Compnent vs. 2 way?

Mark, Generally a quality component set will be better than a 2-way coaxial speaker. Why? 1) The speaker components used are generally of higher quality. 2) The outboard crossover usually improves power handling, can help lower distortion, and more. 3) By obtaining some freedom in mounting the tweeter in a separate location better imaging and staging of the sound can be acheived. If I were to go with a coax speaker I would not waste money on a 3-way. These usually include some sort of 'super tweeter.' In most cases this is a gimick to make you think you're getting something really super. In reality, a lot of these so called super tweeters can sound too bright and can negatively affect the sound of the main tweeter and midrange. With coax speakers simple is usually better. On to my recommendation. 4" is really small for any quality midbass. Even if your rear speakers are larger or you have a subwoofer the fronts will probably seem rather thin. So, if you care about audio I would try to find some way to get some midbass up front. A popular solution is kick panel pods. You've probably seen these around. They allow you to put 5.25" or 6.5" components in the kick-panels (actually a nice location for speakers because it helps even out the distance to your ears). If you do decide to go with just the 4" drivers be sure to put a high pass crossover on them (your deck might handle this, but I'm not familiar with Pioneer). A high pass crossover will keep the 4" speaker from trying to play bass frequencies that it simply can't, keeping your music cleaner by protecting your 4" from some amount of 'bottoming out' distortion. If your deck does not handle crossover functionality, then try some bass blockers, these are available online at crutchfield. Follow their recommondations for model # and speaker size matching. On the order of recommendations, I'd also suggest buying a separate amplifier to power the mids if you care about sound quality and have some spare change. Let me know what you think .. New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

Check and see if you can fit a spacer behind the grill, on my subaru's (i've owned 4 legacy's 91' 95' 98' 00')  if you remove the factory speaker your left with only a few inches.  But if you get a spacer you add 1.5 inches, more then enough for a quality speaker.  See if you can find a spacer for your Landrover.  Try to get the largest speaker you can, even a 5.25" is a noticeable improvement over the 4".  Deeper speakers generally provide better bass/midbass.  I breakdown and buy components for all of my daily drivers, the difference is worth it.  Deck power is a lie, 25x4 @1k w 5%thd?   That 25 watts is a meaningless number, usable power is probably allot closer to 15 watts.  Point is, don’t spend 300$ on components and a few more on rear speakers and neglect to send clean, solid, dynamic power to them.

What I recommend is...  A nice set of components upfront (5.25" minimum, 6.5" preferred).  Forget about the rear speakers, don’t even power them, or wait until you have done the next....  Get a subwoofer, even a quality 8" in a sealed enclosure will augment your bottom end nicely; I prefer a 10" though.  Buy a decent 4 channel amp.  Use two of those channels to power your components, the other two you bridge to run the subwoofer.

Shopping list. 

1. Front components (5.25 or 6.5 preferred)2. Small subwoofer (8" or 10")3. 4 Channel amp

Later you could add rear speakers and a dedicated subwoofer amp as upgrades, switching the 4 channel amp to running the components and rear speakers.

What will you get for Christmas, bad boy? Coal........or Visonik?? - stevdart

Wow, is everyone clueless and lost in the dark? - uthinkuknoaudio