Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio Which speakers to buy?

Problem is I just blew a speaker in my car with my new MP3 player ($215 on ebay).

I've seen the following on Ebay:

• 
  $78.00 - INFINITY Kappa 5x7" 6x8" Car SPEAKERS 572.3cf
  $53 - 2002 Model CLARION SRC5724 5x7" / 6x8
  $34.99 - PYRAMID Model SUPERBLUE #5791
  $58 - 2001 Rockford Fosgate Punch 5x7" / 6x8" 2 Way
  $44 - JBL GTO7525 5x7 6x8 2-way
  

Questions I have are:
1) What is a good power range?
2) Best set of speakers front/Back (1996 Contour SE)
3) My roommate has Orion Cobalt 260 amp (240 Watts RMS) with 2-6" MTX Road Thunder subwoofers
and I'm thinking about buying them. What is a reasonable price.
4) What is difference between 2-way and 3-way speakers? Which is better?

I know i'm asking alot, but thanks for the help.
I figure you guys are best place to come.

THANKS!

K, first first
Speakers:
ifinity=good
jl audio=damn good
rockford=used to be good, but gots crap for quality for money bang
jbl=not good
pioneer=very good for money
TWO:
two-way or three-way;
two ways are better than three ways in my opinion for specifically this one reason. when a three way is pushed hard, or pushed at all for that reason, the cone will start hitting your tweeter housing and will ultimately rip your cone or put a rip in your spider to cone/ coil connection (which is your weakest link in any speaker) which will also give your speaker that "blown" sound.

jl audio component series TX for the fronts are the way to go, you dont have to worry about your cone hitting your tweeter, and your can position your tweeter for max hearing, and you can adjust you power level to accept more wattage from a small amp.
and a good set of 5x7 or 5x8s for the rear doors will do fine, preferably pioneers.

hope i helped some,
Justin

Out of the ones listed I would go with the Infinity's although that isn't that great of a deal IMHO. Dave or some of the real nerds (jk guys) might be able to get you into seperates or something that suits you better.

Do you know what model the subs and amp are?

-Pete

Problem is I just blew a speaker in my car with my new MP3 player ($215 on ebay).

I've seen the following on Ebay:

• 
  $78.00 - INFINITY Kappa 5x7" 6x8" Car SPEAKERS 572.3cf
  $53 - 2002 Model CLARION SRC5724 5x7" / 6x8
  $34.99 - PYRAMID Model SUPERBLUE #5791
  $58 - 2001 Rockford Fosgate Punch 5x7" / 6x8" 2 Way
  $44 - JBL GTO7525 5x7 6x8 2-way
  

[/qb][/quote]

I would consider all of these viable options except for the pyramid. Are you going to running a subwoofer? It'll make a difference as some are better than others at handling bass response. There may be other options at that price range. I have seen MB Quart 5x7s at or near the price listed for the infinity if you wanted more options.
Largely overated number in most cases. If you are running them with a HU, almost all speakers will handle the power. If you are going to be using a seperate amp, power handling may become a bit more important. That being said, if you are looking for a number, look for something that can handle 40-50w rms.

There really isn't such a thing. You want to add a sub it looks like if you are looking at the amp/speakers in the next bullet point. Because of this, there is less priority on bass response out of the door speakers. As smoothy said, JL makes some good speakers, as do MB Quart, Boston Acoustics, Pioneer, Kenwood, Infinity, Crystal, etc....


I would check ebay for the amp, but I would say 60.00 for the pair of woofers (if they are used) and 100.00 or so for the amp. Cobalts are solid amps. Instead of getting the 6" "subs" as MTX calls them, I would strongly urge you to get at least a single 10. Were you going for the 6" to save space? If so, there are some tens that will go into a .4 cu ft enclosure and sound damn good at www.madisound.com/sale.html They are the Clarion 2 ohm woofers in the picture. For 25.00 each, they can be beat and would require only a 13x13x13" box to sound great.



If you are referring to 2 and 3 way coaxial type speakers, then my response would be that there really isn't too much of a difference. It really comes down to the crossovers used. In any coax speaker with onboard crossovers, they tend to just have high-pass crossovers on each component. For instance, the woofer plays full range, the mid plays from 3khz on up, and the tweeter plays from 8khz on up. Or something along those lines. What this does is sums the freq response of each of the speakers and ends up with a messy hgih end freq response. The better coaxials of the world will have external crossovers that cut the highs from the woofer (low pass) and cut the lows from the tweeter (high-pass). This normally results in a more uniform freq response graph and smoother sound.[quote][qb]

I know i'm asking alot, but thanks for the help.
I figure you guys are best place to come.

THANKS!

Ok guys, thanks for the help. Here's what I found.
Options for the front:

• $30-ish Used JL Audio 5x7 Speakers Evolution TR
  
• $82 JL AUDIO TR570-CX Car Stereo Speakers *NEW
• $51 - JL NEW DKD-157 MB QUART 5X7\'S NIB
• $59- Pioneer 5X7 Speakers #TSA5713-New
• $49 - NEW PIONEER TS-A5713 5X7" SPEAKERS 120W

Which speaker would you buy?
I'm looking for speaker with very good quality, more importantly then bass (getting subwoofer(s) for that)
I'm imaging that its good to have same make/model speakers on front and back??
if not, name some specific make/model speakers i should get for back.

Please share good/bad experiences.

Yes, I will be running an amp with 10" subwoofer in trunk I think.

I'm new to all this audio ****, but I really just want to get everything I need and be done with.

As for the subwoofer:
1) What are some good make/model
2) What wattage should I get? (DONT want a system that shakes my brain out of my head...
3) What is difference between Woofer and Subwoofer? Which is better for bass.

THANKS for all the help,

Especially smoothy1995 and dnewma04 !!!!!

Actually, I would get 6x9's for the front doors. They fit in just fine. The only thing you have to do is drill new holes for the screws. This opens up many more possibilities. You can even fit 6x9's in the rear doors too, but this involves cutting away a little bit of material from the doors. By the way, I have 6x9 infinity kappas in the front and 5x7 kappas in the rear. They sound really good. I do have a 12" sub in the back too, but even with it turned off, the door speakers sound good. Hope this helps. Let us know what you decide on.

do you have a local shop that has any of the speakers you are considering? go listen to them if you can.

How much do you need to cut away in the rear doors? I was considering going this way with 6X9's in the front and rear doors.

Is that the only problem, just drilling new holes and cuttting away a little bit of sheet metal?
Thanks

New Infinity Kappa 693.3 (silver cones) isn't a direct fit for front doors – for sure need to trim metal. Also you can consider Blaupunkt 6x9 - 60$ those are direct fit for rear doors and may be for the fronts also.

Ok, i'm thinking of this setup:

• $34.50 - BLAUPUNKT T-Line PCXT693 210W for the back
• $105 - Infinity Kappa 692.3i 6x9 2way 330watt for the fronts.
• $25 each - Clarion 2ohm woofer for bass.
  

More questions....
1) What's difference between 2ohm and 4ohm?
2) Is difference between 5x7 vs. 6x9?? More Watts?
3) If I go with 6x9's, how hard is it to cut out sheet metal?What tools do I need?
4) Anyone have a good tutorial for installing amp?

I was told:
1) Install amp in trunk.
2) Run wire from all speakers to trunk.
3) Run power cable from battery to amp (how, i dont know)
4) Plug in left speakers and woofer to left channel and vice versa for right speakers.
Is it that easy?

What other speakers do you guys recommend for excellent clarity over bass.