Best sounding replacement speakers?

[Boostisgood]

I am replacing the stock deck and speakers this next week. What kind of speakers sound the best (reasonably priced) for the front dash, door speakers, and rear dash speakers. i will be also installing 2 JL 12's with an 600 watt x2 amp. Im not sure about the name of the deck, but it the new Sony xplode w/ black face. (maybe the mx10?) thanks for any help.

 

[TURBOV6]

I had good results with lower line Ecilpse 3.5's and 6x9's and not bad priced.

 

[ross87t]

Alot of people that post here really lean towards building a good "front stage".

You could save money by not buying new 4x10's or 6x9's for the rear deck, and put that extra money into a really good set of component speakers, for the front. (I like my Polk 5-1/4"s in the stock concert sound location.)

I don't know how Sony head units are anymore, but I can tell you this. I had a Sony head unit 5 years ago, and it got terrible reception.

My Pioneer head unit gets great reception, and was very affordable.

Ross

 

[dconnor]

I agree with Ross on the head unit, every Sony I've run or installed for someone had pretty anemic reception. Pioneer packs in a bunch of features for the money & their quality is top notch. PLUS if you wanna stiock with a stock sized head unit Pioneer makes several in the DIN & a half style (another choice is the Monsoon head unit from a late model F-body, see them on E-bay pretty often.)

As for speakers, for a "budget" system utilizing the stock mounting locations here is what I would recommend:

Rockford Fostgate 3 1/2" in the dash, (not sure what the model # is) recently checked these out at Best Buy & they sounded VERY good in the display room and even better in a Monte SS out in the install area.

Cerwin Vega Stealth Series 5 1/4" for the doors, nice crisp response, great quality for the price & no problems about being too deep.

For a component set I like either CV or Rockford Fosgate. Mount the woofer in the stock location & create a spot on the door panel for the tweeter (I will take a pic with a couple of spots marked out on an actual TR doorpanel & post it tomorrow) One thing to keep in mind here though is that we are working with a limited mounting depth on these cars, so quite a few of the high end (big magnet or built in crossover) 5 1/4" speakers available won't fit.

Cerwin Vega Stealth Series 6x9"s in the rear deck, nice fit & very good sound quality ESP considering the cost. Unless you mount a set of kick panel pods up front I don't recommend totally ditching the rear "fill" speakers. Just my opinion here but the stock door speaker location is not condusive to a ultra-quality front stage; the rear deck speakers will help offset this "problem." One alternative is to install a set of 5 1/4"s back there, which will allow the bass from the subs up into the cab more efficiently than just firing into the back of the seat, but doesn't totally junk the rear mid frequency "fill."

One thing to think about, a pair of 12" subs can be a bit tricky to mount on the rear shelf and still have the correct airpsace for your particular speaker. I would suggest a single 12" sub OR a pair of 10"s; again just my personal preference here. I run a single 10" which provides plenty of low end grunt for my musical taste, (blues, modern & classic rock) AND it isn't a huge weight addition so my track timeslips don't suffer too much from there being a couple of hundred extra pounds of MDF & stereo electronics in the trunk.

Doug C.

 

[darkfa8]

...

I agree with Ross. For the money invested, you'll get a better sounding/staging/imaging stereo system that will impress your friends and small animals

However, if you just want to replace the stock speakers with aftermarkets...it ain't no sin... I'd suggest going to a bunch of car audio places (BestBuy, The Wiz, specialty car audio shops) and listening to different speakers.

My advice on speakers: go with sounds best to your ears based on what you listen to.

As for Sony's reception, I've had 3 Sony decks, 2 of them being Mobile ES units and the reception in my area (NJ/NY/PA Metro) has been very good.

 

[postal]

I like boston acoustics speakers. Kind of pricey but every now and then you can snag a set of used pro series compenent speakers for a little over $100 off ebay. If they arent fried they will jam!

hth: Jason