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Car Audio Speakers

I know this rarely if ever pops up on Agon. But I'm in the market for speakers for my car. Anyone have any experience with high quality car audio speaker brands that can rival audiophile speakers? I'm pretty clueless. Most of my experience in car audio comes from those idiots who blast their distorted one note hip hop/rap bass at an intersection on weekend nights.
dracule1
tpreaves's avatar
tpreaves
2,687 posts
 
Focal,ScanSpeak and Dynaudio all make excellent,read very expensive, auto speakers. You can get really sound in your car but not audiophile quality. The equipment and enviroment just aren't up to it.
isochronism
2,893 posts
 
Dracule1, I applaude you for searching something better. FWIW, I am currently in a tiny apartment. At the moment, I am running 45 amps @ 2 watts each into straight 8" lowther speakers. (no powered woofers). My tiny room is at least 12X the square interior footage of an automobile, yet I get can get louder than I ever care too. 2000 plus watts in a Honda is slightly overkill, IMO.
mateored
258 posts
 
I used to have an ok system in an old Saab. The highlight was the JL Audio MicroSub, driven by an Alpine amp. That little subwoofer was very musical and packed a nice small punch. Not enough to rattle any windows, but it really made the rest of the system (I think I had JBL speakers) sound so much better.
mechans
3,048 posts
 
Years ago when Dynaudio discontinued the distribution of raw drivers for DIY home systems it still made the car drivers available. This was a big deal because you could buy a mobile Esotar tweeter which was very highly sought after but not the home version. It created some confusion and angst. I finally bought some Esotars from a friend of a firend in Denmark to give to my best buddy in this hobby who then turned them down. True story quite painful, to my wallet and mind.
sarcher30
596 posts
 
Morel and Dynaudio make excellent car audio speakers. Focal are said to be good but I have not heard them. For subs JL Audio are good and also Eclipse.

You will also want a separate amp for your front speakers as the built in amp in the reciever is usually not up to the task of driving quality separates. If you want the best quality sound it's gonna cost you.

As stated by other posters above the car environment is not conducive to really good sound but you can get a pleasing sound even with all the road noise.

I have noticed with newer cars that the stock sound systems are much better than in the past. If your car is newer and sounds pretty good already I would not bother. Maybe just add a sub.
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