[hukkfinn]

Hi everybody,
Newbie here. I hope this is the right forum.
So, I am an audiophile. I really like great sounding music.
I don't care about 'bomb the bass' effects, or subwoofers, or how loud my car stereo can go.
I just want real, tight bass, open midrange and silky highs.
Yes, I understand it won't be like a $5,000 pair of bookshelf speakers.
I am replacing the front door speakers in a 2012 Honda Civic LX. No amp tweaking.
So, minimal power. I think it's maybe 30 watts.
All the 6.5" speakers I hear sound poor.
The speakers I look at on Crutchfield all have 1-star reviews where the reviewer hates the complete lack of bass, the spiky/painful highs, etc. (which sounds like me)
I feel like there must be a reasonable choice that doesn't cost much. Like, $200 for the pair?
Thanks for any advice.

 

[maybebigfootisblurr]

I wouldn't spend $200 on speakers with a factory HU (EQ'd for the factory speakers) and no amp. Doesn't sound very "audiophile" to me.
Do you plan to do any work (deadening/covering holes...) on the doors?

 

[miniSQ]

hmmmmmmmm..........

 

[Dwarteacher]

If you're just looking for better than factory on deck power these will do wonders.

Home

6-1/2" Poly Cone Midbass Woofer 4 OhmThis durable 6-1/2" poly cone woofer with rubber surround is designed to work best in small, sealed bookshelf-style cabinets. The damped poly cone creates smooth sound from 45 Hz all the way up to 3,000 Hz and is easy to integrate with many different...

www.parts-express.com

 

[hukkfinn]

If you're just looking for better than factory on deck power these will do wonders.

Home

6-1/2" Poly Cone Midbass Woofer 4 OhmThis durable 6-1/2" poly cone woofer with rubber surround is designed to work best in small, sealed bookshelf-style cabinets. The damped poly cone creates smooth sound from 45 Hz all the way up to 3,000 Hz and is easy to integrate with many different...

www.parts-express.com

Thank you so much. This is the kind of thing I was hoping to find. However my speakers are all-in-one, a 6.5" woofer with tweeter in the middle.
If you have any favorites in this category, I'd be grateful to know. I will search around on PartsExpress. Thank you.

 

[lithium]

Most honda have a factory tweeter located in the sail panel. If you trim level doesnt have it I would order the panel with the tweeter hole and then purchase a component set. Install the tweeter in the factory location and woofer in the door.

 

[Dwarteacher]

Thank you so much. This is the kind of thing I was hoping to find. However my speakers are all-in-one, a 6.5" woofer with tweeter in the middle.
If you have any favorites in this category, I'd be grateful to know. I will search around on PartsExpress. Thank you.

Here is another from parts express

Home

HiVi CF260II 6-1/2" Coaxial Speaker PairHiVi's CF260II 6-1/2" coaxial speakers feature a polypropylene injected woofer cone, silk tweeter dome, and an attractive wiring cover on the back plate.Specifications: • Power handling: 50 watts RMS/150 watts max • Impedance: 4 ohms • Frequency response...

www.parts-express.com

 

[hukkfinn]

Here is another from parts express

Home

HiVi CF260II 6-1/2" Coaxial Speaker PairHiVi's CF260II 6-1/2" coaxial speakers feature a polypropylene injected woofer cone, silk tweeter dome, and an attractive wiring cover on the back plate.Specifications: • Power handling: 50 watts RMS/150 watts max • Impedance: 4 ohms • Frequency response...

www.parts-express.com

Thank you! I hope these will sound better than the stock speakers.

 

[GrM]

Bare in mind you WILL lose low frequency response when replacing speakers on factory power. Sound deadening the doors is the best and most effective way to keep some midbass in your situation. I’d look into that if I were you.

The first speakers I used were Rockford Fosgate RS primes, they’re less than $100, and were a pretty good upgrade even though I ran them off of stock power. Unless you’re planning on putting in an amp later I’d go with the cheapest decent speakers you can find. Also, if you do try to find the sail panels from a version of your car with tweeters the Primes don’t have crossovers, they’re built into the speakers and the tweeters plug into the woofers which would greatly simplify install if the tweeters are also in the doors.

The JL Audio C1s also work like the Primes (no external crossovers) and it sounds like they might be worth looking at for you. They’re notmuch over $100. Both the Primes and C1s come in coaxial (tweeters mounted in center of woofer) and component (tweeters and woofers separate).

 

[Destarah]

I don't care about 'bomb the bass' effects, or subwoofers, or how loud my car stereo can go.
I just want real, tight bass, open midrange and silky highs.

If you want "real, tight bass" you need a subwoofer ... there are no shortcuts /shrug. That being said, you would have better results running the stock speakers off an external amplifier with a DSP than running aftermarket speakers off the stock deck. I highly recommend you take time to read up on car audio before buying speakers and hoping the result is an improvement.

It's a shame that people will leave bad reviews for midbass speakers on the basis that they "lack bass" ... of course they lack bass, they aren't designed to produce bass. The average person thinks the stock speakers in their car sound good, and they are probably correct (to a point) until they are driving down the highway at 60mph with the windows down. Suddenly they don't even know the radio is turned on because they can't hear any music. You say that you don't care how loud your car stereo can go, but the fact is that you will need at least 85dB in the midrange and midbass which means you will need closer to 100dB in the bass range to get a balanced result that can be heard over the road noise and such. Please don't just take my word for it ... do the research, find out why Sound Quality competitors have subwoofers and all the other crap that makes for an "audiophile" experience while on the road.

Best of luck

 

[Cutaway]

Have you looked at direct drop in replacements like Powerbass or Focal Integration?

 

[hukkfinn]

Bare in mind you WILL lose low frequency response when replacing speakers on factory power.

This seems strange to me -- the idea that all stock speakers have better bass response than all aftermarket speakers... aren't there some aftermarkets that are more punchy and have better bass than the stock speakers?

 

[GrM]

This seems strange to me -- the idea that all stock speakers have better bass response than all aftermarket speakers... aren't there some aftermarkets that are more punchy and have better bass than the stock speakers?

It’s because stock head units produce less than 20w, for the most part, and very few aftermarket speakers are made to work with that little power. The higher frequencies, as others have said, take very little power to reproduce where as lower frequencies take a great deal.
Stock speakers make quite a few compromises to be able to work with that little power, sound quality and durability being the main sacrifices.

the magnets on the stock speakers from my car are about the size of a pound/half dollar coin and can barely attract a paper clip, where as the aftermarket speakers magnets are a few inches in diameter and can attract screws etc. from a fair distance. It takes a LOT of power to be able to repel the voice coil from those magnets and barely any from the stock.

 

[GrM]

Here’s an A/B/C comparison of a set of $80 Rockford Fosgate 5” woofers and the tweeters that came with them and a standard stock 6.5” speaker. Note that the stock speakers magnets is nearly as small as the magnet on a 1” tweeter that’s designed to play 4-20khz.

The voice coil is a cylinder that is attached to the speakers cone, the coil is wound with copper wire that is alternately given a positive or negative charge, attracting and repelling it from the magnet (moving the cone forwards/backwards which is how sound is created). The larger the magnet the more powerful it is, and the larger the voice coil is. The larger the components the more power is required to move them and the louder they can be.
So, you can imagine how much more power is required to repel the voice coil from the magnet of an aftermarket speaker as opposed to stock based solely on the difference in size.

Before anyone starts giving me grief about the gap between the aftermarket speakers and the mounting adapter, those were mounted by the local “professional” shop (somehow they’re a certified JL dealer). That shop is the reason I got into doing this myself, how they mounted the speakers to the rings is the tip of the iceberg insofar as what they messed up.

 

[KFXGUY]

First off, foster is really good speakers. I'd venture to say that the reason those magnets are small is because they are neodymium. Most factory speakers have a very high sensitivity compared to aftermaket, thats why they are pretty loud on such low power.


Something alot of people do not consider is noise cancellation within the door panel. Ever notice there a gasket on the factory speaker and foam on the front face? Thats so the sound is sealed off and directed out of the door panel. I always make sure everything is sealed up well and the foam is added to the front. That in it self helps greatly...then I get some sound deadening and put it over the rain guard in the door.

I removed the box sub from my car after doing all of this treatment to the doors and side panels, my mids have alot of bass. I have them crossed over at 63hz, then i have two 6.5" woofers in the rear deck, infinite baffle. Those are also sealed off well and the back deck is sound deadened well. My system sounds phenomenal without a box sub.

 

[GrM]

The previous poster nicely illustrated the importance of installation. If you don’t have the door cavities sealed off as much as possible you’ll lose lower frequency response, and applying sound deadening (dampening) to the sheet metal is also important.

All stock speakers (run off of a head unit) have weak magnets, otherwise there’d be little need for aftermarket amps when upgrading speakers (those Fosters [stock from a ‘16 base Subaru Impreza] are barely strong enough to hold a paper clip) where as any aftermarket will be many times as strong That’s one of the primary ways to get decent frequency response out of <20w RMS. There are other methods used to get high sensitivity but that’s the main one, and the simplest to explain.

 

[Destarah]

I have them crossed over at 63hz, then i have two 6.5" woofers in the rear deck, infinite baffle. Those are also sealed off well and the back deck is sound deadened well. My system sounds phenomenal without a box sub.

I don't doubt that it sounds great, but the truth remains that a pair of 6.5" subs will not be able to reproduce frequencies below 40Hz with any authority ... it's just physics. I have a JL Audio 6W3v3 in their MicroSub box, it's astonishing how much bass it can produce but it falls off a cliff below the 38Hz tuning point. Some people would say that's fine, but having experienced sound systems with decent output down below 20Hz I absolutely miss it when it isn't there /shrug

All of that being said, many manufacturers do make drop in speaker options that are engineered to perform well on deck power ... Focal Integration was mentioned, so if you do want to go that route be sure to look at the models that are designed for the purpose.

 

[SlamminSleeperCamry]

I have a set of Hertz MPX 165.3 Pro 6.5 concentric coaxials I’d let go of for $180. Paid $379 lil over a month ago just went a different route

 

[KFXGUY]

I don't doubt that it sounds great, but the truth remains that a pair of 6.5" subs will not be able to reproduce frequencies below 40Hz with any authority ... it's just physics. I have a JL Audio 6W3v3 in their MicroSub box, it's astonishing how much bass it can produce but it falls off a cliff below the 38Hz tuning point. Some people would say that's fine, but having experienced sound systems with decent output down below 20Hz I absolutely miss it when it isn't there /shrug

All of that being said, many manufacturers do make drop in speaker options that are engineered to perform well on deck power ... Focal Integration was mentioned, so if you do want to go that route be sure to look at the models that are designed for the purpose.

I agree, it is lacking on the way lower end....and I do miss it....I’ve been considering putting 8’s in the back deck.