How to read speaker specs?

[Enigmaz Powa]

Title says it. How do u read, comprehend and decide on a pair of speakers based soley on its specs? By specs, i mean, freq range, Rms and etc. Also, can someone list and/or define the meaning of the specs of speakers? What's the most important spec ( which affects bass & treble.) Thanks to anyone who helps out here.

[jnorion]

I would highly recommend NOT buying speakers solely on specs... go listen to them and see which is better.

[Enigmaz Powa]

Ok, but aren't the instore setups usually in some-way bias? I remember when i bought my car deck and got these two free 6.5 duals with it, and they suck. Massive distortion. Also, what if you want to buy a pair from one of the online stores listed in the sticky?

[jnorion]

What kind of speakers are you looking for? I don't mean brand, but front components, rear fill, subwoofer, etc. If you listen to them in the store and have a chance to actually turn them up you should get a pretty clear idea of how they'll sound, with the possible exception that there might be more distortion in your car because their demo walls are pretty solid.

Even if you're buying online, I would try to find the speakers you want in a store and listen to them. Some speakers make highs sound really harsh or lows really muddy, even though they will play those fine according to the specs.

My personal recommendations on frequency response:
Subwoofer: as low as possible (18-25hz hopefully) to somewhere between 50 and 80 hz.
Midbass: 80hz-2000hz
Tweeters: 2000hz+

The human ear is not capable of hearing above 20khz, so spending extra money for speakers that play higher than this is a waste. For a budget setup I would go with 2-way components in the front and a sub... I don't really like rear fill personally. But the frequency response is not too big an issue if you have a sub because you should be crossing over from the mid bass with plenty of room to spare.

For power handling, it depends on if you have an external amp or are just running them off the head unit. I think they sound a lot better with an amp, and I would buy speakers with this in mind even if you don't have one yet, in case you want to get one later. However, you don't need a ton of power to the full range speakers... mine are rated at 150W max and don't distort easily even with the full amount going to them.

[Enigmaz Powa]

Thas the reason i started this thread; some of the speakers that i'm considering, are of small name brands and iI have to rely on are the specs. I'm not looking spend tonz of money on a sound system. I just want something that playable.

Currently i'm running off a 180-200 watt HU. I thought of getting an amp, but I figured that i should just buy a decent set of 3-way 6.5's.

I'm not really interested in subz NE-more. I think it'd sound like crap in my projey(1st gen). All i really want right now is a nice all around sound.

[Kevin]

3-way speakers are worthless. Here are my suggestions for 2-way speakers.

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=15583

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=13208

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=14834

[jnorion]

I'm not really interested in subz NE-more. I think it'd sound like crap in my projey(1st gen). All i really want right now is a nice all around sound.

Adding a sub will make for much better all around sound... you don't have to play it loud and make it thump, just having it to round out the low end makes a huge difference.

[Kevin]

Hell.. an easy to install 8 inch bass tube would give you enough bass without rattling the hell out of your car.

[Enigmaz Powa]

3-way speakers are worthless. Here are my suggestions for 2-way speakers.

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=15583

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=13208

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...roductID=14834

Are they really? Have i been lied to you or told half truths?

[Enigmaz Powa]

First, thanks for the input guys.

Ok, with those speakers, i'm guessing that the second one would carry bass a lot better then the other two. I'm looking @ the freq, although you all have said not to, and they have a wider range. Are my assumptions right, will they carry bass better because of the wid frequency?

[blue LEDz]

manufacturer claims of frequency response mean very little, unless they can supply you with the freq response graph to back up their claims. the bottom line is that there is no governing body for speaker specs, yet, so you have to know whether the manufacturer is reputable.

3-way triaxial speakers are pretty much worthless. there is no need for more then one tweeter per speaker. they usually add on a "super tweeter" to make the speaker a triaxial as opposed to coaxial. the super tweeter is only capable of playing such high freqs that they make no positive difference. in reality they make the speaker worse from a sound quality perspective.

[jnorion]

Between those choices posted by Kevin I would probably go with the Alpines, based partially on specs but also because I've listened to a lot of Alpine speakers and liked them. But that's also a personal preference... I don't know what type of music you like and even if we listened to the same song the speakers that sound great to me may sound like crap to you.

[Kevin]

I've always had a soft spot for Alpine Type-S speakers. I still have a pair of their 6x9's in my rear dash. As for a primary imaging or front stage speaker.. I'd definately swing my bias to the Type-R coaxial (NOT the type-r components for god's sake). But even so, just trying to run off the head unit.. the type-s will handle a decent amount of bass.. at least from what could be expected out of a 6 1/2 coax.
Kevin

[slayer4u]

I've been realy impressed with Eclipse lately. Boston has and continues to impress me. Rockford was ok 2 years ago but they are nothing special anymore. Cerwin vega is a decent choice. I just bought som Infinity referance subs for my 323 and they sound alright but the Kappa perfect I have in my truck is amazing.


For compitition though most are going boston and eclipse drivers (Focal for the wealthy assholes) eclipse and alpine for amps , Almost everyone I know has an alpine deck but I'm not perticularly impressed by them.


For low buget sound there are plenty of smaller brands that make decent products. I have blitz audio components in my 323 and I love them. Some of you may scoff at this but I love my DUAL deck. plays MP3s and is damn near imposible to skip. made right here in washington too.


What to stay away from: Anything sony/kenwood. especially thier head units unless you like your cd's to skip on every bump. Pioneer has the largest selection of car audio products but they also have the largest selection of useless junk.(except perhaps thier premier line.) Pyle,american legacy and audiovox go without saying. profile is ok if you're REALY ****ING DESPAIRATE!!!!!!


As for the frequency range of speakers, if you have a sub then I recomend going with component drivers or using "Bass Blockers" that cancel out 150hz and below This is the frequency range of most subs and it will alow you to hear mor of the mids and highs when matched with the subwoofer. I also recomend geting an external 7 band EQ. this will alow you to perfectly match all your components.

[slayer4u]

Ok, but aren't the instore setups usually in some-way bias? I remember when i bought my car deck and got these two free 6.5 duals with it, and they suck. Massive distortion. Also, what if you want to buy a pair from one of the online stores listed in the sticky?

Instore setups are usually contained in controlled enviroments that give you the feeling of the inside of your car. Most displays however are misleading mainly due to the enclosures they use. For example subwoofers are usually in sealed enclosures with a qtc of .9-1.1 which gives you that added boost of bass. the optimum qtc is .707. this will give you the closest reproduction of the original recording.

Resist the sound of the bandpass boxes unless you are looking for pure SPL. Bandpass enclosures give you the ultimate spl with a loss of acoustic accuracy.