Not happy w/new sound

Please.  They are rated at 80 watts RMS, let's not exaggerate. 

While SQ is in the "ear of the beholder," I can say without hesitation that Pioneer car audio speakers have some of the worst performance on a real time analyzer I have ever measured.  They rank right in the same category as Pyramid, Boss and Crunch.

If I decided to go with a good set of components in the door; what is the best way to go about that?  Do I find a shallow mount, do I cut the back of the mounting basket out, do I add some kind of slightly angled spacer between the door panal and frame, do I drill into the panal up top to mount the tweeter.  I plan to bi-amp thje tweeters and mid off of the 300/4. 

Since I seem to be pushing the volume knob up to the 30+ mark should I anticipate that I will be upgrading the amp to something like the 450/4 or is it the fact that my extremely high dollar Pioneers are just degrqading the quality of the 300/4?

I called my installer this morning and he wants $400 for custom fibergalss kicks OUCH! plus it will screw up the foot-room as well as the floor mats won't fit.  My local guy is a dealer of Memphis, JL, MB-Quart and soon to be focal.  He told me he would sell me the top of line MB Q's for about $850 that list for $1,499 due to making room for Focal.  Is this overkill?  Is it best to go ahead and but the best? I know it all depends on how I like them while listening in the store but I always suspect that in the store they have modded the mounting area as well as that they are pointed straight at you which is not real life location.

Keep em coming, I do appriciate the responses and depating.

Mike

The best advice I can tell you hear is to demo speakers with music you listen to at the dealer.  Speakers can sound dramatically different.  Take your favorite cd in with you and do a/b tests with like equipment to your own.  Memphis, MB, and Focal are excellent places to start.  

I personally demoed the Memphis, MB, and JL lines recently.  I personally couldn't justify the jump in price from the pce quart series to the qsd's.  I didn't like the JL line at all.  Thought JL had decent midbass, maybe even slightly stronger than the quart's I bought, but the vocals were sloppy.  The memphis speakers really impressed me.  Take a good listen to them.  That silk tweeter might fit your tastes.  They are generally slightly smoother than the titanium tweeters on the quarts, which are typically described as 'bright'.

I think some part of the problem is the pioneer speakers.  I've heard them and they aren't pretty when turned up.  What is the 300/4, 75x4?  One thing you could do is bi-amp a good component set.  The Quart's allow you to do this right on the component crossover, I'm not sure about the others.  Basically you'll be sending 75x2 to the woofers of the component set and 75x2 to the tweeters in the set.  You'll then be sending 150 total to the components, gaining the benefits of bi-amping, and have greater control over the components tuning.  If you decide to run rear fill you can run them off the head unit power, which should be fine because they rears shouldn't be nearly as loud as the front speakers in a system designed for sq.

I bi-amp my quart pce series w/ a 50x4 amp and I can turn it louder than I can handle before they start breaking up.  Haempyst, another poster to this board recommended I try it not more than a couple months ago when I was asking the same questions as you.  I took his advice and have been very happy w/ the results.

Searching back into memory...when one's in that state EVERYTHING sounds good.

But I, too, have some Pioneer coaxials that sound good at lower volume levels, but start to complain when the volume goes up.  I started the car OEM upgrade the same way you did,  then got the bug and started working on a system.  The fronts will be the next upgrade, for sure.  But I like the midbass at all volumes with these 6 X 8's, and will most likely let them remain in the rear deck.  The front door locations seem to be very good for imaging, too.

kfr01,

Thanks for the time you have given. Yes the 300/4 is 75x4 and I will definately look for this type of speaker. Any thoughts on the mounting in the door and spacres etc.  Anybody have any pictires of door panal installs?

Thanks,

Mike

Here's what I did for my install:  made a 3/4" MDF bracket to fit a 6.5" speaker into a 6x9" location, Dynamat Xtreme matted the door inside and out, placed a Cascade Audio delex pad directly behind the speaker, mounted the speaker to the MDF with a foam gasket from crutchfield in between, cut the back off the foam gasket as to not restrict air flow but protect from water dripping down, caulked around the MDF bracket to create a seal between the MDF and the door. 

kfr01,

This is what I have done over the last few days; hope it is the right direction.  I have purchased a set of CDT ES-502 speakers 5.25" with the extra tweets and attenuator knob for the dash while the 5.25 and tweet go into the q-form kick panels I purchased as well.

I will be bridging the JL 300/4 so it puts out 150w x 2 into the component set.  At this time I will use nothing in the doors or the back deck.  If at later I see some fill needed I might put a 6.5" fill in the front doors and still leave the back deck open with grills only to let the sub sound come through the grills.

Hope this is on the right track, any comments from CDT owners or Q-forms please tell me weather the components are acceptable or if I will be disapointed.  I am also considering swapping the JL 12w3 for the 10w7 so I can propoerly use the 500/1 amp.

Thanks,

Mike