# How to choose Car Speakers



## Exalta (Jan 21, 2003)

*Car Speakers*

*What to Look For*
Consider several things as you shop for speakers, including your sound system, the type of music you listen to, your mounting preferences, and other factors: 

*Materials that improve speaker performance*
Many factory speakers lack dedicated high frequency drivers ("tweeters"). With the tweeters in name-brand speakers, though, you'll enjoy superior high frequency sound. Cone tweeters are efficient and economical, while dome designs — the kind you'll find in home speakers — create a wider dispersion pattern for more accurate reproduction. Tweeters made of poly or silk will improve your treble output and sound smoother than paper tweeters. 

Woofer cones made of polypropylene and similar materials deliver more consistent, reliable bass notes and withstand the demands of heat, cold, and moisture better than paper woofer cones. 

Rubber surrounds are a solid choice for punchy bass and extended speaker life. They also are less prone to split or decay than paper or even foam surrounds. 



*The right speakers for your system design*
If you plan to drive your speakers with a low-powered factory receiver, you need highly-efficient speakers. Check out the speaker sensitivity to find the most efficient speakers for your vehicle. (For instance, a speaker rated 3 dB higher than another will require half as much power to produce the same output.) 

You're not confined to speakers with high efficiency ratings, of course. Low efficiency speakers can sound great. Since high sensitivity speakers often achieve their ratings by boosting deeper bass notes, low efficiency speakers might be preferable for listeners who demand highly accurate reproduction. 

Also, if you use your factory receiver, get speakers with a minimum RMS power rating of 2-5 watts. A low-powered receiver may not be able to drive less-efficient speakers properly, causing distortion. If you like your music loud, you'll want speakers that can handle a substantial amount of continuous power. When using an amplifier, make sure its RMS wattage is within your speakers' power range (preferably, the upper third of your speaker's recommended power range). 



*2-Way, 3-Way, and 4-way Speakers*
Most speakers are 2-ways, or coaxials with a single tweeter mounted above the cone of its woofer. 

If you like more detailed vocals and midrange frequencies, a 3-way (a triaxial) adds a midrange driver for improved clarity. A 4-way adds a supertweeter for even more detailed high frequencies. (Some 3-way speakers use a supertweeter instead of a midrange.) 



*Component Speakers*
The separate woofers, tweeters, and crossovers in a component system give you better power handling and performance than most 2- or 3-way speakers. Also, you can improve the stereo imaging in your car depending on where you mount tweeter separates. Installing components usually requires some cutting of metal or other procedures that can be more time-consuming than simply replacing factory speakers with similarly-sized models.


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## Exalta (Jan 21, 2003)

*Mounting applications*
Ask the sales rep of the store you're buying from to identify speakers that fit your vehicle. Be sure to check the speaker's mounting height (for a top-mount application) or tweeter protrusion (for bottom mounts) so that door panels and grilles fit in place after the installation. 

Certain speakers do not come with replacement grilles, including most 3-1/2", 4"x6", and 5"x7"/6"x8" speakers. You can retain your factory grilles for these and other speakers as they should be suitable for installation. 



*Extra features in today's speakers*
To help your music sound its best, more and more speakers come with angled or rotating tweeter mounts. That way, you can more precisely focus high frequencies to your listening position.

If you choose to use aftermarket grilles, you might find more options. Increasingly, manufacturers are creating innovatively shaped grilles so that more of your music passes through. (Beware of small children poking behind grilles, however!) 




Info taken from:
http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/learningcenter/car/speakers.html


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## sr20dem0n (Mar 19, 2003)

for the most part that's pretty accurate, but there are some things that I disagree with
*Woofer cones made of polypropylene and similar materials deliver more consistent, reliable bass notes and withstand the demands of heat, cold, and moisture better than paper woofer cones.*

What does the material of the midbass cone have to do with "consistent bass hits"? And treated paper is one of the best, if not THE best material here, it's lighter and just as strong as others, and can reject the elements just as well, as long as we aren't talking about untreated paper like the stock speakers for example.

*The right speakers for your system design*

You should never base your decision on the rated efficiency of the speaker, it is WAY too easily fudged and it really tells you nothing. Some rate in car, some rate out of car, some rate with an enclosure, some rate IB, some rate with 1 watt, some rate with 2.83V, some rate at 1khz, some rate at whatever frequency has the highest spl peak....and besides, once the speaker moves even 1mm, that spec is completely thrown out the window. It's really a very bad spec to base any important decision on. And for the power of the amp, picking one within 1/3 of the speaker's max handling isn't important, picking one within the speaker's power handling at all isn't really important, what's important is getting an amp that can drive the speakers to the level that you want without clipping, and the only way to know what size amp will do this is to ask people who have owned those speakers before and have similar tastes. The same goes for picking a speaker that can run well on headunit power, don't look at the specs, ask people who have owned that speaker and preferably people who have used that speaker on headunit power before. Going by the efficiency specs, all focal speakers are extremely efficient and would work very well on headunit power, but that's actually pretty far from the truth, many speakers are more efficient than focal speakers, and most of them are rated 3dB lower, if not more.

*If you like more detailed vocals and midrange frequencies, a 3-way (a triaxial) adds a midrange driver for improved clarity. A 4-way adds a supertweeter for even more detailed high frequencies. (Some 3-way speakers use a supertweeter instead of a midrange.)*

It's a gimmick, 3-way coaxials _might_ sound ever so slightly better than 2-way to very trained ears, but 4-way is a crock. Often times the 4th speaker in those sets isn't even a speaker at all, it's a freaking dummy that's supposed to look like a speaker. It's all a marketing gimmick, one that's aimed at the people who always think more is better. Coaxs sound bad anyway, no matter how many tiny speakers they cram into 1 chassis they will never sound as good as a component set of the same model anyway, people just think that because they're getting 4 speakers per side it must sound better than a set of components that only has 2 speakers per side.

Crutchfield has decent guides on their site, but most of them seemed to be twisted slightly to the benefit of the products they sell.


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## Azgrower (Oct 1, 2004)

Or you could do like "gay16freak" and just get all Audiobahn chit from the local swap meet. Some just dont listen to reason. I am done ranting...sorry


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