4x10's...


bill

 

this procedure is called phasing, and it's important.


bill

 

The polarity, as bill said is very important, as the speaker needs to push out when a positive signal is introduced or your sound will be forced out the back of the speaker.

 

you're on the right path, i'll expand on it a bit to explain why...
example: with 2 speakers in the back deck, if they're out of phase, the sound from one will cancel out the sound from the other. this very noticeably affects bass negatively, as bass causes the most cone excursion, hence the most air volume movement. since the trunk is a common enclosure to both speakers, one speaker moving outward and the other moving inward, the resulting sound is almost cancelled in the low frequency range. the good thing is, you can only wire speakers 2 ways, one is in phase(all is good) or 180 degrees out of phase(which is bad). we won't get in to phase cancellations caused by speaker locations in a car, as a car is about the worst place for an audiophile sound system


bill

 

Which is why I didn't want to shell out big bucks. I got all four speakers for much less than $100 shipped. I don't care how they sound, as long as I can hear them, and they don't rattle or buzz.

Rob, the speakers in your pictures are exactly what I just took out of my car. The left one rattles so bad I kept the left speakers shut off for a time. They don't have any connectors on them though as I removed them to use for installing the new ones. Do you happen to have a link for the speaker supports?

Thanks,