components, are they worth it?

this may seam like a dumb question but how much better do component speakers sound then the average 2-3 way 6.5's? ive always wondered this but never wanted to pony up the dough to find out

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"I can see down your shirt" *its painted on the bottom of my f-250's door*

That's a loaded question, my friend... There are many things that make something sound "better".

I am a fan of true coincident speakers, and components don't usually sound as good to me as a high end coincident. Also, power, placement, crossover quality and many other things can make a difference in SQ. Are you comparing a 200 dollar Eclipse point-source to a 90 dollar Coustic separates system?

Loaded question...

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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."

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"I can see down your shirt" *its painted on the bottom of my f-250's door*

and btw why do people always question the guy who wants to put 6x9's in his car? not bi*chin just curious do the smaller round speakers sound the same? cause if so that would save alot of space in future projects

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"I can see down your shirt" *its painted on the bottom of my f-250's door*

It all depends on your overall system quality;  how well you prepare the car, such as damping....how meticulous you are in setting up crossovers and setting gains....how much effort you put into finding facts so that you can discard fiction...

In a LOT of cases, where ALL of the above are not met, a decent quality coaxial will sound as good as a more expensive component set...or, as haemphyst alluded to, better.  There is much research to do to find out what you need to do to set up such a system for the best results.  If you meet those criteria posted here, then components should be in your future.  Use this forum for the depth of information you will find freely.  Use the search function.  Pay attention to what is written by the experienced ones.  Follow the links they provide.

It's not a yes or no answer.  Switching to components could prove to be much better, or it could prove to be worse.  That difference is in how much effort you make in learning and implementing the details of a well-set-up system.

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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

Uhh.

Hmm. I'll take a stab before the maestro returns..

Like.. in any given instance, a componet speaker will sound a bit better, handle a bit more power, and be a bit louder than its coaxial or... ahem... coincident brother along the same model line.

haemph: Whoa I'm shocked to hear you say you like the sound of a proper coaxial than a componet... you say "true" coincident speaker.. can you give us any examples beyond perhaps this one?


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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

sprahl brought up the point of contention.  Those who think they can freely place the tweeter wherever they want are the ones who are most likely to make a more expensive component set sound worse than a cheaper-made coaxial (not a dig on sprahl...we know what he's saying).  The higher quality drivers and crossover system is lost when the two drivers are separated improperly for the vehicle.  Best results are obtained when the tweeter is driving on the same plane as the woofer, and on (or near) the center of it...which is how a point-source system is designed.

The encouragement I'm trying to get across is to make you aware that moving up to components is truly moving up, but you have to be willing to experiment with placement.  And the other thing:  that if the car is not prepared and the rest of the system is subpar and you neglect to properly set crossovers, etc......that the advantage will be lost. 

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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

I went to pick up some fronts with my buddy and the guy that was talking to us gave a pretty good explanation. this is roughly what he was talking about.

Coaxials have a better sound as the tweeter is in the center of the cone, the cone has limited excursion because the tweeter is there though. The reason they arent so popular is because almost every vehicle has them placed in a location where part of your body or passangers body will block the tweets (in my car its realllllly bad when i have a passenger) but good placement in a custom door panel or kick pod would be best.

The Components are brighter than the coaxial so if u have a good thumping system this will allow u to hear the highs much better (although i'm sure if u stage the coaxial properly it would be fine there too). The max distance u should mount the tweets from the sub is 12".

Thats roughly what i got, it was a couple weeks ago so its not too fresh in my mind.

And good writeup Stevdart. I definately agree that u need an equalizer, at least a decent one on the deck...my buddy has a cheap deck and it has no eq built into it...the comonents sound better than his coaxials but u can hear a few frequencies that should be filtered out.

sedate wrote:

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haemph: Whoa I'm shocked to hear you say you like the sound of a proper coaxial than a componet... you say "true" coincident speaker.. can you give us any examples beyond perhaps this one?

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That's the one. (I am sure others exist, but that is the product I had in mind when I wrote that post.) A COINCIDENT is not the same as a co-axial. Co-incident means the waveforms are cohesive - they leave the surfaces of the individual drivers at the same time and in exact phase, providing an exact arrival time for all frequencies. No comb filtering, no holes... Good stuff.

A co-axial, on the other hand, has the tweeter (and possibly mid as well) mounted on a stalk in the middle of the woofer. Bad mojo, as far as proper time arrival is concerned, and three-ways are worse than two-ways, because of the three completely different sources in the X, Y, and Z axes. This jacks with both delay AND steering.

The holy grail of sound sources is a true point source - infinitely small, with an infinite frequency response. Now, while we all know that no such animal exists, a true co-incident comes as close as possible (with current materials), especially for automotive use, as a true line source is not generally practical for car installations. (Here is an example of a line source, and what I have in my own living room... oh, AND Tom Bohlender is a personal friend of mine)

Happy Thanksgiving all you crazy kids!

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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."