Speaker suggetions

[Mr Bean]

Let me start by saying I know nothing about audio and never cared to have a fancy audio system. Having said that I still listen to the radio and need new speakers for the tudor. I need a pair for front doors and rear deck. I plan on using stock 96+ head unit but may upgrade it later on to aftermarket. I am not planning on putting subs, amps or any of that other stuff in. Could someone recommend me a decent set of speakers that will work good with stock head unit? I am not looking to spend an arm and a leg. Ideally I don't want to pay over $150 for a pair.

[sly]

the Pioneer pairs they sell at walmart and generally pretty decent sets. That's what I have in my 93 and my 88. Kenwoods (the 6x9s at least for the rear deck) have better bass response but cost a dink more (still well below your mark) and I got those from crutchfield and those are mounted in my Lincoln. Though, that needs either a better head unit or better wires as I get higher volume distortion (I'm thinking the head unit as it was a cheap one). I'm not an audiophile by any stretch, but I like stuff that doesn't have excessive flutter and give decent sound reproduction... so I'd give them a listen the next time you're at your local superstore with a demo rack.

[Mr Bean]

I've read up on the Pioneers from Walmart and people are saying they have no bass and sound worse than factory so I am afraid to try them.

[tjc78]

I've got Infinity in my 04 and they are pretty good, Rockford Fosgate also makes nice stuff

[85crownHPP]

I don't want to pay over $150 for a pair.

That is more than enough, you can get really, really good speakers for $150 a pair.

Cheaper speakers don't sound as good hooked up to an amp, but they will be worlds better than your stock speakers hooked up to a factory head unit. You really have to try hard to buy a lousy speaker these days, even the cheap ones are decent.
Even hooked up to an after-market head unit, any medium price range speaker should do fine. It's only if you want to use huge amps and want insane volume that you need fancy speakers.

I'd just check out best buy or crutchfields.com and pick something in the 75-100 range. You might even be able to find a good brand like Alpine, Polk, Clarion or even Infinity in that range.

[Bobcat]

Doesn't Thain know a great deal about speakers and audio n'whatnot?

[IPreferDIY]

For those who don't know, I'm not Thain, but I’m relatively advanced in the audio area (though certainly not an “expert”). Instead of offering particular recommendations, I think offering general principles would be better. I’ll try not to be too long-winded.

I think you have the right idea by going for speakers first. In my experience (which does not include name-brand factory sound systems like JBL and Bose), the difference between run-of-the-mill factory car speakers (typically the paper crap) and half-assed aftermarket speakers is like night and day. Factory speakers seem to have a much lower minimum quality than factory radios.

... Ideally I don't want to pay over $150 for a pair.

Do you have any idea what I could do with $150 in the used market? At your level, I don’t see why you would want to blow that wad on a single pair of speakers. You can probably get a decent pair of speakers on Kijiji for $20-40. As long as they’re in good shape, they should last a long time, so there’s nothing wrong with getting old speakers if they sound good to you. Keep in mind that sellers often list at higher prices than they expect to get, so if you see a decent pair that’s been listed for $30 for six weeks, offer $20. Having a good understanding of market value and all that stuff really helps in this context.

You’ll never really know exactly what a speaker is going to sound like before you listen to it while it’s installed. You can get a general sense, but keep in mind that display boards in stores are generally not in an enclosed space that approximates a car environment. (In the concert context, one issue they have to deal with is the change in sound between the sound check in an empty venue and the final sound when the venue is filled with sound-absorbing people.)

If you buy used speakers for the front for $20, you might find yourself thinking “They're definitely better than the factory crap, but I wish they sounded a little different”. That’s when you’re getting an ear for sound. It helps to have a car with the same size speakers front and back, since you could try those ones in the back and try another pair in the front. The next step might be realizing that your pissy little factory radio just doesn’t have the balls to take command of the speakers’ voice coils in the way an aftermarket unit could.

All that said, I liked the sound from a pair of MTX 6x8's in the front. Based on my experience, they would be a good choice for someone who wants a semblance of bass without getting into the subwoofer setup. Keep in mind that even different speakers from the same manufacturer won’t necessarily share the same sound qualities, so I can’t speak for other MTX speakers. Your best bet for your initial research is to try the display boards at various stores. This is one of those areas where you really need to learn from experience.

[sly]

I've read up on the Pioneers from Walmart and people are saying they have no bass and sound worse than factory so I am afraid to try them.

yeah... I can attest to the lack of bass, but that's fine for me since I have subs. The mids and highs are very clean though. Like I said though... the kenwoods do much better on the lows and also have the highs and mids as well.

[sly]

side note: the fronts (re: doors) on the boxes use 6.5 in the doors and 6x9 on the rear deck (bottom mount with that giant rubber band) but can be top mounted as well but may require modifying the grills and or rear deck carpet to make it work.

so 6x8 is kinda not an option.

[IPreferDIY]

side note: the fronts (re: doors) on the boxes use 6.5 in the doors and 6x9 on the rear deck (bottom mount with that giant rubber band) but can be top mounted as well but may require modifying the grills and or rear deck carpet to make it work.

so 6x8 is kinda not an option.

I'm lucky with mine. It'll take 6x8's front and rear. (My hand-me-down car has been the gift that keeps on giving.) I recall MTX had made that particular model of speaker in various sizes, so I would presume the sound would be relatively similar from a 6.5. It should be easy enough to get or make an adapter to use a 6.5 or 6x8 in a 6x9 hole if there was ever a need, but without subs I would be wanting whatever extra bass I could get from a 6x9.

I once had a Tempo that had 6.5 fronts and 5x7 or 6x8 rears. I ended up drilling holes to bottom mount 6x9's in the rear. I didn't like the idea of the carpet covering the speakers, so I cut oval holes and fabricated some speaker covers from a diamond mesh that I shaped with wooden ovals. I taped some thin black fabric to the bottoms to keep dust out, and the bottoms were covered by the carpet. It looked pretty darn good for what it was.

[gadget73]

Doesn't Thain know a great deal about speakers and audio n'whatnot?

heh, not when it comes to modern gear, and "modern" to me consists of most things that do not involve vacuum tubes. When it comes to car audio I read reviews, price shop, and hope for the best. I do like to buy stuff from Crutchfield though just because they include the adapters and wiring stuff so its easy to install things. I've gotten lazier as I get older, and i don't want to fight with stuff. By and large though, unless you buy the absolute cheapest thing you can find its not going to totally suck.

[chitownvic]

Speaker suggetions

Amazon has awesome deals on speaker pairs..

[turbo2256b]

I have to find my list ricently made up to replace my 10 some year old speakers. Tey were Sony X pods I believe. Crutchfield had a great speaker spec chart but dont have it anymore. Now one has to look each speaker up one by one a royal pain.
First thing to look for in frequency range. 20 to 20,000 htz is normaly concidered human hearing range. Its easy to find speakers with over 20K hz best is to find speakers with as close to 20 hz as possible. Some 6x9s go as low as 25 to 28 manny dont go any lower than 40.
Many that dont go lower than 40 are real pricy and thought "the best" boo to my thoughts.

6 1/2 ISH RANGE YOU MIGHT FIND SOME around 35 32 range is about as good as youll find.

Dash speakers with some mods think 5 1/4 can be installed (thinks that what I used). Might find some close to 40 hz

Any of these sizes should be well over 20,000 hz. I dont realy like some way over that figure but most might be up in the 32,000 range.

Think of late it was Kenwoods I WAS LOOKING AT.

cOMMENT AS TO MY SPEAKER SET UP WITH THE using the Sonys. It was kind of a silent one. A dj THAT TRAVLES A 3 OR 4 STATE AREA sat in my car to listen to a blues CD. he took the CD to his lincolin navigator all tricked out with a bad ass system. The look on his face was quite funny as he kept trying to adjust his system frustrated as to why it didnt sound as good.

[mashaffer]

heh, not when it comes to modern gear, and "modern" to me consists of most things that do not involve vacuum tubes. When it comes to car audio I read reviews, price shop, and hope for the best. I do like to buy stuff from Crutchfield though just because they include the adapters and wiring stuff so its easy to install things. I've gotten lazier as I get older, and i don't want to fight with stuff. By and large though, unless you buy the absolute cheapest thing you can find its not going to totally suck.

Hey, a fellow tubie! We need some sort of secret online handshake or something. Maybe when he is ready to upgrade to fire bottles in the car we can come up with a nice push pull using some of those power pentodes out of WWII bombers.

But seriously, one thing to look for if using factory head is not to get something too inefficient. In the home stereo world Infinity is know for poor efficiency but this may not be true in auto but, keep an eye out for that. I would think most mid-grade stuff should be fine though. Just something to keep in mind.

mike

[L1011tristar17]

I'll second (or third, or whatever number we're on) Crutchfield. I've ordered from them in the past and they are pretty good about accepting returns if I accidentally order the wrong part.