[hurrication]

Interested to see some feedback from those of you who are doing ultra budget installs and what is working for you.

I recently did a little ultra budget install in my old worn out daily driver Tahoe with the goal of being all in under $500 for every component including the source unit, dsp, power wire/rca's, and even the sub box. I got there and ended up using some blue Recoil brand components that were like $45 on Amazon. And you know what? They aren't bad at all. Way better than you'd think from a cheap component set that price. Not even using the DSP yet and just playing around with the built in potato EQ on the $70 Android deck to calm the tweeters down a bit and REW says I'm within 4db from ~80hz to 15k. Once I fire up the DSP and start actually tuning I should be able to make it a lot better.

So me being impressed with this silly cheap Chinese set of components made me curious if anyone else out there was doing ultra budget stuff, and if you had found some cheap components that you were impressed with (for the price).

 

[Granite]

Under $100 is tough for the component set. Under $100 for tweets and under $100 for drivers would be easier.

SB Acoustics SB26CDC-C000-4 Ceramic Tweeter

The SB Acoustics SB26CDC-C000-4 is a 26mm hard dome tweeter featuring a composite aluminium / ceramic dome. A perfect aesthetic and sonic match for the larger SB Acoustics ceramic drive units.

willys-hifi.com

SB Acoustics SB17CAC35-4 Ceramic Midwoofer

The SB Acoustics SB17CAC35-4 is a 6 inch 8 ohm midwoofer loudspeaker drive unit featuring a geometrically reinforced hard ceramic cone and a 35mm voice coil. Like other drive units in the CAC range, the SB17CAC35-4 has a fine detailed sound.

willys-hifi.com

Didn’t know this but the British pound is almost even with the dollar now too! The above go for $42 and $75 after converting to dollars for a total of only $117 - almost hitting your requirement of under $100 components. I don’t think you’re gonna find anything better than these at this price.

Tweeter followed by woofer:

I think they may have been trying to copy accuton - which is arguably the best money can buy for car audio, but I’ve got these and they sound pretty dang good. The tweeter is like a perfect combo of a dyn mixed with a focal. The woofer is about as good as you can get from 100hz to 3000hz. To top it off, ceramic is made for cars - it is impervious to uv degradation. Highly recommend these from SB.

Oh and here’s Erin’s take on the woofer:

SB Acoustics SB17CAC35-4 6 Inch Ceramic Midwoofer Review

SB Acoustics SB17CAC35-4 6 Inch Ceramic Midwoofer Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

There’s a couple guys here who are trying the ultra low priced drivers out from seas, peerless, vifa etc to great success, maybe they’ll chime in if they aren’t on vacation. Personally, I think this is the smart way to go for sq. Why pay more if the FR is flat?

 

[hurrication]

Those look really nice for the price. But that $117 is just for one tweeter and mid, so for a pair it would be $234.

I'm talking about going to sonicelectronics or woofers etc, clicking 6.5 components, sorting by lowest price, and seeing what kind of budget gems there are. The $100-$200 component category is saturated, but the sub-$100 should be pretty interesting to see what people are trying out... if anybody else is actually doing that.

 

[Granite]

Those look really nice for the price. But that $117 is just for one tweeter and mid, so for a pair it would be $234.

I'm talking about going to sonicelectronics or woofers etc, clicking 6.5 components, sorting by lowest price, and seeing what kind of budget gems there are. The $100-$200 component category is saturated, but the sub-$100 should be pretty interesting to see what people are trying out... if anybody else is actually doing that.

Lol I forgot they were per tweet or mid. Dang. Guess I spent more than I thought back whenever I bought them. This damn hobby man I tell ya.

But yeah I hope we see something from some established brands like the three I mentioned -
I’m always leery of Chinese stuff. You gotta figure their consistency is probably all over the place. Although hivi is really good. Pretty much all their stuff is well regarded.

 

[kattan_tha_man]

Interested to see some feedback from those of you who are doing ultra budget installs and what is working for you.

I recently did a little ultra budget install in my old worn out daily driver Tahoe with the goal of being all in under $500 for every component including the source unit, dsp, power wire/rca's, and even the sub box. I got there and ended up using some blue Recoil brand components that were like $45 on Amazon. And you know what? They aren't bad at all. Way better than you'd think from a cheap component set that price. Not even using the DSP yet and just playing around with the built in potato EQ on the $70 Android deck to calm the tweeters down a bit and REW says I'm within 4db from ~80hz to 15k. Once I fire up the DSP and start actually tuning I should be able to make it a lot better.

So me being impressed with this silly cheap Chinese set of components made me curious if anyone else out there was doing ultra budget stuff, and if you had found some cheap components that you were impressed with (for the price).

For the price, Infinity Primus components sound pretty damn good. I know you said 100, but I thinkm Infinity reference are worth the extra 30 or 35 dollars. Those speakers sound good enough for me to listen to every day with no problems.

 

[Granite]

I give up - parts express is even hard to stay under $100 bucks. You’re basically looking at swap meet drivers man.

 

[Maceo23]

I bought some cheap nvx comps for rear fill, they are surprisingly good. I’d use them in a budget system in a heart beat, along with the nvx amps.

 

[SHAGGS]

No 1st hand experience, but these look passable for a budget build.

Home

DS18 GEN-X6.5C 6-1/2" 2-Way Component Speaker System Pair 4 OhmDS18's GEN-X6.5C 2-way 6-1/2" component speaker pair combines a 6-1/2" paper cone woofers, 1-1/2" silk dome tweeters, and optimized passive crossover networks for natural full-range response with low distortion. A naturally damped...

www.parts-express.com

 

[hurrication]

No 1st hand experience, but these look passable for a budget build.

Home

DS18 GEN-X6.5C 6-1/2" 2-Way Component Speaker System Pair 4 OhmDS18's GEN-X6.5C 2-way 6-1/2" component speaker pair combines a 6-1/2" paper cone woofers, 1-1/2" silk dome tweeters, and optimized passive crossover networks for natural full-range response with low distortion. A naturally damped...

www.parts-express.com

I saw those and was actually considering them before I found the $45 Amazon specials! What stands out to me most on the cheap sets is when the crossovers are true 2-way and have a lowpass on the mid. There are a lot of entry level sets even from established brands with just a free range mid and an inline cap for the tweeter. Even a cheap set with a proper 2-way passive has to sound better than a more expensive set where the mid rolls off instead of being lowpassed.

 

[SHAGGS]

Yeah, there were a couple that came up in my quick search.
The JL C-1's, and I think there were some Fosgates as well.
Disappointing to see them entering the quantity over quality tier of the market.
It begs the question;
Are they saving money on the c/o's, in order to improve the quality of the speakers (at a given price point)
Or is it to increase their profit margin?
Audio Frog GB is the only component set I can think of that allows the purchase of c/o's separately.

 

[hurrication]

Alpine Type S, Pioneer A series, even Hertz Uno too!

I honestly think it's just part of the race to zero by making sets as cheap as possible that are good enough for the average listener while relying on the brand name to sell tons of them.

A few years ago I paid 200 bucks for a set of Hertz DSK 165.3's (not fakes) from my local brick/mortar stereo store and they came with these little crossovers that were about as big as a credit card and had 20 gauge wire poking out, no terminals. And I was very disappointed with that set, especially for 200 bucks. That's what made me start messing with the ultra budget sets because I think deep down we all know that they're on the same level as big brand entry level stuff now.

 

[daloudin]

$17/ea - Home
$28/ea - Home
$1/ea - Home

$92/pair