speaker shopping need advice

Get your favorite CD and go shopping.  Listen to the speakers on display and buy the ones you like the most.  BTW, back speakers are not nearly as important as the front speakers.Support the12volt.com

DYohn wrote: Get your favorite CD and go shopping.  Listen to the speakers on display and buy the ones you like the most.  BTW, back speakers are not nearly as important as the front speakers.

Though your second statement is true, I have found that the store display does not really do justice to what the speaker will sound like in the actual vehicle. what a dilema...Mark "Hamzter" Cinense

1991 Infiniti G20 w/JDM SR20DE

Eclipse CD8445

MTX Thunder 684

Polk DB6750

Polk DB6500

Optima Red Top in the Trunk

Some of your options: Listen to the guy at the shop. Depending on the shop, you might get some good advise, you might gear he needs to move. Maybe someone around has a pair mounted in a vehicle to listen to. Find a review. Finding a review for the specific brand and size you are looking for can be tough. Then you ask if you believe any of the review. Take a CD and shop. Sound Boards vary greatly, however you can eliminate choices as easily as finding what you like. Not a perfect solution but eliminates throwing darts and hoping you like what you get. You are going to be the one listening to them. Another case for buying from a local shop. You can return them if you are really that unhappy. Diamond makes some great products.

hamzter wrote: DYohn wrote: Get your favorite CD and go shopping.  Listen to the speakers on display and buy the ones you like the most.  BTW, back speakers are not nearly as important as the front speakers. Though your second statement is true, I have found that the store display does not really do justice to what the speaker will sound like in the actual vehicle. what a dilema...

Yes, however a speaker that sounds good in a display can always be made to sound good in a vehicle.  A speaker that sounds like aZZ in a display will still sound like aZZ in your vehicle.  :)

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1: What's your budget? 2: Find a soundboard that has the speakers mounted on a similar surface as your car door... Hard vs. soft. Plastic vs. carpet. Also, try to listen to the speakers powered as they will be powered in the car... Deck power vs. nice amplifier. (And by "nice amplifier", I am NOT referring to Rockford, Kenwood, or other manufacturers of that ilk. Alpine and Eclipse would fit the definition nicely.) If you cannot find one that's close, know that if you have a soft surface on your doors, and you are hearing a hard surface, the highs will be softer in the car. If you have a hard surface on your doors, but are listening on a soft carpet covered panel, the highs will be louder in the car. If you start there, that will give a slightly better idea of what they will sound like in the car. Listen for smooth response, and close integration between the tweeter and the woofer. Also, if you find a speaker system that you like in the display, pay attention especally to the highs and the lows. Both of those portions of the spectrum will be accentuated in the car, as you are much more "near field" in the highs, and you will have boundary gains in the case of the lows. If they sound bright and "spitty" in the display, and that's NOT what you like, you WILL NOT like them in the car. If the bass sounds loose or flabby, it's going to be boomy in the car. As hamzter pointed out, it IS a dilemma, but if you go into a display knowing what you like, and knowing how the environment of the car's interior will affect what you hear in the store, you have a better chance of coming away with something you will be able to live with.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."