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best sound quality components

23K views 48 replies 28 participants last post by  Fish Chris 2 
#1 ·
hello,

looking into 6.5 components, thinking of going with the cdt es62i series. any pros, cons?

Running an a/d/s mx460 , alpine cda9855 h.u.

any recomendations as for a great sounding set of components would be appreciated

thanks for your time
 
#8 ·
thanks for all the replies,

I have around $400 to spend , I was looking into these cdt's
CDTAudio top quality audio components
I tried google search for reviews and didn't find much info.
other options are
CDTAUDIO Premium Car Audio Sound Systems
CDTAUDIO Premium Car Audio Sound Systems

focals
Focal 165-V1 - Focal 165V1 Polyglass 6.5" 2 Way Component Speakers

polk had good reviews
Polk Audio mm6w - Polk Audio 6.5" Momo Competition Component Set

Mostly listen to live recordings, rock , blues , jazz. I am looking for something nuetral, with a good sound quality. Not interested in blasting out my neighbors or the car next to me at the red light.

I am looking for a plug and play component set, I can modify the door panels in the toyota tacoma if necessary, they were 5x7 stock , I believe. I have infinity 6.5 reference components installed now. The a/d/s mx460 amp sounds great, the infinity's midbass is ok, but the highs are not so good. Running a jbl bp600.1 and infinity kappa perfect 10" dual voice coil sub.

I would run the components passive , I do not have enough knowledge to even begin to run the active. The a/d/s amp is a step or two beyond my knowledge, I bypassed the x-over on the amp and messed with the xover settings on the h.u.. I am going to run two channels of the 4 channel amp, would I be better off bridging the amp, or just using two channels for better sound quality,

thanks for your time
 
#6 ·
Me likey the Hertz
 
#12 ·
best sound quality component
Mine are. But then again, everyone is going to say that. Most of the choices recommended in here aren't available for audition locally, so you will be trusting the word of people you don't know who could have picked speakers you'll not like. I only buy what I can hear. I bought mine after a 2-week multi-brand blind evaluation. After reading what people like online, I firmly believe there are no true "best" components. It's about preference.

During my blind evaluation I never thought I would consider Infinity Reference to be the best. I selected them over everything else on the mass market. I've gotten endless crap from people for picking them as "the best" and nowadays I just don't talk about it anymore. People online are so pigheaded about their beliefs and there is no use in trying to convince them that Infinity Reference speakers sound like world class performers to my ears. Some people 'hate' my speakers, at least online they say they do. In person so far, people like my speakers. Go figure. I don't let other people's opinions move what my own ears tell me. I suggest you do the same.

Go with what your ears tell you is the best. Afterall, you are the one who has to listen to your system everyday, not those critics. Are you after pleasing your own ears or trying to build a system for other people who will never hear it?
 
#15 · (Edited)
At those prices, they better be the best, not just 'good'. SQ comps require a flat response from 20Hz-20kHz and multiple processors to achieve those results. You should theoretically be able to take just about any decent speaker, put processing on it and achieve a really flat result.

I've heard 'flat' EQ'd systems for home audio, none for car, but if they are anything alike (I imagine they are) then there is virtually no low-end and that sounds 'fake' to me. Like what a old style phonograph sounds like. Midrange, tinny and irritating with no smoothness.

I tried a home audio experiment. I had a friend who could sing come into my home. I played an acoustic recording of a vocal only after setting my home system to flat frequency response using my EQ. I wanted to achieve vocal accuracy in my home. I played the piece of music, then I had my friend sing. I quickly decided that my system 'flat' didn't sound real at all. It was phony. I tried multiple tracks and found that on multiple tracks of varying depth of bass on vocals still lacked any true realism.

Then I started adjusting the EQ and played tracks, having my friend sing every once in a while. After a couple of hours I got my system to sound real close to an actual singer on most tracks. So, a 'flat' 20Hz-20KHz for me doesn't sound 'real' and 'real' is what I strive for.

Another critical element in speaker listening I search for is 'image'. Does it sound like I'm wearing headphones? Do I hear not just right to left, but like there is a depth in front of me that stretches out far beyond the speakers? I found that you can't EQ that into a set of speakers. They either have depth of image or they don't. You can play around with a device like an HRTF processor to try and force a more spatial effect but my speakers don't need it.

I am very critical on my speaker selection and evaluation. Here are the items I judge on my sheet of paper:

Tonality - Do instruments and sounds seem 'real'. (Different acoustic environments will change some characteristics of the sound, but not some specific ones you can still listen for.)

Image - When playing binaural recordings or playing music that use a lot of echos/ambience, does the sound stretch out? (And don't get fooled by the ambience/echos of the room you're listening in.)

Dynamics - When a drum hits, is there a sharp impact? When an orchestra builds to a climatic crescendo, does it sound like it's increasing in volume? Can you sense it's getting louder? (Some speakers sound dull and lifeless, with what seems like a equal-loud output from soft sounds to loud ones. If you want an extreme example, listen to electro-static speakers from years ago.)

Overtone/resonance - All speakers seem to have this, except the most expensive I've heard. On lower mid-range sounds, listen for a lingering ring on top of the sound that is not part of the actual music and is not part of your acoustic environment, but coming from the speaker itself. Virtually all speakers have this in one degree or another. Some that manage to minimize it, seem to do so at the cost of imaging. The rare speaker that has deep image and no additional resonance is usually VERY expensive. Yet most 'expensive' speakers still have this problem. The best speakers I ever heard were a set of Snell Acoustics THX cinema reference speakers. At the time they were being sold, they cost $30,000 for the whole setup.

Sibilance vs air - I've noticed that when you try to minimize sibilance in sounds, you lose some of the 'air' in the soundstage. And when you try to open up the soundstage to improve imaging, you increase sibilance on vocals and over accentuate the sound of 'clicks' 'ticks' cymbals and chimes. This can be improved with an EQ and is not something you are doomed with when buying a set of speakers. Some people refer to these kinds of speakers/tweeters as 'bright'. Most tweeters can still be attenuated to improve the realism. There are metal tweeters that have no hope of sounding realistic. I absolutely hate Boston Acoustics tweeters. They sound metallic and phony to me. Some people like Boston Acoustics, and I don't want to start arguments or offend, but they are some of the worst tweeters on decently priced speakers I've ever heard. I can hear them immediately upon entering a car audio shop. They have a signature sound that is hard to miss and I guess you either love it or hate it.

Those are pretty much the big 5 for me. Opinions on speakers are going to vary. The best thing to do is listen to a set of speakers with your own ears, reject anyone else's opinion, and apply those 5 critical listening examples whenever you evaluate. You will end up with a good set of speakers just for YOU.
 
#17 ·
#20 ·
I am just saying that when a company like us has numerous National and World titles under our belt. I would think we have the credability.
As for a SQ car being flat...I do not know of any person that wants to tune to a flat response(unless they are getting judged on RTA).
Multiple processors? Yeah you might need them....if you don't know what you are doing...There are plenty of HUs today that have T/A and Eq built in so all you would really need to do is set your gains correctly.
Speakers have imagining or they don't? So you are saying that speaker placement has nothing to do with imagining?
 
#21 ·
Ever think that the world championships HAT has is from the people using them and installing them CORRECTLY? I'm not a HAT fan but that doesn't make me a bad person. I do like their tweeters. I'd run morels over HAT just out of principal though...like I am now.
 
#30 ·
I'm soooo glad you said that.

To the OP, if there is any one comment in this thread that you should take out of it, it is this one.

Don't worry about speaker selection at this point. It's the least of your problems. There's no speaker out there that fixes the problems a car has acoustically.
 
#23 ·
But when you say that xxx products have the credibility that's just a different way in saying your **** doesn't stink when you know good and well it isn't for everyone. Focal is my one and only for mids but I don't like the tweets in most cases. HAT mids make me want to punch babies with their tonal signature that can't seem to be tuned out but I like the tweets.
 
#24 ·
Every speaker, be it Hybrid, Focal, or any brand, has a signature sound. Some people like the sound of "their brand". The OP asked for the best,with the piles of awards and titles Hybrid Audio has recieved in our few years would put them up on alot of peoples list.
 
#25 ·
I just feel that your comments will lead a lot of people to disapointment when they place their brand new EXPENSIVE HAT set in their untreated doors and entry level headunit only to find out it sounds like **** because of install and tuning. Once that happens you have people saying far worse stuff than I am about the trophy winning products.
 
#27 ·
Can you tell I'm just in it for the debate?:laugh:

I'm definately sticking with my morel mdt29's for as long as I own this truck since my stock locations were made for them. Even have a pair of replacement coils in a drawer over my right shoulder. Next pair of mids will be the focal K2 mids when I decide my polyglass v1 mids are ready for retirement. Diffrent strokes for diffrent folks for sure and there are people running pyramid and other fleamarket sets that love them and guarantee the sound they put out would make any one of us cry thanks to a bad install and tuning. Heard a tahoe pull up just as I was walking into work last night and they were cranking Phil Collins. LOUD but sounded like the amp was getting pushed into clipping.
 
#31 ·
Focal polyglass or V1 or CA1 are not really sounding good when you start to turn up the volume. Unless you buy the K series (KP, KF, K2P(the best), or higher, forget about Focal. I live in a French country, so lots of people use Focal, but the cheapest ones are really not worth the money.
Go to the Davis Acoustics site (google it) and look out : really really great great french speakers !! You will love them.
You can alsso buy a good set of Pioneer comps : it will always work good !:)
 
#34 ·
My polyglass v1 mids do fine when driven hard. They keep their clarity and don't bottom out. I have 126rms per driver. A driver distorting can easily be improper gain setting like people saying "even my stock headunit makes these speakers distort".
 
#40 ·
Damnit Jan I've been threatening to put a fleamarket set in my truck just to see if I can get it to sound good. Just might do it too for ****s n giggles when the weather warms up cuz I'm a certified smartass:laugh:
 
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