All The Hype About JBL GTO Speakers? I’m Not Impressed At All.

I've always been someone who does months and months of research and comparing specs before I rush out and by ANY speakers. My 5-way Pioneers have the best frequency response of pretty much ANY 6x9 I've found in years! But I was VERY impressed by the low impedance of the Infinity Kappa speakers, but TONS of people told me I would NOT be happy with them! They didn't get all that many super positive reviews either. So, I went with the JBL GTO930 6x9's! Thought I would be SO impressed! NOT!!! I only had them installed for less than a half hour before I wanted to put my Pioneers back in! And that's exactly what I'm going to do! The Pioneer TS-A6990F 6x9's may not be 2.5 ohm speakers but at least they have MUCH better frequency response compared to the JBL's! They handle more power too! I'm so bummed that I spent over $200 with tax on these JBL's! Now they're coming back out and the Pioneers are going back in! I'll then sell the JBL's on OfferUp or Craiglist or Facebook Marketplace. I'm just NOT AT ALL impressed with them! They sound muddy, with NO highs, even with the fancy high frequency button on them! So sad that the most I've EVER spent on 6x9's in my life was such a waste of money! And I'm not even going to open the JBL GTO629 6.5's box! I'm going to list them for sale as brand new, unopened. Which they are! If the 3-way 6x9's can't compete with the Pioneer 5-way 6x9's, I have no doubt in my mind that the 2-way 6.5's won't compete with the Pioneer 4-way 6.5's! The GTO's are the same PLASTIC BASKETS as the Infinity Kappas, so THAT part didn't impress me at all. The most impressive thing about these speakers is their speaker terminals! I was able to use wire ferrules to connect the wires. VERY nice! But 80% plastic did NOT impress me very much. I had a funny feeling switching from 5-way 6x9's to 3-way would be a bad thing, but now I can confirm it. That 2.5 ohm thing apparently means nothing when it comes to frequency response. These things don't get even HALF the mids and highs that the Pioneer's got! Just my personal opinion from less than an hour of playing them!

both of my cars have the jbl's in them (gto in mine stadium in wifes) and a alpine power pack hooked to them and I love them. I also have my whole car dynamatted and they are probably my favorite speakers I have ever owned. I sell jbl speakers 99% of the time to customers and there blown away by the sound. Granted they are not bass heavy as a kicker speaker but that's what the sub is for, You can always send them to me lol...33 years as a installer now just a retired old guy. Favorite thing to install/topic are remote starts/car alarms. Stop using test lights!!!

mgoetz74 wrote: You can always send them to me lol...

LMAO! 8D Yeah, they're SO highly rated everywhere, and with the lower impedance I figured they would be a great change from my 2 year old Pioneers, but no such luck. But they taught me a big lesson: from now on, when I replace speakers, I'm going to change ONE first, then sit in my car and go back and forth with the balance control and see how much better one sounds than the other. Should have done that yesterday when finally installed these. I just noticed very little mids or highs from them. Even switching that tweeter button made no noticeable difference that I could hear. I'm going to sell them locally on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace (so I don't have to ship them) for $100 and I'm sure they'll sell within hours if not minutes! I've already listed their little brothers, the GTO629's, for $60 and I'm guessing they'll be gone by mid-day! People just LOVE these GTO series speakers! I never opened the 6.5's after not being happy with the 6x9's.